Sudden Light: an interview with film composer Alex Heffes
When Alex Heffes, a Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated composer known for his scores to over 60 movies and TV series including The Last King of Scotland, Mandela Long Walk to Freedom, State of Play, Black Mirror, Roots (and many others), sustained a grave injury to his hand, he feared that he’d never be able to play the piano again. Before his accident, this highly-trained classical and jazz pianist always recorded the piano parts for his film soundtracks, but when surgery and rehabilitation left him unable to play for quite a while, he feared he’d need to abandon the instrument.
Sudden Light, which features music Heffes originally composed for film, is a beautiful tribute to triumph over adversity. This triumph doesn’t appear in bold, bombastic tones, however. It is a quiet, intimate, and deeply personal journey shared by Heffes through his own performances. In his hands, pieces that underscored many different film scenes, find new life and meaning as lyrical and contemplative piano solos. These aren’t simple transcriptions—they’re completely reimagined solos that evoke the stories that birthed them while embracing the expressive gifts of the piano.
For all his successes and awards, Heffes’ down-to-earth humility, combined with his passion for communicating through music, shines through his notes and words. He reminds us that sometimes—even when things look hopeless—life offers light and hope. I’m honored to feature him on No Dead Guys.
What (or who) inspired you to become a composer, and at what age did you decide this would be your career?
I remember seeing Star Wars in the cinema when I was 7 or 8 and came running home (which was at the end of the street from the cinema!) and started trying to pick out the music on the piano. It really was like a bolt of lightening and it’s remained ever since. Of course, along the way life happens. I remember being told when I was in my teens that there was no such job as being a composer, let alone a film composer so I should look for something else. In those days there were no courses or any clear path towards composing. Very different to now! Although I count that as a bonus in my case. After my studies (which were honestly very traditional) I came back to the idea of wanting to be a composer which I’d shelved for a few years and really didn’t really give any thought to what anyone else thought about it. I just set about meeting people and trying to find any opportunity I could.
As a trained classical and jazz pianist, you not only record the keyboard tracks for your film scores, you play your own music on this album. What unique vision of the music do you think a composer offers when playing his own work?
I originally thought of having a concert pianist play this album. But so many people told me I should play it myself that I finally took notice. And I’m glad. It gives me the chance to be really free with the music, to play it as I feel it rather than fitting it to picture or to some other external need. I’ve always had a very particular way of playing the piano. I like very lyrical music and I like finding the colours that each different piano has. I would probably play it quite differently on a different instrument in a different location. But it so happens for this album we had pretty much the best Steinway model D on the West cost in one of the best studios with one of the best engineers. So it was a nice opportunity to explore what all that gives you in terms of colour palette.
As a composer known for his “unique ability to collaborate with artists from different countries and cultures,” how challenging was it for you to reimagine your film scores as solo piano pieces?
Actually, it definitely played a part of choosing which tracks to adapt for Sudden Light. I’ve done a lot of movies set in Africa, Last King Of Scotland for example, which use a lot of vocals and percussion. So I didn’t think those would necessarily be a helpful starting point for a piano album. That said, I did use the theme from Mandela as it worked really nicely stripped back to basics. I also chose a theme from Queen Of Katwe which is a Disney film a did a little while back also set in Africa. I chose to use a section that was definitely more orchestral than African or the record. Many of the piano tracks were adapted from quite orchestral scores, so it was a fun challenge to reduce down the music to work for solo piano. Not just as a piano reduction, but to think about how it could be re-written and work as a stand alone piano piece in it’s own right.
You are a gifted orchestral composer who blends classical western traditions with instruments and performers from all over the world. Why did you feel the spare nature of the piano was the best choice for Sudden Light?
I had an accident a few years ago which left one of my hands pretty badly damaged. I really thought for a while I wouldn’t be able to play the piano properly ever again. This project almost started by accident as I was just experimenting with what I could achieve on the piano with one bad hand. So a lot of the music was intentionally quite sparse for that reason. It also led to me enjoying that simplicity as a sound.
Given that your film music career spans so many different genres (fantasy, horror drama, action, and documentaries), how did you choose the pieces included in this recording?
