Michael Andrews (musician)
Encyclopedia
Michael Andrews is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician and film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

 composer. He is best known for a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of the Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...

 song "Mad World
Mad World
"Mad World" is a song by the British band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982. Both "Mad World" and its B-side, "Ideas As Opiates", would turn up...

", which he recorded with Gary Jules
Gary Jules
Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...

 for the Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...

soundtrack, and which became a number one single in the UK in Christmas 2003.

Soundtrack production

Michael Andrews fell into film score composition by chance when The Greyboy Allstars
The Greyboy Allstars
The Greyboy Allstars are a San Diego funk and jazz group created in the early 1990s. The group began as collaboration of DJ Greyboy with Karl Denson during weekly shows at the Green Circle Bar in San Diego and on the DJ Greyboy albums Home Cooking and Freestylin’...

 were asked to score Jake Kasdan
Jake Kasdan
Jake Kasdan is an American television and film director.Kasdan was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Meg , a writer, and writer-director Lawrence Kasdan. His younger brother, Jon Kasdan, also works in the film and television industry as an actor and writer...

's first feature Zero Effect
Zero Effect
Zero Effect is a 1998 mystery film written and directed by Jake Kasdan . It stars Bill Pullman as "the world's most private detective" Daryl Zero and Ben Stiller as his assistant Steve Arlo....

and worked on the music for the highly regarded (though short-lived) TV series, Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks
Freaks and Geeks is an American teen comedy-drama television series, created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, that aired on NBC during the 1999–2000 television season...

. In 2000, Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly
Richard Kelly or Kelley may refer to:*Richard Kelly , founder of the Tuam Herald newspaper in 1837*Richard Kelly , American film director, known for 2001's Donnie Darko...

 commissioned him to do the soundtrack for the film Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...

. Its original score album
Donnie Darko (soundtrack)
The Donnie Darko soundtrack was created by Michael Andrews and released in 2002. It consisted of 16 instrumental tracks and two covers of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.-Production:...

 went on to sell over 100,000 copies (in part because of Andrews's remake of Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...

' "Mad World", featuring Gary Jules), and Andrews became a composer to watch. He has since gone on to compose scores for the movies Out Cold
Out Cold (2001 film)
Out Cold is a 2001 American comedy film about a group of snowboarders in Alaska. It is the first feature film by the music video directing team The Malloys. The movie presents itself as something of a parody of 1980's "ski school" movies and makes a number of references to the film Casablanca...

, Nothing, Cypher
Cypher (film)
Cypher , is a 2002 science fiction thriller film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. The film was written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was shown in limited release in theaters in the USA, and released on DVD on August 2nd 2005.-Plot:Morgan Sullivan, a recently...

, Orange County, My Suicidal Sweetheart
My Suicidal Sweetheart
My Suicidal Sweetheart is an American independent dark comedy film written and produced by Michael Parness. The initial working title of the film was Saving Grace; this title was later changed to Max & Grace during production, and remained in place prior to its release on the film festival circuit...

, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July and stars July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.-Plot:The structure of the film consists of...

, The TV Set
The TV Set
The TV Set is a 2006 comedy about an idealistic writer attempting to bring his vision for a TV show to fruition on the small screen.-Plot:...

, a segment of Paris, je t'aime
Paris, je t'aime
Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements...

, Unaccompanied Minors
Unaccompanied Minors
Unaccompanied Minors is a 2006 comedy film directed by Paul Feig and starring Dyllan Christopher, Lewis Black, Wilmer Valderrama, Tyler James Williams, Brett Kelly, Gina Mantegna, and Quinn Shephard. Unaccompanied Minors has been rated PG by the MPAA for "mild rude humor and language"...

, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 music comedy film written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly...

.

Donnie Darko

In early 2000, Nancy Juvonen
Nancy Juvonen
Nancy Juvonen is an American film producer. She and Drew Barrymore own the production company Flower Films.- Early life :Juvonen is of Finnish ancestry...

's brother Jim Juvonen gave Andrews a copy of the script for the as-yet-unmade feature film Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena Malone, and Mary McDonnell...

