In The Lapland Of Luxury

Most entertainment fans will be familiar with Lance Hogan, a member of Kíla for over 15 years. He has also worked as performer, composer and producer with a trail of artists, including Dead Can Dance, U2, Sinéad O’Connor, Republic of Loose, Baaba Maal, Horslips, Zakir Hussain and Liam O’Maonlai. However, he enjoys a parallel life in film. Apart from his soundtrack work on Lapland Odyssey, he scored the soundtrack for the animated short The Snowman (by Jimmy Murakami) and The Sandpiper, and worked as music producer with film director Neil Jordan on Ondine.

A nomination for an IFTA award for best original soundtrack for Lapland Odyssey has catapulted Hogan into the spotlight as never before.
“Getting nominated for such prestigious awards is not only gratifying in that it confirms that you’ve done good work,” he says. “It also helps to spread your name to people around a very competitive industry. That can lead to more work. I love films and I love working on films. A nomination like this is terrific. To win would be even better!”
Hogan, son of late folk singer Larry Hogan, grew up in a highly creative family environment. He later studied film in Dun Laoghaire College of Art.
“I was born and bred watching classic movies. Both my parents were animators. My mum ran an art college, so I grew up in the middle of all that. With my dad a musician I spent a lot of time as a kid going into studios. I think it was the music bug that bit me first. I wanted to be a drummer from the age of eight and pursued that all through school. In terms of making a living out of music, I started doing engineering and got a job as a tape-op and loved it.”
From that, Hogan picked up work on a number of commercials. A few years ago he and his Kíla bandmates collaborated with composer Bruno Coulais on the Academy Award-nominated animation feature The Secret Of Kells. What kind of brief does Hogan get in order to start work on a music soundtrack?
“It can function in many different ways,” he explains. “It invariably starts with a conversation with the director to clarify what he or she is trying to achieve with a particular piece of work, what mood or effect they want to create with the music. You read through the script and that prompts your own thoughts as to what might work. Sometimes a director will involve you very early on – so that you’re an important part of the project as it progresses. The director and the composer feed off each other.”
But is it always like that?
“No. It varies from film to film. Sometimes directors know exactly what music they want. You might get sent sections of films that have other pieces of music to give you a sample of what the director has in mind. There are times when you have a lot of artistic freedom. Equally, you can be working to a very tight brief with a director wanting ‘x’ number of seconds of loud, heavy music to go with a storm scene or two minutes of balmy music to match up with shots of passing clouds. Sometimes you can end up experimenting. The process can work in so many different ways and that’s what makes it so challenging, to have to adapt, not only with the music requirements of different directors but also with their individual methods. Different composers have their preferred way of working. I personally find it very helpful to be given as clear a guideline as possible as to the director’s needs. That can speed up the process instead of using up time going down lots of different avenues before finding the right one.”
Lapland Odyssey is a comedy adventure set in Lapland. It was developed as a co-production between Ireland, Finland and Sweden. It was the most watched film in Finland in 2010 and has received six Finnish award nominations. How did Hogan’s involvement come about?
“It’s really a Finnish film. Sweden provided funding and handled all the interior set-ups and provided a couple of actors. The Irish producers provided the computer-generated imagery shots. The post-production sounds, the sound effects, and the music had to be from an Irish composer as part of the deal. I was delighted to be selected.”
I ask Hogan what makes him say “yes” to a proposal such as this. After some chin-stroking he says: “That’s actually a hard question. I say yes to a lot of things. It’d probably be easier to ask me what would make me say no.” So I ask him. “I’d say no if I thought the story was a load of crap. Unless I was seriously broke” (laughs).
Can there not be a good soundtrack to a bad film?
“There can be,” he avers, “but working on the soundtrack for a film can take up to three months of solid work. You don’t really want to be working on crap for three months. That can be very disheartening. It’s like polishing a turd. Not a nice job! It’s so much more rewarding working on great material like Lapland Odyssey.”

The 8th Irish Film and Television Awards take place on February 12 at Dublin’s Convention Centre and will air live on RTÉ One from 9.30pm.