2025 Woodstock Film Festival: An Interview with Knives Out Composer Nathan Johnson

Next up in our Woodstock Film Festival interview series, we spotlight award-winning composer, director and producer Nathan Johnson. Nathan, whose work spans film, television and music videos, composed the scores for the Oscar-nominated murder mystery films Knives Out (2019) and Glass Onion (2021). His return marks his next collaboration with director Rian Johnson for the score of the film “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” premiering at this year’s festival.

In this exclusive interview with Nathan, we discuss his experience with the film franchise, his creative process, and the gothic, faith-based story that is Wake Up Dead Man. Nathan reflects on his transition from composing in low-budget, indie film soundscapes to recording at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, and we gain insight into the creative challenges of composing the score for Wake Up Dead Man—a darker and more intense mystery compared to its predecessors.

Nathan also recalls his lifelong collaboration with his cousin and director, Rian Johnson, comparing their projects to a perpetual “summer camp.” Read more of this exclusive interview below.

Check out the full festival lineup and be sure to get tickets to see Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – HERE

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INSIDE+OUT: Tell us about Wake Up Dead Man and what it means to you to have your film featured at Woodstock Film Festival. What impact or message do you hope it leaves with the audience?

Nathan Johnson: While Wake Up Dead Man is very much a “Benoit Blanc” movie, (referring to the character, detective Benoit Blanc, played by actor Daniel Craig) it’s also doing something different, and we all really had to dig deep for this one. It’s got all the cozy, twisty, funny elements an audience might expect, but I think people will be really surprised and perhaps even moved to see the journey the characters take. I know I was, and personally, I feel really thankful to get to work on something that is saying something important about our world, yet doing it in what I feel is a really generous way.

Was there a defining moment or influence that led you to the film industry, and how has that shaped your journey?

Nathan Johnson: As I was growing up, movies and music were a huge part of my life. People may be familiar with this story, but Rian and I are cousins, and every summer as kids, we spent our entire vacations making movies together. We’d wrangle all our younger cousins into the action, and at the end of two weeks, we’d have something to show the adults. It sounds funny to say it this way, but we kind of just never stopped doing that, and making these movies continues to feel like summer camp. Summer camp with much better actors.

Can you share a memorable moment that stood out for you while working on this film? Any funny or crazy story that happened before filming or while on set?

Nathan Johnson: I’ll never take for granted the fact that we get to record the orchestra for all of these movies at Abbey Road. That was the case for this one as well, and it’s kind of insane getting to work in the studio where so many of my favorite records were made. But about a month before Abbey Road, I found myself in an old stone church in London, capturing all of the crazy acoustics with six bass clarinets that I somehow convinced the musicians to play like drums. My engineers had an amazing array of microphones up on a ladder with cables running all over the place, and none of us knew how it would turn out. That one day laid the groundwork for the key rhythm section in this score.

As technology continues to transform how stories are made and shared, where do you see the biggest opportunities or challenges for creators?

Nathan Johnson: I’m lucky that I got to cut my teeth making my first records right around the time when digital technology opened the doors to anyone with a microphone and a laptop. That was how I made my first score (for Rian Johnson’s debut film Brick). We essentially had zero budget and used tuned wine glasses instead of a string orchestra. It’s a crazy journey going from that lo-fi approach to the hallowed halls of Abbey Road, but I’m reminded again and again that it’s all about the creative ideas. Technology can open wonderful new doors, but I’ve yet to see it replace a great idea.

Was there a moment in your career that fundamentally changed how you approach your craft?

Nathan Johnson: At heart, I feel like a melodic composer. When I scored the film Looper, the nature of that movie required almost no melody. I was recording treadmills and slowing down industrial fans. It was like a junkyard of desolation and anti-instruments. The only way for me to do that was to dive in without a road map. We wanted to try something new, and definitely, if something is truly new, it means you don’t know how to do it. Which can be uncomfortable. I remember feeling like I was wandering around in the dark, following the smallest thread. That experience of searching (and eventually emerging) gave me a new appreciation for the process. And for setting aside my certainty and experience in exchange for discovering something odd and new.

When people look back on your body of work, what do you hope they see?

Nathan Johnson: I get to work on such a wide variety of films, which means I get to create music for drastically different characters and stories. Even with this new Benoit Blanc movie, the music is much darker and weirder than the breezy romantic lushness of Glass Onion. I always try to respond authentically to the material instead of bringing a pre-ordained sound to the score, and I’m always challenging myself to really engage with the uniqueness of the material. Hopefully, people will experience that.

What is your current state of mind?

Nathan Johnson: I’m doing exploratory work on a few new projects right now, so I’m back in that eerie place of not knowing how to scale the mountain. Exciting, but eerie. Like Wake Up Dead Man.

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Photos courtesy of @Netflix

Follow/Connect with Nathan via Website I Instagram

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About the Woodstock Film Festival

The 26th Annual Woodstock Film Festival brings a slate of distinguished films to screen from October 15 to October 19, 2025, at venues across the Hudson Valley towns of Woodstock, Rosendale, Kingston and Saugerties.

Founded in 2000, the Woodstock Film Festival (WFF) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that nurtures and supports emerging and established filmmakers. WFF provides innovative mentoring and inspired educational programs benefitting filmmakers, students and diverse audiences while serving as a powerful cultural and economic engine for New York’s Hudson Valley and beyond. Such efforts have consistently resulted in the festival being hailed as one of the top regional film festivals worldwide. 

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Now in its 26th year, 2025 promises to be as exciting as ever. See you there!

 Click HERE for this year’s full line up + film guide

Click HERE for schedule and tickets