In the Soup
A film by Alexandre Rockwell, winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance in 1992, starring Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Stanley Tucci, and Sam Rockwell. Original soundtrack by Mader, available for the first time after Film Negative Restoration! !
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"I am happy to see this score released finally, 25 years later," says Mader. "SONY France was going to release it at the time, but it never materialized. It’s great news for the fans of In the Soup out there who never got a chance to hear the soundtrack by itself — the music rounded up the characters and story beautifully, especially with Phil Parmet’s opulent black & white cinematography!"
A Q & A with Mader about his work on In the Soup
How did you and Alex Rockwell begin collaborating?
“Alex and I met in NYC around 1982. We were next door neighbors, he an aspiring film director, and I a struggling musician. I handed him some tapes he could cut into his early feature Hero, and then he asked me to score his next one, Sons, which was the one preceding In the Soup. Aside from these, I worked on a couple others of his later, Somebody to Love, and in 2010 Pete Smalls is Dead (starring Peter Dinklage).”
What was your creative process for composing music for In the Soup?
“As often with Alex, at least for the films I’ve scored, the themes were character driven. Alex handed me a few jazz tunes he liked from the 40’s and 50’s as reference. Joe’s exuberance (Seymour Cassel) needed something upbeat and fun, as opposed to Aldolpho’s (Steve Buscemi), which needed a deep melancholic tone, due to the character’s desperation. For this one, Alex played me a jazz rendition of Ravel’s “Pavane;” beautiful, and haunting; I thought to myself: How can I ever top that…? I wrote “Spleen,” which astounded Alex. I’m still very proud of that one. Peter Gordon, was brought in by Alex to help produce the score. Peter secured a great cast of New York musicians and a nice offbeat recording studio on the top floor of a building in the stock market district. We had a lot of laughs… fun!”
What's your favorite In the Soup scene?
“I’ve always loved that opening scene, as well as Stanley Tucci’s scene… hilarious!”
What are you working on now?
“Right now, I just finished revisiting and recorded a solo album of songs which had been waiting on the shelf for… 25+ years (!), due to my career as a film composer taking off at the time. I’m hoping to mix it by the end of the year to release it in the spring of 2018.”