Movies and music with director Brook Linder

For Brook Linder, movies have always been his gateway into music.

“I’ve never been able to separate music from films, which is probably what led me to music videos,” the music video director said.

Growing up, Linder always had an obsession “with a very particular corner of the music industry (a corner that has sadly vanished with the CD’s decline).” He calls it “the 90’s OST boom,” a time when it seemed like with every movie debut, an “Official Soundtrack” would immediately follow. And if you were lucky, a movie would release a “Music From and Inspired By” album, which would feature tracks that weren’t even in the movie.

“I didn’t buy albums from bands. I bought soundtracks from the movies I was obsessed with and just left those on repeat.”

At nine years old, Linder had no idea where to start with music, but was begging his parents to buy him CDs. If they gave in, there was a lot of pressure to pick a good CD because they didn’t give in often enough to take a big risk on a random album based on cover art or what some other kid in class was into, he said.

“A *sorta* mixtape ‘from and inspired by’ a movie I’m all about? That’s a safer bet.”

A year later, he translated his love for music and movies into music videos, capturing footage with a digital handycam his brother brought home from work.

“iMovie had just come out and it pretty quickly became my thing: Making little action scenes in the woods with my friends and ripping the ‘Metal Gear Solid’ score to lay over them.”

He transitioned to “actual music video music videos” in high school, directing videos for the band Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, who are from his hometown of Springfield, Missouri. The gig continued from high school through college, and then he moved to L.A. There, he met two directors, Grant Singer and Aaron Brown, who mentored him from the start.

Working with Singer, in particular, was a huge step for him.

“Just being around some of his videos was like the grad school I never went to — I learned a ton and it’s something I really consider to have been a priceless experience.”

When coming up with an idea for a music video, Linder tries to nail down the video’s genre or feeling based on the music and melody, rather than depend on the lyrics.

“It’s usually pretty obvious what’s going to work over a track,” he said. “Is it mean? Is it sad? Is it scary but should have something fun over it? What’s the coolest part of the song and what should happen over that?”

To take Linder’s idea further, he refers to a constant in his production process: Frank Mobilio, his go-to Director of Photography. “He ties everything together in ways you could never anticipate,” he said. “It might just be my roommate in a bad costume from a Salvation Army, but Frank makes it into ‘The Parallax View.’”

The director’s latest project was a music video for Spoon’s single, “Do I Have to Talk You Into It.” The video takes place entirely in Adobe Photoshop, where portraits of Britt Daniel, Spoon’s lead singer, are manipulated into obscurity.

The music video was a departure for Linder because its concept wasn’t ripped from a movie (his M.O.) and is set in a virtual space. Taking such a risk has inspired him to try his hand at fake computer interfaces more often and to “make more pieces inside of those weird realities.”

His favorite videos are really simple ideas that make him feel dumb for not coming up with them, Linder said. The video for Pulp’s “This Is Hardcore” is one that he admits he’s thought about everyday since he first saw it years ago.

“The concept unfolds like a dream and transforms into such an epic, insane video,” he said. “It’s really all about the performance, and isn’t it always?”

Here, Linder shares a list of songs from soundtracks that grabbed his attention in his formative years (in no particular order).

FROM “SCREAM 2: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

Great song, unforgettable scene. One of the all-time best music cues in a movie, ever. It’s a totally insane, rad 180-degree tonal shift: A hard cut from Jada Pinkett-Smith’s murder to a bright, sunny day on campus and Neve Campbell’s Sydney is late to class. CUE Eels, and this wonderfully chill song is given an extra layer of creep. It’s become one of my favorite movie moments and it’s probably mostly because of the song. This felt like cutting edge filmmaking = chill song + brutal murder.

FROM “DRIVEN: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

I don’t have a great explanation for this. “Driven” is kind of a terrible movie and I think I knew it even then. Something about this song attached to me. I think this plays while Stallone is warming up on the track (his character is a veteran race car driver brought out of retirement). I might be actually talking myself into watching this again. Whatever it is, I think about the intro to this song once a week.

FROM “THE SAINT: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

Another movie that hasn’t aged well, but it was Val Kilmer and spycraft and cool disguises (post-”Mission:Impossible”) and Elisabeth Shue. There was this thing when I was little, where serious mainstream movies had like clubby trip hop soundtracks. Val Kilmer was peak cool as The Saint and this song just felt like it at the time (I was 7). I didn’t know what sexy was yet, but I could feel something happening in this song.

