Don’t Make Me Drink Alone!
Octavia Spencer as the troubled Sue Ann in MA
Don’t Make Me Drink…Aloooone!
The soundtrack for the upcoming Universal horror feature MA releases May 24, 2019, one week ahead of the feature film hitting theaters nationwide. Composer Gregory Tripi (Drive, Contagion, Rememory, Dark Places, and Hotel Artemis) provides the intense music for the soundtrack from Back Lot Music. The talented director behind The Help and The Girl on the Train, Tate Taylor, directs Oscar winner Octavia Spencer in this chilling thriller. The cast also includes Luke Evans, Allison Janney, Missy Pyle, Juliette Lewis, and McKaley Miller.
Press Release
(Los Angeles, May 21, 2019) – Back Lot Music is excited to announce the upcoming release of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Ma, the new thriller from Universal Pictures, directed by Tate Taylor (The Girl on the Train, The Help) with music by award-winning composer Gregory Tripi (The Fix, Rememory). The album will be released digitally on May 24, 2019, and will feature the entire pulse-pounding original score from the feature film. A vinyl version of the album will be released on Mondo later this summer.
Gregory Tripi wanted the score for Ma to evolve and change with the main character, Sue Ann (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer), as her character becomes increasingly unhinged and dangerous. The score is primarily electronic throughout, except for one key scene in which Tripi used a bassoon. “I played bassoon when I was growing up and had a strange urge out of nowhere to buy one last year,” he says. “So, I went on Craigslist and found one. It’d been about 20 years since I’ve picked it up, but muscle memory came back fast, so I recorded a bunch of long, textured notes with it. They’re featured in the score quite a bit.”
For Ma’s main theme, Tripi employed two versions to represent Sue Ann’s past and her present. “We have the younger version of Sue Ann during flashbacks in school,” he says. “This was a more innocent time. To express that, I used a big metal drum called a Halo that plays melodies, which I had a number of thematic notes on. I did them again with piano. Later, I created Ma’s metamorphosis into a very troubled woman. That theme was always going to be a much more kinky, disturbing, well-paced melody.”
Tripi created a pallet of unexpected sounds for Ma. “There were a lot of glassy instruments in the score, as well as a number of analog synthesizers, a metal Halo drum and a few things that contrasted: a live cello, a voice in a few cues, then basically tearing it all apart at the end,” he says. “I also used pitched wine glasses, ones that when you rub them make long glassy tones. It’s a good organic vibe to have without feeling too recognizable. I also bought a ukulele in Hawaii that’s made from a used Japanese Bento box. You’d never recognize it as such because it sounds so big and textured.”
Ma opens in theaters nationwide May 31st, 2019.
TRACK LISTING
- I Was Just a Kid
- You Can Beat It Ma
- Pretty Cool, Huh?
- Nobody’s Here but You and Me
- Mercedes Stakeout
- Modern Babes in a Modern World
- It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
- You Don’t Look So Well
- Not Saying Shit
- Hey Ma, Loser
- Pow
- Cool It with the Pics
- Go Feed the Animals
- You’re Making Your Business My Business
- This Is Your One Warning
- All in Boxes
- Sue Ann Flashback
- Maybe I Should Cut It Of
- You’re Missing Out
- That Much Diazepem
- Those Big Doe Eyes
- This Ought to Shut You Up
- We Have History
- Who’s in the House?
- Set the Picture
- I Am Not My Mother
- Up in Flames
ABOUT MA:
Oscar® winner Octavia Spencer stars as Sue Ann, a loner who keeps to herself in her quiet Ohio town. One day, she is asked by Maggie, a teenager new to town (Diana Silvers, Glass), to buy some booze for her and her friends, and Sue Ann sees the chance to make some unsuspecting if younger, friends of her own.
She offers the kids the chance to avoid drinking and driving by hanging out in the basement of her home. But there are some house rules: One of the kids has to stay sober. Don’t curse. Never go upstairs. And call her “Ma.” But as Ma’s hospitality starts to curdle into obsession, what began as a teenage dream turns into a terrorizing nightmare, and Ma’s place goes from the best place in town to the worst place on earth.
ABOUT GREG TRIPI:
Greg Tripi is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and synthesist based out of Los Angeles, California. He is the composer for the ABC television series The Fix, Manhunt: Unabomber (Discovery/ Netflix), and co-composer for The Knick (Cinemax). His music has been featured in motion pictures including Drive, Contagion, Rememory, Dark Places, and Hotel Artemis, as well as Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning independent films, video games, and commercials. Greg’s music ranges from subtle electronic textures to bold orchestral rhythms. The Pantheon Steel Halo is a featured instrument on many of his scores, along with his guitar and synthesizer performances. Greg is represented by Soundtrack Music Associates and KCA Music.
Doc a lifelong fan of horror films, sci-fi flicks and monster movies first discovering Universal Monsters and Planet of the Apes as a young child in the 1970's searching out every issue of Famous Monster of Filmland (and, later, Fangoria). Favorite films include Jaws, The Car, The Birds, The Tingler, Vampire Circus and The Exorcist. Still a huge fan of horror films from the 70s, Doc continues consuming horror films to this day for the site, for the podcasts and for the fun of it all.
