It would probably be nice to have Peter Salett’s life. The musician, singer/songwriter and composer is broseph with Edward Norton, he gets to hang out and write songs with Jason Segel; he has his phone calls returned by both Judd Apatow and David Wain and gets to write song for fun little movies including films like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Ten.” He’s also written the score for the upcoming Universal Pictures film, “Little Big Men” “Role Models,” that’s directed by the aforementioned “Wet Hot American Summer” director coming out in November that features Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Sean William Scott and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin). His newest solo album, In the Ocean of the Stars, comes out July 29. We rapped.
The Playlist: We’re jealous. Can you talking about breaking into film scores?
Peter Salett: The first score I did was for a tiny movie called “Bittersweet Place,” with Seymour Cassell, a friend of mine had written the film, and suggested to the director that I score it, they had no money so I got paid in an M Box [Pro-Tools like studio]. I had seen an early version of “Down in the Valley” (starring Ed Norton) and thought I could help out, and it was with that M Box that I ended up starting the score for ‘Valley’…
How’d you meet Ed Norton? Can you talk about the relationship you’ve established with him?
I met Ed on the first day of sixth grade, and he’s been a great friend ever since. We did many plays together growing up, and he used to come and see me play all the time in our early days in New York, even changing my guitar strings for a while. Its been fun to watch him grow creatively, and I think he’d say the same about me.
Tell us about “Little Big Men” (now titled “Role Models”), what’s it about and what was your musical approach?
Little Big Men is about two fuck-ups (Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott) who have to take on the role of Big Brothers to a couple of kids in order to stay out of jail. Really I’m just a troubadour in the movie, and my part is small, playing mandolin in a mock medieval style and arranging…but I’m the cameo king, apparently.
We hear you mess with Kiss’ classic Peter Criss ballad “Beth”
Yeah, “Beth” for mandolin, recorder, violin, and bodhran, with Rudd singing, and mostly messing up and personalizing the lyrics for the scene. I haven’t seen it yet but I hear its really funny and touching.
I don’t even know what a bodhran is. You did work on both “Wet Hot Summer,” “The Baxter” and “The Ten,” how did you fall into this crew?
I had worked with and become friends with Michael Showalter in college, and when we all got to NYC. The State was just breaking (doing the live shows that would get them onto MTV). I was playing a ton around New York at the time, and they would all come and see me play. My joke is that I’ve played four State weddings.
Does your soundtrack work inform your solo work at all and vice versa?
Definitely – but they are different animals. To make music for a particular scene many times you have to throw out what you’d do on a purely musical level, its all about making music that will give the movie and characters depth.
You’re also in with the Apatow crew. How did you infiltrate two of the best comedy groups going today?
The Apatow crew… I was asked to write some songs for “Walk Hard”; they didn’t pick any of the songs, but Judd really liked what I had done, so when it came time to do ‘Sarah Marshall’ they had me in mind, plus Segel and Nick Stoller are ‘Wet Hot’ fans and they knew my song from the movie.
Lucky bastard. Can you tell us a bit about the experience of writing songs for ‘Sarah Marshall’ with Jason Segel? That sounds like a extremely tough way to make a living wage.
Heh, Segel is a great dude, and fun to work with. Of course, being in Hawaii didnt hurt anybody’s spirits. Did I mention the Mai Tai? Creatively it was fun and also a learning experience, and Jason had really funny creative ideas for the Russell Brand songs that I reshaped and refined. Segel is a natural on piano, which made things a lot easier. The musical (“A Taste For Love”) was more of a challenge, with a lot of creative input from Judd and Segel and Stoller and the music supervisor, and then I put the whole thing together lyrically and musically.
What’s your dream film collaboration? any people you want to work with badly or again?
I’m looking forward to working on the new David Jacobson movie [he directed “Down in the Valley”]. As much as I like the comedies I’d also be excited to work with people like the Coen brothers, Rick Linklater or Paul Thomas Anderson – but who wouldn’t?
Indeed. Peter Salett’s “Role Models” songs can be heard when the film’s released on November 14.