Los Frikis

One of the most beautiful and inspiring films I’ve had the good fortune to work on, Los Frikis was directed by Michael Schwartz and Tyler Nilsson, whose previous movie The Peanut Butter Falcon I had loved.  Based on the true stories of the original Frikis of Cuba, the film featured incredible performances from newcomers Hector Medina and Eros de La Puente, along with Adria Arjona as Maria.  I came into the project relatively late by my usual standards, and at a time when I was coming off the back of a number of complicated orchestral scores.  Los Frikis came into my life at the perfect time, and allowed me to revert to being purely a musician, and huge swathes of the score were written by playing live along with the picture, responding to the mood and energy of the story as it developed.  Eventually I was joined by the brilliant drummer Freddy Sheed, who threw himself joyfully into my request to “play like you’ve never played the drums before”, and the two of us are the sole musicians on the score.  Engineer Guy Massey and his vast collection of guitar pedals and production tricks added a huge amount to what was one of the most enjoyable projects I have worked on.  The subject matter of the film, dealing with the Aids epidemic, meant that it struggled to find distribution initially, but it is now available on all of the major streaming platforms, and I would throughly recommend seeking it out.  A truly moving piece of cinema.