[Closed] HANS ZIMMER

Yikes, I've been unfriended by Jordi on Facebook. I don't know why but I imagine it has something to do with the subject of this thread. I thought my news feed had become somewhat quieter!

Since when simple = stupid?

I mean, if you look at The Thin Red Line from a purely musical standpoint with one exception, the music is very simple with very rare moments of complexity (Stone in My Heart). Inception is based on really simple ideas... and so on.

I was a little pissed off when I read that statement as well, but I think it's just Zimmer tripping himself up with questionable diction once again. What he's trying to say is that he personally prefers compositional simplicity (perhaps because it's all he can do, but hey, write what you know, right?). And I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a simple approach to film music. Oftentimes it's the best road to take. What I do, however, find highly questionable and yes, borderline insulting, is the implication that complicated music is somehow inferior and ought to be "stamped out" or something - that's bullshit and if that's really what Zimmer meant then I'll join James in the hate parade.

WTF?! For real?

As for his statement on simplicity, I definitely see what he's getting at. There is much enjoyment in more cerebral music, but there is a definitey an immediacy to simpler structures -- if that's what the film calls for. So I think you're over-reacting a bit, Southall. I don't think he means to say that there isn't any value in more complex music. Heck, even his own music is quite complex at times.

It was a reddit AMA event, so he had to respond very quickly and it might have taken him off-guard.

I know for a fact that he is quite insecure, for example he gets very tense if someone mentions that he referenced something (I tried to discuss several quotes in his scores with him and while he was still nice, he did get tense), he's afraid everyone is going to hate Man of Steel as he said on that reddit event.



The fact that the music is simple on a purely musical level, doesn't mean it's not cerebral, though. Granted, Hans is no Elliot Goldenthal or Alexandre Desplat (who has made some brilliant proofs of relative musical simplicity being intellectually on top of everything), but still he made the living proof of what I said by writing The Thin Red Line...

I wish I could be as laid back as you

Something I have to learn...

Actually, while I listened to all the tracks and clips, I avoided all the hype and actually almost deleted some of the hypers from my Facebook.

Pretty cynical, lowest-common-denominator way to approach film scoring though, isn't it? Just write whatever's easy/popular without regard for artistic merit or creativity or innovation? Not to mention that Williams for all of his "complexity" in the late 70s and 80s was at least as popular as Zimmer is now, and his scores will and have aged FAR better than Zimmer's.

Not saying that that's what Zimmer is doing, at all, but that's how you're painting him.

He's hanging out with jordi and Kristina now? No wonder his music sounds like that these days. Have you observed how he has gone downhill since he is all social media and reading forums all day? Hans shut off frigging shittybook for fucks sake, shut your ears to the cocks that surround you and get your shit together. Most of the stuff you say lately sounds like disrespecting other people's work and art in general. You can do so much better. You deserve so much better. Film music - which you largely control, deserves so much better. Have you really got entirely blinded by the ego-megalomaniac crap those fanatics throw at you all day long ?

How I long for the composer of the thin red line or even inception to wake up from his deep sleep.

I think it's great that he keeps in touch with his fans, although he should obviously be somewhat restrictive in regards to how he relates to people who are either too gushing or too aggressive. But I doubt that has any influence on his music this way or that way.

There's a lot of really 'colourful vocabularly' going around in this thread now. Strange. Why don't people just relax, have a drink and express their likes and dislikes (or even indifference) as constructively as possible? Like we do with any other composer?

In what way it's really influencing his music?

But you haven't explained how people like Jordi influence his WRITING process!

I am not so sure about that.

First, we have no idea what he does when he goes on Facebook (the guy has, like, breaks, you know).

Second, who says he hasn't been sensitive about criticism BEFORE he got on Facebook? He actually questioned Film Score Monthly's criticism of his works back in the 1990s (in an interview with them).

Yes, I know for a fact that criticism he finds DOES hurt him big time. Everyone here probably saw what happened with The Dark Knight Rises review, but nobody knows about my involvement in that case and I am not sure I want to really speak about it much and that I should, because of both people involved in it.

Third, I don't think the lack of criticism from fans hurts his process as much as lack of criticism from his collaborators.

I can tell you this:

I had a gushing moment, I can admit to that perfectly... I had a very gushing moment of being a pure fanboy one time on the recording session I attended (we both went out on a cigarette). When I told him (the truth, BTW), that he has always been my inspiration, he actually felt very awkward and dismissed himself saying "I am only trying to have fun here!".

:mrgreen: