DIRECTOR Danny Boyle has opened up about why he picked the Scottish trio Young Fathers to provide the soundtrack for his new film, 28 Years Later.
The latest cinematic offering from Boyle, known for Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire, comes in the form of an update to the 28 franchise.
This third film focuses on a group of survivors living on a remote island nearly 30 years after the Rage virus first ripped through Britain.
28 Years Later stars Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the husband-and-wife duo, Isla and Jamie, and their 12-year-old son Spike, played by Alfie Williams, as they prepare to head out to the infected mainland for the first time.
The Mercury Prize-winning group, Young Fathers, provided the score for the film which marks the trio’s first full-length film soundtrack.
The hip hop group featuring Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and Graham Hastings, who are from Edinburgh, were hand-picked by director Boyle despite having no experience working on film before.
“I don’t know whether they’d like this description, but they’re sort of like the Beach Boys, but so hardcore,” Boyle (below) told Rolling Stone UK when speaking about the group.
“I guess that’s kind of their use of harmonies and melodies in their music.”
Explaining how he got Young Fathers onboard with the project, Boyle said: “It was a huge risk because they’d never done a movie before and it’s that thing with any pop group, are you gonna trust the whole movie to them?
“But you go yeah! Yeah! Sony didn’t know the first thing about them, but they were wonderful. We had a wonderful back and forth and I went up to Edinburgh to their studio, which is a shed.
“It literally isn’t even a garage – it’s a shed, and they produce extraordinary stuff there. It was very beautiful. There’s some of the stuff you’d expect from them in there, which gives a very different flavour to the film.”
Young Fathers won the prestigious Mercury Prize in 2014 for their debut album Dead and were nominated for a second time in 2023 for their fourth studio album, Heavy, Heavy.
Known for their layered, genre-resistant and politically influenced sound, the soundtrack for 28 Years Later weaves lo-fi textures, chants, off-kilter synths and heavy percussion.
There are both instrumental and vocal tracks on the soundtrack helping to build the tension and palpable fear synonymous with the 28 franchise.
