Indie folk artist Will Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Billy, had some sharp words for director Wes Anderson in a recent interview with the Onion’s AV Club.
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When the conversation turned to the subject of the use of indie music in film, Oldham went off on Anderson, the auteur behind Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, and The Darjeeling Limited.
“His completely cancerous approach to using music is basically, ‘Here’s my iPod on shuffle, and here’s my movie.’ The two are just thrown together. People are constantly contacting me saying, “I’ve been editing my movie, and I’ve been using your song in the editing process. What would it take to license the song?” And for me it’s like, ‘Regardless of what you’ve been doing, my song doesn’t belong in your movie.’ That’s where the conversation should end. Music should be made for movies, you know?”
What do you think, readers? Does Oldham know what he’s talking about? Or is Anderson even the right man to single out, when Zach Braff (Garden State) and Jason Reitman (Juno) go scot free?
Well, considering Will’s extensive work in both the film and the music industry, I feel that his opinons on this subject carry a bit more weight than most people’s. I certainly do agree that a lot of movies these days use the approach, “Here’s my iPod on shuffle, and here’s my movie.” I’m sure there will be a lot of Wes Anderson fans who will not be happy with his comments, though.
I’m a young amateur film maker myself and I think that Mr. Oldham can breathe a sigh of relief as far as my films are concerned I would not want any of his boring drivel poisoning a single panel of my movie and I don’t think i’m the only one. Artists need to get over themselves and stop acting like they are scholars or doctors. You are a guy who plays in a band. What you do is not really that important in the big picture. You have not cured cancer or discovered a new planet.