Anna Drubich: We Interview WEREWOLVES WITHIN and FEAR STREET Composer

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Jul 1, 2021

I know, I know. You’re used to seeing my byline on news stories! It’s wild. I recently got the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with Russian composer Anna Drubich. Her work in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Werewolves Within, and the upcoming Fear Street trilogy is fascinating to me. We talked about Russian composers, Werewolves Within, and the ability for composers to scare themselves.

Synopsis:
A snowstorm traps town residents together inside the local inn, where newly arrived forest ranger Finn and postal worker Cecily must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that has begun terrorizing the community.

*Note: This interview has been edited for clarity.


Dread Central: So how are you doing today?

Anna Drubich: I’m doing good. Yesterday was my birthday. I’m alive. So that’s good.

DC: Happy birthday!

AD: Thank you!

DC: I checked out your IMDB page, and I see you’ve lined up a lot more horror projects. Are you a horror fan?

AD: Well, I do mostly horror scoring nowadays here in America. But I actually have a career back in my home country of Russia. There, I’m more a drama or period piece kind of composer. I guess I’m not only doing horror. I have a nice balance I have to say. Back in Moscow, my projects are more Drama. Here, I do horror, but Werewolves Within is more a comedy horror. I don’t think it’s a horror horror movie.

DC: What are the challenges of scoring horror versus something like your previous work on Anna Karenina?

AD: There are a lot of differences. I would say for drama, you mostly write long interesting melodies, which kind of support the drama. With horror, it’s more about the sound. I’d say the unique sounds, or soundscape. I think it’s quite different. I like scoring horror because it gives me more room to experiment vs. drama. When you’re scoring a period piece it’s not always that you can expand the border. In horror, everything is possible. You can try very crazy things out, and it’ll eventually work. You’ll create something interesting and new. There are some differences, but I think maybe in horror the creative approach is more interesting.

DC: Some movies have themes for each character, while some focus on the overall mood. Which did you feel you identified more with for Werewolves Within?

AD: I do have a couple of themes there. They’re not really written for a character. They’re more written for the town, and the mystery. With Werewolves Within I think it’s an interesting concept because the reference was originally like a Jerry Goldsmith kind of score. And although the movie takes place in current time, somehow you cannot figure out in what time period it takes place. It’s kind of modern, but they’re listening to nineties songs on a jukebox. And also the characters are kinda frozen in time right there.

So you don’t know if they’re actually in nowadays. So for the score I think it also has a combination of very old school-ish licks and ideas, and a lot of woodwinds playing. I’m kind of using some sort of old school-ish vibes in the orchestra but also combining it with new synth-style stuff. I think it is some very interesting stuff.

DC: I noticed while I was watching that there were a lot of intense pieces that would end with a bit of light flute. Was that a way to keep the soundtrack a bit whimsical and light?

AD: The whole movie is not to be taken seriously. Every scene ends with a joke. Even when people are in the scene talking about horrible stuff, it still ends up with some sort of joke. So yeah, the score has a lot of irony in it, as the movie has, so I was trying to balance it. If I did all the time hardcore serious horror stuff I don’t think it would work that way with all the jokes and funny characters.

DC: I’ve been listening to your score for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I grew up reading those books. Did you read them in preparation for the score?

AD: I did read the books because the books are more kind of American folklore and I think every nation has some sort of horror folklore for kids. Some sort of scary stories for the kids. We also have some in Russia and in European countries. It’s more of an American thing. But once I started doing this movie of course I read the books. I think the characters are really kind of smartly chosen for the movie. Yeah.

DC: You’re from Russia, yeah? which Russian composers do you draw inspiration from?

AD: Oh, well, I mean. I grew up in Russia and actually my first composition teacher was a very famous film composer from soviet times Isaac Schwartz. He’s from St. Petersburg. His teacher was Dmitry Shostakovich, so my first introduction to composition was kind of through this connection. But being from Russia, of course, you have this huge cultural background and it’s like all connected to Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev. I’m just lucky to have all this background.

DC: So you’re doing the score for the new Fear Street movies for Netflix.

AD: Yes, they’re actually coming this week on Netflix. I was actually more concentrated on the third part. The three movies are kind of one story but it is set in different eras. The first one is 94, the second one is 78, and the third is 1666. And the director Leigh Janiak, she really wanted each score to have a separate musical vibe. So the 90s should be like an homage to nineties horror like Scream‘s score that Marco Beltrami is famous for. And then in 78 she really wanted like more a Goldsmith kind of vibe. And then 1666, this is like a very, I would say, unique witch-y medieval sound I was trying to do.

DC: What would be your dream project?

