Rocket Science (film) - Score and Soundtrack

Score and Soundtrack

Jeffrey Blitz wanted the film's music to be "sweet and a touch melancholy and just a step out of rhythm", demonstrating Hal's sense of himself in the world, and to express his teenage angst while "maintain an underlying sweetness". While writing the Rocket Science script, Blitz had been listening to indie rock band Clem Snide's music and suggested the use of their music on the soundtrack to the HBO executive producers. He contacted Clem Snide's lead singer Eef Barzelay to use some of the band's songs, but Barzelay says "it just made more sense for me to write original instrumental music", and composed the incidental score himself. When choosing instruments, he tried to create sounds that would match Hal's awkwardness. "I had this little ukulele that I never played ... And Jeffrey had gotten a little bee in his bonnet about the accordion ... and then at one point I started using a kazoo." One of his original songs, "I Love the Unknown", was chosen from the 1999 album Your Favorite Music .

Blitz also chose to use the Violent Femmes' songs "Blister in the Sun", "Kiss Off", and a cover version of "Add It Up". The Violent Femmes' songs were chosen for the film by Blitz before filming had begun as he believed that they expressed "the rage of love gone wrong better than any band out there", and they allowed their songs to be used in the film after reading the script. Blitz thought that the Violent Femmes suggested "both anger and the humor all around it".