Interview: Composer Max Aruj's Monstrous Score for Creature-Feature "The Tank"
The journey from jazz pianist to creature-feature composer sounds a little far-fetched, but that’s the story of Max Aruj. He comes from a family of music lovers and started playing piano at six years old. At a similarly young age, Aruj also fell in love with movies. The first film he composed for was a short film about a lounge singer that he and some friends made in high school. That short film would be his only acting role, but the beginning of a career in composing scores for film.
credit: sandu negrea
The latest project Aruj worked on was The Tank, a creature-feature that harkens back to the days of drive-ins and monsters. An unsuspecting family inherits a coastal home that contains more than a few secrets. One of those secrets is lurking in the murky waters of an onsite tank. In order to elevate the tension of the mounting terrors, Aruj detuned the entire orchestra and mixed in sounds like the sharpening of knives to force the audience to the edge of their seat. There’s a freedom in composing for the horror genre, but not in the way one might expect. Aruj explains that most horror movies hit the same beats (no pun intended) in terms of the score’s progression. It must ebb and flow to coincide with the action on screen. The real freedom in horror movies is what composers use to create sounds. Nothing is out of the question, and their work turns into something closer to that of a foley artist as they layer together their score.
Aruj sat down with Beyond the Cinerama Dome to talk about his start in music, how to score a creature-feature, and the monster movie from his childhood that still sticks with him.
Check out the full interview below. The Tank is in select theatres on April 21 and releases on digital April 25.
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.