Cliff Martinez | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Cliff Robert Martinez |
Born | New York City, U.S. | February 5, 1954
Genres | Film score, punk rock, funk rock, experimental rock, synthwave, industrial, ambient |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Drums, piano |
Years active | 1970s–present |
Labels | EMI |
Formerly of | Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Dickies, Captain Beefheart, Lydia Lunch, The Weirdos |
Website | cliff-martinez |
Cliff Robert Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart. [1] Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film score composer, writing music for Spring Breakers (2012), The Foreigner (2017), and multiple films by Steven Soderbergh ( Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Solaris (2002), Contagion (2011), and Traffic (2000) [2] ) and Nicolas Winding Refn ( Drive (2011), [1] Only God Forgives (2013), [1] The Neon Demon (2016) and the miniseries Too Old to Die Young (2019)).
On April 14, 2012, Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. [2]
Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York City. His grandfather migrated from a small village in Spain to the United States. [3] Raised in Columbus, Ohio, his first job composing was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse . [4] At the time, however, he was more interested in rock bands, and played drums in a variety of them, mostly in a temporary capacity.
After several years drumming for such acts as Captain Beefheart, The Dickies, Lydia Lunch and The Weirdos, in late 1983, he and Jack Sherman were drafted in to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the recording of their eponymous first album after Jack Irons and Hillel Slovak left the band to concentrate on their other project at the time, What Is This?. Martinez again played on the recording of the band's second album Freaky Styley (1985) and its subsequent tour.
In 2012 Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. [5] Martinez performed with the band for the first time in 26 years when he joined them along with former drummer Jack Irons on their song, "Give It Away" during the ceremony. [6]
This section needs to be updated.(January 2025) |
Eventually, Martinez' interests shifted and he focused his attention toward film scoring. A tape Martinez had put together using new technologies made its rounds, leading him to score an episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The same recording also ended up in Steven Soderbergh's hands and Martinez was hired to score the famed director's first theatrical release, 1989's Sex, Lies, and Videotape .[ citation needed ] Martinez's longstanding relationship with Soderbergh has continued through the years and they have worked together on ten theatrical releases including Kafka (1991), The Limey (1999), Traffic (2000), Solaris (2002) and 2011's Contagion , as well the Cinemax series The Knick (2014–2015).
His nontraditional scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like Pump Up the Volume (1990), The Limey, Wonderland (2003), Wicker Park (2004) and Drive (2011).[ citation needed ] Martinez has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic), a César Award for Best Original Music (Xavier Giannoli's In the Beginning (2009)), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award (Drive). He earned a Robert Award for Best Score for his work on Only God Forgives (2013). [7]
Martinez's use of audio manipulations, particularly for percussive sounds, has been evolving through the years and is evident[ citation needed ] by the hammered dulcimer of Kafka, the gray-areas between sound design and score for Traffic, the steel drums and textures of Solaris, what Martinez called "rhythmi-tizing pitched, ambient textures" of Narc (2002), and "using percussion performances to trigger and shape the rhythmic and tonal characteristics of those ambient textures," as he described his score for 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer .[ citation needed ]
Martinez served as a juror for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and served on the International Feature nominating committee for the 27th Independent Spirit Awards in February that same year. Martinez's recent films include Robert Redford's The Company You Keep (2012), Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage (2012), Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers (2012) (co-composed with Skrillex), and Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives [8] and The Neon Demon (2016). [9]
Martinez composed the main menu music titled "Galaxy Theme" for Spore in 2008. [10] In 2014, Martinez also composed the title score for Far Cry 4 .
In 2013, Martinez scored the "Fly Beyond" Grey Goose vodka commercial. [11] Martinez also composed two songs, "Vibe" and "Kotopulse", for the 2014 Lincoln Motor Company advertising campaign featuring Matthew McConaughey. [12]
Year | Title | Notes |
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2014–2017 | The Knick | — |
2019 | Too Old to Die Young | additional music by Peter G. Adams & Thor Lawae |
2020 | The Wilds | — |
2022 | Copenhagen Cowboy | — |
Year | Title | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Spore | Maxis | Electronic Arts | Galaxy Main Theme and other unspecified compositions Composed with Brian Eno |
2014 | Far Cry 4 | Ubisoft Montreal | Ubisoft | Additional music and arrangements by Peter G. Adams, Gregory Tripi, Mac Quayle and Jeff Rona |
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, comprising Anthony Kiedis (vocals), Flea (bass), John Frusciante (guitar), and Chad Smith (drums). Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk, punk rock, hard rock, hip hop, and psychedelic rock, and have influenced genres including funk metal, rap metal, rap rock, and nu metal. With over 120 million records sold worldwide, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the top-selling bands of all time. They hold the records for most number-one singles (15), most cumulative weeks at number one (91) and most top-ten songs (28) on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. They have won three Grammy Awards, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, and in 2022 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Freaky Styley is the second studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 16, 1985, through EMI America Records. Freaky Styley marks founding guitarist Hillel Slovak's studio album debut, following his return to the band earlier in the year. The album is the last to feature drummer Cliff Martinez. Freaky Styley was produced by George Clinton, of Parliament-Funkadelic, and the sessions benefitted from Clinton's chemistry during recording.
