Johnny Depp Gets Into Record Biz With ‘Rum Diary’ Soundtrack

Johnny Depp’s company Infinitum Nihil will release the soundtrack to his next film, “The Rum Diary,” through Lakeshore Records, a first for his company. The album will be released digitally Oct. 25 and on CD on Nov. 29.
The album contains Christopher Young’s score inspired by the popular large ensemble jazz of the 1950s and early ’60s,two songs by the Johnny Depp Band, an instrumental by Depp and a duet between Johnny Depp and JJ Holiday. Dean Martin’s “Volare (Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu Licenes” and Patti Smith’s  “The Mermaid Song” are also on the album.

Young’s goal when he recorded the music was to get it released on a jazz label. Depp, who wrote and recorded more music for “Rum Diary” than any of his other films, signed on to release the album right after heard the music.

“Most of the tracks on the CD were presented as thematic possibilities for the film,” says Young, a former jazz drummer who studied music at UCLA and the jazz powerhouse North Texas State in the 1970s. “This give me a chance to pour out music that has been inside of me all these years.”

To promote the album and film, which comes out  Oct. 28, Young has assembled a 20-piece big band with strings – dubbed the Neon Popsicles — to play selections from “The Rum Diary” at Catalina Bar & Grill in Los Angeles on Oct. 24.

“I’m a little nervous,” says Young whose credits include two “Spider-man” movies, “Ghost Writer” and “The Shipping News.” “Never in all my years would I think I could put together  band to play my music live outside a recording studio. I’m really excited.”

Source: Billboard