Milan Records today announces the release of Blitz (Soundtrack from the Apple Original Film), an album of music from Academy Award-winning director and writer Steve McQueen's new film. Available everywhere now, the album features an original score composed by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and original songs by duo Nicholas Britell and Taura Stinson in their third film collaboration as songwriters. Featured vocalists on the album include film lead Saoirse Ronan, Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Celeste, and Mercury Prize-winning musician Benjamin Clementine, who also stars in the film. The story of a nine-year-old boy on an epic journey through World War II-era London, Blitz debuts today in select theaters before making its global premiere on Apple TV+ beginning November 22.
For the original score, director Steve McQueen enlisted his collaborator on 12 Years a Slave and multiple Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer, the two speaking at length about their respective histories with the war, with Zimmer revealing that his own mother was evacuated from Germany and spent her time in London. "There are a lot of things in this story which resonated with Hans, especially the character of George and the relationship with his mother," McQueen shares. "I always said to him that with the score, it's like he had been in rehearsal for this for 60 years." Adds Zimmer, "My mother would tell me stories of what it was like to live in Mayfair, with all the bombs dropping around her. I got a phone call from Steve and he goes, 'Come watch a movie. You'll understand your mother better.' I watched it and, for the first time, they weren't just stories. I experienced all of it."
When composing the compelling score, Zimmer reflected on his childhood and wanted to help create what the world would feel like from a child's perspective. "I thought about what it must have felt like to be a child in those times. I wanted the grown-up audience to feel the same terror, disorientation and helplessness that a child would. I tried to write the most provocative and unsettlingly, lonely and dissonant music to remind the adults of their own childhood terrors of the unfathomable and uncontrollable world around them."
Another important aspect to the storytelling of Blitz is the use of original songs, with McQueen tapping Academy Award nominees Nicholas Britell and Taura Stinson, the duo's songwriting contributions ultimately weaving the film's themes of identity and family deeper into the narrative. Written to feel authentic to the time period and spirit of the film while resonating with modern audiences, Britell was also tasked with writing period-specific big band music and rearrangements of popular songs from that era. The composer re-arranges "Oh Johnny, Oh Jonny, Oh!" with vocals from Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Celeste, as well as "Allelujah" with vocals by Mercury Prize-winning musician and one of the film's lead actors Benjamin Clementine.
The film's centerpiece ballad, "Winter Coat," is performed by actress Saoirse Ronan as her onscreen character Rita, serving as a defining moment for both Rita, who performs the song live in front of her colleagues at the munitions factory, as well as the film itself, as the performance is broadcasted simultaneously to the nation. McQueen and Britell wrote the song together at Abbey Road, with Stinson contributing from her studio in California. Once the song was penned, Britell worked with Ronan remotely, forging ideas over countless Zoom sessions before recording together at Abbey Road.
Of working on the film's original songs, Britell concludes, "When you see the movie, you'll see it's a full tapestry. It's not often on projects that this type of focus or effort goes into the music that's in the world of the film. Oftentimes those sorts of things might be just licensed or needle drops, which is a much more straightforward process. But Steve really cares about it. He is drawn to witnessing music being performed and having music exist in the world of the characters."