{"id":83058,"date":"2018-04-27T14:58:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T14:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2018\/04\/27\/exclusive-composer-tamar-kali-talks-netflixs-come-sunday\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T01:48:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T01:48:20","slug":"exclusive-composer-tamar-kali-talks-netflixs-come-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/exclusive-composer-tamar-kali-talks-netflixs-come-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Composer Tamar-kali Talks Netflix’s Come Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Composer Tamar-kali Talks Netflix’s Come Sunday<\/strong>Posted by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

April 27, 2018<\/p>\n

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Currently playing in theaters and streaming on Netflix is the dramatic film\u00a0Come Sunday<\/strong>, starring\u00a0Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, Jason Segel, Condola Rashad, Danny Glover, Stacey Sergeant<\/strong> and Keith Stanfield.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joshua Marston<\/strong> directed the film from a script written by Marcus Hinchey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The film is based on a This American Life<\/strong> episode from 2005 chronicling the story of Carlton Pearson (Ejiofor), a renowned evangelical minister in Tulsa, Okla., who stirs up controversy with his revelation that there is no hell. He loses everything and must rebuild his church and his family and find his own personal faith.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rashad plays Gina, the wife of Carlton (Ejiofor), while Glover is Gilbert Pearson, who is Carlton’s uncle. Martin Sheen plays televangelist Oral Roberts. Stanfield will play the music director of a megachurch who is also the devoted right-hand man of Ejiofor’s minister. Sargeant plays Nicky Brown, a working single mother, Carlton\u2019s assistant, and one of the few members of the church to stick by him.<\/p>\n

Composing the music to the film is singer-songwriter Tamar-kali<\/strong>, whose first film as a composer was the Oscar nominated and critically acclaimed Netflix film Mudbound<\/strong>. Her music\u00a0was listed by Indiewire as one of the Top 25 Film Scores of the 21st Century. The Brooklyn born native had also made a cameo as a singer in Rees’ film, Bessie<\/strong>. She is currently a Spring 2018 SUITE\/SPACE artist in residence at New York City\u2019s Mabou Mines, founded by composer Philip Glass, and will present chamber and acoustic excerpts from her current work in progress, \u2018Demon Fruit Blues.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Blackfilm.com recently caught up with Tamar-kali as she spoke about her music for Come Sunday as her second film score.<\/p>\n

Now, there are people who obviously know you as a singer, but now you’re venturing off as a composer. You’ve done Mudbound, which got a number of good acclaim. How did you get to be on Come Sunday?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamar-kali:<\/strong> I’ve always been a composer, but I was composing original work for myself as a performing and recording artist. So now, I’m moving into film composing. I got to compose the score for Come Sunday, I guess through my work on Mudbound. The director Joshua Marston, was familiar with that and he approached me about coming on to compose for this film. I was familiar with a his film called Maria Full of Grace, which was a wonderful film, so I thought that the opportunity to work with him would be a great thing for my sophomore effort in the world of scoring for film.<\/p>\n

Having worked with Dee Rees as a singer and composer, what’s it like working for a new person and getting a new directive<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

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Tamar-kali:<\/strong> I guess because it is so new, I don’t really have any expectations in terms of what it’s going to be like because I know that it’s going to be different. And the years that I’ve known Dee and the work that we’ve been able to do together, in terms of building up for me, just kind of lending music to a soundtrack. Doing cameo in a first film and then eventually to scoring. That was a line of development. So I think, in terms of moving into this space of a new career, they’ll be another line of development and I’m just really open to the opportunities and how each thing will be different.<\/p>\n

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In terms of similarities. It wasn’t as short a timeline as Mudbound. It was a little bit more time. But it was definitely a quick turnover, which is what I was accustomed to from the first time. I was able to branch out a little bit more in terms of the instrumentation. This score includes harp and piano, as well as a larger string ensemble. So those things were a little bit different.But we worked very intimately together, the director and I; so that was similar. And for me, just venturing into this world at all, is really about being able to collaborate with artists cross-disciplines.<\/p>\n

Are you scoring when you get the script? Or are you scoring when the film is complete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamar-kali:<\/strong> I’ve come in at the end of the projects. Once the film is pretty much in the can and just about, or at picture lock.<\/p>\n

