Martin Hynes Talks M. Ward, The Origins Of She & Him And The Music of 'The Go-Getter'

In searching for the songs that would guide the “The Go-Getter,” director Martin Hynes‘ producer suggested going to check out a Bright Eyes show with special guests ( My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and producer Matt Mogis). Unbeknownst to Hynes, a singer songwriter named M. Ward was also at the beginning of the bill, but the indie-rock savvy filmmaker didn’t know his material at the time. When the Portland indie rocker hit the stage, Hynes was instantly floored with the singer’s timeless, achey indie-folk. That’s when the ‘eureaka!’ moment happened.

“Holy shit!,” Hynes said remembering his experience at the show and deciding on the spot that [Matt] Ward was the right man for the job “That’s the guy. That’s it. He’s perfect! I don’t know who that is, he’s not Bright Eyes, but he’s perfect.”

In the script Hynes had written, the main character Mercer (eventually played by “Thumbsucker” lead Lou Taylor Pucci) would come upon a band and whatever song they were playing would become the overture to the film – even though he didn’t know what band or song that would be at the time. “Their music would be the whole soundtrack to the film,” Hynes said explaining the concept. “It would sort of haunt him and follow him down the road and a subconscious reminder perhaps about being the kid who’s not in that band and a reminder of home.”

After the concert, Hynes bought up all the Ward music he could find and listened to it obsessively. He then sent an unsolicited script to the songwriter and hoped for the best. Unlike most Hollywood flakes, the folk-rocker read the script right away, and called immediately from SXSW of that year.

They met up in L.A. the next day for a Mexican brunch that turned into a three hour talking session about music and movies. Growing more and more excited about the common ground they shared, by the end of their discussion Ward was sold. “Great, well, count me in, man,” he said.

It was an ass-backwards process for the film, but it was something. “At this point we had no money and we had no actors [signed on], but we had Matt.”

“Vincent O’Brien” (from Ward’s Transfiguration of Vincent) soon became that overture to the film and it’s performed live off the top of the film. From there, Ward’s music world was Hynes’ sonic oyster. The singer told the director, ” ‘You can use anything, any song you want,’ ” he recalled. “So it was me in an editing room trying everything out.”

However, when Jena Malone’s character entered the frame and highjacked the film midway through, Hynes knew he needed a contrasting, harder sound for her story. Enter the Black Keys; two tracks from their 2005 album Rubber Factory, and the Replacements, “Color Me Impressed,” featured in a stylistic, drug-induced scene in Nevada. “I felt it was right to step away from Mercer’s sound – M. Ward – and [convey] that this movie has been overtaken by forces outside his control.”

During the editing process, Ward would stop by L.A. and see how things were going and during that process ended up tweaking his own songs as instrumental versions more suited to the film including a new version of “I’ll Be Yr Bird” and a Radiohead-inspired instrumental from Amnesiac’s “Hunting Bears” that acts as a loud and disjointed flare of guitars that play during a scene when Mercer wanders around a Mexican market in a daze.

The other major piece of new music Ward recorded for the film was Richard and Linda Thomspon cover of “When I Get To The Border” featured in the film’s end titles. Hynes thought it was right for the movie and suggested to Ward that since ‘Go-Getter’ co-star Zooey Deschanel had such a pretty voice, she could easily sing the female voice on the duet.The director invited the two over to dinner with his producer and they all sat around afterwards passing the guitar around, playing songs for one another and generally having a good time. “I had no idea they would hit it off the way they did,” Hynes said. “I remember Zooey turning to Matt and saying, ‘Hey, do you know the chords to [’50s classic] “Mr. Sandman’? And he did, of course M. Ward knew all the chords to ‘Mr. Sandman,’ duh,” he laughed recalling in near disbelief how close the duo’s taste seemed to be in almost-perfect synchronicity (the duo who went on to become known as She & Him, recorded a still unreleased version of “Mr. Sandman” during these sessions for the film; Nels Cline from Wilco came in to play guitar and the solo on “When I Get To the Border”).

But before She & Him had even met, when Hynes was first casting the film and met with Deschanel, Ward’s musical involvement gave her the piece of the puzzle she needed to understand the roadtrip story. “[I told her,] ‘M. Ward’s doing the music for this,’ and she said, “Oh! Wow, yeah, yeah, I really like his stuff,’ and you could see that in that moment, she really got the film all of a sudden,” Hynes remembered.

Another serendipitous musical moment of the film was the inclusion of potty mouthed novelty singer Corn Mo, who only became a part of the film at the insistence of the peculiar and persisting comedian Nick Offerman who personally flew the musician to L.A. for the film (Through his comical magnetism, Offerman charmed his way into three different roles in the film).

Despite a small budget, Hynes also was able to wrangle songs by Animal Collective and departed Portland indie icon Elliott Smith. “It’s an embarrassment of riches,” Hynes said of the music in the film. Smith’s “Coast To Coast” is featured in a driving montage on the open road from Oregon to Nevada and Hynes acquired the rights to the song by simply penning a heartfelt letter to Smith’s sister and mother – the main holders of his estate – and they made a great and generous deal with the film’s producers.

One dream sequence in the film acts as an outright homage to the dancing sequence in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Band of Outsiders,” but instead of trying to clear some expensive French pop song, the filmmaker enlisted the Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra All Stars to tweak Ward’s “One Life Away” into an old-timey instrumental you might hear on a ’50s European jukebox.

As for a soundtrack disc? Merge records was supposed to be releasing one and even a tracklist emerged early last year, but so far it’s unknown if the disc will be released in conjunction with the pictures or not (Merge’s site acknowledges the film, but there’s no news of a disc). Update: Merge records says they were never planning on releasing a ‘Go-Getter’ soundtrack which makes this Pitchfork story from April 2007 seem pretty odd or just plain incorrect, but someone gave them that info). We’ve basically been told there’s not going to be a soundtrack disc, but see the original tracklist and make one yourself with mp3s and whatnot. It ain’t hard to do.

“The Go-Getter” film comes out in limited release on June 6. We unveiled trailer for “The Go-Getter” just a few days ago. Up next for Hynes is the film, “4 AM Automatic” which is partly inspired by a Black Keys song.

All the Music Featured In “The Go-Getter”
Banshee Beat – Animal Collective
Vincent O’Brien (Live) – M. Ward and Band
Vincent O’Brien – M. Ward
Fuel For Fire – M. Ward
Look Me Over – M. Ward
Coast To Coast – Elliott Smith
10 A.M. Automatic – The Black Keys
Keep Me – The Black Keys
Color Me Impressed – The Replacements
Voices Of Spring – J. Strauss
Carolina – M. Ward
Golden Graham – Chop Sakis
I’ll Be Yr Bird (score version) – M Ward
One Life Away – Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra All Stars (written by M. Ward)
Sweethearts On Parade Carmen Lombardo and Charles Newman
Shoot To Kill – Chop Sakis
Sweethearts On Parade – M. Ward
Face Of Jesus – Weary Boys
Carolina(score version) – M. Ward
End Of Amnesia – M. Ward
Angel – Corn Mo
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God – Corn Mo and Lou Taylor Pucci (written by Martin Luther)
I’ll Be Yr Bird – M. Ward
Outta My Head – M. Ward
Not A Gang – M. Ward
Untitled (score piece – M. Ward
Que Viva La Vida – Belle Perez
When I Get To The Border – M. Ward & Zoey Deschanel