Junkie XL Talks Music Of Deadpool, Mad Max, & Batman V. Superman

Tom Holkenborg, a.k.a. Junkie XL, is keeping himself very busy by making amazing musical scores [...]

Holkenborg Movies

Tom Holkenborg, a.k.a. Junkie XL, is keeping himself very busy by making amazing musical scores for some pretty great films.

Last year, Holkenborg's Mad Max: Fury Road score escalated an intense Wasteland to true terror and found also spot on my personal gym playlist through Apple Music. Now, the artist has two movies in line you may have heard of: Deadpool and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

While Holkenborg is collaborating with the legendary Hans Zimmer for Dawn of Justice, he went solo for Tim Miller's Deadpool. With such a unique character comes a very unique score.

ComicBook.com had the chance to talk with Holkenborg about his work on Deadpool, Batman v. Superman, and Mad Max. Check it out below!

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CB: This is a big year for you coming up. You're coming off of a big year last year, man. I'm excited for you. You must be pretty excited with Deadpool coming up.

TH: It's been a crazy year. I don't know what to say. We've got a crazy year coming up.

When you're making this music for these movies, do you learn to speak director, or do the directors learn to speak music?

It's a little bit of both, but primarily the first option. When I first started in this business, I had know idea what I was getting myself into. The director would tell me this whole story, what he wanted. I just said, "Tell me. What's the speed of the music? What key do you want the music in?" Obviously, they don't know an answer to that. I've learned over the last 15 years to really work with the language that the director is using. You also work with directors that are really interested in music vocabulary. Some of them are actually talented musicians themselves. That sometimes makes it even more interesting.

What's the different approach when you're doing something like Mad Max as opposed to Deadpool or Batman vs. Superman, everything else you've done? What kind of different approaches do you take on the different type of movie?

First of all, every movie's different, right? All the characters are different. It's hard to come up with something else that is freshly itself. I mean, Deadpool is like a completely different animal than any of the superhero movies that I have worked on or were involved with. It's such a party character. He's so arrogant. He's so quacked up in a way. It's such a thing on its own. I know that it has roots in the Marvel universe. Still, if you see the film it's completely on its own.

Of all your work, do you have a favorite child so far?

Well, Mad Max is very special. Let's put it that way. It's also the relationship that I developed with George. The fact that it took two years to finish. It was a very unique project. I'm proud of that score probably for a while.

When you're diving into Deadpool, did you go back and read comics? Did you know who the character was? Did you do research or did you just wait until you saw a cut of the movie and got with Tim Miller and went from there?

Yeah, that's pretty much what it was. The danger is that if you work on the character that has been portrayed in a movie before. You go see those older movies. It's the same with Mad Max. I remembered, obviously, the first Mad Max movies, but I didn't go see them. Because I knew that I needed to come up with new approach for this Mad Max. If you watch the first three, it might limit your imagination when you should be doing. Sometimes that's the same with comic book characters too. Now, the funny part is that a comic book is a comic book, and the movie is the movie. It was fine to dip into the Deadpool comics instead because it wasn't the movie. It all started really to become more technical and more realistic when I sat down with the director and Ryan Reynolds and actually watched the first copy of the film.

Now looking ahead with Batman vs. Superman, obviously Superman has one of the most iconic theme songs in cinematic history. What types of steps do you take when you're approaching Batman and Superman as characters? Because obviously they're both going to have very different theme music behind them as well in this upcoming movie.

The thing is, on one hand, I can't say too much about Batman, Superman now because we're going to do a separate press tour, Hans [Zimmer] and I together. But let me tell you this, these superheroes are way bigger than all of us together. This is a history that goes back to the Greek mythology, if you will, with half-gods. People over thousands of years have always been fascinated by stories of people that were half-gods. Stories about people with incredible powers, inhuman powers. Even the bible is full of them.

This is something that will always be around. The fascination will always be there. Now let's go back to Superman or Batman, Superman. Keeping that in the back of your head, it makes little or no sense to examine what somebody else had done over the last ten or twenty years. Because in fifty years from now, when we're all dead, somebody else is going to take a stab at Batman vs. Superman. Do you know what I mean?

You don't want that person to say, "Oh, let's look back and see what Hans Zimmer and Tom did there in 2016." It's like, no. He's going to do his own thing that he feels fits the time or fits at the movie. That's exactly what Hans and I did. We made the movie our own. We observed it. We came up with the best possible solution for that movie in combination with the wonderful Zack Snyder. It's really what that is.Does that make sense, what I'm saying?

That makes a lot of sense.

Especially to demonstrate that even more, look not only at the amount of artists that have echoed Superman over the years. Like different types of drawings and the different style of comic books. Frank Miller entering the game giving it a whole different dimension. You also see that in the drawing of the superhero characters.

Do you prefer to collaborate like you are with Hans Zimmer on Batman vs. Superman? Or do you prefer to make it your own like you have in the past?

That totally depends on what the situation is. The great thing with Hans is that there not only friends but also admirers of each others' work. For me, Hans is like a living legend. To work with him and learn from him. We became really, really good friends over the years. It's just great to work with a friend on something.

Have you watched Deadpool all the way through?

Many times.

Do you just love it?

Yes. It's a fantastic movie. But if you work on a movie you always have to count. Do you watch it constantly to make sure the music makes sense with the storytelling musically. IF it is right. By the time you get up to the finish line, I cannot objectively tell you any more if this movie is good, bad or if it's long or short. You've seen it so so many times. Being a film composer is one of the most critical professions there potentially is. I mean I'm so happy with this profession. But the only thing that I will miss out on, is when you go to a theater you're going to experience that movie for the very first time. You don't have that any more when you watch your own movies. You're always like, "Oh, damn it! Why didn't we do this?" or "Shit! I forgot to do that! Why didn't I think of this?"

Sure.

Everybody that works on the film had that. You're a freelance journalist, right?

That's right.

Yeah, so I'm sure when you write a very big piece on a certain subject and then publish it, you're like, "Goddamn it! How is it possible I forgot that?" It always happens. That's also how you learn.

Yeah. We're always going to be our own biggest critics.

Yeah.

Do you have any plans to stay aboard if a Deadpool sequel comes out or going forward, the DC movies and the Mad Max movies? Do you plan on staying involved with any of those just yet?

Well, no. I don't even know if there's any sequel plans whatsoever. The same goes for Mad Max. I had dinner with George Miller last night. We talked the whole night about all kinds of different subjects. But the only subject we didn't touch on was, is there going to be a next Mad Max? The director decides first is there going to be a sequel. Yeah, I just don't know.

Before I let you go, I just have to ask. Because you've had to have seen Batman vs. Superman by now. Is it just an epic awesome movie in your opinion?

It's fantastic.

Deadpool is now playing in theaters.

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