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Is it a matter of, once you see the film, you’re determining what kind of score that particular scene needs? Or is it you working with Josh and he’s giving you ideas as to what he’s looking for?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamar-kali:<\/strong> When we had our first meeting, we talked about what it might sound like. He was familiar with my string work from Mudbound, but at the same time he wanted it to be uniquely its own thing, of course. And for me, it’s not so much about the instrumentation, but the motivation of the music.<\/p>\n

I think that the score functions on its own, is another character in the film and I work from an internal place of trying to give a sonic or musical foundation to what’s happening internally with the actors. So taking a cue from their emotion and their motivation of the scenes and having music that emotes from a similar place, and that resinates with what’s happening.<\/p>\n

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So that was kind of the approach that we took for this. There’s a lot of internal work in this particular film, around the character of Carlton Pearson and the transformation he’s making from the epiphany that he has, and how that internal shift starts to change the world around him and his life. And just trying to give voice to that in a representation to the score.<\/p>\n

Being that this is the second score you’re doing after Mudbound, was it a challenge creating something new and not reverting to what you had created before? Sometimes people just don’t know when they have a signature tune, except for audiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tamar-kali: <\/strong>Well, because I’m so new in the film scoring world, I don’t have any tricks yet. I’m really just in a space of more creativity and I’m being inspired by the work. Each movie is different and therefore, what I’m producing is different. Who knows, fortunately for me at this time, there’s no trap for me to fall into because I’m only at my second score at this point. I haven’t developed decades or a long term of habits or things that I lean on. I’m really just in the space of creating based on the intention, where we wanna go with the score and what the work itself is inspiring me to create.<\/p>\n

You’re actually in a rare field of being a black female composer of films, which we don’t have that many of. Were you aware of that sort of stat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Tamar-kali:<\/strong> No. You know, I’m an artist and I’ve been an artist pretty much my entire life. I’m a second generation musician. I’ve just always functioned in that space. I’ve never really had time where I … before I did something or gravitated towards something, that I checked what the scene was like. I’ve been fortunate enough to lead with my heart.<\/p>\n

Coming into film composition was a matter of having a rapport and exchange with another artist. Because for me, it’s really about doing the work and collaborating with the other artists. And the opportunity to do that in the context of the film makers, what came up through the work. So I wasn’t thinking about the industry, I was just making art. But since I’ve become involved, I learned about the stat of that, women in the industry, represent about less than 2%, and I don’t have a specific stat on women of color who are composers in the film industry. I’d be interested in knowing what exactly that is, but it’s probably less than one.<\/p>\n

But with my background in alt-rock and coming up in punk rock and hardcore scene and living in America, essentially, my creativity and my artistic nature have never succumbed to mental or emotional segregation, in that regard. So I’ve always just gravitated towards things that have a similar creative vibration for me. I’ve often been in situations where in the landscape, I can’t see tons of reflections of myself.<\/p>\n

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What can you say were some of your favorite film scores?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamar-kali: <\/strong>I love The Double Life of Veronique, which is by Zbigniew Preisner. Also, Mark Lindsay\u2019s score for Shogun\u2019s Assassin. It was super electronic and synthesizer based, but those cues are iconic because I could hear one of them anywhere and I’d know that that was from the film. Now this work predates the film, but the work from Peter and the Wolf, Prokofiev. Those themes, in terms of light motifs and just having characters that have themes. That’s the work that stands out the strongest in my mind because it was a major part of my childhood.\u00a0Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence by Ryuichi Sakamoto was another one. I can still get super emotional.<\/p>\n

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With so many things happening in film, on theaters and so many films and TV shows, these days, streaming on network TV, what’s a good reason for people to check out Come Sunday?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamar-kali: <\/strong>I think that you should definitely check Indie films out in theaters when you can. Of course the streaming experience is convenient and it’s a method and mode, and it’s still film. But when you have the opportunity to see it on the big screen, I think it’s important and Come Sunday will be out in theaters in New York and LA. So see it on the big screen because there’s an immersive experience, that’s very much a part of the art, and it’s good to have that experience when you can.<\/p>\n