As director Todd Solondz was writing the script for his new movie Storytelling, he picked Belle and Sebastian to settle the score. "The Scooby character has this dreamy, wistful quality Belle and Sebastian seem to complement," says Solondz, who also wrote and directed Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness. "A friend of mine gave me a CD of theirs a few years ago, and it stuck in my head. At some point in the writing of this movie I thought they might be good people to approach if they were interested, and happily they were. They came over and wrote the music."

The film just hit theaters, but the soundtrack will not be released until April 23rd. It features music from not only Belle and Sebastian, but former Shudder to Think guitarist Nathan Larson and his wife, former Cardigans singer Nina Persson.

"With Belle and Sebastian, I said I wanted something for the closing credits that connects with the title, and they wrote a song 'Storytelling,' Solondz says. "And then I needed something [for the scene] with Scooby driving to New York. And I wanted these segues -- like TV sitcom segues -- and they were happy to oblige."

The film and the music are divided into two segments, with Belle and Sebastian handling the "Nonfiction" segment, and Larson and Persson doing a song for the "Fiction" part.

Solondz gave Larson plenty of latitude in writing the track "Fiction." "He wasn't too specific, but in essence he was looking for something that a) didn't suck, and b) reflected the mood of the film," Larson says. "Otherwise, I was more or less left to my own devices." Persson describes her contribution to the track as, "Me going, 'La-di-da.'"

"I hope I met his criteria," Larson continues. "Since the music is in the movie, I guess I did."

COLIN DEVENISH
(January 29, 2002)