Original Score by Roger Neill
Lakeshore Records will release a soundtrack album for the hit indie comedy Don’t Think Twice. The album features the film’s original score composed by Roger Neill (Mozart in the Jungle, Beginners, King of the Hill, 20th Century Women). Also included are songs by Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and ELEL. The soundtrack will be available digitally exclusively on iTunes/Apple on November 11, 2016 and through other digital providers on November 18.
For eleven years, an improv group called The Commune has reigned as the big fish in the small pond of their New York improv theater. Commune members Miles, Samantha, Jack, Allison, Bill and Lindsay invent comedy without a script and without a net. They’re ingenious, they’re fast, and they build on each others’ ideas like best friends – which they also are. Night after night they kill onstage and wait for their big break. Day after day they work menial jobs to support themselves.
Then they get news that their theater is shutting down, and scouts from a hit TV show come to a performance looking for talent. Only two cast members get the nod, upsetting the dynamic of the group and leaving its future in doubt. Relationships begin to crack as six best friends face the truth that not all of them will make it, and for some, it may be time to give up on the dream and move on.
Funny, insightful and honest, DON’T THINK TWICE looks at a common experience that’s an uncommon subject for a film: failure. As he did in his acclaimed debut about a stand-up comedian, SLEEPWALK WITH ME, writer/director/actor Mike Birbiglia captures universal human experiences that happen in the lives of professional funny people. From the creator of THIS AMERICAN LIFE and with a top-flight ensemble of comic actors including Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, Tami Sagher and Birbiglia, DON’T THINK TWICE tells a nuanced story of friendship, aspiration and the pain and promise of change.
ABOUT ROGER NEILL
Roger Neill is a contemporary film and television composer, best known for his score to the Academy Award-winning film “Beginners” and his music for the long-running Fox animated series “King of the Hill.” Neill, who holds a PhD from Harvard in music, has a vast award-winning music catalog, including the scores to more than twenty feature films, hundreds of television episodes, video games, TV commercials, and even an operetta.
Roger’s recent projects include Amazon Studios hit series “Mozart in the Jungle,” based on the memoirs of Oboist, Blair Tindall. It stars Lola Kirke, Gael García Bernal and Malcolm McDowell. The second season went out on the 30th December and has since won two Golden Globes, including Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical. For MITJ, Neill writes the original music, serves as music consultant and conducting coach, and arranged the main title, “Lisztomania.”
Other current projects include Chuck Lorre’s sit-com “Mom” for CBS-TV, and the feature films “20th Century Women,” for Mike Mills, and “Don’t Think Twice” for Mike Birbiglia.
His eclectic credits in film and television scoring span from Sofia Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette,” to Paris Hilton’s “The Simple Life.” Other titles include “A Glimpse inside the Mind of Charles Swan III,” “Tanner Hall,” and “Chicago Hope.” After scoring thirteen seasons of “King of the Hill,” Roger has continued to work in animation, scoring several series for adult swim on Cartoon Network.
Roger has become an in-demand composer for commercials, working with some of the biggest ad agencies throughout the globe with an impressive list of film directors, including Mike Mills (with whom he has collaborated several times for various campaigns), Roman Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow, Rupert Saunders, Gus Van Sant and Mike Judge.
Roger has been worked extensively in game music, primarily in association with renowned game composer Jesper Kyd. Together they have collaborated on many blockbuster game titles, such as Assassins Creed: Revelations, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, State of Decay, Heroes and Generals, and many others. Jesper and Neill also collaborated on “Métal Hurlant Chronicles,” a Franco-Belgian science fiction television series.
As an arranger, orchestrator, conductor and collaborator, Roger has worked with a who’s who in the recording industry, including Beck, Michael Jackson, The Kronos Quartet, John Legend, Sondre Lerche, Mellow, Natalie Merchant, Spoon, Stereolab and David Sylvian. Roger has enjoyed a long-term relationship with the French electronica duo AIR, on record and on stage. He was conductor and arranger for a legendary orchestral concert with AIR at the Hollywood Bowl, followed by a similar concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.
Neill is a multi-instrumentalist and avid world music specialist, codified with studies in Swahili music in Mombasa and Zanzibar with Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, considered the father of Kiswahili scholarship. Among the many instruments he plays are piano, acoustic and electric guitars and basses, a multitude of flutes and other wind instruments, exotic percussion, and an ever-increasing collection of fretted stringed instruments including the charango, cavaquinho, ukulele, dulcimer and dobro, among many others. All these instruments and more have figured prominently in Neill’s scores.
A Southern California native, Roger hails from El Cajon, a cultural backwater of eastern San Diego County where gun racks outnumber surf racks. He began play music at the age of nine, electric guitars in garage bands, flute in youth orchestras. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Southern California, followed by graduate studies at Harvard. Roger is the recipient of many ASCAP and BMI awards, as well as an Emmy for his work on King of the Hill, and an LA Weekly Theater Critics Musical of the Year Award for his operetta The Beastly Bombing.
TRACKLIST
1. The Rules Of Improv
2. Day Jobs
3. Weekend Live TV Theme
4. Visiting Bill’s Dad
5. Preparing For The Audition
6. The Audition
7. Post Audition
8. Young Presidents – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
9. Writing Teams Are Two People
10. 40 Watt – ELEL
11. Weekend Live Wrapup Song
12. Imaginary Friends
13. We’ve Been Replaced
14. Sink / Let It Sway – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
15. Solo Improv
16. You’re In America
17. The Commune
18. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
2. Day Jobs
3. Weekend Live TV Theme
4. Visiting Bill’s Dad
5. Preparing For The Audition
6. The Audition
7. Post Audition
8. Young Presidents – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
9. Writing Teams Are Two People
10. 40 Watt – ELEL
11. Weekend Live Wrapup Song
12. Imaginary Friends
13. We’ve Been Replaced
14. Sink / Let It Sway – Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
15. Solo Improv
16. You’re In America
17. The Commune
18. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right