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Brian Reitzell
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Key Information
Brian Reitzell (born December 24, 1965[1][2]) is an American musician, composer, record producer and music supervisor best known for his work on many film and TV soundtracks. He is notable for working extensively with the American film director Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring).[3] He was formerly the drummer for the LA punk band Redd Kross. He has collaborated extensively with the French electronica duo Air, having performed drums on their albums The Virgin Suicides and 10 000 Hz Legend. Reitzell also toured with the band on their "Moon Safari" tour in 1998 and again in 2000 and 2001. In 2003, he was nominated for a BAFTA, along with Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, for the score to Lost in Translation.[4]
He is a member of the (side project) synth pop band TV Eyes alongside Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Jason Falkner.[5]
In 2012, Reitzell scored Turner Prize winning UK artist Elizabeth Price's video installation, "West Hinder".
His first solo album, Auto Music, was released by Smalltown Supersound on June 17, 2014.[6]
Works
[edit]| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music Supervisor | Composer | |||
| 1999 | The Virgin Suicides | Yes | ||
| 2000 | Logan's Sanctuary | Yes | ||
| 2001 | CQ | Yes | ||
| 2003 | Lost in Translation | Yes | ||
| 2004 | Friday Night Lights | Yes | Yes | with Explosions in the Sky David Torn |
| 2005 | Thumbsucker | Yes | ||
| 2006 | Marie Antoinette | Yes | ||
| Stranger than Fiction | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2007 | 30 Days of Night | Yes | Yes | |
| 2008 | The Brothers Bloom | Yes | ||
| 2009 | Shrink | Yes | ||
| 2010 | Peacock | Yes | ||
| Beginners | Yes | |||
| 2011 | Red Riding Hood | Yes | Yes | with Alex Heffes |
| Red Faction: Armageddon | Yes | Video game | ||
| Boss | Yes | Yes | 18 episodes | |
| 2012 | Awake | Yes | 1 episode | |
| 2013 | The Bling Ring | Yes | Yes | with Daniel Lopatin |
| Hannibal | Yes | Yes | 39 episodes | |
| 2014 | Watch Dogs | Yes | Video game | |
| 2016 | Kicks | Yes | ||
| 2017 | American Gods | Yes | Yes | 8 episodes |
| 2018 | Black Mirror: Bandersnatch | Yes | Interactive film | |
| 2020 | Relic | Yes | ||
| 2023 | Dark Harvest | Yes | ||
Discography
[edit]- Auto Music (2014, Smalltown Supersound)
References
[edit]- ^ "Music - Brian Reitzell". BBC. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ "California Births, 1905 - 1995". Familytreelegends.com. December 24, 1965. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ "Sofia Coppola and Brian Reitzell". Pitchfork. June 18, 2013.
- ^ "Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in Film Music". Bafta.org. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
- ^ "Brian Reitzell: Total Immersion in Sound". August 19, 2010.
- ^ "Smalltown Supersound". Smalltownsupersound.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
External links
[edit]
Brian Reitzell
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Early life
Birth and family background
Brian Reitzell was born on December 24, 1965, in Northern California, United States.[7] He spent his early years in Ukiah, a small town north of San Francisco, later spending time in nearby Redwood City. After his parents' separation when he was five, he lived with his mother in a commune in Redwood City.[4][8] Reitzell's family environment reflected a blend of working-class influences and personal complexities; his father, an avid muscle car enthusiast who married five times, introduced his son to drag races and manual transmission driving as early as age 12.[4][8] His mother's role at the United Way provided indirect access to cultural resources, including a vast donated record collection from a Santa Rosa radio station, which exposed the young Reitzell to diverse genres like krautrock (Can, Neu!, Kraftwerk), classic rock (Beach Boys, Beatles, Rolling Stones), and more during his pre-teen years.[9] At age five, he discovered an uncle's drum kit, marking his initial hands-on engagement with music through self-taught drumming.[4][9] Limited public details exist on Reitzell's extended family or precise socioeconomic background, underscoring the private nature of his pre-adolescent life in rural Northern California.[4] These formative experiences laid a subtle groundwork for his later musical explorations.Early musical influences and beginnings
Brian Reitzell's early musical journey was shaped by his immersion in the vibrant punk and alternative scenes of the San Francisco Bay Area and later Los Angeles, where he developed a deep affinity for raw, energetic sounds. Growing up in Menlo Park, he was captivated by everyday noises like trains and engines from a young age, which sparked his interest in percussion. By age 12, he had access to a vast collection of 25,000 vinyl records, broadening his exposure to diverse genres. At 19, he relocated to San Francisco, playing in local bands such as Wire Train and Missile Harmony, which opened for acts like the Jesus and Mary Chain, before transitioning to the Los Angeles punk scene.[9][4] Reitzell's breakthrough came in the late 1980s when he joined the Los Angeles punk band Redd Kross as their drummer, succeeding previous members and contributing to their evolution from raw punk roots toward a pop-infused alternative sound. He toured extensively with the band for seven years, participating in the grunge-influenced era where he famously broke cymbals almost nightly during high-energy performances. His drumming appears on key albums like Phaseshifter (1993), where he helped refine their power-pop edge, and he remained active with the group into the mid-1990s before departing to pursue new opportunities. This period solidified his reputation in the LA underground, blending punk aggression with melodic sensibilities.[9][4][10] In the late 1990s, Reitzell co-formed the synth-pop band TV Eyes with keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (formerly of Jellyfish and Beck) and multi-instrumentalist Jason Falkner, drawing inspiration from 1980s electropop and post-punk acts like Gary Numan and Japan. The trio, leveraging their shared experiences from prior collaborations, released a self-titled debut album in 2006 via Noise McCartney Records in Japan, featuring tracks that evoked retro-futuristic vibes with intricate production. An EP titled Softcore followed, showcasing Reitzell's growing prowess in blending electronic elements with live instrumentation. TV Eyes represented a shift toward more experimental, studio-driven work for Reitzell, highlighting his emerging multi-instrumentalist talents.[11][12] Reitzell's initial high-profile collaborations came through his work with the French electronica duo Air, beginning in the late 1990s when he joined as their touring and recording drummer. He performed on their albums The Virgin Suicides (1999) and 10 000 Hz Legend (2001), contributing percussion that complemented their dreamy, orchestral electronica. Reitzell toured with Air on their Moon Safari promotion in 1998, as well as in 2000 and 2001, adapting his punk-honed rhythm skills to global stages and fostering his interest in atmospheric sound design. These experiences marked a pivotal phase, bridging his band background with production techniques.[9][3] Throughout this formative period, Reitzell honed his abilities in drumming, music production, and multi-instrumentalism, transitioning from high-octane live performances to meticulous studio experimentation. His time with Redd Kross built endurance and pop sensibility, while Air and TV Eyes introduced him to electronic manipulation and collaborative scoring, laying the groundwork for broader creative pursuits without venturing into film supervision.[9][4]Professional career
Music supervision roles
Music supervision in film and television entails the selection, licensing, and integration of pre-existing songs and scores to support the project's narrative, emotional depth, and aesthetic vision, often requiring collaboration with directors from the scripting stage onward.[13] Brian Reitzell's approach to this role extends beyond mere licensing, incorporating production of new material by artists he recruits and emphasizing eclectic, atmospheric soundtracks that fuse genres to evoke specific moods, such as isolation or intoxication.[14] He often draws from his extensive record collection and personal networks to curate tracks, adapting them through edits or stems for seamless synchronization with visuals.[15] Reitzell's music supervision career launched through his collaboration with French electronic duo Air on Sofia Coppola's debut feature The Virgin Suicides (1999), where he served as supervisor, contributed drums to their original score, and selected period-appropriate 1970s tracks like those by ELO and Heart to underscore the film's suburban ennui.[2] This project, on which neither Reitzell nor Coppola initially understood the full scope of supervision—leading him to learn licensing through hands-on clearance of songs—marked his entry into the field, building on his prior experience as a touring drummer with bands like Redd Kross and Air.[13] Their partnership continued with Lost in Translation (2003), where Reitzell curated a soundtrack blending indie rock and electronica, including coaxing a new contribution from My Bloody Valentine, to capture the film's jet-lagged Tokyo haze.[3] He advanced to "music producer" for Marie Antoinette (2006), integrating modern indie and electronic elements with Versailles-era harpsichord pieces for an anachronistic feel, and supervised The Bling Ring (2013), mixing hip-hop, pop, and krautrock—such as tracks by Kanye West and Frank Ocean—to reflect the protagonists' celebrity-obsessed world.[14][16] Beyond Coppola's films, he took a partial supervision role on the Starz series American Gods (2017), alongside composing, where he incorporated eclectic elements like original songs featuring Debbie Harry to blend mythology with contemporary American culture.[15] Over time, Reitzell's style evolved to seamlessly blend indie rock, electronic experimentation, and context-specific music—such as period adaptations or ambient textures—prioritizing emotional resonance over literal representation, often achieved through real-time scoring sessions and unconventional sound design.[3] This approach, honed through Coppola collaborations, has influenced his broader supervision work by favoring high-impact, genre-crossing selections that enhance atmospheric immersion.[16]Composition for film, television, and other media
Brian Reitzell's background in music supervision facilitated his transition to original composition, beginning with co-composing the score for the film Stranger than Fiction in 2006 alongside Britt Daniel of Spoon.[1] He followed this with his first full original score for the horror film 30 Days of Night in 2007, where he crafted a stark, atmospheric soundscape using unconventional techniques to evoke isolation and dread in an Alaskan setting.[17][18] In television, Reitzell composed the original score for all 39 episodes of Hannibal across its three seasons from 2013 to 2015, blending orchestral elements with electronic textures and influences from classical music, Japanese gagaku, and Indonesian gamelan to create a heightened, surreal atmosphere.[19] His approach incorporated extensive sound design, layering up to 256 Pro Tools tracks per episode with hundreds of instruments, including custom-built ones, to blur the lines between score and ambient effects while emphasizing multi-instrumental performances.[19][1] For the Starz series American Gods in 2017, Reitzell scored the first season's eight episodes, fusing mythological motifs with contemporary electronic and rock elements to underscore the clash between old and new gods.[20] This eclectic style drew on collaborations with artists like Deborah Harry and Mark Lanegan, integrating vocal contributions into the score's modern, immersive sound.[1][20] Reitzell's compositional work for interactive media includes the original branching score for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), featuring hundreds of minutes of adaptive audio cues.[21] His video game compositions include the score for Watch Dogs in 2014, a 100-minute electronic and ambient work that evolved from analog synth sequences inspired by Tangerine Dream to organic layers of cello, guitar, and percussion, tailored for the game's open-world dynamics.[22] He employed free tempos and non-repetitive structures, blending Chicago blues influences with modular synthesizers like the Roland 909 to enhance the narrative's tension.[22][1] Among other media, Reitzell composed the score for Elizabeth Price's 2012 video installation West Hinder, which contributed to her winning the Turner Prize that year.[23] Earlier, he contributed to the BAFTA-nominated score for Lost in Translation in 2003 alongside Kevin Shields, marking an initial foray into film scoring elements.[24] More recently, he composed scores for the horror film Dark Harvest (2023) and the Black Mirror season 7 episode "Plaything" (2025).[25][26] Throughout his compositional work, Reitzell consistently applies sound design principles and multi-instrumentalism, treating the studio as an instrument in the vein of Brian Eno to innovate across media.[1][19]Notable works
Film projects
Brian Reitzell's contributions to film music encompass both supervision and original composition, often blending eclectic soundtracks with atmospheric scores to amplify narrative themes in independent and mainstream cinema. His work frequently collaborates with director Sofia Coppola, where he curates music that enhances emotional depth and stylistic innovation.[1][27] In Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), Reitzell served as music supervisor and co-composer alongside Kevin Shields, assembling a soundtrack of ambient and shoegaze tracks that underscore the film's themes of isolation and disconnection in Tokyo. The score's droning, introspective elements, including Shields' original contributions, evoke a melancholic tone that mirrors the protagonists' existential drift, earning Reitzell and Shields a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Music.[28][29][1] For Marie Antoinette (2006), also directed by Coppola, Reitzell supervised the soundtrack, integrating anachronistic pop, post-punk, and new wave tracks from artists like The Strokes, Bow Wow Wow, and Siouxsie and the Banshees against the film's 18th-century Versailles setting. This deliberate juxtaposition of modern music with historical imagery heightens the satirical portrayal of excess and frivolity, creating a vibrant, ironic contrast that critiques royal decadence.[30][31] Reitzell's supervision for Coppola's The Bling Ring (2013) features a mix of hip-hop, electronic, and krautrock tracks from artists including Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Sleigh Bells, and Deadmau5, reflecting the film's exploration of celebrity worship and materialism among Los Angeles teens. The pulsating, high-energy selections amplify the characters' obsessive thrill-seeking. West's tracks, such as "Power" and "All of the Lights," were licensed with his assistance in securing clearances from other artists. He also co-composed original electronic score elements with Daniel Lopatin, adding synthetic layers to the narrative's chaotic energy.[32][33][1] In the horror film 30 Days of Night (2007), directed by David Slade, Reitzell composed the original score, employing experimental and atonal techniques with unconventional sound sources like a pottery wheel and water-filled bottles to generate eerie atmospheres. The music's dissonant textures and unsettling percussion build relentless tension during the vampire siege in an Alaskan town, prioritizing atmospheric dread over traditional orchestration to immerse audiences in the film's isolated horror.[18][34][35] Reitzell's later film compositions include the atmospheric score for the horror film Relic (2020), directed by Natalie Erika James, which uses subtle, haunting sound design to explore themes of aging and familial decay in a haunted house setting. In 2023, he composed the score for Dark Harvest, another David Slade-directed horror film, blending orchestral and electronic elements to heighten the supernatural tension in a small-town legend narrative. Most recently, as of 2025, Reitzell scored the Black Mirror episode "Plaything," continuing his collaboration with Slade on psychological thriller elements through adaptive, synth-driven cues.[5][26] Through his sustained partnership with Coppola across multiple projects and ongoing work in horror and sci-fi genres, Reitzell has influenced indie cinema by pioneering soundtracks that fuse contemporary genres with cinematic storytelling, elevating mood and subtext in films that prioritize emotional nuance over conventional scoring.[3][9]Television and video game projects
Reitzell's contributions to television began prominently with the series Hannibal (2013–2015), where he served as both music supervisor and composer for all 39 episodes across three seasons.[19] His score crafted a signature eerie, baroque soundscape, drawing on classical influences such as Bach and Mahler to underscore the psychological horror and ritualistic themes, often blending orchestral elements with unconventional percussion and ambient textures.[6] This approach evolved episodically, allowing the music to mirror the narrative's escalating tension while maintaining a cohesive atmospheric dread.[36] In 2017, Reitzell composed the score for the first season of American Gods, covering its eight episodes and integrating diverse world music elements to reflect the series' mythological tapestries.[20] His work fused electronica, jazz, Native American rhythms, and global percussion to evoke the clash of old and new gods, creating a sonic palette that adapted to each episode's cultural motifs without overpowering the dialogue-driven storytelling.[37] Reitzell extended his television work into interactive formats with Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), an anthology episode presented as a choose-your-own-adventure film, where he composed and supervised the audio to support its branching narratives.[38] The score featured modular compositions that responded to viewer choices, incorporating 1980s-inspired synths and dynamic layering to heighten the disorienting psychological thriller elements across multiple pathways.[38] Transitioning to video games, Reitzell provided the original electronic score for Watch Dogs (2014), an open-world action-adventure title developed by Ubisoft.[22] His contributions included dynamic music systems that adapted in real-time to gameplay, blending retro-futuristic synths, krautrock influences, and ambient loops to amplify the hacking-themed urban dystopia and player agency.[22] This marked one of his key forays into interactive media, where the score's adaptability—rooted in his early electronic experiments from band collaborations—enhanced immersion in non-linear environments.[39] Reitzell's experiences highlight distinct challenges in scoring episodic television versus interactive video games, particularly the need for greater adaptability in the latter to accommodate player-driven variability.[39] In TV, such as Hannibal and American Gods, he could align music closely with scripted pacing and character arcs over fixed episodes, whereas projects like Watch Dogs and Bandersnatch required modular, reactive systems to ensure seamless transitions amid unpredictable user inputs, demanding extensive experimentation with looping and cue variations.[38][39]Discography
Solo and collaborative albums
Brian Reitzell's collaborative work with the French electronica duo Air began in the late 1990s, where he contributed drums to their albums The Virgin Suicides (1999, Virgin Records) and 10 000 Hz Legend (2001, Virgin Records), helping to fuse acoustic percussion with electronic textures in a style that bridged indie rock and ambient soundscapes. On 10 000 Hz Legend, Reitzell's drumming appears on multiple tracks, including "Radio #1" and "Don't Be Light," enhancing the album's experimental edge alongside guest musicians like Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass. In the mid-2000s, Reitzell co-founded the band TV Eyes with vocalist/guitarist Jason Falkner and multi-instrumentalist Roger Joseph Manning Jr., both former members of Jellyfish, drawing from their shared history touring with Air. The group's self-titled debut album, TV Eyes (2006, Noise McCartney Records; reissued 2014, Omnivore Recordings), showcases synth-pop influences with power pop melodies, featuring tracks like "She's a Study" and "Fascinating" that highlight Reitzell's rhythmic contributions and production input. The album was accompanied by the Japan-exclusive EP Softcore (2008), which included remixes of its songs by band members, emphasizing their collaborative remix approach.[40] Reitzell's sole studio album to date, Auto Music (2014, Smalltown Supersound), marks his independent artistic venture into experimental electronic music, delving into ambient and drone genres across nine instrumental tracks designed as sonic companions for long drives.[41] The record features guest appearances, including guitar from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields on "Ozu" and vocals from My Morning Jacket's Jim James on "Honeycomb," adding layers of ethereal texture to its 55-minute runtime.[42] Produced in Los Angeles, Auto Music reflects Reitzell's evolution from band collaborator to solo explorer, prioritizing immersive, wordless sound design over conventional song structures.[43]Soundtrack contributions
