Rachel Zegler and Dave Cobb on the Music of New ‘Hunger Games’ Film

With Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” seeking to proceed its reign on the prime spot of the field workplace, it’s time to contemplate essentially the most sonorous secret to its success: its unique, bluegrass-tinted track choice, together with a theme written and produced by Dave Cobb (with lyrics from “Hunger Games” writer Suzanne Collins), and sung soulfully by the movie’s star, Rachel Zegler.

Reaching again to the 2020 prequel novel by Suzanne Collins that the film is predicated on, Zegler factors out how clearly Appalachian Lucy was, and the way her accent exists in that vernacular all through the period of the novel, one thing that was destined to hold over into the music.

“District 12, where we exist canonically, lies in North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains,” says Zegler, talking from New York. “I’m glad Francis (Lawrence, the director) wanted to explore that — he even sent me the trailer for ‘The Coal Miner’s Daughter’ to give me an idea about the accent — but more so that Suzanne was passionate about it musically, as she used to be a country music DJ.”

Cobb’s songs and manufacturing strategies added the proper contact as Zegler was a fan of the producer-writer’s work with Dolly Parton and John Prine. Between that, and the extra influences of Thirties and 40s music that Cobb delivered to “Hunger Games,” Zegler’s vocal recreation was modified for the higher. “The intention to keep Lucy authentic to the Appalachian culture was very important, and I think Dave and his musicians had a great time exploring that… I was glad we weren’t trying to make it ‘palatable’ for younger audiences by giving it a pop music vibe.”

Known within the movie world for his manufacturing work on “A Star Is Born,” “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and “Elvis,” Cobb got here up with a “Hunger Games” track record that not solely contains a number of of his freshly penned alternatives, however “Lucy Gray’s Version” too — a brand new tackle rating composer James Newton Howard’s “The Hanging Tree,” initially sung by Jennifer Lawrence in “Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1.”

“I’ve admired the tune since “Mockingjay,” so once I discovered they needed to market the brand new movie with my model, I used to be delivered to tears,” says Zegler.

For Cobb – whose manufacturing bona fides embody Waylon Jennings, Jason Isbell, Elle King, Chris Stapleton and Brandi Carlile – writing for and producing Zegler’s dynamic voice is not any totally different than working along with his nation and Americana clientele.

“I’m just trying to make the best version of an artist at that time,” Cobb says from Savannah, GA, relating to his course of when dealing with artist albums and cinematic soundtracks. “I want to represent everyone honestly… focus on their stories. Film is just an imaginary version of that storytelling. Only with ‘Hunger Games’ we had to imagine a dystopian Appalachia in the future, and tried to find the most honest representation of the characters in the Covey, and of Lucy Gray Baird. And that was a blast.”

Beyond the tenderness of Collins’ lyrics and Cobb’s melodies, Zegler appears most pleased with the truth that she carried out and recorded reside on set, and the way her resolution to take action affected the dynamics of her appearing in addition to her vocalizing.

Regarding the facility of reside on-set efficiency, Zegler states that it merely “adds something audiences miss when it’s gone. Singing in a film and singing live onstage are two different types of performances, sure, but you should be able to demonstrate both in your art when you’re working in the world of both musicals and film. Singing live for every take five days a week is not easy. But it brings something alive to the world of a film.”

Pointing to the pressure of capturing “The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird” on set, Zegler needed badly to have its reside aspect final all all through the film. “Dave’s music is like another character, filling in the gaps where dialogue does not do Lucy Gray justice,” she says. “And there’s a rawness to the music that actually suits in District 12— solace within the midst of the ache and struggling in a post-war society. Singing reside added layers to a efficiency that canned vocals can’t.

“I was so moved singing ‘The Old Therebefore’, which is Lucy Gray’s last-ditch effort to survive snakes in the arena,” Zegler continues. “I had to pretend that where these venomous, neon-colored snakes were climbing up my dress while singing Suzanne’s beautiful words, and staring straight down the barrel of the lens. I had never felt so powerful or sure of myself on a set before. And that’s partly due to Francis being one of the best directors in the game, but also because I was able to bring a craft I have been training for half my life. That’s what it truly means to show up to work.”

Cobb says the earliest conversations concerned director Francis Lawrence and Collins “going down the rabbit hole” of conventional Appalachian music. “Francis knew his stuff, and that was an easy starting point. But Suzanne is a country aficionado — she was a DJ in college — and is really well-versed. Suzanne knows everything about the Carter Family, Doc Watson, all of these turn-of-the-century records I adore also.”

Cobb’s and Collins’ shared love of classic nation and bluegrass sounds created a shorthand between them as collaborators, a musical dialogue that allowed him to visualise all the pieces that the writer put forth – be it of their writing or exchanging favourite data from Clarence Ashley and the Carters. “Collins would talk about these characters so vividly you could see them,” he stated. “Suzanne has a universe beyond a universe beyond a universe, all with such depth. And she really pushed me to go for it. We made a great team. Plus, the lyrics were already in her books, so I had a master class in literature, and had the ability to go wherever I wanted with the music.”

