Original Score By Theodore Shapiro
The Lovingly Curated Soundtrack Features Songs by George Harrison, Ike & Tina Turner, Elvis Perkins in Dearland and the Original Song “The Northern Line” by China Forbes
Lakeshore Records will release the INFINITELY POLAR BEAR – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on June 16 and on CD June 30, 2015. The film is a very personal, semi-autobiographical story from writer/director Maya Forbes.
INFINITELY POLAR BEAR is about a manic-depressive mess of a father who tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don’t make the overwhelming task any easier. “When I was six, my world imploded. My father suffered a series of manic breakdowns and my parents separated as a result,” described Maya about this incredibly intimate film. “My sister and I were sad and furious and ashamed of the way we lived. And yet, in the end, it worked. We became our own version of a family – just like so many families out there who survive, and even thrive, in unconventional ways.”
Maya would reach out to her sister, Pink Martini frontperson China Forbes, to contribute an original song for the soundtrack. “I wrote ‘The Northern Line’ in a London hotel room on my son’s toy ukulele,” China described. “Maya asked me to write a song about a train. I had just taken the Northern Line of the tube to see my cousin and I have always found poetry in that title. Mania is like a runaway train. Depression is a train off its track. I really understood my father and his struggles and I am so happy I could contribute this joyful and wistful song to my favorite film: INFINITELY POLAR BEAR.”
The album also features songs lovingly curated by music supervisor Randall Poster, a friend of Forbes, with songs from George Harrison, Brenton Wood, Jerry “Swamp Dogg” Williams, Elvis Perklands in Dearland, and the film’s original score by Theodore Shapiro (MARLEY & ME, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY).
“Maya has a great instinct for songs. Using music to amplify and humanize the family dynamic at the core of INFINITELY POLAR BEAR,” said Poster. “We collect in the film a unique combination of songs that along with Teddy Shapiro’s magical score plant us in time and place, and set a place for us at the table of these lives. Maya put so much of herself into the film and it’s the songs I think that help her find that safe place from where this story comes alive.”
Composer Shapiro agreed. “When Maya and I began working on INFINITELY POLAR BEAR, she had a very clear and helpful direction: whatever form the music took, she wanted it to underline the idea of family,” he described. “Although the family that this story is about has a father who has bipolar disorder, the family is defined not by mental illness but by a messy, chaotic warmth.”
ABOUT THEODORE SHAPIRO
Theodore Shapiro saw RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK in 1981 as a nine-year old boy, and afterwards was certain of two things: 1.) He wanted to be an archaeologist, and 2.) He couldn’t stop thinking about the music. His plans to be an archaeologist eventually faded, but his interest in film composition did not. He went on to study music, write a musical about a cryogenically frozen head, and play in a neo-disco band called God at Brown University, and then received a Master’s degree in composition from The Juilliard School. Following Juilliard he began both scoring films and writing commissions for the concert hall, including works performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, New York Chamber Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
After scoring some notable independent films in New York, including Karyn Kusama’s “Girlfight”, and David Mamet’s “Heist” and “State and Main”, Shapiro was hired to score the hit comedy “Old School” for director Todd Phillips. He has since become one of Hollywood’s most sought after composers.
His recent film work includes THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (for which he won an International Film Music Critics Award); Ted Melfi’s directorial debut, ST. VINCENT, starring Bill Murray; David Frankel’s ONE CHANCE; the critically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival entry, and the hit comedy WE’RE THE MILLERS. He was nominated for an Emmy for his score to the HBO film, GAME CHANGE. Other notable work includes the Ben Stiller-directed action-comedy TROPIC THUNDER; MARLEY AND ME, directed by David Frankel and based on the best-selling novel; THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway; John Hamburg’s bromance, I LOVE YOU, MAN; and the Oscar-nominated animated film, THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS.
Next up for Shapiro is SPY, directed by Paul Feig and starring Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jude Law and Jason Statham; THE INTERN, directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway; and TRUMBO, directed by Jay Roach and starring Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren.
TRACKLIST
01. Run Of The Mill – George Harrison
02. The Oogum Boogum Song – Brenton Wood
03. A Fool In Love – Ike & Tina Turner
04. Your Man – Jerry ‘Swamp Dogg’ Williams
05. Doomsday – Elvis Perkins in Dearland
06. The Northern Line – China Forbes
07. Your Long Journey – The Doc Watson Family
08. Down By The Riverside – Snooks Eaglin
09. Jonah, Come Out The Wilderness – Roaring Lion with Cyril Monrose String Orchestra
10. Amen – The Brentford Choir
11. Kung-Fu Picnic – Theodore Shapiro
12. Hole In The Floor – Theodore Shapiro
13. Depressed – Theodore Shapiro
14. The Pick-Up Game – Theodore Shapiro