. As had happened across Hollywood, Andrews was blown away by Richard Kelly’s idea. He recalled "[e]veryone knew Donnie Darko was going to be a cool movie. Everyone knew it was interesting." Kelly, for his part, was aware of Andrews's work with The Greyboy Allstars, and he also knew that Andrews made music under the name Elgin Park. Kelly was confident that Michael Andrews could do the job: "I met with Michael and I just knew right away that he was really, really talented and that he could come up with a really original score. He would allow me to be in there and be really kind of editorial with how I wanted the score to be." Debutant director and debutant solo soundtrack composer decided to collaborate.

Andrews considers himself primarily a guitar player, but Kelly told him he didn't want any guitar in the movie. So, Andrews taught himself to play piano. It's part of the reason that the score is, as Andrews describes, so simple. "The film was pretty low budget so my portion of the money was pretty thin. I couldn't hire anyone, it was just me. I played everything; piano, mellotron, mini marimba, xylophone, ukulele, organ. I also brought in two female vocalists Sam Shelton and Tori Haberman." "In a way," he says, "your faults become your trademark."

Like many of his role models for soundtrack composing such as John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...

 and Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...

, Andrews wanted to put a song on his otherwise instrumental score. He chose the song "Mad World" by Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears
Tears for Fears are an English new wave band formed in the early 1980s by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the New Wave synthesiser bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into...

 (originally released in 1982) and his childhood friend Gary Jules
Gary Jules
Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears' third single "Mad World", which he recorded together with friend Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko. It became the UK Christmas Number One single of 2003...

 sings as Andrews plays piano.

The music was not available on a soundtrack album until Andy Factor, a friend of Andrews, released it on his Everloving Records
Everloving Records
Everloving Records was founded in 2003, having been Enjoy Records from 2000. With the success of Jack Johnson's debut Brushfire Fairytales the original, though defunct, Enjoy Records phoned up to reclaim their moniker. Everloving began with Jack's album, which was produced by co-founder J. P....

 independent label in 2002. As Donnie Darko was not a hit at first, there was little interest in the soundtrack in the US. However, the film enjoyed more popularity in Europe especially in the UK where its total box office was greater than for the whole of the US.

This sparked interest in the soundtrack and the song "Mad World", taken from the original soundtrack, which was a 2003 Christmas #1 in the UK singles charts. The song has since had continued chart success worldwide, reaching the top 30 of the American Billboard Modern Rock chart in 2004 and hitting #1 on the Canadian Digital Singles chart in January 2007. It has also made the charts in a number of other countries including Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in 2003 and 2004. "Mad World" also appeared in the television commercial for the Xbox 360 video game Gears of War
Gears of War
Gears of War is a military science fiction third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios...

.

According to an article in a Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, with a daily circulation of approximately . De Telegraaf is based in Amsterdam...

, the song "Middlesex Times" (originally written by Michael Andrews for the Donnie Darko picture) had been remixed by Dutch composer Björn de Water into a hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 version. It is said that De Water rejected a lucrative offer from a broadcast company wanting to use the track, since he had received personal approval by Andrews creating the remix in 2004. "It did not feel right," De Water stated in a reaction. "Mike is the original artist and I respect him very much. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met and consider him as a friend. Friends don't steal or make money behind your back."

Me and You and Everyone We Know

In 2005, Andrews scored Me and You and Everyone We Know
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July and stars July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.-Plot:The structure of the film consists of...

a film by Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...

 praised at both Sundance
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 and Cannes film festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

s. The score to the film was released on Everloving Records
Everloving Records
Everloving Records was founded in 2003, having been Enjoy Records from 2000. With the success of Jack Johnson's debut Brushfire Fairytales the original, though defunct, Enjoy Records phoned up to reclaim their moniker. Everloving began with Jack's album, which was produced by co-founder J. P....

 on July 12, 2005.

Initially taking cues from the characters' dialogue, Andrews began writing the score. He came to understand the film's world as a kind of alternate reality
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 where people believe in fate and chance—and this was the world he needed to paint with his music. He also saw the feelings July was trying to get across in her film as very primary. "She tries to break things down to very basic, simple shapes—the simplest shapes possible, and that totally influenced me in my music".

Working out of his custom-built backyard studio in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...

, Andrews spent three months creating the score using an orchestra of obscure vintage synthesizers (a miniature hotwired Casio
Casio
is a multinational electronic devices manufacturing company founded in 1946, with its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Casio is best known for its electronic products, such as calculators, audio equipment, PDAs, cameras, musical instruments, and watches...

 keyboard was unearthed at a garage sale for $10) and drum machines. His concept was to play what he termed amateurish, emotional, naïve, magical and simple music on highly unemotional, inorganic instruments—for example, a calculator with built-in twelve-note keyboard that lends a haunting portamento
Portamento
Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...

 melody to one of the film's motifs.

