Oscar-winning Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson on improv, Metallica, and the therapy of making music

Ludwig Göransson lights the fireplace in his Spanish-style Los Angeles villa after a long day of shooting in his backyard. Though it’s rare for him to be in front of the camera, he was a natural. The sun is just setting, and the glittering lights from the nearby highway zoom past out the window.

Up here, it is quiet, until we begin talking about Metallica. “I was about nine years old when I heard noise in the basement,” recalls Göransson, who has changed into his own clothing – a pair of blue trousers that are a tad too long with orange details at the seams, and a well-worn T-shirt. “It was just so loud. I walked down and I opened the door and I see my dad headbanging, and I was like, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘This is Metallica.’”

You may not have heard the name Ludwig Göransson, but chances are you’ve heard his music. In 2018, the Swedish virtuoso scored game-changing block-buster Black Panther and produced Childish Gambino’s “This is America”, arguably the song of the year. Since then he’s worked with Adele and Alicia Keys, also finding time to score Tenet and Venom. Göransson practically provides the soundtrack to our lives.

Göransson is 38 years old and originally from Linköping, Sweden – a town with about 160,000 inhabitants. It is difficult not to believe in fate when hearing his story. After all, the extraordinary skill set needed to master the art of classical music is a rarity, even if you are named after one of the most famous composers of all time.

“I think I'm the first Göransson to ever leave Linköping,” he says. “My mom always wanted me to take classes in English, ballet, saxophone, piano... She was kind of pushing in that way.” The sound of Göransson’s parents and his two young children eating dinner on the other side of the house echoes down the hallway as he leans back in the copper-toned Roche Bobois couch, which looks straight out of the 1970s – just like Göransson.

After taking ballet classes for five years, Göransson moved on to music theory education in primary school. By then, he had already decided that his entire life would be dedicated to music, thanks to his father, the Metallica enthusiast, who is also a guitar teacher. Throughout the room you can see the influences of his parents. A black grand piano sits at one end. Earlier in the day, while we were shooting, a spaceship-esque 1960s vinyl player, a Clairtone Project G2, faithfully played an original 1976 vinyl copy of ABBA’s Arrival.

Like many Swedish musicians, Göransson got his start in a metal band, which was initially named Entrails, turned into Thrombosis, and finally became Polite. Meanwhile, with the boom of Swedish-produced hits by Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys, Göransson harboured dreams of joining the pop songwriting crusade. However, when he enrolled in the Royal Music College in Stockholm, feelings of inadequacy took over – there was so much more to learn. So he took off to Los Angeles to study USC’s prestigious Film Scoring program at the Thornton College of Music. This is where he would meet a young aspiring director named Ryan Coogler.

When Göransson walked into class at USC, he received the advice to score as many student films as possible “because you never know who is the next Steven Spielberg.” He got to work befriending as many directing students as he could. “When it became time to collaborate I scored maybe 25, 30 student films. I quickly realised how incredibly difficult it is to make a five-minute short film, because most of them were just really bad. But one of them was really good,” he says, holding his index finger up to the sky. “And that was Ryan’s.”

After meeting at a house party where they bonded over a shared love for Swedish artists Lykke Li and Little Dragon, the duo collaborated on Coogler’s short film, and the rest is history. “Together we discovered making films and we discovered putting music to films,” Göransson says. “We had times when we were sitting next to each other and having a eureka moment.”

Working together on the five-minute student film blossomed into a friendship and creative partnership that culminated in the Coogler-directed, Göransson-scored 2018 blockbuster Black Panther – the highest-grossing film helmed by a black director of all time. In typical 'jantelagen' fashion (the Swedish concept to not think you’re better than anyone else) Göransson only chuckles when I mention the success of their collaboration.

“We’re just doing the same thing that we did 10 years ago. If it's a song or if it's a movie or it's a short film, we're doing things the same way now,” he says. “It's just the world that is seeing what we're doing. The world has opened up to us, and to our art.”

The same year Black Panther hit theatres, Göransson had also written and produced Childish Gamino’s “This is America”. The earth shattering hit record reflected what it was like to be black in the US, becoming a catalyst for a conversation around the overtly conservative political climate on black art and culture. Music once again became a rallying cry. “This is America” blazed a similar path to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”, solidifying itself in American history as one of the most significant songs ever made.

Once award season came around, Göransson took home an Oscar for Best Score for Black Panther and a few Grammys for his collaboration with Childish Gambino, including Record of the Year. This success is something he does not dwell on. Rather, we discuss the cultural impact these contributions have had.

As much as it is a story about a superhero, Black Panther is a story about black culture, power, and art. Göransson realised that this was a sonic story he was not equipped to tell. He called up Coogler and told him, “There’s no way I can write this music without going to Africa. I want to go to learn more and study and do research.” He bought a one-way ticket to Senegal. While there, he went on tour with Senegalese singer Baaba Maal. “Music is not just to perform, it's about culture,” he says, when I ask about his biggest takeaway from this trip.

He is currently preparing for Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, set to be released in November of this year. For the wildly anticipated sequel, Göransson says he is looking forward to creating a whole new sonic world through his chosen approach: improvisation. “I like to improvise my way of getting into the space,” he says. “Sometimes I go to a new place and start working with different musicians. Sometimes I try to learn a new instrument. Sometimes I just take time to write music without a computer.”

Making music without a computer feels like an increasingly rare artform. But here we have Göransson, who sits down at a table with a piece of paper, writing down notes with a pen that I suspect has a big feather at the end.

His singular, time-honoured approach happened to catch the attention of Adele, who enlisted Göransson to create “Strangers by Nature”, the opening track to her album 30. The song is a testament to Göransson’s true talent: merging classical and pop music to bring the drama of Hollywood pictures to the streaming charts. His records feel massive, awe-inspiring and like you’ve heard them before in an old Tinseltown classic.

At this point in our conversation, we have covered Göransson’s great collaborations and the pieces of art he creates from the shadows. I had heard rumours, though, that he is working on a solo project. At the mention of this, I catch a flash of excitement in his eyes. The project, which he started just before Black Panther, is “about 70 per cent done.” “It ’s around eight songs and I play all the instruments and recorded everything. It was kind of like a therapy to do music without anyone else,” he says, adding that writing and recording all of the instruments was “the easiest part.” “I want the challenge of singing and writing my lyrics because I usually don’t.”

The project does not yet have a title, or a release date, but as Göransson himself describes it, “The music is pretty timeless.” It is not often that you hear the word ‘timeless’ thrown around in pop. He agrees. The Swedish 'jantelagen' kicks in again as he smiles and says, “It’s probably not something that's going to play on the radio.”

Göransson’s dog, Barbara, a three-year-old Goldendoodle wearing a pale green bow tie collar, is becoming restless, and Göransson has to put his eldest son to bed. It’s already turned dark as I finally make my way out of the property, fumbling or about 10 minutes to find the button that opens the gate out into neighbourhood to catch the ride that is waiting for me outside. I get in the car and the driver turns on the radio. About five minutes pass before Childish Gambino’s “Redbone”, produced by Göransson, starts to play. Sometimes it is difficult not to believe in fate.