FROM “MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE MOTION PICTURE”

This is a great example of the “Inspired By” abuse. Only 5 out of the 15 tracks appear in the film. Everything about this movie is burned into my brain (I can still watch this movie in my head to pass a long car ride). I was six when it came out and it was instantly my favorite movie. I had to have the CD, but was really bummed out when it wasn’t the score — I had gambled and lost. BUT, as you did, I just listened to it forever anyway. The Cranberries classic actually DOES play in the movie when Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames chill in the bar after accomplishing their mission. It feels good!

FROM “HACKERS: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

Hackers has not two but three (!!!) soundtracks, and the last two are “from and inspired by” (the last one looks like it’s just “inspired by”). This movie is rad, full of great 90’s pop-computer moments. Computer action never felt so cool (until “The Matrix” a couple of years later). This song definitely felt like it was from another world, and still has all of those mid-90’s computer visuals attached to it for me. That aesthetic had a major impact on me and I’m still trying to create fake old computer interfaces using this movie for reference.

FROM “SWINGERS: MUSIC FROM THE MIRAMAX MOTION PICTURE”

This movie has definitely nursed me through breakups and there’s nothing like getting to the last scene where Jon’s totally over it and “I’m Beginning To See The Light” plays. It’s like a warm blanket. This is the movie I fell in love with as an early adult (late high school, early college) and the music felt like it was for adults — I think that drew me to it. Swingers is another double soundtrack scenario (it’s called like “Swingers Too!” or something super cheesy).

FROM “HEAT: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE”

Michael Mann movies always had the best music. His 80’s stuff was all Tangerine Dream-ed out and the 90’s got a little New Age vibe with the drones and tones of Elliot Goldenthal’s score for “Heat,” accompanied by a couple of GREAT Moby tracks that are seared into my brain. When I moved to L.A. one of the very first things I did was throw on “New Dawn Fades” and tear across the 10-W.

FROM “TOP GUN ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK”

“Top Gun” is my standard for the epic movie soundtrack. I mean, it won an Academy Award, after all. Obviously the standouts are Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock’s “Danger Zone” and “Take My Breath Away” — no one’s denying that. But I’ve got to be totally honest: My favorite song (and the one that I still listen to regularly) is “Playing With The Boys,” the track from the beach volleyball montage. It’s bright, it’s fun, the scene is sick. If you don’t get amped listening to this song, well, I don’t believe you — you got amped.

FROM “X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE”

Another scenario where I went into Hastings to buy the score and came out with the “Music From & Inspired By” and was bummed when I got home. I was nine years old. But, you make the best of it. I really wasn’t into this CD, other than the first 20 seconds of Tonic’s “Flower Man,” which I used as my “walk out” music when my friends and I would play wrestling on the trampoline. It holds up (the first 20 seconds).

FROM “WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE”

This was one of those movies that I found in late middle school/early high school (probably during the Shakespeare unit in English I) that my friends absolutely hated, but I was secretly really attached to. And because the film is essentially wall-to-wall music. I have to think the soundtrack was a major reason. The CD was my first exposure to Radiohead, which probably gets us all through high school. This song is rad, and was perfect for a brooding 15-year-old in Missouri.

FROM “BATMAN FOREVER: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE”

You knew as soon as you saw “Batman Forever” what you were getting. I don’t think I’ve met a person who doesn’t love this song and remember its proximity to Val Kilmer’s Batman (my favorite, for no particular reason). This song took over 1996. I was six and trying to collect all the Batman glasses from McDonald’s. When the chorus hits, this song still gives me goosebumps. Just now even! I listened to it and have the bumps.

FROM “TITANIC: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE”

Look, I’m sorry, but we all had this CD and we all listened to this song and had a serious moment — and that’s the power of cinema and the fusion of sound and picture to make feeling. Also the key change is sick.

EXTRA CREDIT

FROM “BLOODSPORT: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK”

Looking at the list, I’m a little bummed at myself for not including more classic movie tie-in songs (does anyone know if “My Heart Will Go On” was written for “Titanic” or was it “Titanic”-adjacent??). My brother Ty loved this movie, so I loved this movie, and the montage with “Fight To Survive” still gets me. You couldn’t really watch TBS and not see this movie 100 times. Generally, I’m not really into martial arts movies, but something about this pumping track and the slow-motion fighting gets me (or maybe it’s Jean Claude’s smile!).

Listen to Brook Linder’s curated 12 songs playlist on Spotify.