Having just scaled his personal ‘Mount Everest’ with a four-and-a-half-hour score for Justice League: The Snyder Cut, Tom Holkenborg reflects on isolation working methods, casting out his old kit and his enduring passion for boutique Eurorack synths

Photo: dirk kikstra

>“This is definitely up there with some of the longest scores in history, it’s been intense,” explains an excited Tom Holkenborg (widely known as Junkie XL). Tom is delighted that the long-anticipated Justice League: The Snyder Cut is finally seeing the light of day. This substantial re-edit of 2017’s superhero extravaganza Justice League is a labour of love that culminates a relationship Tom has had with director Zach Snyder since 2013’s 300: Rise of an Empire. “Zach and I have been talking about bringing this out for years,” the Dutch polymath tells us. “It’s really thanks to the power of the fans that this happened. They have not only been harassing Warner Brothers for the movie, but also to release the score. So, we really owe it to them and their tenacity that this finally got made. We felt it coming.”

One of Hollywood’s most in-demand composers, Tom’s acclaimed soundtracks have fused electronic music with classical approaches, cacophonous, relentless percussion and visceral rock elements. An ongoing love of modular synthesis permeates nearly all of his diverse projects, using the potential of a breathtaking modular ‘wall’. With this four-and-a-half-hour new score, Tom was given free rein to pull all the threads together. “This is movie number six that Zach and I have collaborated on. I decided to do this new score from the ground up. I listened back to what I had originally planned for it (before Tom and Zach left the project in 2017, replaced by Danny Elfman and Joss Whedon respectively) and felt that I could do way better. I’ve learned a lot from all the great directors I’ve worked with: Robert Rodriguez, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Miller; I learned so much from all these people. What I had originally planned wasn’t up to scratch. I called Zach late April last year and said, ‘Would you mind if I start over?’, and then he said ‘By all means!’. Zach said: ‘keep in mind, that the shackles are off’. That’s where the project began.”

“I explored some odd ways of thinking about sonics – like what would happen if I put a guitar on fire”

Tom has still not seen any of his friends or family over the last 12 months: “I’ve been pretty careful. Making this score has been like climbing Mount Everest – it was a solo affair. It’s something you have to do on your own and no-one will carry you on your back. I finally reached the top of the mountain in the first week of January.”

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Justice Is Grey

Photo: dirk kikstra

A deep dive

Working in isolation, and without any studio or creative interference, Tom’s creative process was free and unfettered: “I could really explore everything that I have in me as a composer. So starting with the most conventional side, this was my moment to dive deep into my admiration for classic Hollywood movies from the 1930s to the 1960s, and at the same time my love of classical music between 1880 and 1925. On the more unconventional side, I decided to bring in some noises made using my modular wall and also explored some odd ways of thinking about sonics – like what would happen if I put a guitar on fire, for example.” Tom laughs, “So what you find in the score is a combination of modern sound design pieces that are really on the cutting edge of what you can do with sound design at this point. On the other hand, there’s an Adagio for one of the characters that is almost 12 minutes long. That piece is almost exclusively orchestral. Then there are sections that have stoner rock guitar sounds and other sounds that have a hip-hop approach. Other sections are a blend between all kinds of different styles. There’s a choir from hell in there that gradually detunes and gets more and more evil as it goes on,” adds Holkenborg, tantalisingly. Of course there is!