Designing experiences through music with Anton Monsted

Music has a powerful impact on our emotions, and can amplify what we're experiencing in a way we’re often not aware of. When watching a film, sometimes we don’t perceive the music, but it's there. Impacting our emotions. Elevating our feelings. Music can help set the scene for a time period. And when you really know your stuff, you can make the audience tingle by allowing a hip-hop beat to invade the world of Elvis. 

Anton Monsted is Head of Music at Amazon Original Movies and has worked with some of the biggest names in music and film including Herbie Hancock, Jay-Z and George Doering. But he’s most famous for his work with Australian director Baz Luhrmann, who he most recently collaborated with on the hit biographical music drama Elvis. 

Monsted’s career trajectory is almost the stuff of movies, he was the boyfriend with time on his hands on the set of Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet in 1996. When he realised there was a place for him there, he set about advertising himself internally while painting the walls. Before long Baz asked him to put down the paint brush and pick up a research folder. He became Leonardo DiCaprio’s assistant on the shoot, got involved in the music, and his path began to unfold, leading to his first Music Supervisor credit on Moulin Rouge! all while in his early 20s. 

Listen in as Vince and Anton discuss translating 1920s jazz into hip hop with Jay-Z, why listening to music is like being in the company of an old friend and designing music to guide an emotional response. 

Anton's Spotify playlists: 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1jq8MQrr4kE9hLeBxsKVRi?si=5049970f8f50494e

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6rDWdtbFDXXcmjE1ejzn0T?si=54ab5efde6c54676

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5HDyNVBazSvCbFEAd6VgI6?si=5475e73e3e51411a

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1YbHA0Wm2TxJOww4DZXfdp?si=462ca069b75e49a0

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6r5f4eN4wjZ6MnrRNF2m2x?si=5761b563f0ed4f2b

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/72EpYQvlrUXpmR4mNgudXC?si=d034930a3bf24589

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.