If I could have chosen any band in the world to go on tour with, it would have been Radiohead. I regard them as genius level artists and their music has personal meaning to me, they’re also a band who remain fiercely private and rarely grant access. So when Thom Yorke agreed to have me to join them on the Bologna leg of their recent European tour, it was a ‘pinch me’ moment. As a group, their music has appeared in numerous films, and as individuals, both Thom and Jonny Greenwood have created award-nominated soundtracks for cinema (with Jonny recently Oscar-nominated for his One Battle After Another soundscape).
Music and movies have always been bedfellows and this issue reflects that symbiosis – not only through Radiohead’s tour, but also through Simone Ashley who invited me to observe her work on her debut album in studios in London and LA (working with Diane Warren who has racked up 17 Oscar nominations). I first heard Simone sing during the Cannes Film Festival a couple of years ago as we sat by the sea and, impressed by what I heard, I’ve dipped in and out of her creative process as she’s shaped her EP – her acting experiences directly informing and complementing the music she’s writing. Music is also alive in my shoot with Mia McKenna-Bruce at Abbey Road Studios, as we discuss her acting journey that has led to her playing Maureen Starkey in Sam Mendes’ upcoming four-film event biopic, The Beatles.
Radiohead memorably featured in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Baz has always been a director with great musicality. His latest film, EPiC, a reimagining of an Elvis Presley live Vegas concert created with unseen footage shows the artistic synergy between film and music. He tells us about that process, while our architecture feature this issue celebrates the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Music Hall in LA, Hollywood’s go-to sonic space.
Elsewhere, my on-set shoot on Crime 101 was a fascinating look at a stacked cast and their different approaches to the work, while a Mayfair walk with last year’s BAFTA Rising Star recipient, David Jonsson, showed the ambition and commitment required to harness a creative career. We stopped in Berkeley Square and it turned out David used to sit on a bench there and dream of being an actor as an 18-year-old kid. I’ve grown to expect such poetic, full-circle moments in my work now and I’m so happy a number of them are in this issue.
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