The Music Behind "Storytelling"

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."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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