One of the best films of 2016, and one of the best sci-fi films in years, is Denis Villeneuve’s (Sicario, Prisoners) Arrival. If you are not familiar with the story, the film is about what happens when twelve alien ships land across our planet. In an attempt to make contact with the ship located in the United States, an army colonel (Forest Whitaker) recruits renowned linguist Dr. Louise Brooks (Amy Adams) and scientist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) to help unravel the mystery.

Unlike some Hollywood movies that are all action and explosions with little time spent developing characters, Arrival is one of those rare films that is an amazing blend of art and spectacle. And unlike most films that you enjoy and forget about, I woke up the next day thinking about the story and what it all meant. Like I said, Arrival is a really special movie that absolutely needs to be seen on the big screen.

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With the film about to be in theaters, the other day I got on the phone with composer Jóhann Jóhannsson for an exclusive interview. As a big fan of his work with Villeneuve (he previously scored Prisoners and Sicario), it was extremely cool to get to find out how he works and how he got into composing. Of course with Jóhannsson in the very early stages of scoring the Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, we talked about where he’s at in the writing process and his love of the original film and the score by Vangelis.

Check out what he had to say below. Arrival is in theaters November 11th.

Collider: When did you know that you wanted to work in movies and make music?

JHÓANN JÓHANNSSON: I don’t know. I’ve been sort of playing music since I was probably 8 years old or something like that. Even when I was studying piano, I always preferred to play around with my own improvisations rather than do my studies. So I’ve always been interested in writing music from a very early age.

But it took me a while, I think I’m sort of a fairly late bloomer in terms of finding my sound. I think it took me until—my twenties were really a time of exploration and experimentation with different groups and different types of music. Then I kind of developed the sound, which first appeared, I guess, on my first solo album Englabörn, which came out in 2001. And that was a sound I developed over time working with string quartets, working with classical instruments, classical players, and combining that with electronic. So it was kind of combining my interest in classical music with my interest in electronic music, experimental music, and that’s really how it all began. Englabörn is really the first example of the sound that I’m known for, I guess.

You’ve worked now with Denis [Villeneuve] a number of times. I’m curious what your working relationship is like and maybe how it’s changed now that you’ve worked together a few times.

JÓHANNSSON: Well, I think it’s developed in terms of as you work more together, you get to know one another. We’ve gotten to know one another better both personally and also in terms of taste and in terms of sensibilities, artistic aesthetic sensibilities. I think we have a lot of shared sensibilities in terms of aesthetics and in terms of the things we like musically and in terms of cinema as well.

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Image via Paramount Pictures

I really love the way he photographs his films, the way he shoots his films, the way he edits, and the pace of his films; and I think it suits my music very well. In terms of how we work together, there’s really a trust that develops over time and I’m very fortunate to enjoy a tremendous amount of trust from Denis in terms of experimenting and going for and looking for sounds that are new and interesting and bold and characterful. That’s really what he’s looking for, and he always encourages me to be as bold and go as far as possible in that sense and in terms of being as extreme as possible in some ways.

I send him a lot of ideas, I send him a lot of different material and then we sort of narrow it down slowly. He has a preference for a certain sound and we kind of develop it from there. He gives me a lot of freedom but he also very much knows what he’s looking for when he hears it, he’s very –You know, I’ll send him five ideas and he’ll latch on to one of them. ‘This is amazing! This is the sound of the movie!” And very often it’s the sound that I prefer as well, that’s fortunate.

When you start writing, do you start developing the music as you’ve read the script, or do you wait until you’ve seen visuals to find the inspiration?

JÓHANNSSON: When I work with Denis I start very early, we always start talking about the music during pre-production. On Sicario, for example, I went to the set and visited the set and we talked about the music there, and he had some key words for me to describe the feel he was looking for, the atmosphere he was looking for. The sound of the desert, the loneliness of the border areas, this kind of sound that almost come from underground in a way. And for Arrival, we didn’t really talk very much in specifics because the script is so rich in ideas that the inspiration really came from script and from the concept art, they were generous enough to share some of the concept art with me before they started shooting, and so I had a feel for how it would look. But I started writing for Arrival before they started shooting or in the first week of shooting, and I did a session using vocals and some loop experiments using piano and creating these sort of piano drones and layered loops. And I sent one of these ideas to Denis and he responded very quickly, “Wow, this is amazing! You have to send me a five-minute version of this” and he basically listened to that track and several other pieces that I sent subsequently throughout the filming of Arrival. And this theme that was written during the first week of filming became one of the main themes of the score.

