Kamasi Washington on scoring new Michelle Obama doc 'Becoming': 'I thought, 'If Michelle was going to write a song, what would it sound like?''
Washington was approached about writing the score by the film’s director, Nadia Hallgren. After watching a rough cut, Washington, who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, signed on. “I always thought Michelle Obama was an amazing person when I would watch her interviews,” he recalls, “but the chance to hear her talking about her way of thinking about life — and saying what’s important and not — was really cool, so I was definitely interested in doing it.
In the course of those few weeks, Washington conceived interludes that played off that sense of their taste, along with the moods of particular scenes. “Song for Frasier,” which accompanies reflections on Michelle Obama’s deceased father, is pensive and pretty. “Provocation,” heard in the segment ofthat addresses the often racist backlash to Barack’s election, is dark and brooding.
Washington never met Michelle or Barack Obama during the creation of the score , but he would receive notes passed down from the higher-ups. He says the couple loved “Becoming” “right out of the box,” although he would also hear feedback from them about “tone and color” in certain scenes, and adjust pieces accordingly. “There was a point where someone said, ‘There’s a note from Barack Obama,’ and it was, ‘OK, I guess I can’t argue back!’ ” Washington says, and laughs.
In the meantime, he’s watching all the movies in his collection, pondering a graphic novel, and reveling in plenty of live music — albeit on film. Going down the YouTube rabbit hole, he’s repeatedly watched a late-Seventies live show by funk icon
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