Captain America: Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, all the Kingsman films, Ron’s Gone Wrong — this is only a cursory glance over Henry Jackman’s brilliant career so far as a film composer. Headliner finds out how a choral childhood, followed by a love of the UK’s rave scene somehow lead to a chance meeting with Hans Zimmer and working with him at Remote Control Studios in California. Jackman opens up about working on Netflix blockbuster The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana De Armas, and why he decided to spend six months composing a 17-minute suite for the movie before he had officially been asked to start.
Born in the suburban London borough of Hillingdon, Jackman’s upbringing was about as classical as you could get musically — he learned choral singing at one of London’s great landmarks, St Paul’s Cathedral, had music lessons at Eton College, and eventually attended the University of Oxford. But despite all these opulent surroundings and learning from some of the most in-demand teachers in the world, Jackman felt a strong yearning for the contemporary.
“I did have a very strict classical upbringing,” he says. “I was in St Paul’s Cathedral singing Tallis and Palestrina. It was all very disciplined with very exacting choir masters.
"My music teachers might have considered this going off the rails, but I went in a completely different direction when a friend of mine showed up with a little eight-bit sampler. I just completely abandoned all classical education and spent all my time going to raves.
“I was listening to breakbeat and hardcore, going from endless studying and piano practice to non-stop Fabio & Grooverider, which led to a whole career in the record industry. But at no point was I really thinking about film music.”