Orchestrating the Musical World in The Ballad of Wallis Island

In James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island—co-written by Tom Basden and Tim Key—Charles (Key), an oddball lottery winner with a singular passion for the alt-folk duo, McGwyer Mortimer, tries to get the band back together by inviting Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) to play a concert on the remote island on which he lives. Charles’ invitation, unfortunately, never explains to the musical pair—who were once romantically involved—that the other one will be coming, nor that it's a concert for one. As the former lovers and bandmates remember their past while rehearsing their old songs, they try to find some harmony with the discordant parts of their present lives. IndieWire writes, “The result is a cozy crowd pleaser with real heart and some lovely songs, and one that doesn’t trade honesty for predictable beats.”

Composer and musician Adem Ilhan joined the production to score the film and produce the songs that Basden wrote for the fictional band. For Ilhan, the project was a labor of love, partially because, in addition to being a composer, he is a singer-songwriter who released several acclaimed albums in the early 2000s.

We spoke with Ilhan about how he brought his personal experience to fill this movie with music.

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How did you get involved in working on the film?

I've done a few things for the production company, Baby Cow, and they thought this one could do with my touch and gave me a call. I was particularly qualified for this story as well. It’s about an alt-folk guy from the noughties who goes to this island. Well, I was a noughties folk dude. I put out acoustic, alt-folk records during that time with Domino Records.

When you saw the first cut, what did you perceive as the creative challenge in scoring the film?

I felt that I had two jobs with this film. The first was to give a sense of place to the island sonically, something that the cinematography does really well visually. We wanted to musically give it a sense of character because the island is so beautiful. The other thing I needed to do was to encourage a feeling of warmth. The writing's really funny, but I needed to make the story heartfelt and touching musically. The score had to evoke a tone of reflectiveness to give emotional depth to the story.

The film includes many songs that Tom Basden wrote for the fictional band McGwyer Mortimer. How does the score support those songs as well as distinguish itself from them?

I was brought on board with a couple of hats. The first was to be the composer and score the film. And then secondly, I was responsible for producing the film’s songs. I had control over the whole of the music, apart from actually writing the songs. We started with a basic concept. You have these beautiful songs, and you have these lovely arrangements with all these instruments. The instrumentation on the albums was all the stuff that I was using on the score. And the score had all the stuff that's used intrinsically on the album, minus, of course, voice and guitar.

In producing the albums that we hear when they play a McGwyer Mortimer record in the film, did you map out in your head the band’s evolution?

Yes, but I drew on my own experiences for a lot of that. It was a little bit disturbing how close the music was to my history. For example, the violin player I hired to play on McGwyer's album was someone I used in the early 2000s for my records. When we did the recording, she said, “This sounds a lot like what we made back in 2005.” We incorporated some of the DIY, lo-fi recording processes that were everywhere back then. I remember in the early 2000s, people were recording music in their bedrooms and front rooms. There was a punk-like attitude to that new folk scene which McGwyer was part of. For the music, I even went back and dug out some of my old recording equipment, recreating the feel of what it was like making albums back then. We had all these creaky old wooden instruments that I used back in the day when I was putting records out.

Did you create particular themes for the movie?

There’s a sense of uncertainty throughout the film that I tried to suggest. I don't think it's a big theme. When they come together and everything's a little bit wonky, the music has a slightly out-of-tune sound. It's very simple music, but nothing quite sits right. Then, towards the end of the movie, I allow for more resolution and a little bit more emotive heart-tugging. It’s not something the audience will register consciously, but subconsciously, it comes through

Was there any particular instrumentation you wanted to use?

I wanted to use sounds that people would recognize and not be shocked by, but to introduce the sounds in unusual ways. We were hitting strings with pencils and detuning stuff. We used a backpacker guitar, which sounds a bit like a banjo acoustic guitar—but I used an ebow on it, which vibrates the strings electronically. You get these haunting, long notes from that. I brought in a double bass and an acoustic-y Appalachian dulcimer to produce those twangy tones that feel like rich, human, emotive sounds. But for the dulcimer, rather than being strummed, we twanged it.

What do you want people to take away from the film?

I want people to come away from the theater feeling. If they are feeling something, then I've done my job.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.