Original subtitles

We'd never really worked on any movie before To Live and Die in L .A. I think

were both keen to get into that world, but we'd never done a movie score

We'd recorded an album called Points on the Curve.

That contained our first big international hit, Dance All Days.

And one of the tracks was a track called Wait, which Freekin had heard.

was using as a temp track in the movie.

And I think he wanted something along those lines with that kind of intensity,

that rhythmic kind of information and sort of linear kind of drive.

So that's when he approached us.

The first that we heard from Friedkin was just a phone call.

He called me. I was actually...

friend's house um like him i hadn't seen this guy for years and i was just at

his house and the phone rang in his flat obviously days before mobiles and all

of that stuff you know and um he picked up the phone and an american voice said

can i speak to jack hughes you know and it was like Yeah.

And so I had this conversation with Freekin at this friend of mine's house,

it was quite bizarre, really, because we hadn't met him before.

But that initial conversation was just him talking about Wait, the track Nick

mentioned, and how he was into that, and that he wanted us to write more music

like that, and could we go into the studio and just, you know, just kind of

improvise the soundtrack.

And at that stage, you know, he had...

We hadn't seen the film or hadn't seen the script even, but through talking to

him, I got a really strong sense of what he wanted, and I chatted with Nick

about it.

We thought, let's just rent a studio and rent some gear and just do it. So we

went ahead with just a sort of intuitive sense of what we were supposed to be

doing. I remember Jack ringing me up saying, I was like, what?

What did he say? What did he say?

This big Hollywood director who directed these movies we thought were so great.

And basically, I think Jack said to me, he just said, go into the studio and be

brilliant.

So we sort of did our best.

It was great for us, actually, because we had got slightly bogged down in the

follow -up album to the Points on the Curve album that I mentioned before, the

one that had our first hits on.

So we were in the studio.

doing that trying to write the next big hit and having the usual record company

kind of We don't hear a single kind of thing, you know and and then this thing

came up this wonderful project came up sort of side winded out of nowhere and

was the most you know fantastic thing for us to get involved in and really

inspired us to move into the next part of our Pop career, I suppose

I remember being at the sound stage when we first saw the first rough cut of the

music with the movie, you know, and Billy had flown us over to see it, you

and I was completely blown away by that. I think we both were, you know.

But I remember there were a couple of sound guys at that place, you know, and

Billy went off to answer a call or something. One of them said to me,

piece will work, right?

And I said...

He seems really nice. He's really nice to us. And he just looked at me like...

He was incredibly nice to us. He's always been a real gentleman.

So he's a great person to work for. And in terms of... I mean, I haven't done

much movie stuff subsequent to that, but...

The stuff that I have done is very different, working with a sort of

director, producer, movie studio structure.

With Friedkin, you work with him, direct.

He says yes or no to what you present to him, and it's very simple. He's very

clear about what he wants, and if he's getting it, he's happy.

I think it's worth mentioning that he directed our sort of promo to Live and

in L .A. as well.

So he directed the video that was for MTV and everything, which was, again, a

bit of a vibe for us.

Actually being literally directed by him, that was a great privilege for us.

the initial phone call that I had with him, he gave me a... a clear sense of

what he wanted in that he was talking about weight this track and about how he

was using that in the movie and how kind of that was the vibe that he wanted and

nick and i were working on a track that was a similar kind of thing you know i

guess when you listen to weight these days it sounds like a fairly fast But in

those days, it was deliberately faster than a real drummer could play. It was

the early days of drum machines and computers and stuff. So it felt like we

sort of pushing the envelope a bit. And with the soundtrack for Billy, I knew

that that's what he wanted, that real high -energy thing.

So it was kind of like working in that realm, but rather than condensing this

tune that we were working on, which became City of the Angels, rather than

trying to turn it into our next pop hit.

we were able to expand it into this much bigger piece.

So in a sense, it was a... I think, freaking differently contacted the right

people, given that what he wanted was weight, and we were kind of like almost

% into this track anyway.

I think that's sort of why it worked, really. It was just like us coming

together. We were already in that direction, so it just sort of worked out

So he was very clear about what he wanted.

and it was very sort of for us to be in the studio breaking out of this you know

write a pop song format he didn't want any songs at all so we could work long

form and do something without all those commercial record company pressures and

it was i think that was just inspiring just on its own you know and uh yeah

exactly it's so great so to go into a studio be spontaneous it's up to a point

and to really explore areas that we maybe hadn't been allowed to explore

and to actually be encouraged to do that, I think was really exciting.

In that initial phone conversation with Bill, one of the things he said to

clarify what he wanted was, what I don't want is a song called To Live and Die

in LA.

So we obeyed that instruction to begin with. But when we saw the movie, and we

went to LA to see the movie, because in those days there was no internet to kind

of just ping things around. So we benefited from that. So we saw the movie

the soundstage at Todd AO.

And we were both blown away by it, I think.

For me, it was one of the high points of my career, if that's what you call it.

And when we got back to the UK, this song

just kind of came out.

I just couldn't help it, really. I played it to Nick, and he was like,

this is really good. And we just did a little demo of it, didn't we, together

your house.

And I sent it to Billy, expecting him to be like...

It was great, but not what I want. And he was like, this is amazing. I'm going

to refute the whole opening of the movie.

So he more than went out of his way to accommodate what we were doing, which

amazing. In a way, the dam broke a little bit because then we wrote some

tunes for the movie.

Tracks like Wake Up, Stop Dreaming and Lullaby.

And he co -opted those into the film.

And then we were able to turn our...

what was, you know, it became our next sort of mainstream album as well. The To

Live and Die in L .A.

original soundtrack was sort of Wang Chung's proper next album.

So we sort of, it really sorted all sorts of things out for us as well as

Freekin, you know what I mean? So, like, on the album, half, the second half of

the album is songs, first half is all instrumental stuff.

So, yeah.

Morning. Go.

You

got

balls coming here.

How you making it?

Like every other swinging dick in this place makes it.

Day by motherfucking day.

I want to know when you're going to get me out.

I want you to be patient a little longer, Carl.

I think seeing it at the screening was one of the most amazing points

in our career, on our curve.

It was really impressive.

And I think hearing the sound and the visuals in really... pristine quality as

well straight off of the whatever it is that you're watching doing it was

impressive but I did go and see it in the cinema as well and it was again it's

really powerful film I think and it has unexpected things in it you know and

it's uncompromising and it's you know an impressive movie and I remember being

in New York actually the day that it that it came out and it was yeah it felt

like a yeah like I'd We'd done something important, you know.

I remember we were all sitting in one of the editing rooms at Todd AO, I think

it was, and Friedkin was there, and he was giving one of his anecdotes. He's a

great raconteur and storyteller. It was this long anecdote about something.

William Defoe, I think, had visited him. He was there too.

and anyway he's telling us this great story about i forget what it was now and

then about halfway through it he got this call from someone very important

clearly i think it was the head of technicolor or someone like that and

had this huge argument with him about something he was clearly he's really

bawling him out and we were like oh my god you're sitting there slightly

frightened about the whole thing and then he sort of put the phone down And

turned back to us, his whole mood instantly changed right back to how it

been before and carried on with his anecdote in exactly the spot that the

call had interrupted and just carried on seamlessly and finished it. And it was

like, wow, how does he do that? That's pretty impressive.