Other instruments used in the score include Andrews's modified piano (rather than hitting the strings directly, the hammers first make contact with a piece of soft felt, creating a warmer, slightly muffled tone), as well as his Moog
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...

 and Vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...

 synthesizers. Despite all the electronic gear, no MIDI was used in the recording, so that all the humanness, all the subtle variations of rhythm, are intact. Inara George adds vocals in several climactic moments throughout the film. In some cases, cues were composed of only two or three tracks in order to attain the magical simplicity for which the film called out.

Solo career

Andrews released his first solo album, Hand on String
Hand on String
Hand on String is the 2006 debut solo album from film and television score composer Michael Andrews .-Track listing:All tracks written by Michael Andrews except where noted....

, on his own newly-established label, Elgin Park Recordings, in Summer 2006. He is credited on the album as Mike Andrews.

In June 2009, Andrews announced that a second solo record is in the works, with him writing and performing mostly alone, and with Dan Long
Dan Long
Dan Long is an Australian music producer from santas workshop, recording engineer, and mixer. With Alex Lipsen and Scott Norton, he founded Headgear Studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where artists such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, David Bowie, Son Volt, and The All-American Rejects...

 and Steve Kaye recording.

Film scores

  • Zero Effect
    Zero Effect
    Zero Effect is a 1998 mystery film written and directed by Jake Kasdan . It stars Bill Pullman as "the world's most private detective" Daryl Zero and Ben Stiller as his assistant Steve Arlo....

    (1998)
  • Out Cold
    Out Cold (2001 film)
    Out Cold is a 2001 American comedy film about a group of snowboarders in Alaska. It is the first feature film by the music video directing team The Malloys. The movie presents itself as something of a parody of 1980's "ski school" movies and makes a number of references to the film Casablanca...

    (2001)
  • Donnie Darko
    Donnie Darko (soundtrack)
    The Donnie Darko soundtrack was created by Michael Andrews and released in 2002. It consisted of 16 instrumental tracks and two covers of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears.-Production:...

    (2001 produced; 2002 released)
  • Cypher
    Cypher (film)
    Cypher , is a 2002 science fiction thriller film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. The film was written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. The film was shown in limited release in theaters in the USA, and released on DVD on August 2nd 2005.-Plot:Morgan Sullivan, a recently...

    (2002)
  • Orange County (2002)
  • Nothing (2003)
  • My Suicidal Sweetheart
    My Suicidal Sweetheart
    My Suicidal Sweetheart is an American independent dark comedy film written and produced by Michael Parness. The initial working title of the film was Saving Grace; this title was later changed to Max & Grace during production, and remained in place prior to its release on the film festival circuit...

    (2004)
  • Me and You and Everyone We Know
    Me and You and Everyone We Know
    Me and You and Everyone We Know is a 2005 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July and stars July, John Hawkes, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff, Natasha Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Carlie Westerman, and JoNell Kennedy.-Plot:The structure of the film consists of...

    (2005)
  • Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
    Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
    Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a 2007 music comedy film written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly...

    (2007)
  • Funny People
    Funny People
    Funny People is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. The film was released on 31 July 2009 in North America, and on 28 August 2009 in the United Kingdom. Funny People uses considerably more...

    (2009)
  • Bad Teacher
    Bad Teacher
    Bad Teacher is a 2011 comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan based on a screenplay by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, and starring Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Jason Segel...

    (2011)

Television scores

  • Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000)
  • Undeclared
    Undeclared
    Undeclared is an American sitcom that aired on Fox during the 2001–02 season.- Premise :The half-hour comedy was Judd Apatow's follow-up to his earlier television series Freaks and Geeks, which also lasted for one season...

    (2001–2002)
  • Wonderfalls
    Wonderfalls
    Wonderfalls is a comedy-drama television series that was broadcast on the Fox television network in 2004.The show centres on Jaye Tyler , a recent Brown University graduate with a philosophy degree, who holds a dead-end job as a sales clerk at a Niagara Falls gift shop...

    (2004)
  • Desire - Ford Mondeo (2007)

External links

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