#Drive night call tv#

“A Real Hero,” a modern classic, fits Drive so well as a love theme because it never gets too on-the-nose or cheesy. Indeed! I don’t see Drive as an 80s retro film and I don’t think its music is, for the most part, 80s retro. “The blend of sonic and visual nostalgia with a contemporary spin is always deadly,” he said. Drive will live forever because it “plays on familiar themes we have been exposed to while still remaining fresh.” Photo Credit: Neon Dream Designs and Tyler Stout/Mondo. “ stayed within the boundaries of good taste and bad taste… The right balance when you are not too 80s.” A cross between a Vehlinggo hashtag and the cover art for Mondo’s 2013 vinyl press of the ‘Drive’ soundtrack. “Refn had a good idea to pay tribute to a certain style of movies from the 80s,” David “College” Grellier - who along with Electric Youth wrote Drive’s popular “A Real Hero” - told Vehlinggo recently. Others see both the film and the music as using elements of that era to create something classic and timeless. Some see Refn’s apparent Michael Mann influences - a shade of the starkness of 1981’s Thief and the neon of Miami Vice, along with the heavy use of synth-based music - and consider Drive a 1980s-nostalgia piece. Right? Or, after five years, is Drive’s legacy also just another ’80s love fest? I enjoy, and have written about, all of those, but they all are much more indebted to a nostalgic exercise.

#Drive night call tv#

People lump the Drive soundtrack and film in with the likes of films like Kung Fury and Turbo Kid, and even TV shows like Moonbeam City and Stranger Things. The thing is, Drive’s use of some elements of the 1980s to create something new and contemporary has over five years led to some extraordinary escalations of nostalgic expressions. I saw the film and music as having a cool, novel, and engaging aesthetic - colorful synths, great voices, tight beats, a comforting earnestness, and an unrepentant minimalism. I’ve been thinking heavily about how we all got here. Photo Credit: College’s Instagram account. From left, Uncle TNUC, David “College” Grellier, Austin Garrick, and Bronwyn Griffin.

Drive Soundtrack: A Contemporary Template with Retro Elements A Valerie and Friends quasi-reunion in Los Angeles, December 2014.

“I think its influence has been such that it’s contributed, however big or small, to what is now the new normal,” he told Vehlinggo recently. “Anything created with real feeling and value continues to unfold over time.” Jewel shows up twice on the soundtrack - once with Chromatics on film opener “Tick of the Clock” and once with Desire on “Under Your Spell.” At one point, he was hired to score the film before the producers ultimately went with famed composer Cliff Martinez.Īustin Garrick, one-half of Electric Youth and one-third of the trio who created Drive’s romantic centerpiece “A Real Hero,” says he’s heard that everyone from cool, new artists to folks like the Backstreet Boys have yielded to Drive’s musical influence. “ Drive lasts because it is good. This is not meant as an understatement,” Johnny Jewel told Vehlinggo in an interview recently. Johnny Jewel of Chromatics, Desire, Glass Candy, Symmetry, etc. Films still bear the sheen of Refn’s approach to filmmaking (and his and editor Mat Newman’s song choices). Bands are still inspired by the chic synth-pop aesthetic. Music fans still buy the soundtrack and go down the Discogs rabbit hole of all the artists on it. The film and its key player - the music - have defied mainstream culture’s ephemeral shelf-life and are still viable today. Aaronĭrive - the neon-noir from iconoclastic director Nicolas Winding Refn - turns five years old on Sept. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed working on it this year. To aid in my quest, I interviewed Drive soundtrack artists College, Electric Youth, Johnny Jewel (Chromatics/Desire), and Cliff Martinez, among others. This website is managed on a digital platform of the National Football League.Note: This piece looks at Nicolas Winding Refn’s iconic film Drive as it approaches its fifth anniversary on Sept.