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Million Dollar Arm (soundtrack)

Million Dollar Arm (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Million Dollar Arm (album cover).jpg
Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman
Released May 13, 2014 (2014-05-13)
Recorded 2013—February 2014
Studio Panchathan Record Inn and AM Studios, Chennai
Panchathan Hollywood Studios, Los Angeles
Genre World music
Length 45:28
Language English, Tamil
Label Walt Disney
Producer
A. R. Rahman chronology
Kochadaiiyaan
(2014)
Million Dollar Arm
(2014)
Lekar Hum Deewana Dil
(2014)

Million Dollar Arm: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album of the American biographical drama film of the same name, directed by Craig Gillespie. A. R. Rahman composed all seven of the original songs as well as the score for the film. Artists Iggy Azalea, KT Tunstall, Wale, Sukhwinder Singh, Raghav Mathur have collaborated with the composer for the soundtrack.Kendrick Lamar also recorded a song that is featured only in the film. The soundtrack album was digitally released by Walt Disney Records on May 13, 2014, followed by a CD release on May 19.

Director Craig Gillespie said that he had been hoping to recruit A. R. Rahman to do the music right from the time the former signed the Disney film to helm the project. In an interview with CBS News, Rahman stated that the film's scale was very attractive to him. He began composing for the film's score in 2013, setting seven queues of score to be featured on the soundtrack album. Eventually, the number of tracks increased as per screenplay length. The recording of the score was completed by February 2014. On working for the film he stated, "For three years, I was avoiding Indian-based subjects in Hollywood as I was anyway doing them in Hindi. The last thing I wanted was to be typecast as a composer who'd only work on English films with an Indian setting. But when this script came along, I thought it was a good time to start again. It helped that the story was also hybrid in nature. Million Dollar Arm is more contemporary. In terms of music, it is more orchestral."

In regards to the soundtrack album, Rahman claimed, "The soundtrack we created together truly captures the beautiful culture and energy behind the film— reminding us all how important it is to be open to new possibilities in life." As the film's music has Indian as well as Western sensibilities, Rahman wanted to strike a balance between the two. The track "Unborn Children" is the song "Thirakkadha Kaatu Kulle" sung by K S Chithra and Unnikrishnan, featured in the 1999 film En Swasa Kaatre scored by Rahman. As a score, it is featured in the opening of the film where two kids were running into an open field. Upon inclusion of such a track, in an interview with The Hindu Rahman said, "Frankly, I really didn't know how it landed there and the makers were researching my Indian music and must've stumbled upon this. When I saw the movie, I was like, 'Wow, where did that come from!' But it felt so good. I didn't feel any need to change it." He added that he never wanted to use the soothing number from the Tamil film but the director and music supervisor loved the tune and they've used it as part of the soundtrack. The track "Nimma Nimma" was recorded for Isles of Wonder, however, here the track is reused with slight changes in musical arrangement. On the collaborations with artists in the soundtrack, Disney listed names for featured collaboration whereas director Craig and composer Rahman made the choices together. On the score and the film plot analogy Rahman quotes, "The songs add to the energy of the scenes and the score in places...We were careful not to telegraph key emotions and gave way to the actors playing characters to lead the emotion." On his collaboration with the rapper Wale, Rahman stated that he was writing a lot of song ideas and the film director was suggesting that they should have a mainstream rapper for certain sequences especially when the all the boys in film go to America. He was quoted saying, "So Wale's name popped up, we sent him the track and he loved it and did the rap and sent it back." Singer Gaayatri Kaundinya has lent alaps to the score. She stated that she started interning with film composer A. R. Rahman at his studio in Los Angeles since 2012 and eventually got involved with the project. She added that it didn't take her long to record everything as she had many demo works with Rahman, earlier. In the album of the score her voice is featured in tracks "Farewell" and "Bobbleheads" but in the score itself she had about six to eight pieces. In the interview with Daily Bruin, she recalled, "Originally we just put it in for the part where they find the two men to pitch at the speed that (the baseball scouts) want. After months of looking for cricket players, they find players who can throw at this incredibly fast speed. That's what the track was recorded for. But the director liked (the track) so much that they ended up using it for the opening of the movie."


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