I really wanted to choose pieces that meant something to me personally. So some of them are from more well known films than others. Mandela was an important film for me as it was an incredible experience working in South Africa on the film, plus getting a Golden Globe nomination for the score. Other smaller films like Hope Gap were important to me as so many people had written to me saying how much they loved the piano music and how much they wanted to play it themselves.
Film music is story-driven. When you started thinking of these pieces as solo works, did you hear them as an extension of the characters and plots for which they were first composed, or did you find they took on new meaning?
Yes, for sure in some cases. In the 2 ragtime pieces from Kevin Wilmott’s film The 24th I definitely imagined the scenes playing out way beyond what was in the actual film. That was a fun thought experiment.
Tell me about the album title, Sudden Light. As it isn’t the name of any of the tracks, what is the significance (if any) of this title?
Actually, it came about as a bit of a surprise to me. I asked Annette Bening to come down to my studio to re-record her speaking the poem by Rosetti that inspired “I Have Been here Before” from Hope Gap. When I looked up the poem again just before Annette came I was very surprised to find it’s actually called “Sudden Light.” I had no idea up to that point. It really was a light bulb moment. I thought – that’s totally what this record is about and what it should be called – seeing or hearing something suddenly anew.
You once stated in an interview, “my remit as a composer is to bring drama, characterization and emotion to the listener.” How do you feel you do this through this album?
Did I? I’ll have to justify myself then! I do think music brings all those and more to a film. But, in a bigger picture way, I suppose one thing I’ve always truly admired in the greatest film composers (we all know who they are!) is the gift of melody. That’s what an audience will come away from a film remembering when all the wonderful orchestration, performance and everything has passed. So this record is a homage to theme really.
Will there be sheet music available for Sudden Light? If so, where may we purchase it?
Yes, there is. Hal Leonard has made a selection of tracks available from Sheet Music Direct.
What advice can you offer to composers who wish to write for film?
Certainly don’t follow the advice I was given to find another career! Find your own path, whether that’s going to school for it, or some other way. All composers find their own unique trajectory. Yours will come from your own life experience.
Alex Heffes is a Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated composer known for his scores to over 60 movies and TV series including The Last King of Scotland, Mandela Long Walk to Freedom, State of Play, Black Mirror, Roots and many others. Originally rising to critical acclaim with his scores to Kevin Macdonald’s Academy Award-winning One Day In September, BAFTA winning Touching The Void and others, he has collaborated with many of cinema’s top filmmakers such as Stephen Frears (The Program), Mira Nair (Queen of Katwe, A Suitable Boy), Catherine Hardwicke (Miss Bala) and JJ Abrams (11.22.63).
Born in the UK, Alex’s life-long passion for playing the piano started at an early age and has been a constant throughout his career as a composer. He performed piano and keyboards on his album Face To Face which was created entirely by improvisation with an eclectic mix of artists including cellist Matthew Barley (recorded in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall), composer and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and singer songwriter Regina Spektor.
In 2018 his piano playing came to an abrupt halt following an accident that left one hand severely broken. Surgery and rehabilitation left him unable to fully play for an extended period of time and gradually lead to his almost abandoning the instrument. His latest album, Sudden Light is a musical journey of rediscovery. In exploring some of his previous compositions and re-working them for solo piano a new light is cast on the music and in doing so created a path to rediscovering how to perform again.
In additional to Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations Alex has also won an Ivor Novello award (and been nominated a further two times). He has received several International Film Music Critics Association nominations and his score to Roots won Best TV Score of the Year at the Hollywood Music In Media Awards. In 2016 he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Recent scores include the No.1 streamed thriller on Netflix Intrusion, the documentary feature Going Circular which was shown to world leaders at the 2021 COP26 Climate Summit and The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness (showing in IMAX theaters) which led to over 6 million letters being sent to the US Fish & Wildlife Bureau asking for protected status for the Arctic Refuge.
“In Sudden Light composer Alex Heffes performs his own music for the first time stripped back to solo piano in an intimate and personal journey of rediscovery.”
To learn more about him, visit Alex Heffes.