Podcast #566: Emmy Nominated Composer JEFF RUSSO

Jeff Russo
Jeff Russo

Jeff Russo is an Emmy-nominated music composer, whose work was most recently heard in the FX series, “Fargo,” as well as the STARZ original series, “Power.” Aside from being nominated for an Emmy, Russo also is a Grammy-nominated musician, and serves as founding member/lead guitarist in the group, TONIC. Russo shared with us his Emmy reactions:

“Disbelief, kind of. ‘Wow, that’s amazing,’ or ‘No way! They must have gotten this wrong.’ Or the, ‘Where’s my phone? I have to call my wife!’ I pretty much had the normal reactions. Basically, it’s the three stages of disbelief. First, it’s disbelief. Then, it’s more disbelief, and finally, you just have to accept the truth. For the show, ‘Fargo,’ everyone is so incredibly excited because we have 18 nominations, second only to ‘Game of Thrones.’ I mean, it’s f**king ‘Game of Thrones!’ That’s huge!”

Russo then commented on how it is to compose a scene and if he needed to intensify the music more depending on the scene:

“The acting in this show is so good, it made my job pretty easy. I never had to do anything like cover, or make a scene like this or like that, which a composer can be called upon to do that. For instance, they could say, ‘We didn’t get the scene the way we wanted it to be. We wanted it to be this or that.’ The music was always just supporting. Because of the way we use music, it rarely played when there was a lot of dialogue. When you DO hear it, it becomes very apparent. It’s like all you’re looking at is the picture and hearing the music. That way, it didn’t make it too difficult to write. I wasn’t trying to get in or out of something. I was just trying to create the feeling.”

We spoke more with Jeff Russo about the music on the STARZ series, “Power,” and how it differentiated between “Fargo.” Also, we spoke what he expected to see at “Behind the Music” panel event at this year’s Comic-Con.

To learn more about Jeff Russo, visit his website at: http://www.jeffrusso.com/

Download the full podcast with Jeff Russo below:

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