Music

Writer/director John Carney wanted to find a songwriter early on in the development process
to enable him to bring an authentic but accessible 80s sensibility to the songs he wanted the
band to play. One such songwriter Carney had considered was Gary Clark.

Carney and Clark worked for a solid month before filming, recording the tracks with a studio
band comprised of some of Ireland’s top session musicians. Ironically, because the band in the film has to begin learning to play as a band without the competence of a well-rehearsed

ensemble, the musicians were encouraged to play badly.
For Carney’s Director of Photography Yaron Orbach, the trick was how to incorporate the
musical elements into the narrative and shoot it seamlessly so that the audience was saved the awkward jump from dialogue to singing and music.
For the younger members of the cast, it was an education in historical pop music. Carney
would show the boys videos from the 80s to inform them of the way in which the bands moved on stage and on screen.