AD: My dream project… I always say it’s the best thing to write for a very good movie. I don’t have a dream project. Of course, I would like to try and work with the Coen brothers. Just creatively this would be my dream; to work with this kind of movie masters. Or Tarantino. I’m always to happy to start working on a movie that is really good without music. It’s always a pleasure to contribute to very good movies.

DC: What are you working on now?

AD: I have a project that I signed an NDA. I can’t really talk about it. There is a project I’m working on. It will probably come towards the end of the year. I just finished such a huge junk of work for Werewolves and Fear Street. Also, I was doing some Russian projects. So, yeah, maybe this summer will be a little more relaxing for me. I will be working on the project, but it will be like kinda chill for me.

DC: You are an accomplished pianist. I’ve actually watched some of your Youtube videos.

AD: Yes, I did master in piano performance and until I had my first daughter, I was managing to balance both piano performances and composition. But since I got my baby, it was really tough to do 3 major things and yeah, I kind of stopped piano.

DC: What would you consider the most challenging aspect of composing music for film?

AD: Most challenging aspect. Oh! Well, I would say that actually dealing with a lot of people being on their deadline sometimes can be very nerve-wracking. When everyone is already towards the end of the project and then you have to deliver the music and everyone freaks out and the producers want to change this and the director wants to change this and in some moments it can get really stressful. But always I figure out in the end it always works out. But in every project there is like this very short period of time when you think “Oh my god, this is all going to be a disaster!” but actually it always works out.

DC: Do you have a favorite film score?

AD: Yes. I like Under the Skin. I think it’s a great movie and I think it’s a great score. It’s composed by Mica Levi. I listen to a lot of stuff, and sometimes I find that in horror scores you can really develop some unique styles. Like – for example – what Mark Korven does in The Witch or The Lighthouse. I think they’re really musical masterpieces. I try to be on top of the new great soundtracks that come out and listen to them, and analyze them, and figure out what the composer did and what’s unique about this score.

DC: I actually really liked the score for Hellraiser.

AD: Yeah! Hellraiser actually has a great score. I don’t watch horror movies because I’m afraid of watching horror. I always listen to soundtracks. This is kind of my secret. When I started doing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark I figured out that me sitting alone in my studio at night scoring all these jumpscares can be really, really intense *laughs*. Me being alone is how I figured out, “Okay. after 6 p.m. I start scoring all the horror stuff.“

DC: Do you feel like working at night gave you a better headspace for scoring horror?

AD: Well, yeah, but also it can be scary once you’re alone and it’s dark, and you also write scary music. I know I do it, but it sounds scary. Yeah, it’s a funny effect when you know that it’s just a movie but still you’re afraid.

DC: I listen to a lot of film scores, but it’s not something people get out there and look for. How do you think contemporary compositions could reach a wider audience?

AD: It’s a good question. I honestly don’t really have the answer for it. You’d think that people still react to something very good, unique, and interesting. I believe that even if people don’t really notice the role of the score in the movie but they’ll still hear the soundtrack and if they like it, they might go and check it out. This depends on the film score, but in general, I don’t know. I also write concert music. Somehow I feel that when I’m happy with a piece and I know it’s a really good piece, I always notice that people react and I have a lot of listeners. I believe that the really good projects will actually get fans and followers.

DC: Werewolves Within kind of feels like the first post-Covid horror movie and the film itself is about isolation in this small town. It feels like a very covid-appropriate movie.

AD: I think it’s a great movie. I loved doing it. I had a really good connection with [director] Josh Ruben. We have similar musical taste and ideas. So this is one of my favorite favorite projects.

DC: Do you have anything to say to all the horror fans out there.

AD: Go check out the new Fear Street trilogy and Werewolves Within! I dearly love this project and the good and funny thing about both of the projects is that actually, I had just started working on this project right after the pandemic started. So, it was like the second or third week of the pandemic and the whole world was feeling like a horror movie. Everyone was talking about “Oh, then the Covid will become zombies!” and stuff you know? You had all this kind of idea of there’s something in the world and it really looks like a horror movie.

I have to say that these two projects really kind of helped me from getting too stuck in all this fear and depression because I was still working and I really hope that at some point people will watch it. People will go to theaters and stuff. I’m really happy that somehow this time is coming that people are starting to watch things in theaters. Like Werewolves Within! Basically, I went last week to watch it in a theater and people were actually there! It was almost actually a full audience. It was packed. I’m very happy that it’s happening.

You can hear Anna Drubich’s score in Werewolves Within, or in the upcoming Fear Street trilogy that will be premiering on Netflix over the next three weeks, each Friday. I want to thank Anna for her time and her willingness to answer my questions, even though English is not her first language. Hopefully, by the time her new project drops at the end of the year, I’ll have learned some conversational Russian.

I’m Jans. I usually write news. You can find me on Twitter @HorrorPlayed.

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