Admittedly not a “Hunger Games” e-book sequence reader earlier than this venture, Cobb devoured Collins’ writings and lyrics, made his personal melodies primarily based on her texts, and despatched all the pieces backwards and forwards to the artistic workforce. “They were all such great cheerleaders – so, so positive,” he stated. “That gave me the confidence to keep digging… You’re writing for this fictitious post-apocalyptic future, but you want to keep it honest. And honesty is the key factor in every film I do, whether it’s (characters like) the larger-than-life Elvis or Lucy Gray Baird. I want everything I do to feel tangible.”

Renting a 250-year-old home in Savannah to report his “Hunger Games” songs with classic gear from the Forties for the sake of authenticity, Cobb needed to have the ability to hear the historical past embedded within the partitions of his makeshift studio. “I wanted it all to sound like they were on a porch in a rocking chair, singing and strumming like an Alan Lomax recording.”

Then got here Zegler. Fresh from being the Maria behind director Steven Spielberg’s 2021 tackle “West Side Story,” Zegler had been on the “Hunger Games” producers’ minds “from the get-go,” says Cobb, including that, as a producer and songwriter, “we aimed for the stars” contemplating her potential involvement. “We knew that Rachel could do whatever, that she had zero boundaries as a talent.”

Cobb’s melodies for songs corresponding to “Pure as the Driven Snow” (“my personal favorite”), “Nothing You Can Take From Me,” and “The Old Therebefore” had been designed for maximal magnificence and lilting musicality … and to enrich the religiosity of the God-fearing lyrics. “The words are usually pretty much you’re gonna die – maybe today, maybe tomorrow,” Cobb laughs. “But a song like ‘Nothing You Can Take from Me,’ I gave it a sad melody, while its lyrics are filled with joy and strength, and real empowerment from Rachel, based on history and the reinvention of it.”

Cobb says that there was an additional added trace of the Smiths to his songwriting, with various Morrissey-Marr-like moaning chords within the combine. “The story is set in the future… they would have heard of the Smiths in the future,” he says with amusing. “There’s definitely some Smiths in ‘Pure as the Driven Snow.’”

Along with being influenced by his and Collins’ love of Appalachia, to say nothing of the Smiths, the songwriter-producer fell beneath the spell of the people music of the British Isles, the big-band sound of the Thirties and 40s, and haunting vocalists corresponding to Jo Stafford.

“We knew that Rachel could deliver on that over-the-top vocal quality, so when she actually got to us, filming and singing in Germany and Poland, doing scratch vocals and pre-records, it was even better than I could imagine,” says Cobb. “No matter how high our expectations were of her, Rachel surpassed them. Nothing was impossible for her; she did everything in one or two takes.”

On the topic of capturing Zegler singing reside on-set and nailing her tracks with ease, Cobb is positively breathless. “What can I say… she’s Rachel. When you do a film, you always pre-record just in case. But Francis was there in the room when we first started her vocals, and immediately knew that Rachel could nail this live. In fact, she stepped it up even more when they called ‘action’ on set, because she’s reacting to the crowd and the script’s situations. Very few people can do what Rachel does.”

What Rachel Zegler does for the music of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is totally defined throughout an electronic mail dialog from her home in New York City.

Comparing the vocal nuances of her work on the brand new “Hunger Games” with director Francis Lawrence with that of her final employer, Stephen Spielberg, and his iteration of “West Side Story,” Zegler is exact.

“Spielberg had never directed a musical, while Lawrence built his career on directing some of the most iconic music videos known to man – Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ being my personal favorite,” says Zegler. “Yet an inherent knowledge about direction in regards to the musical elements in each film came naturally to both. Spielberg is a legend, and had a deep appreciation for Bernstein’s score and Sondheim’s lyrics that shone through his careful direction of the musical numbers, as well as the way they organically flowed in and out of Tony Kushner’s dialogue. Francis had a tougher job: fitting music into a popular dystopian setting that young people have subscribed to for over a decade. With that — and this goes for both movies — everything became more of a collaboration.”

Thankful for the belief she obtained from Spielberg and Lawrence, respectively, Zegler says that it was her decade’s price of coaching that allowed her to change from a voice like María’s to that of Lucy Gray Baird.

“It rests in how one approaches their consonants (or a consonant orchestra), the positioning of their larynx, their glottis, their epiglottis, even their tongue,” she says. “María was approached with much more softness, with her volume rising with her confidence. I only sing in full voice in ‘West Side Story’ during ‘A Boy Like That,’ ‘The Balcony Scene’ and ‘I Feel Pretty.’ The rest was very quiet, very pensive, something I explored with Jeanine Tesori, the vocal producer on ‘West Side Story.’”

When it got here to Lucy Gray, nonetheless, Zegler maintains there was extra freedom to let unfastened primarily based on the character’s job and fervour. “She even says, ‘I don’t sing when I’m told, I sing when I have something to say.’ And working with Dave Cobb made that especially exciting, as he tends to work with musicians who have the same attitude towards their talents. I trusted him from the word ‘go.’ And Francis sat in the booth with me to not only get a feel for how it would sound on the soundtrack, but — since I sang live in the film itself — how I would sound on set each day. That made me feel really comfortable when it came time to shoot.”