Ludwig Göransson quickly learned that “Sinners” wouldn’t be like his other collaborations with Ryan Coogler. The two men have worked together since the start of their respective careers, moving from student films to “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed” and the “Black Panther” duology. But none of those movies lived and died by their music the way “Sinners” does.
“It was overwhelming in the beginning. Still, it’s overwhelming,” Göransson said of his experience working on the film, in which a group of vampires in 1932 terrorize the Mississippi juke joint set up by a pair of brothers, Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan. “Everything that surrounds us, all pop-culture music, everything we know is from blues music. It’s such a big subject to take on and also make sure that you do it the right way.”
Coogler and Göransson developed the soundscape of the 1930s Mississippi Delta in the film’s patient and lively first act, which makes the bloody vampiric action all the more satisfying (and heartbreaking) later. Alongside Göransson’s score, “Sinners” has a vast suite of both original and classic songs, performed on camera by various musicians. At times, these diegetic performances give the film the feeling of a musical celebrating the essence of the Delta and setting the stakes for what’s on the line in the third act. Nowhere is this truer than in the centerpiece performance, “I Lied to You.”
The song comes nearly an hour in, when young Sammie “Preacherboy” Moore (Miles Caton) performs an original song for the first time in the juke joint. Preacherboy’s music is so profound that it unites the assembled crowd with singers and dancers from the future and the past, creating a dreamlike cultural mash-up. “It’s a melting pot,” said legendary R&B musician Raphael Saadiq, who wrote the song with Göransson. “It’s hip-hop, it’s classical, it’s blues, it’s gospel, it’s ever-changing. But the bottom of it, the root of it, is drums. Going back to Africa, drums is the conversation that everybody has just through rhythm.”
Saadiq was a crucial get for the “Sinners” music team, which features a wide array of blues musicians and Black artists. The three-time Grammy winner wasn’t privy to much of the film’s plot, nor did he know the exact details of the scene; rather, he likened the songwriting to a spiritual experience during which the music poured out of him in a single session. “I feel like it must have been the ancestors giving me that, telling me, ‘You have to buckle down and bring the light to this section of the movie.’”
Another song, “Last Time (I Seen the Sun),” derives its title from “Sinners’” final scene, where a vampiric Stack tells an older, scarred Sammie (now played by true blues icon Buddy Guy) that the events of the film were the “last time I seen my brother, last time I seen the sun.” The song — again, the result of a single afternoon session — pairs Caton’s voice with that of blues, jazz and soul singer-songwriter Alice Smith, who co-wrote it alongside Caton and Göransson. Though this track is Smith’s only appearance in the film, Göransson said the musician’s voice was baked into “Sinners” even before she got involved, with Coogler playing her songs for actors when they were shooting particularly emotional scenes.
Before that end-credits song, Göransson’s score had been at the forefront of the film’s third act, which trades in blues numbers for unrelenting action. He mixed a few distinct sounds into his compositions, exploring various Black music traditions in the South as well as Irish music (paying homage to the roots of the head vampires) and heavy metal, an evolution of blues. Göransson noted that grand musical flourishes, such as a “crazy f–king ripping guitar solo” heard in this final act, arose from the comfort and collaboration of his partnership with Coogler: “I know if I’m going to spend a whole week writing music and put all my effort into this, there’s not going to be a voice on the other side saying no.”
This story first ran in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
