At 69 years old, the Argentine Grammy-winning producer and double Oscar winner (for the scores to Brokeback Mountain and Babel) is in the midst of creating music for many screens and mediums. Gustavo Santaolalla is the executive producer of the docuseries Rompan Todo: La Historia del Rock en América Latina (Break Everything: A History of Rock in Latin America), which premieres Dec. 16 on Netflix. Together with Paul Williams and Gary Clark, he penned the original song “Valley of Last Resort” from the documentary Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb, which follows journalist Hunter Thompson (Santaolalla also performs the track with Clark).

1. Gustavo Santaolalla May Be a Rock Rebel,
But He’d still Love a Grammy
Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla speaks about Latin rock and his Grammy nomination
with his band Bajofondo.
Being a prolific musician in an era of streaming has become par for the course. But Gustavo
Santaolalla is not your run-of-the-mill prolific artist.
At 69 years old, the Argentine Grammy-winning producer and double Oscar winner (for the
scores to Brokeback Mountain and Babel) is in the midst of creating music for many screens and
mediums. Gustavo Santaolalla is the executive producer of the docuseries Rompan Todo: La
Historia del Rock en América Latina (Break Everything: A History of Rock in Latin America),
which premieres Dec. 16 on Netflix. Together with Paul Williams and Gary Clark, he penned the
original song “Valley of Last Resort” from the documentary Freak Power: The Ballot or the
Bomb, which follows journalist Hunter Thompson (Santaolalla also performs the track with
Clark).
Figure 1Gustavo Santaolalla
He wrote the music for Sony Playstation’s The Last of Us Part II and is nominated for best
score and music at The Game Awards. Gustavo Santaolalla also produced the music for Los
Tigres Del Norte, Live from Folsom Prison, the acclaimed concert and Latin Grammy-winning
concert/documentary. And last, but not least, Aura (Sony Latin), his lush, 2019 album with his
musician’s collective, Bajofondo, is up for a Grammy in the Best Latin Rock or Alternative album,
where he competes against Cami (Monstruo), Lido Pimienta (Miss Colombia), Fito Paez (La
Conquista del Espacio) and Cultura Profética (Sobrevolando).
The critically acclaimed Bajofondo, an instrumental ensemble which sometimes performs with
guest vocalists, is known for its atmospheric, electronica-tinged take on tango and other
rhythms, mostly from Argentina and Uruguay. You’ve heard the music in many a film.
In a rare moment of rest in between takes in his Los Angeles home, Gustavo Santaolalla spoke
with Billboard about what it means to be a Latin rocker today.

2. You’re writing music for video games, but at the same time, you have four Netflix projects
and you continue to score films. What’s the biggest difference in writing for those
different mediums?
Since I’m not an academically trained musician, I approach film scores in a different way. I like
to write the music from what I read; with the script and a conversation with the director as the
starting point, before I see anything. Much of my music for films was done before the movie
was even shot. The biggest example is Brokeback Mountain; I wrote the entire score before a
single frame was shot. Video games are similar. It takes them years to do the renderings. I
worked on this one for three years. It’s such a long and expensive project that a lot of time
goes by before they make decisions. [Director] Neil Druckmann has told me there are scenes
he’s written with the music as a departure point.
Your Grammy nomination comes at a time when Latin music is at an unprecedented high
in terms of consumption and perception at a global scale. Does it feel different to you?
It feels great and at the same time it’s so organic. It has to do with our connection as a culture
with the United States. The concept of “America.” For us [Latinos], America is a continent, not a
country. So we have an almost incestuous relationship with the United States. A large part of
the United States used to be Mexico. A lot of the U.S. DNA is Latin and we all know the
penetration the U.S. has throughout the world. As part of that penetration, the U.S. takes that
Latin chromosome to the entire world. And our culture is very rich and very inviting, very
seductive. Other cultures can be beautiful and interesting but ours is very emotional.
Yes. I always thought we have talent that’s equally good as that of the mainstream. And since
rock and alternative feeds on the sociopolitical context, and our Latin context is so rich in Latin
America, where you live politics all the time, it generates a cauldron of activity. I always
thought, how can we make albums that are as good as theirs? And having been able to come here
and learn allowed me to do that. David Byrne has said the future of rock is in the Third World.
And I believe us Latins are at the forefront of that.
Talking about rock, our Latin rock seems to be on pause. How does your documentary
tackle it?
I wanted to tell the story in the context in which it took place, which was the sociopolitical
reality of our countries. In Argentina, I was jailed simply because I had long hair and played
rock. We had a military junta in Argentina; in Chile they had Pinochet. The same thing happened
throughout Latin America. And when you see Chile today and Mon Laferte goes onstage and says
she’s afraid the carabineros will go to her house and people sing, “You’re not alone!,” That’s a big
deal to me. I just did a documentary on Hunter Thompson and when you see the footage of
police repression against African Americans and you see the scenes in Portland today, things are
the same. It was very important to me to tell our story but show where it took place. Show the
people who wanted to confront, with music, a system we considered unfair.