What Hits!? is a greatest hits album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers released on September 29, 1992, by EMI. The album contains tracks from the band's first four albums as well as "Under the Bridge" from their fifth album, 1991's hit Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and the Pretty Woman soundtrack contribution/single B-side "Show Me Your Soul". "Behind the Sun" was released as a single and music video to accompany the release of this compilation. The song originally appeared on the band's 1987 album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The compilation is the only full-length release of the band to feature "Show Me Your Soul".
"Jungle Man" is a song by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers from their 1985 album, Freaky Styley. It was released as the album's first single, however failed to chart. A music video released around the same time of the album's release on August 16, 1985. The band couldn't get a proper music video released, so manager Lindy Goetz used different clips of live performances of the song from May 1985 to January 1986 edited together with the album version of the song playing on top.
Solaris is a 2002 American science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Soderbergh, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, and starring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone. It is based on the 1961 science fiction novel of the same name by Polish writer Stanisław Lem.
Nicolas Winding Refn is a Danish film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Lene Børglum is a Danish film producer. Børglum was one of the key executives and co-owners of Zentropa from its early start in 1992, until 2007.
Valhalla Rising is a 2009 English-language Danish period adventure film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Refn and Roy Jacobsen, and starring Mads Mikkelsen. The film takes place "most certainly during the twelfth century of our era" and follows a Norse warrior named One-Eye and a boy as they travel with a band of Christian Crusaders by ship in the hopes of finding the Holy Land. Instead, they find themselves in North America where they are assailed by Natives and dark visions.
Drive is a 2011 American action drama film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. The screenplay, written by Hossein Amini, is based on James Sallis's 2005 novel. The film stars Ryan Gosling as an unnamed Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. He quickly grows fond of his neighbor, Irene, and her young son, Benicio. When her debt-ridden husband, Standard, is released from prison, the two men take part in what turns out to be a botched million-dollar heist that endangers the lives of everyone involved. The film co-stars Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, and Albert Brooks.
Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2011 American film of the same name. Initially, Johnny Jewel was hired to compose the film's score, but producers ultimately hired Cliff Martinez to replace Jewel. The album consists of songs which is a blend of electronic, ambient and retro music.
Only God Forgives is a 2013 action film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm. It was shot on location in Bangkok, Thailand, and as with the director's earlier film Drive it was also dedicated to Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Space Rocket Nation is a Danish film production company founded in 2008 by producer Lene Børglum and director Nicolas Winding Refn after their collaboration on Refn's film Valhalla Rising.
The Neon Demon is a 2016 psychological horror film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, co-written by Mary Laws, Polly Stenham, and Refn, and starring Elle Fanning. The plot follows an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and envy within the fashion industry. Supporting roles are played by Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves.
Too Old to Die Young is an American crime drama miniseries directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, written by Refn, Ed Brubaker and Halley Gross, and starring Miles Teller and Augusto Aguilera. It premiered on Amazon on June 14, 2019.
Contagion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the album consisting of original score composed by Cliff Martinez for the 2011 film Contagion, directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film marked Martinez and Soderbergh reuniting for the first time after nine years, since Solaris (2002). The score consists of orchestral elements which were incorporated, and being fused with the predominantly electronic sounds of the score. Several pieces of the score had been written with the influences of temp music used by Soderbergh in the edits. The score consisting of 20 tracks was released by WaterTower Music on September 6, 2011, while the vinyl edition was released on October 20, 2017 by Real Gone Music.
The Wicked Die Young is a music album that was released in 2017 as a companion piece to the movie The Neon Demon directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Winding Refn gave a number of interviews about the album, telling Elizabeth Aubrey “The fourteen tracks on this compilation represent the various ideas I had while preparing The Neon Demon. Each song represents a specific emotion…since I wanted my film to be both a horror film and a melodrama with camp, glitter and vulgarity, as well as a comedy and of course a little science fiction, all these various tracks made me able to step into a parallel world to tell the story.” In an interview with FACT in 2015, Refn explained why integrating music into moving image is so important for him. "Even when I shoot films I play music on set, in between takes", he said. "It helps you convey emotion better for actors - and brings people to a place of being that helps their performance."
Two soundtracks were released for the 2013 American drama film The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Brad Furman. The first, The Lincoln Lawyer (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), an album featured the original songs used in the film, were released on March 15, 2011. The second album, The Lincoln Lawyer (Original Motion Picture Score), featured an original score composed by Cliff Martinez, also released on the same date. Lakeshore Records distributed both the albums into digital and physical formats.
Only God Forgives (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2013 film Only God Forgives directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starred Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm. The soundtrack featured musical score composed by Cliff Martinez and released through Milan Records on July 16, 2013.
The Neon Demon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2016 film The Neon Demon, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Elle Fanning. The film score is composed by Cliff Martinez and the soundtrack features 23 tracks, with three songs being composed specifically for the film. The soundtrack was released under the Milan Records label on June 24, 2016.