Ballinasloe composer scores new Dreamworks blockbuster

A Galway composer whose musical pedigree stretches right back to playing the cornet in Ballinasloe’s Brass Band is now conquering Hollywood – becoming the first woman ever to score the soundtrack for a Dreamworks blockbuster.

It marks yet another new high in the spiralling success story of Amie Doherty, who has already worked on a host of Hollywood movie scores – as well as collaborating with everyone from Lady Gaga and 50 Cent, to overseeing the music on Star Trek: Discovery and Fargo.

But her original score for Spirit Untamed, the latest Dreamworks animation blockbuster which hit the cinemas last week, moves her into a whole new sphere.

Spirit Untamed, featuring the voices of Julianne Moore and Jake Gyllenhaal among many others, is described as an epic adventure about a headstrong girl, Lucy Prescott, who discovers a kindred spirit when she encounters a wild mustang named Spirit.

As with so much else in life, Covid impacted on the production logistics – forcing Amie had to record the musical score remotely.

“Every composer’s big dream is to get to record the whole big orchestra and do the thing. Then as Covid went on, they booked Abbey Road, but we weren’t able to go,” she explains.

So they did the entire session from the safety of their own bubbles.

“I sat in this room from 6am to 2pm every day for nine days straight and spoke directly into the musicians’ ears and produced the session from here. I was just so glad that we could do it at all. And I didn’t have to do a twelve-hour flight,” she adds.

The finished product is the latest chapter in Dreamworks’ franchise that began with the 2002 Oscar-nominated Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron which in turn evolved into an Emmy-winning TV series.

Read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie