Claudia, congratulations on becoming the first woman to score a DC feature film. What was it like stepping into that role, and how was the experience of collaborating with director Craig Gillespie on Supergirl?

Thank you! Yes, it was a pretty big deal and an incredibly short timeline to get it done. Sue Jacobs, who is a total legend, was the music supervisor and kept pushing me to go for it. I’ve worked with her on a couple of projects, two documentaries with Chai Vasarhelyi last year, and I had demoed for her on other things in the past. I admire her greatly and trust her implicitly; if she thought I could do it, I had to believe in her trusting me. Craig was incredibly supportive and enthusiastic from the start, responding immediately to my demos. We then sat together in my studio with his editor, Tanya Riegel, and broke down the different worlds we were navigating in the film. When I first tried out on a scene, I didn’t think for a second that I would get it so I wrote very freely and didn’t overthink it too much. He was very into a couple of the synth/guitar riffs that play in her first proper fight sequence – it was quite punk, quite loose and loud. Very simple and to the point. I took the piano motif from the first action sequence and played around with a melody, which became Kara’s theme. Craig is very definitive on what he likes and doesn’t like. He encouraged me to be brave and take big hits at things. He was exceptionally encouraging, along with Sue.

While Supergirl is certainly a superhero film, it’s also a story about identity, grief, family, and ultimately discovering one’s own power. How did you connect with those themes, and how did they influence your musical approach?

I already felt very connected to the arc of the lead character. I’m sure there are very few people who haven’t had some degree of heartache and have had to find their mettle. That was probably the easiest part for me: the emotional aspect. The hardest part was keeping it light and comedic when it needed to be; if it was a romcom that would have been a serious lift for me! I guess once I found the theme, it informed a lot of what became the backstory for her melodically, and I built around that. 

Without giving away any spoilers, was there a particular scene or sequence that resonated with you emotionally or creatively, and that you’re especially proud of scoring?

The Argo sequence, which is comprised of two longer cues back-to-back in the film and on the album, was a real highlight. It’s a scene that goes to her backstory, and I was able to make a vocal patch to create this otherworldly sound, plus some super light and atmospheric synths. We held off the full orchestra until the main statement at the end of the scene. It was a big moment in the film and for me personally; everything had come together. I don’t think I had much time to process the full score until that point. We were in Studio A at Abbey Road, five weeks after getting hired, and this piece of music was being played so beautifully. It’s one of my favorite moments in the film and from the Abbey Road sessions. The action sequences were super fun to score too.

You have a remarkably diverse musical voice, blending electronic textures, orchestral writing, and more experimental sounds. How would you describe your musical style, and how has it evolved throughout your career?

I’ve been down many roads musically. I thought I would be a songwriter and that was my first real taste for creating music. Then I got into playing synths and I played on whatever was going on in the scene around me – mainly underground records, club music, and drum and bass. There were lots of people making music, both live and electronically. I met Atticus in the early 90’s and essentially we started making music together. We signed a deal with Polydor Records, at which point we were doing a lot of beats and trip hop. At some point we incorporated more guitars and considered ourselves more art piece and “statement” music, getting into more experimentation and noise, much to the despair of our record company. They eventually let us go over to Trent’s more avant-garde label in the late 90’s. In the early 2000’s we toured the album we had just made via Nothing Records. Director Allen Hughes heard the album; parts of it were pretty cinematic and atmospheric, and we ended up scoring his TV show Touching Evil. I realized that my career was changing course, so I went back and did some composition and orchestration courses at UCLA. I don’t know how I would describe my sound; I still consider myself evolving. I know what I like, and I take it from there.

Before becoming an acclaimed film composer, you performed with Atticus and Leopold Ross in the band 12 Rounds. What was that chapter of your life like, and how did the transition from performing and touring to composing for film and television happen?

I loved that period of my life. I lived in studios and was given the opportunity to just make music and tour for most of my twenties. I consider myself exceptionally fortunate that I knew what I loved to do in life and I was able to do it. I love working with musicians and making sound happen – all of it. It was very much a “found my place in the world” period for me. Even though much of what I wrote lyrically was about loss and confusion, it was really a rich period of finding my confidence as a musician and writer. Coming to the US in the early 2000’s, to support an album, we were faced with the implosion of the record industry, and I encountered an aspect of studio culture here that was less accepting of women in studios as equals. As I said before, we got lucky when Allen Hughes heard the record we had made; I will always be grateful to Allen and his trust in us. He gave us our first show and then our first film. It’s brave for a director to go with unproven composers. He is still one of my favorite humans and definitely a director we are super proud to have worked with. 

As the first woman to score a DC feature film, representation matters. Looking back on your own journey, have you seen meaningful changes for women composers in the industry, and where do you feel there’s still work to be done?

I feel like things are changing, albeit incredibly slowly. It was only a few years ago that I would write music for advertisements, and I would ask my male teammates in the studio to pretend that they were the person who pitched the job because it was definitely more likely to be awarded to a man. I know I’m not being paranoid here! That being said, I’m very aware that my being visible in this matters now. It matters that directors and producers start to trust different-looking composers to musically voice their shows, and that only happens when it becomes more of a norm. There was and still is a level of lack of confidence within the industry around women composing for high-budget films and TV shows. I feel incredibly honored to have been given this opportunity and that people at a corporate level got a little brave. I realized that it wasn’t a lack of skill that stopped me from working but more a lack of confidence in myself and projecting that when I went for jobs. I am genuinely ecstatic to see more and more women’s names on shows from all corners of the world, to see women being nominated for awards, and it becoming more normalized within the industry and the public (which it hasn’t yet as much as I would want it to, but we are breaking in). Having said that, I would never want to be hired for my gender; I want to be hired because I’ll do a great job and get it over the finish line. I’ve sat with young women composers recently and it’s exciting to see a generation coming up who have such a deep skill set and belief in themselves. Maybe this generation will go to interviews and it won’t be such a big deal that they got hired and were women. The big thrill for me at the orchestra session on Supergirl was the lead cellist coming up and telling me how happy she was to see a woman in control of the session. Seeing more women-led productions is a big plus moving forward.

As someone who has forged her own path in a highly competitive industry, what advice would you give to young women composers who are just beginning their careers today?

I think that at some point I was happy just to make music within a team and do whatever was needed in service to the project. Yes, we are all individuals, but how I found my own voice was by letting some of that stuff go and doing my part to help get the music made, even if that was just playing on a project or if it was me getting out of the way. I’ll say that I have learned way more from my mistakes than my wins, and I spent far too much time licking my wounds over those mistakes and perceived injustices of the industry we’re in. Find a way on to a team and make yourself useful there, even if you’re not doing exactly what you want to do. Reach out to young directors who are making shorts and eager to find people to compose for them. Make your music.   

Check out Claudia’s Directory Page here!

Interview by Thomas Mikusz

Edited by Carolyn Koch