Ludwig Göransson is fairly new to the music-for-screens game, but it surprised no one when his score for the billion-dollar “Black Panther” — a deft swirl of blockbuster orchestra, hip-hop and authentic Africana — prompted his first Oscar nomination (and three Grammys on Feb. 10). The Swedish composer spoke to Variety in the midst of scoring the Disney Plus “Star Wars” spinoff series “The Mandalorian.”
Did you have any sense of the cultural impact “Black Panther” would have?
After seeing a four-hour cut without any score — the first edit that [director] Ryan [Coogler] had done — I remember calling my fiancée [violinist Serena McKinney, whom he married soon after] and saying, “I think this is the ‘Star Wars’ of our generation.” It’s something I’d never experienced before. My mind was blown.
You’re Swedish and writing music based on African rhythms and instruments. How did you approach that?
After reading the script, I knew I couldn’t score the movie without going to Africa; I wanted to make music as authentic and true to the rich musical ancestry of the African people. So me and wife went to Senegal for a month to just learn and study music.
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Could musical immersion work for films less rooted in a culture than “Black Panther”?
Absolutely. To make new music and find new ideas, you have to push the boundaries of existing music. That’s what I’m trying to do with every project. It’s something I learned from working for so long with Childish Gambino [with whom he won two of his Grammys]. Of course, it’s about writing, but it’s also about combining sounds, styles and genres.
What was a mind-blowing film score for you growing up?
The music of “Edward Scissorhands” [by Danny Elfman]. I got so emotional. “Why am I crying? Why am I feeling like this?” And I connected that it wasn’t only what was going on visually but what I was hearing.
What You Didn’t Know About Ludwig Göransson
AGE: 34 BIRTHPLACE: Linköping, Östergötlands län, Sweden HOW HE MET RYAN COOGLER: In college, at USC, over a game of pool FIRST MUSICAL LOVE: Metallica STYLE CRED: He has a degree in jazz guitar BIG BREAK: Scoring NBC’s “Community,” where he met Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino