To celebrate the season 3 finale, I'm joined by Grammy winning composer Steph Economou! Steph's latest score is for the Dreamworks animated film Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken. As such, we primarily talk about Steph's score, including her choice to approach the score with a "cinematic dream pop" palette, implementing unique instruments like conch shells and the Bohemian Cristal Instrument, and the daunting nature of this being her first feature animated project. Of course, we also talk about her Grammy win, taking home the first ever Grammy for "Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media" for her score to Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök, as well as the challenge and excitement of scoring for videogames broadly (among many other things).

I found Steph's score to be really exciting, in no small part because it's so distinct. While the "cinematic dream pop" sound ends up being particularly fitting for the film's underwater/nautical setting, it's an unusual choice for film music broadly, even more so for a family animated film. Those that know me will know by now that moving the sonic needle in media music is something I love to see, but so often it's done in indie films or in horror; for this to happen in a bigger-budget, mainstream film is great! Hopefully it's a trend that can continue. Steph mentions that the filmmakers gave her a lot of leeway right of the bat when it came to the score's palette, and she took full advantage of it. Even though she felt a bit daunted at first, with this being her first animated feature, she mentioned her two approaches in getting past it: "I just try to write music that I know I’ll be proud of later” and “you just gotta put your head down and do it; but the fear makes you better.” Things we can all live by.

You can find out more about Steph on her website. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is currently in theaters and Steph's score, as well as many of her other scores, is available digitally on all major platforms.