Ravinia 2024 Issue 1

Antonio Sánchez studies screen- and time-sync displays during a live performance of his music for Birdman . What was your radio station growing up in Mexico? 96.9! Surreptitiously, [future director] Alejandro González Iñárritu was one of the DJs. He’s an avid music lover and connoisseur. That’s why we connect- ed so well. The first time I heard Pat Metheny was on his nightly radio show, Magic Night . I heard [Metheny’s] “Last Train Home.” Back then, I was listening to The Police, Rush, British rock. All of a sudden, this tune comes on and I’m like, “This is so cool, what is this?” That’s when I started checking out the Pat Metheny Group. I met Alejandro in 2005 after a show I was playing in Los Angeles with Pat. The full circle aspect of this whole Birdman thing has been astonishing. You began playing drums at age 5. What about the drums spoke to you? I usually say that I didn’t pick the drums, the drums picked me. I had no choice in the matter. I saw a drum set close up in my uncle’s girlfriend’s house. She had a brother who set up his drums in the living room. It looked awesome, like a space ship. He played and the sheer sound took over me. I started tak- ing lessons and I never looked back. I’m a little older than you. Growing up, my favorite drummer was Ginger Bak- er. What drummers influenced you? Ginger Baker was one of them. My mom loved Cream, and she also listened to Ginger Baker’s later band, Air Force. She said I would be rolling and tumbling in her womb whenever she played that record. You must have been blown away when Birdman was pitched to you. It would be like if Steven Spielberg pitched Toots Thielemans on an all-harmonica score. It was 10 years after we met. I got a call from Alejandro. He said he was work- ing on a dark comedy. He reflected that comedy and rhythm go hand in hand and remembered a drum solo I played that night he saw me in Los Angeles. He said, “Do you want to do it?” and I said, “Yeah of course.” It happened just like that, just one phone call. Was composing for the screen on your to-do list? Not at all. I was so into performing live and touring. I was composing, but for my own projects. I had studied classical music in Mexico, so I was not afraid of composition, but it was not on my radar. What was the process of collaborating with Alejandro? In the beginning, I approached it in an over-analytical way. I was just trying to think, “What would John Williams or Hans Zimmer do?”—but on the drums. My original intention was to create rhythmic themes for the differ- ent characters, but it became clear that the drums were more about Michael Keaton’s character. The drums were the inner voices in his head. It turned out what Alejandro wanted me to do was improvise, be in the moment. That was something I could do. Did you have a say in which takes would be used for the finished film? We did as many takes as possible. Every time Alejandro felt we had it, he said let’s move on. He had the final say. That sounds like it would be the key difference between working in the film world and the music world. They couldn’t be more different. When you’re composing for film, everybody has opinions on what the music should be. That part is hard sometimes when they are nitpicking at something you really believe in. But at the end of the day, you’re an employee and you have to satisfy the needs of the employer. In the music world, you are on your own. If you flunk, it’s your fault; if you succeed, it’s because you did something cool. But the money is way better in the film world. [ Laughs ] What was it like seeing Birdman for the first time with an audience? I was on tour in Asia when the movie opened. I started seeing reviews that were very favorable. I have to be honest, the last thing I saw before I left was only the rough cut of the movie with my original demos. It had no credits, color correction; the editing wasn’t done yet; it didn’t look like one continuous shot. And I saw it on a little TV. I thought the movie was interesting, but it didn’t hit me at all. I came back from the tour and RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JUNE 7 – JUNE 30, 2024 22