Mark Isham page

'The interesting thing about a film is that it is a combination of different art forms. That mix has a tremendous potential, because when the music blends well with the images the emotional impact is staggering. That is the challenge and the satisfaction that writing filmmusic has to offer.'

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Biography

Born on 7 September, 1951 in New York, Mark Isham is mostly known as the jazz inspired composer. Isham comes from a musical family and he himself educated in the realms of piano, trumpet and violin early in his childhood. He started playing trumpet in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and later formed a band called Sons of Champlin. In the '80 Mark Isham went solo and started writing for both film and occasional solo works. Solo wise he released many albums under his name, including Blue Sun and the recent inspired to Miles Davis album called 'The Silent Way Project'. In the movie business, Isham wrote his first score in '83 entitled Never Cry Wolf. From the '90 his career truly began, scoring acclaimed pictures such as the cult film Point Break, Jodie Foster's Little Man Tate, the academy nominated A River Runs Through It, Romeo is Bleeding, Quiz Show, the Golden Globe nominated Nell, the wonderful Fly Away Home, the action movie Timecop and action drama Nowhere to Run, the hi tech thriller The Net, the series EZ Streets which received an Emmy award, the thriller Kiss the Girls, the action hit Blade, the IMAX documentary Galapagos, the court drama Rules of Engagement and Men of Honor, the dramas The Majestic, Life as a House, sportdrama with Keanu Reeves Hardball (which captured a very moving score) and the thriller Don't Say a Word. Moonlight Mile, Imposter and the acclaimed The Cooler follow the list of Isham's successes. Isham scored further Miracle, the sports feel good film with Kurt Russell, Twisted starring Morgan Freeman, Highwaymen with Jesus Christ himself Jim Caviezel and Racing Stripes, another career highlight from him. The acclaimed Crash was sadly missed at the Oscars and with Running Scared and Eight Below he got into Paul Walker coolness. With Bobby, Freedom Fighters, The Black Dahlia (Oscar contender) and Gracie he's in form with some of the top drama movies of today. Next is the Nicholas Cage action movie. Cool to know is that his score to Waterworld was rejected, but Isham's music box theme appeared nonetheless in the final edited film.

On an IMAX film, because the camera moves so differently in IMAX - it can't move quickly, you can't get a lot of tremendous action on the camera, and you don't have characters, obviously, doing anything distinctly dramatic - so it's really the music's job to bring the drama element to it.
(on Galapagos)

I've done films that may not be the best films ever made, but that did require an interesting score.
(overall impression)

I want my music to be able to stand on it's on, I don't need to beautify my music for that.
(overall impression)

June 17, 2005

Music should only stand out when it is truly another character in the movie, and that character has its moments when it is speaking directly to you. If it sticks out, and pulls you out of the actual storytelling, then it's not doing its job. Paul wanted there to be two moments where the score was prominent: the fire at the car wreck, and then the locksmith's daughter, with the gun. Those are brave moves - the director has to believe in the music.
(on Crash)