Lakeshore Records will release Zipper – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on August 28, 2015. The film features original score by H. Scott Salinas.
"Scott and I have been long time collaborators—he composed the score for my first feature Conventioneers—and I started talking to him about Zipper when it was still a script," said director Mora Stephens. "He got sucked into the obsession early on (bless him!) and was watching dailies, and experimenting with music while we were early in the cut. I wanted the music to be dark, brooding, emotional, sexy, intense, psychological, visceral, bold—to heighten the thriller elements of the story, but most importantly, pull us further into our hero's emotional subjective experience."
"I was involved in the project very early at the script stage, and was following production closely even watching dailies. So we had a great creative dialogue established very early," described Salinas. "We sort of stumbled on the idea together of making the soul of Sam (our protagonist) be a cello. And then we pushed further and asked, what if we used a cello choir? So we wound up recording eight celli arranged in a semi-circle as a choir. So we constantly shift from the choir to solo cello processed electronically in ways to disguise its nature."
"The cello concept got us very far into the film then we realized we needed to balance the dark romantic quality of the cello with something more noble, Sam's noble side that he ultimately abandons," described Salinas. "For that we choose a very small violin ensemble playing very delicately and that was just the contrast we needed to represent Sam's honorable side. Also, there is a reoccurring theme played in distant electronic bells. This theme represents the subconscious tingling of addiction. It seems harmless enough but its subtle persistence mirrors the desire bubbling up inside of Sam, a sirens call from inside that void that can't be filled."
"I can't help but geek out at the unique worlds H. Scott Salinas creates with his music, each film score completely different and original," Stephens said. "At our premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Richard Dreyfuss repeatedly urged: 'I recommend everyone listening to the score.' And I second that."