Justin Timberlake and Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Goransson are featured in a new episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Behind the Screen podcast.
The pair served as executive music producers on DreamWorks Animation's Trolls World Tour, and during the conversation with THR tech editor Carolyn Giardina, they discuss their collaboration and share some of the music — and stories — behind the tunes.
The sequel to 2016's Trolls, the new film is jam packed with songs and again features a voice cast led by Timberlake, who voices Branch, and Anna Kendrick, the voice of Poppy. In the story, the characters discover six troll tribes devoted to six different kinds of music: funk, country, techno, classical, pop and rock.
During the conversation, Timberlake and Goransson describe the casting of Anderson .Paak and working with Rachel Bloom, Mary J. Blige, George Clinton, Kelly Clarkson and Ozzy Osbourne. "They came in and just crushed their parts," says Timberlake.
They also discuss composing new songs for the soundtrack, including "Don't Slack," "The Other Side" and "Just Sing," as well as the selection of covers such as "Barracuda" for its "badass energy."
"The movie covers all different kinds of music. ... It was a really difficult task to choose which songs would go [into the movie]," says Goransson. "I think we had about 200 to 300 different songs that we constantly rotated and tried."
Hear it all below on Behind the Screen — and be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an exciting episode.