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Image via Paramount Pictures

I got to tell you, I think Arrival is one of the best films of the year. It’s just so phenomenal and the way you guys collaborate together is just rally incredible.

JÓHANNSSON: Thank you, thank you. I really appreciate that.

So I have to ask you: Arrival is your first sci-fi score, but the film is more of a grief drama than a spectacle. On the other hand, you’re getting ready to do Blade Runner 2049, and that looks like it will be more of a blockbuster movie. Is your approach any different to a large-scale sci-fi movie like that?

JÓHANNSSON: It’s very early on in that process, but so far we’re working in exactly the same way as we’ve always done so there’s no difference in our approach to working on Blade Runner than working on Arrival. It’s very early in the process, so it’s hard to say with any degree of confidence how things will turn out, but so far it’s going really well. Seeing some fantastic images coming from Denis and Roger Deakins, and I’m doing my best to respond to those images musically.

Blade Runner is a film that means a lot to film fans, and the soundtrack is one of those iconic scores. Did you grow up with Blade Runner? Do you have a personal connection to it, or are you coming to it as a casual fan?

JÓHANNSSON: I’m far from casual. I’m a huge fan of Blade Runner. I’m old enough to have seen it in the cinema when it came out when I was twelve-years-old. I’m a huge science fiction fan, and I had read the book by Phillip K. Dick that the film is based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And so it was a tremendous, momentous occasion for me to see that film when it first came out. And then I followed it to its later incarnations as Ridley Scott did his own director’s cut. It fits in many versions, as I’m sure you know. The score is a huge part of that, and I have tremendous respect for [composer] Vangelis. He’s a great composer, and he’s someone who had a lot of influence on me, and the early part of my development as a composer. So it’s a tremendous challenge and responsibility almost that you feel taking on a project like that. But I very much relish challenges and I enjoy taking on different projects. I’m not looking for easy rides.

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Image via Alcon Entertainment

Are you already thinking homaging some of the original score or you feel like this is going to be its own thing?

JÓHANNSSON: It’s very early to talk about that, really, because it’s so early in the process. For me, the way I see it, this is a sequel. This is not a remake. This is Blade Runner thirty years later, so things have moved on. Things have evolved. They’re different. It’s the same world, but it’s a different world. It’s three decades later, so that’s really the challenge: finding a sound that works in the world of Blade Runner. Of course Vangelis was a huge part of creating that world, so that’s all I can say at the moment really.

I gotta ask you one last thing: I’m also a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky, and I know that you’re gonna be working with him. Can you sort of talk about if you have started working with him at all? Can you talk about how you got to be collaborating with him?

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah. Well, Darren called me up during the Toronto Film Festival last year and wanted to meet up and we met up and chatted and he told me about a couple of projects that he had coming up. He was really inspired by the Sicario score and that’s how it came to be. I’m a huge fan of his work, a huge fan of his films, he’s one of the most individual and strong voices in American cinema. So I couldn’t possibly turn down the opportunity to work with him.

I completely agree, I think he’s an amazing director.

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Image via Alcon

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah.

Obviously you’re a movie fan, you’re getting to work with Darren Aronofsky, and you’re getting to work on the new Blade Runner. Is there an element inside of you that balances the fan that’s seeing all of this being put together, or is it that you’re having the dream job?

JÓHANNSSON: It is a dream job, obviously. I’m tremendously fortunate in terms of being able to work with directors that I admire and respect as artists, and working on tremendously exciting projects. It’s thrilling to me. And it’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to be a part of these projects.

When you’re composing, what equipment are you using?

JÓHANNSSON: Well, there’s so many. My part is never the same, there no one kind of go-to thing or software that I use. If it’s one thing that I’ve kind of used consistently throughout my career it’s probably Steinberg, first Cubase and now Nuendo. That’s kind of the thing that I use most, but beyond that I use anything I can lay my hands on.