Interview: Seppuku Paradigm – The Brilliant Minds Behind the ‘Martyrs’ Soundtrack
Interview conducted by Marc Patterson
Comprised of brothers Alex and Willie Cortes, Seppuku Paradigm is a French two-piece band that might be best described as a blend of electronica, rock, and experimental composition. They formed together as a group in 2005 and first released three songs for Julien Séri’s film Scorpian, at the same time releasing their first EP entitled Unedited/Unreviewed. Following director Frank Vestiel contacted them to compose the score to his dark horror-sci-fi film Eden Log, which opened the door for them to be approached by Pascal Laugier to take on the daunting task of scoring the notorious and controversial masterpiece Martyrs.
Many critics have taken note of, and doled out high praise on, the sharp intensity and melancholic moodiness of the Martyrs’ score. It is sad, atmospheric, and even nightmare inducing when needed. It’s also one of the most accomplished scores in horror cinema.
Currently Alex and Willie are back in the studio recording a new album. We got the chance to talk to them briefly during this process to discuss the insane and soul crushing process of bringing Martyrs alive though music.
Brutal As Hell: First, thank you for taking the time for this interview. So, Martyrs – how did you get the gig? This is a very different film. How were you sold on taking on this project?
Alex: We got the job quite late. We were hired as a replacement and had to work very fast and efficiently, which was a bit hard to be honest. Like you said, this is a very special film and we kind of had to work our way into Pascal Laugier’s head before even writing a single piece of music.
Brutal As Hell: After you saw the rough cuts of the film, how did you decide to proceed? Did Pascal Laugier come to you with specific ideas, or did you need to create everything from your own imagination? He seems like a very crazy, though brilliant filmmaker. What was that experience like?
Willie: It was a rough ride, albeit a very interesting one. Pascal knew what he did not want as far as music goes and he let us come up with ideas but only kept the ones that would follow his vision. So he was like a guide really. I don’t think Pascal is mad, but I’m sure he’s brilliant and we’ve learned a lot while working with him.
Alex: He’s the kind of guy who can spend whole nights in the studio with us… to give us the right vibe. So if that’s crazy, that’s good crazy.
Brutal As Hell: Are you in any way a fan of horror film, and if so what would you say would be your ideal bit of horror to watch?
Both: We really loved Let the Right One In, but that’s not horror is it? We’re not restricted to any genre per se… and we’re pretty much the same for music, which is a thing that you can guess by listening to our records.
Brutal As Hell: The soundtrack is one of the few that has actually jarred me from my sleep. I listened to your soundtrack going to sleep and it literally gave me nightmares. I had to turn it off. And to clarify, it wasn’t the film combined with the score, just the standalone score. From a technical vantage point can you talk about what you had to do to put yourself into the headspace to create such a disturbing listening experience?
Alex: Well, the trick was to make the music very dynamic using some techniques to achieve a ‘surprise’or ‘shock’ effect when desired, or on the contrary, use the music as a subtext, to make sure the audience would understand or feel the sadness and tragedy. We also experimented with silence and contrast.
Willie: To be perfectly honest, the film itself put us in a very dark mood. Not so much the graphic violence in fact, though it’s a quite disturbing movie. That mixed with very long days and nights in the studio makes for chilling results I guess.
Brutal As Hell: You and your brother worked together on this. How does that collaberation work? Do you kind of split up roles, or work through the entire process in tandem?
Both: We usually write the main themes together and we split the rest, so that we get the best of both worlds. We also fight a lot. Not like the Gallagher brothers though!
Brutal As Hell: You decided to release the soundtrack for free along with the soundtrack for Eden Log, both of which can still be downloaded free at your website. Why this choice when you have a soundtrack that has amassed such accolades?
Both: Consider it a present. Seriously, people already have paid to see the movie, we thought it would be cool to include a ‘free download’ link on the net as part of the package. It made total sense to us.
Brutal As Hell: Have you watched the film since?
Willie: I’ve seen it five times in the theatre, only to enjoy it the fifth time. Before that I was paranoid and only listening to the score. It is not the proper way to watch a film is it?
Alex: It’s quite difficult to watch the movie for what it really is, since we’re part of it. I’ll never be able to feel the way I did when we saw it the very first time. It was without music or sound effects but still delivered a blow that threw me off balance.
Brutal As Hell: In addition to Martyrs you’ve done Eden Log. Any thoughts of doing more scoring?
Both: Eden Log was a really cool experience. Big up to Franck Vestiel, a super talented yet humble guy. It was our first soundtrack, so it will remain special to us forever. Since Martyrs we have worked on Red Nights a French/HK Chinese co-producion, directed by Laurent Courtiaud and Julien Carbon. It’s a very cool film that has influences from Giallo and Asian exploitation flicks. I think it should get a release sometime next year. The last thing we did was a score for Robin Veret’s short film De L’Autre Coté. It is set during the first world war and the score is quite different from what we have done so far. Right now we are working on a full length album. We can’t say much more except that it is a totally different side of SP, our own thing. The score to our warped minds I guess.
Brutal As Hell: Well, thank you both for taking the time to talk to us!
Readers can get a choice sampling of select tracks from this disturbing, yet beautiful score below. However, please note that YouTube does not retain the high quality of audio. So, for your added convenience we’ve also included the link (RIGHT HERE) so that interested readers may legally download the entire album and listen to it in wonderful high quality, the way it is meant to be heard.