Brian Reitzell's contributions to soundtracks span film, television, and video games, where he has both composed original scores and supervised compilations, often blending atmospheric electronics, orchestral elements, and curated tracks to enhance narrative tension.[44] His work frequently collaborates with directors like Sofia Coppola, resulting in releases that integrate licensed music with bespoke compositions.[45] For the 2003 film Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola, Reitzell served as music supervisor and co-composed several tracks alongside Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine. The soundtrack album, released on September 9, 2003, by Emperor Norton Records, features original pieces such as "On the Subway" (with Roger J. Manning Jr.) and "Ikebana" by Shields, alongside licensed songs from artists like Air and Death in Vegas. This release earned Reitzell and Shields a BAFTA nomination for Best Film Music.[28][46] Reitzell's most extensive soundtrack series is for the television show Hannibal (2013–2015), where he composed original orchestral scores emphasizing dark, brooding atmospheres with strings and percussion. The soundtracks were released in multiple volumes by Lakeshore Records: Hannibal: Season 1, Volume 1 (2014, 7 tracks including "The Other Son" and "A Place to Talk"); Hannibal: Season 2, Volume 1 (2014) and Volume 2 (2014, featuring cues like "Su-zakana" and "Naka-choko"); and Hannibal: Season 3, Volume 1 (2015) and Volume 2 (2016). These albums compile over 25 hours of score from the series' first three seasons, with Reitzell curating selections for vinyl editions on Mondo Records.[47][48][49] In video games, Reitzell's Watch Dogs original score (2014), released by Invada Records on May 27 alongside the Ubisoft title, consists of 13 electronic tracks blending retro-futuristic synths and ambient soundscapes, such as "The Loop" and "Ded Sec." This electronic-focused release stands apart from his orchestral work, capturing the game's cyberpunk hacking theme through paranoid rhythms and haunting atmospheres. He also contributed scores to other games, including Red Faction: Armageddon (2011, Sumthing Else Music Works) with industrial electronic elements and Dead Rising 3 (2013, Capcom), expanding his video game discography beyond initial releases.[50][51] For Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), Reitzell acted as soundtrack producer and supervisor, assembling a two-disc compilation on Polydor Records that juxtaposes curated post-punk and new wave tracks (e.g., The Cure's "Plainsong," New Order's "Ceremony") with original score elements like Dustin O'Halloran's "Opus 17" and Aphex Twin's "Jynweythek Ylow." This approach highlights Reitzell's skill in distinguishing licensed pop selections for period contrast against subtle, atmospheric originals that underscore the film's emotional isolation.[52][53] Reitzell's later television scores include American Gods (Original Series Soundtrack) (2017, Lakeshore Records), featuring eclectic compositions blending folk, electronic, and orchestral elements across 21 tracks for the Starz series adaptation.[54] He composed the score for Mars: Season 2 (Original Series Soundtrack) (2018, Milan Records), a 14-track album of ambient and futuristic soundscapes accompanying the National Geographic documentary series.[55] In film, Reitzell provided the original score for Relic (2020, Death Waltz Records), a horror album emphasizing psychological tension through dissonant strings and subtle electronics over 22 cues. His work continued with Dark Harvest (2023, not yet released as of November 2025), and the Black Mirror: Season 7 (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series) (2025, Milan Records), reuniting with director David Slade for atmospheric, synth-driven compositions across multiple episodes.[5][26]Awards and recognition
Nominations
Brian Reitzell's award nominations primarily stem from his contributions to film scores and music supervision during the early to mid-2000s and early 2010s, highlighting his collaborative work on acclaimed projects. These recognitions underscore his role in blending original compositions with eclectic soundtracks, particularly in films directed by Sofia Coppola. Although he has not secured major wins in these categories, the nominations reflect critical appreciation for his innovative approaches to scoring and supervision.[1] The following table summarizes key nominations tied to his career milestones from 2003 to 2020:| Year | Award | Category | Project | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Seattle Film Critics Awards | Best Music | Lost in Translation | Shared with Kevin Shields and William Storkson for the original score.[56] |
| 2003 | Online Film Critics Society Awards | Best Original Score | Lost in Translation | Shared with Kevin Shields; nominated alongside scores for Kill Bill: Vol. 1, The Last Samurai, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[57] |
| 2004 | BAFTA Awards (Anthony Asquith Award) | Original Film Music | Lost in Translation | Shared with Kevin Shields for the film's atmospheric score, nominated with works including Cold Mountain and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.[58] |
| 2014 | Guild of Music Supervisors Awards | Best Music Supervision for Independent Motion Picture Budgeted Under 10 Million Dollars | The Bling Ring | Recognized for curating the soundtrack's pop-infused selections.[59] |
| 2020 | Fright Meter Awards | Best Score | Relic | Nominated for original score.[56] |