[Eirik Myhr]

Wasn’t it some guy called Arne Svingen who had that “soundtrack column” (if you could even call it that) in the magazine? I think he later became an author. I do, however, remember kinda hating him a bit for his dismissive and ignorant remarks the few times he DID actually review a score album. I especially remember a review of ANYWHERE BUT HERE, where he wrote mostly about the songs, and then briefly mentioned Elfman’s score suite – kinda ad hoc – as “nissen på lasset” (a Norwegian expression that somewhat translates to “a thorn in someone’s side”). Even though Elfman actually co-wrote some of the songs as well.

(ooops, I just googled him and realized he wrote the children’s book DE TØFFESTE GUTTA [THE TOUGH GUYS], which was turned into a film with a score by our very own Eirik Myhr, who in turn is a big Elfman fan….so great comeuppance!).

Hahaha, this is hilarious!

Just to clarify, I never worked directly with Svingen on the movie, I only met him once or twice at the premiere and festival viewings. Seemed like a really nice guy. I, however, might not have been as nice if I knew about his erratic views of John Williams…

The classic misunderstanding that film music should not «interfere» or even «push» emotions, like you are not using every OTHER aspect of filmmaking to do exactly that already… Sigh.

I can only say, I hope my score for DE TØFFESTE GUTTA (which starts out as a comedy but later hits you in the face with some really gut-wrenching scenes) actually made him cry. By the time of the film’s release (2013) he surely must have learned that using music – like every other artistic output – to convey emotions, is actually not a bad thing.

Reading how he dismissed Williams back in that 90s magazine is actually quite shocking. The claim that Williams has been at it for too long and simply doesn’t have much to say musically anymore… Well, personally I think Williams’ most interesting period is the 2000’s, which had yet to occur when this happened… So Svingen was obviously very, very wrong back then.

I am also impressed by your calm, factual responses, Nils. And even though you had the last word, what an arrogant way for the magazine editor to step in and «declare the discussion of John Williams to be over», after TWO letters! Like they seriously didn’t find a discussion of the world’s greatest film composer to be even RELEVANT in a fucking film magazine! Horrendous. Absolutely horrendous.