Clint Mansell on channelling punk spirit on Loving Vincent

“It was done through that belief in art, the love of it,” says Clint Mansell. In this instance, he is describing the gargantuan task undertaken by the team behind his latest project, Loving Vincent, the world’s first oil-painted film, which saw 125 painters painstakingly recreate Vincent Van Gogh’s work for an animation formed from 65,000 hand-painted frames. But talking with the composer – who's scored films from Ghost in the Shell to Filth to Noah – it’s evident that this statement holds true in every aspect of his craft.

Mansell first found acclaim with Pop Will Eat Itself, known for their chaotic 'grebo' fusion of punk and electronic music. In the band’s wake, Mansell managed to carve out a niche as a composer of haunting, grandiose, yet delicate soundscapes, such as The Fountain’s Death is the Road to Awe. That’s not to say his later music doesn’t sometimes contain more than a little bite. His first film, Darren Aronofsky’s Pi, saw him underscore the protagonist’s unhinged mathematical quest to predict the stock market with a blistering drum ‘n’ bass backdrop, while Requiem for a Dream’s chilling Lux Aeterna helped to bring Mansell’s work to prominence. A reworked version was even co-opted for a Lord of the Rings trailer.

As Mansell explains in his disarming Black Country brogue, he never truly left the punk sentiment behind. “I think it’s always present,” Mansell says. “While it was Bowie that got me into music, it was punk that gave me my footings. Punk gave me that belief that your ideas are as good as anybody else’s, it’s the execution of them and seeing them through that can help you find your own voice.” This attitude was undoubtedly a catalyst in Mansell’s journey from PWEI to the big screen, a path he shares with the likes of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh and Cliff Martinez, the sometime drummer for Captain Beefheart and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

“Inevitably, it always comes back to punk thinking for me because it allows me… to say ‘don’t give a fuck’ is not strictly true… to cast off constrictions.”

Constrictions are an inevitable part of composing for film, with endless edits and revisions to be made at the mercy of directors and producers. Luckily for Mansell, his reputation now precedes him. “I had total free rein from the directors, Dorota [Kobiela] had written the script listening to my music and said that nobody else could possibly score this film except for me, so I guess I had no real choice,” he jokes. Listening to his work, it’s apparent that Mansell suffers little from self-imposed restrictions either. His musical identity seems immune to genre change, comfortably jumping from industrial rock to neoclassical or ambient without losing any of his signature inflections. It’s the sort of honed sound that implies a confidence gained through relentless exploration.

While scoring a film, Mansell undertakes a rigorous process of trial and error. Lux Aeterna was reportedly the result of 19 or 20 different approaches – most of them hip-hop influenced so as to mirror the Brooklyn of Darren Aronofsky’s youth. During Loving Vincent, he took solace in the fact that his subject matter may have once gone through the same process. “There are many, many waste paper baskets full of discarded ideas to get to the things that speak to you, seem to attach to the picture,” he says. “I’m sure that Van Gogh would have painted over many of his original drawings because he needed the canvas or wasn’t happy with what he’d done before, y’know – you just keep going.”

Over the course of the project, Mansell formed a simpatico relationship with the painter in a more familiar way. He explains: “Vincent was the first punk rocker because he was doing exactly what he wanted and sod the consequences.

“You could imagine that he might be at his happiest when he’s painting and achieving what he wants to do. His mood that had been born out of his rejections would often come back and spoil the moment for him but you can only look at yourself, really, and that’s what I try to do – not that I would dare compare myself to Van Gogh.” That Van Gogh failed to find recognition for his art within his own lifetime also chimes with Mansell’s own outlook.

He muses: “To me there’s no rights or wrongs. Music’s an incredibly personal thing both for the person that creates it and the person who listens to it and those two things might not connect at the same time. Somebody might do something 20 years ago that everybody ignored and suddenly, ‘wow someone’s connected to it’. And those feelings, emotions that are expressed are totally on point for whatever person is listening at that time."

Although Mansell has found extraordinary critical success, it’s not always been plain sailing. He describes his initial foray into film scoring as a nerve-wracking period, which taught him to separate his ego from his compositions. “After a while I started thinking that creativity is an inspiration, they’re such fragile things,” he says. “Who do you think you are that you think if somebody says ‘write me a piece of music’, you’re gonna sit down and write a piece of music that can satisfy them every time? I’m realistic about the fact that it’s not possible otherwise inspiration wouldn’t mean anything. There wouldn’t be a separate word for it because we’d be doing it all the time.”

‘I’m interested in emotional connections, I’m not really interested in blowing up Transformers’

For a composer with different ideals, being held in such high esteem in Hollywood could mean taking on a wealth of artistically compromising projects. However, Mansell pays little attention to the critics’ circus and is careful only to dedicate his time to films with which he feels a sufficient connection. He recently worked on a short film about child abuse entitled Gaslighting, and even with regards to big budget forays like The Fountain, there has always been an overriding sense of artistry at play. “I’m always looking for something that makes me feel I can bring something to it,” he says. “I’m interested in emotional connections, I’m not really interested in blowing up Transformers.”

He explains his approach to Loving Vincent: “Obviously with Van Gogh there’s a lot of research you can do – I read his biography, Van Gogh: The Life, and his letters written to his brother.” Yet Mansell is averse to saying that it’s possible to truly build up a picture of someone in this way. “I get more of a feel for their passion, fears, emotional state. If you spend enough time with these things you can connect to them and that’s what I like to do.”

This statement goes some way to explaining Mansell’s uncanny ability to add to the essence of, rather than merely accompany, each film he scores whether that be his frantic reworking of Tchaikovsky in Black Swan or the extravagantly enticing melodies of High Rise – scores that acted like external protagonists. “All those things, they play on your sensitivity, they inspire you in different ways and bring different things to light,” he says. “That’s what I love about the job that I have, responding to those things.”

The nine-year-in-the-making Loving Vincent was certainly a labour of love for the artists involved. Mansell sees the project as a good example of the power of a communal, DIY spirit. “All these people coming together to really believe in something, it’s not like anybody got rich doing this! It’s a terribly small budget film and everybody had to make it work.” It seems that Mansell’s involvement in such projects shows no sign of slowing – long may he continue to champion art for art’s sake.

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Loving Vincent is released by Altitude and is in UK cinemas now
Clint Mansell's Loving Vincent soundtrack is out now via Milan Music