To celebrate the season 3 finale, I’m joined by Grammy winning composer Steph Economou! Steph’s latest score is for the Dreamworks animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. As such, we primarily talk about Steph’s score, including her choice to approach the score with a “cinematic dream pop” palette, implementing unique instruments like conch shells and the Bohemian Cristal Instrument, and the daunting nature of this being her first feature animated project. Of course, we also talk about her Grammy win, taking home the first ever Grammy for “Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media” for her score to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök, as well as the challenge and excitement of scoring for videogames broadly (among many other things).
I found Steph’s score to be really exciting, in no small part because it’s so distinct. While the “cinematic dream pop” sound ends up being particularly fitting for the film’s underwater/nautical setting, it’s an unusual choice for film music broadly, even more so for a family animated film. Those that know me will know by now that moving the sonic needle in media music is something I love to see, but so often it’s done in indie films or in horror; for this to happen in a bigger-budget, mainstream film is great! Hopefully it’s a trend that can continue. Steph mentions that the filmmakers gave her a lot of leeway right of the bat when it came to the score’s palette, and she took full advantage of it. Even though she felt a bit daunted at first, with this being her first animated feature, she mentioned her two approaches in getting past it: “I just try to write music that I know I’ll be proud of later” and “you just gotta put your head down and do it; but the fear makes you better.” Things we can all live by.
You can find out more about Steph on her website. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is currently in theaters and Steph’s score, as well as many of her other scores, is available digitally on all major platforms.
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About Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
“Sometimes the hero you are meant to be lies just beneath the surface.
This summer, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action-comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed.
Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Lana Condor, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before franchise) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible.
She’s math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Jaboukie Young-White, Ralph Breaks the Internet), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she’s prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Oscar® nominee Toni Collette, Knives Out) has forbidden Ruby from ever getting in the water.
But when she breaks her mom’s #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Academy Award® winner Jane Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas.
The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. There’s one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school’s beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Emmy winner Annie Murphy, Schitt’s Creek) just happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves most.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken stars an extraordinary cast that includes Emmy winner Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) as Ruby’s supportive dad, Emmy nominee Sam Richardson (Veep) as Ruby’s enthusiastic uncle, and Blue Chapman (Council of Dads) as Ruby’s cool little brother.” – From the Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken official site.
