Composer Este Haim said her second collaboration with director Will Gluck on the romantic comedy “One Night Only” drew its sound directly from New York City, with the score completed roughly two months after she began soaking up inspiration from her new home.
Haim, who previously scored Gluck’s “Anyone But You” alongside composer Christopher Stracey, told Where Is The Buzz that she met the director shortly before signing on to that film but had long admired his work.
“I met Will right before I signed on to do Anyone But You, but I’d been a fan of his movies way before that. I loved Easy A. I loved Peter Rabbit. All of his movies are all amazing,” Haim said. “So then when I got the opportunity to meet him and talk about composing the music for Anyone But You, I was very nervous but very excited.”
She described Gluck as an unusual musical director. “Will is basically like a music supervisor already. He has such a vast knowledge of music, so bouncing ideas off of him is really great because he speaks music and he can say like, ‘No, I don’t like this. I don’t like that.’ So the partnership is really fun,” she said.
Haim also praised Stracey, her writing partner on both films. “Being able to do it with Christopher Stracey, he’s the best. I mean, we have the most fun in the studio. I mean, all my collaborators, and I mean, Chris is so much fun. I mean, he’s Australian. He loves to party. Like, he’s the most fun. He’s great and he plays everything under the sun. And whenever I can’t play, he can play and vice versa,” she said.
For “One Night Only,” which unfolds over a single night rather than an extended courtship, Haim said the pair turned to the city itself for direction.
“I think we just kind of wanted to get inspired by New York City, and like, I live here now. I got married, and my husband lives here,” she said. “So I came to New York and, you know, tried to soak up as much as I can and then would run into the studio and, you know, would share ideas, and by, you know, two months later, the score was done. But yeah, that was kind of the process. Let’s just try to soak up New York as much as possible.”
The film opens with a cover of “Love Is in the Air” performed by King Princess, which Haim produced.
“First of all, Michaela is like such an amazing singer and collaborator. I mean, she had amazing ideas in the studio as well. And she played guitar, and she played keyboard. Like, we also had just a really great time, you know, kind of messing around in the studio,” Haim said, referring to King Princess by her given name, Michaela.
Haim said the song was always intended to open the film, though the version had not been decided.
“I believe, and I could be misquoting, but I’m pretty sure that Love Is In The Air was going to be the opener regardless. Like, we didn’t know what iteration of the song it was going to be, but we knew we wanted that to open the movie,” she said. “And I also could be misquoting, but I think I was the one that was like, ‘We should just have Michaela. Like, she’s already in the movie. We should just have Michaela cover it, and she’ll kill it.'”
The recording came together quickly, Haim said. “We did it in like a day. Like, we went to the studio, she cut the vocals, I sang background. I played all the percussion and the bass, and like all the auxiliary stuff. And yeah, it was really, really fun and she kills it. I love the cover,” she said. “Not to toot my own horn, but I think it’s a really great way to open the movie.”
