By Choire Sicha, Special to The Times

August 3, 2008

WENDY MELVOIN and Lisa Coleman score the music for the NBC series " Heroes." The show's soundtrack goes into wide release Aug. 19, and a Wendy and Lisa score album arrives this fall. They've just finished their first album in a decade -- it's being previewed at wendyandlisa.com. They live and work in L.A.

How fast do you have to work? Don't they push the episodes pretty tight to air date?

Lisa: We do probably an average of about 35 minutes per show. Depending on the schedule, sometimes they stack them two in a week. They've got us pretty well choked and on the ground and saying, you know --

Wendy: Uncle?

Ack, I'm already losing track of who's who! What are you listening to?



Wendy: We always discover new composers. But also that band Elbow put out a record and we were like, whoa -- and who was that composer you turned me on to?

Lisa: Einojuhani Rautavaara? A Finnish 20th century composer. Still alive!

Wendy: I dunno if you're familiar with the new Disney [Hall] . . . but they have this little tiny room down in the parking structure called REDCAT. All these experimental crazy people go in there and bang on cans and laptops and it's always good even if it's horrible. It's kind of cool to think of it as another crayon color, something like that, that I can use. . . .

Lisa: She steals.

I once visited Philip Glass' shop and I got the sense that a lot of it was, shall we say, subcontracted.

Lisa: With Philip, he's got such a large amount he has to put out -- like Hans Zimmer. They have a crew! When Hans can't finish X, Y, Z, they learn to preemptively know what Hans would have done. And go for it. And he signs off on it. Who's that guy in painting?

Err -- Jeff Koons?

Lisa: It's the same thing! A lot of people think that's totally legitimate. And then there's us hardworking schmoes who go, wait a minute! I'm sure if we were offered 10 films at once, we'd have no problem getting a crew.

I saw you guys play at Slim's in San Francisco on that tour in, um, 1992? It was not long after that you segued into film and TV work.

Lisa: It was right after, like '93. Aside from dabbling with Prince, even in "Purple Rain," we were doing string arrangements and I think he ended up using one of my string things in that movie. Wendy and I wanted to score that movie. . . . But in 1993, was it "Dangerous Minds" that came along?

Wendy: It's been close to 15 years now, we've been sort of in this weird hierarchy of the dinosaur club of composers.

It's a small club!

Wendy: It's a very small club. And there aren't any women. In TV there's a few that have actually been able to make a living through the muck. We lost one of our great ones --

Lisa: Shirley Walker.

Wendy: She was spectacular. She worked for all the big guy composers.

Lisa: The thing with us too . . . , the women factor is definitely a hard, difficult mountain, but then you'd think that, oh all that success, playing with Prince, if that doesn't open any door --

Wendy: None!

Lisa: Instead it's like, two black chicks that score films?

Wendy: And they wear lingerie.

Wendy: It's like being the kid of a famous parent, you know . . . 1985, 1986. 20 million copies, worldwide-huge! I was 19. It was crazy. . . . Our aspirations to work in film -- both of us grew up with fathers in the business, in studios in L.A. I always wanted to compose for film. Not for TV! I hated the idea of TV as a kid.

You guys have worked together for years. How do you not kill each other?

Lisa: We've slaughtered each other a few times. Very much like "Life of Brian." We're limbless and legless. Come on, sucker, I'll get you!

Wendy: No, that's "The Holy Grail." "I'll bite your legs off!" You know there is no secret. We batter the hell out of each other. But we love each other more than we batter.

Here is the link if you want to see the pic that goes with the article.
http://www.latimes.com/en...2211.story

You failed to mention the title the writer gave it in bold.


.

So who needs Prince?

Oh god, so cute!

Thanks for the interview I have been dying for a new Wendy and Lisa interview. They both look very beautiful. Wendy and Lisa are rocking as composers and also I love how the girls continue to mature and experimenting in their music.
[Edited 8/4/08 19:02pm]

great pic!

kaptainkrunk said:

I think Wendy and Lisa will always grateful that they were part of a once in a lifetime event during the 1983-86 era. They had expressed in the past of it.
But however their replies are on sarcastic yet geninue side. From the way I had interpret with their remarks about Prince and also being music composers, they was stating that ppl thought they had it easy of opening doors due to the Prince connections and also their fathers are well known studio musicians. Wendy was like none and she expressed that she and Lisa face sexism when it comes to getting film composing jobs. I am sure they also faces discrimbation for being lesbians and music industry isn't so big as word gets around of who is gay and who isnt since they are out who knows. They have a good sense of humor. Shrug.

um, Wendy and Lisa didn't write the headline. or say anything derogatory about Prince.

lighten up, Francis.

kaptainkrunk said:

They said NOTHING of the like please go get your eyes checked next time you make a silly comment like that

kaptainkrunk said:

The reason this post has not been deleted defies logic. Mods, hello?