“Quincy Jones made me feel I could become a film composer”: Kris Bowers on navigating his career and his score for ‘The Wild Robot’

A Juilliard-trained jazz pianist, Kris Bowers worked as a musician for artists including Jay-Z, Q-Tip and Ludacris, before releasing his debut album, Heroes + Misfits, in 2014. His first film work was 2013’s documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me. Since then, he’s composed the scores for Green Book (for which he was nominated for discovery of the year at the 2019 World Soundtrack Awards), Origin, King Richard, Bridgerton, The Color Purple and Dear White People, among others. He is nominated for film composer of the year at this year’s World Soundtrack Awards for Chris Saunder’s The Wild Robot.

The Wild Robot was the first animated feature you’ve done. How did it come about?

Through the heads of music at Universal, Mike Knobloch and Natalie Hayden. They recommended me [to Chris Sanders]. Natalie sent me the book, and I had just had my daughter and I read a lot of it to her, even though she was six months old. I was learning how to be a parent, and there were a lot of emotions I was trying to figure out, especially given how I’m not a readily emotional person in my personal life. All my emotion goes into my art. So, Roz being a robot who needs to learn how to be this emotional being is something I related to. Then Chris and I talked about the themes and warmth he wanted from the music, and how much music was going to have to help tell the story.

When he said he wanted the film to rely heavily on music, was that music to your ears or was it daunting?

Music to my ears. There are times where music is asked to be in the background or to be wallpaper, something we don’t notice. Or you feel more than you hear. I am open to doing that. But the music I fell in love with and that made me want to be a film composer was where I could listen to scores outside of the context of the movie and feel the same emotional journey because the melodies and themes are so clear.

What soundtracks inspired you growing up?

Most of them were by John Williams. I remember seeing Jurassic Park and listening to that score and feeling like I could feel that journey. John Williams was a part of this golden era of movies when I was growing up, so I was listening to Jurassic Park and to ET and to Harry Potter. James Newton Howard’s score for King Kong was one of the first I remember buying and studying and Howard Shore’s score for The Lord Of The Rings.

We read The Color Purple my freshman year in high school and watched the movie and that was the first time I realised Quincy Jones was a film composer, because I only knew him as the producer of Fresh Prince and Michael Jackson, and it made me feel there was possibility for me. He was this jazz musician turned a film composer, even though John Williams was also a jazz musician who turned into a film composer, but him being black made me feel like this is something I can do. Then I found Terrence Blanchard, who later became a mentor of mine.

How long did you work on The Wild Robot?

About two years. The first six months was a lot of experimentation and finding themes.

When you joined, what stage was the film in?

It was animatics, but also fleshed-out concept art. They were still figuring out what Roz looked like, but the concept art was very clear about how much it was going to have this hand-painted style. By the time I came on, they were close to the story being locked, so I scored a lot of it directly to those animatics, writing to picture where I’m hitting cuts and hitting little lines and jokes or looks and things like that. 

Was there a particular scene that allowed you to emotionally connect to the story, and how did that determine the musical style and orchestration?

The migration sequence was one of the first pieces I scored, and the first theme I wrote. When I watched the film, that was the moment that made me feel really emotional, I think largely because I had just had a kid – the idea of putting this work into your child and helping them grow, and then at some point they’re going to leave you was something that’s devastating and necessary. I played it for Chris and it was way off the mark, and he suggested I think about her going to college, which I had. When I listen to that first piece of music, it’s a sweet version of that. We worked on that piece for another couple of months and really nailed that, and he decided to have me write away from the picture so they could animate to it.

You’ve said that with the character of Roz, you wanted to combine the organic with the synthetic.

When I heard the pitch for The Wild Robot, I assumed it would be a very electronic-driven score. But then I realised it’s this singular robot in this world devoid of humans, I thought having it be organic would be important. The other thing I pitched early on was finding a different way of representing the wilderness, because traditionally we hear a lot of ethnic flutes and wind instruments, and I chose to use percussion to represent that. I found this great ensemble called Sandbox Percussion, they’re part of this movement in modern classical music where they treat percussion more like sound design, playing metal pipes, wood blocks and household objects. That felt like the right vibe to me.

In addition to being a musician and a composer, you won an Oscar for co-directing, with Ben Proudfoot, the best documentary short film last year for The Last Repair Shop. Is there more directing in your future?

Definitely. Ben and I are talking about a couple of other things. We’re thinking about turning our short into a narrative feature, and I’ve been writing some other things too. I fell in love with film music because I fell in love with music’s ability to tell a story. The reason why I even played piano is because I remember having a teacher who talked about the importance of conveying your emotions through the instrument and that just changed everything for me. Anytime I played piano or took a solo in a jazz group, I would take a moment to think, “What do I feel right now? What am I trying to say?” Or, “What do I want the audience to hear?” Film music became a clear path for me because I remember that moment of recognising music’s job to translate story and to convey emotion and help tell that story. So it feels exciting to find a way to continue to combine these loves, this idea of storytelling, but even in a more direct way.

What are you currently working on?

We’re finishing up Bridgeton season four. I’m also working on a movie called Goat, an animated project Sony just announced, another film with Blitz Bazawule, director of The Color Purple, and a Netflix movie I can’t say too much about. A handful of different things. One is a heavily produced score that’s like a bit more modern, one’s a rock-sounding score, another one’s got a global quality to it, and another’s a very traditional orchestral, sweeping, emotional thing. It’s a fun slate.