Sia, Luke Steele, Nick Littlemore, honoured for film work

Internationally renowned Australian songwriters Sia Furler and Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of Empire of the Sun) were honoured in America for their film composing efforts.

This took place at the 30th ASCAP (American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) Film & Television Music Awards in Beverly Hills.

Furler was acknowledged for her work on Will Gluck’s remake of Annie, which opened late last year.

Gluck, a director and screenwriter who’d never worked on a musical before until he was commissioned by Columbia Pictures, had met with a lot of songwriters before Furler. “I immediately fell in love with Sia," he recalled in an interview last year. Furler brought along her producer and songwriter collaborator Greg Kurstin who also had never done a movie score before.

Both learned on the job as work on the film began in March 2013, updating the Broadway musical hit and its songs. Gluck said, “What Greg and Sia did was so expert: giving a nod to an old song that, if you've never heard it before, stands on its own.”

Steele and Littlemore were lauded for their music for Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber To. This again was a baptism of fire, as neither had worked on a full-blown film soundtrack before. But Peter Farrelly was keen for them to be involved as he was a big fan of Empire of the Sun (he had used some of their songs for Hall Pass). As a kid Dumb And Dumber had been one of Steele’s favorite movies.

The soundtrack had to be put together during an Empire of the Sun world tour.

Steele remembers have to working on the score after gigs and before road trips. Often he’d have to fly from whatever city the band was playing to meetings in Hollywood before hurrying back for concerts.One song, Tonight, was written 30 minutes before he went onstage.

Despite the hectic schedule, Steele said, “Working to a definite scene and a definite deadline brought out some good work, and a new attitude to our songwriting.”