Musique Fantastique

June 30, 2023

Back Lot Music Releases Dreamworks Animation’s RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN – Soundtrack by Stephanie Economou

Back Lot Music announces the release of DreamWorks Animation’s RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, with music by Grammy® Award winning composer Stephanie Economou and original songs by Mimi Webb and Freya Ridings. The soundtrack’s first single by Mimi Webb, “This Moment,” dropped last Friday on June 23 along with a lyric video on Peacock Kids’ YouTube channel. The original end title song “Rise” by Freya Ridings is now available.

With RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN, DreamWorks Animation dives into the turbulent waters of high school with a hilarious, heartfelt action comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens. The film, released by Universal Pictures, hits theaters nationwide today in North America, and the album is available everywhere digital music is sold and streamed.

Aiming to craft a unique sonic palette for the film’s score, composer Stephanie Economou (JUPITER’S LEGACY, ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA: DAWN OF RAGNAROK) found her chief musical inspiration for RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN in the rich underwater world. “The idea of dream pop/shoegaze came into my head while I was reading the script,” Economou says. “There’s something about the washy and bubbly textures, guitars through modulation effects pedals, reverb-y vocals, and vintage synths that really capture the essence of water to me. My goal was to make the music as immersive and arresting as the visuals.” That kernel of an idea ultimately became the catalyst for Economou discovering the sound of the score, which incorporates elements of cinematic synth, setting the tone for life on land and at sea.

Economou composed roughly 70 minutes of music for the film, employing a wide range of featured instruments to make the score feel as singular and unique as Ruby Gillman herself. In addition to electric and acoustic guitars by performer Jon Monroe, Economou utilized electroacoustic harp, conchs, didgeridoo, omnichord and accordion.

The composer wanted Ruby’s life on land to feel like an ordinary teenage existence, which is why Ruby’s theme at home and school leans more indie pop. It’s when Ruby goes underwater and becomes a giant kraken that Economou leaned into the ethereal world of cinematic dream pop. “It’s like a gateway is opened,” Economou says. “I wanted the music to be in step with how she is discovering this new world and her place in it.”

Economou designed a specific motif for the moments when Ruby’s bioluminescent tentacles light up: a harp gesture that is run through echo pedals and a granular looper, performed and curated by the brilliant Emily Hopkins. “The immersive nature of the environments and lighting details really inspired me to harness some less traditional sonic tools and collaborate with unique specialist performers,” Economou says. For the live choir, Economou enlisted the score’s vocal soloist, Ari Mason, to create an original kraken language for the film.

Additionally, fresh off her Avalon stage performance at Glastonbury last weekend, Freya Ridings contributes her first song for a motion picture in the anthemic end title “Rise.”

The soundtrack is available at these links.

Listen to the track “The Squad” by Stephanie Economou, via YouTube: