For Leonard Grigoryan, one of Australia’s most accomplished classical guitarists, there are few occasions where a performance causes him any anxiety.
But performing a soundtrack live alongside his brother, Slava, accompanying the movie A Boy Called Sailboat was, at least initially, one of those occasions.
“We were very nervous at the beginning for many reasons,” Leonard said.
“There’s not much freedom in a show like this, it just keeps moving. It was nerve-wracking because there was a lot of information on our screens, we had a click track, all these sorts of things.
“And in the beginning we were exhausted after these gigs. The focus… you couldn’t relax for a second, otherwise you’d be missing cues, things like that.
“But we’re used to it now, we’ve done this gig probably 40 or 50 times. And we thought we’d get really sick of it, but we just love the movie so much and we’re always finding new things in it.”
A Boy Called Sailboat, written and directed by Cameron Nugent and starring JK Simmons, is a whimsical and heart-warming tale that has been described by critics as an “adorable, nearly-perfect modern folktale” and “surely the most impressive calling-card film in recent memory”.
Set in the drought-ridden Deep South of America, it follows the story of a small Mexican boy who one day brings home a “little guitar” he has found and shortly after sets out to create the greatest song ever written.
The Grigoryan brothers were approached by Nugent and producer Andrew Curry a decade ago to write the soundtrack for the film.
“The spiel was,” recalled Leonard, “they wanted to take one-hit wonders and give them a thorough Latin treatment; sort of a Gypsy Kings type thing.”
“But over time, the direction of the music changed. Instead of one-hit wonders they decided to go with folk songs and nursery rhymes, things like that.
“I think it was because they realised using five seconds of an Aerosmith song would have cost a few hundred thousand dollars.
“But in the end, taking these really well-known tunes like Row Your Boat and things like that worked much, much better for the movie.”
The Grigoryan Brothers will perform the soundtrack to A Boy Called Sailboat at the Palais Geelong Sunday, March 26, and will also take part in a question and answer session after the show with Nugent.
