Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez
Born February 5, 1954
The Bronx, New York City
Genres Film score, punk rock, funk rock, experimental rock, industrial, ambient
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Drums, percussion, cristal baschet, keyboards
Years active 1983–present
Labels EMI
Associated acts Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies, Captain Beefheart, Lydia Lunch, The Weirdos
Website cliff-martinez.com

Cliff Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American film score composer and former drummer known for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart.[1] Martinez's film scores include Drive,[1] Only God Forgives,[1] Contagion, Solaris and Traffic.[2]

On April 14, 2012, Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[2]

Biography

Cliff Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, his first job composing was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse.[3] At the time, however, he was more interested in rock bands, and played drums in a variety of them, mostly in a temporary capacity.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (1983–1986)

After several years drumming for such acts as Captain Beefheart, The Dickies, Lydia Lunch and The Weirdos, in late 1983, he and Jack Sherman were drafted in to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the recording of their eponymous first album after Jack Irons and Hillel Slovak left the band to concentrate on their other project at the time, What Is This? Martinez again played on the recording of the band's second album Freaky Styley and its subsequent tour.

In 2012 Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[4] Martinez performed with the band for the first time in 26 years when he joined them along with former drummer Jack Irons on their song, "Give it Away" during the ceremony.[5]

Film composing

Eventually, Martinez' interests shifted and he focused his attention toward film scoring. A tape Martinez had put together using new technologies made its rounds, leading him to score an episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The same recording also ended up in Steven Soderbergh's hands and Martinez was hired to score the famed director's first theatrical release, 1989's sex, lies, and videotape. Martinez's longstanding relationship with Soderbergh has continued through the years and they have worked together on ten theatrical releases including Kafka, The Limey, Traffic, Solaris, and 2011's Contagion.

Perhaps it is because of his time in the punk scene that Martinez's approach to scoring is nontraditional. His scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like Pump Up the Volume (1990), The Limey (1999) Wonderland (2003), Wicker Park (2004), and Drive (2011). Martinez has been nominated for a Grammy Award (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic), a Cesar Award (Xavier Giannoli's À L'origine), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award (Drive). He earned a Robert Award (Danish Academy Award) for his work on Only God Forgives.[6]

Martinez’s use of audio manipulations, particularly for percussive sounds, has been evolving through the years and is evident by the hammered dulcimer of Kafka (1991), the gray-areas between sound design and score for Traffic (2000), the steel drums and textures of Solaris (2002), what Martinez called ‘rhythmi-tizing pitched, ambient textures’ of Narc (2002), and 'using percussion performances to trigger and shape the rhythmic and tonal characteristics of those ambient textures,' as he described his score for 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer.

Martinez served as a juror for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and served on the International Feature nominating committee for 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Martinez recent films include Robert Redford's The Company You Keep, Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage, Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers (co-composed with Skrillex), Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives[7] and The Neon Demon.[8]

Video game composing

Martinez composed the main menu Galaxy theme track for the Spore video game released in 2008. Being more than 16 minutes long it might be Martinez's longest released composition.[9] "Solar System" (13 mins.), Timeline (6 mins.) and a few other tracks on Spore—perhaps Late Anthropocene (7 mins.), Religious Vehicle Editor (7.30 mins.), and Sporepedia (10.40 mins.)—might also be the work of Martinez rather than of Brian Eno.

In 2014 Martinez composed the soundtrack for Far Cry 4.

Advertising

In 2013, Martinez scored the "Fly Beyond" Grey Goose (vodka) commercial.[10] Martinez also composed two songs, "Vibe" and "Kotopulse", for the 2014 Lincoln Motor Company advertising campaign featuring Matthew McConaughey.[11]

Composer discography

Discography

The Weirdos

Lydia Lunch

Captain Beefheart

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Dickies

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ezell, Brice (September 4, 2013). "Getting Good at Getting Dark: An Interview with Cliff Martinez". PopMatters.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Romero, Angie (July 22, 2013). "10 Questions With Cliff Martinez". BMI.
  3. ↑ "Composer for Film TV and Multimedia | Official Website". Cliff Martinez. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  4. ↑ Futurerocklegends.com
  5. ↑ Drummagazine.com
  6. ↑ http://www.screendaily.com/news/the-hunt-sweeps-danish-robert-awards/5065834.article
  7. ↑ "Official Bio". Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Elle Fanning Sees Nicolas Winding Refn's Neon Demon". Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  9. ↑ Mobygames.com
  10. ↑ 'Only God Forgives' director Nicolas Winding Refn's next projects: Commercial, horror
  11. ↑ LincolnMotorCompany on Twitter
  12. ↑ "Blood Brothers: Inside the Music of 'The Knick'". Rolling_Stone. September 12, 2014.

External links