Co-Composed with Jordan Gagne and Amie Doherty, Alex Redfern’s score for Emilio Roso’s ‘Tumbleweed: A True Story’ deftly blends synthesizers, electric guitar, and orchestral instrumentation to create a powerful musical backdrop.
Born in Bury St. Edmunds, a town just a few hours from London, UK, Alex Redfern has been scoring, composing, and recording expressive soundtracks and themes that have captivated audiences for years. His latest work, a score for Emilio Roso’s crime thriller Tumbleweed: A True Story, combines electronic and acoustic instrumentation to accompany the film’s themes of loss and desperation.
Released this year, Tumbleweed: A True Story is a dark, suspenseful film about the trials and hardships of life, and the lengths people will go create a better world for themselves and their families.
The film follows three separate stories of desperation which illuminate each other and eventually overlap; an anguished father who will stop at nothing to save his dying daughter, a couple whose love is tested to the breaking point by greed and poverty, and a troubled alcoholic’s last-ditch attempt to abandon his unfulfilling life of sadness and addiction, all set against the harsh backdrop of the borderlands desert between Mexico and Texas. Starring Hemky Madera (Weeds), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos, Goodfellas), and Al Sapienza (Godzilla), Tumbleweed: A True Story is poised to enthrall audiences, aided in no small part by Redfern’s score.
Using his years of experience with electronic synthesis and composition for guitar, Alex Redfern, along with Amie Doherty and Jordan Gagne, conjures a dramatic soundscape that resonates with the film’s setting and dark content. The score is an eclectic mix of orchestral instrumentation, electric guitar, and electronic sound design, through which Redfern heightens tension and aids in the development of the characters. In particular, Redfern took special care to use his music to cast light on Vincent Pastore’s character, who, according to Redfern, “is an out-of-luck cop that finds himself in a position of corruption. The music for his character is very melancholic, which helps the audience empathize with him.”
Redfern is no newcomer to a score’s ability to enliven characters and locales. Trained at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Redfern’s talent with crafting fitting musical accompaniments to a range of characters and settings was easily recognizable and quickly employed. He recently worked with director Marc Juvé on Happy Face, a film about a young boy’s search for treasure in an old, rickety house. Redfern’s score not only perfectly captures a sense of youthful fascination with the exploration of the unknown, but also casts the house as a character in itself, establishing it as a mysterious setting ripe with tension and discovery around every dusty corner. Of the ability of a score to enliven characters and locales, Redfern explains, “music will enhance the onscreen action, drama, or tension. It can give characters or places a more memorable identity if there are strong musical themes. If you listen to the music without the film, it should instantly conjure up detailed images in your head.”
In Tumbleweed: A True Story, Redfern also uses electronic synthesis to create a remorseful atmosphere. Referring to his sound design for the film, Redfern states, “there was plenty of tension; it was fun to create these atmospheric sounds with the synths to set the tone. The movie gets quite dark, so the tone of the score helped to portray the turmoil and danger that the characters are in.” Redfern composed and recorded electric guitar for the film as well, adding that quintessential Western sound.
Working alongside Amie Doherty, composer for James Franco’s upcoming feature Holy Land, and Jordan Gagne, recognized for his work on the Emmy-Award winning FX series Fargo, Redfern’s compositions and sonic backdrop for Tumbleweed: A True Story propels the film to new emotive and expressive heights. Using his uncanny musical ability to elicit emotional energy from landscapes, unspoken themes, and characters of all kinds, Alex Redfern’s original compositions are sure to move audiences and further the sentimental thrust of any production.