Cliff Robert Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.[ and Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive (2011),][ Only God Forgives (2013),][ The Neon Demon (2016) and the miniseries Too Old to Die Young (2019).
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On April 14, 2012, Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Early life
Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York City. His grandfather migrated from a small village in Spain to the United States.
Red Hot Chili Peppers (1983–1986)
After several years drumming for such acts as Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, The Dickies, Lydia Lunch and The Weirdos, in late 1983, he and Jack Sherman were drafted in to join the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the recording of their eponymous first album after Jack Irons and Hillel Slovak left the band to concentrate on their other project at the time, What Is This?. Martinez again played on the recording of the band's second album Freaky Styley (1985) and its subsequent tour.
In 2012 Martinez was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[ Drummagazine.com ]
Film composing
Eventually, Martinez' interests shifted and he focused his attention toward film scoring. A tape Martinez had put together using new technologies made its rounds, leading him to score an episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. The same recording also ended up in Steven Soderbergh's hands and Martinez was hired to score the famed director's first theatrical release, 1989's Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Martinez's longstanding relationship with Soderbergh has continued through the years and they have worked together on ten theatrical releases including Kafka (1991), The Limey (1999), Traffic (2000), Solaris (2002) and 2011's Contagion, as well the Cinemax series The Knick (2014–2015).
His nontraditional scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like Pump Up the Volume (1990), The Limey, Wonderland (2003), Wicker Park (2004) and Drive (2011). Martinez has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Steven Soderbergh's Traffic), a César Award for Best Original Music (Xavier Giannoli's In the Beginning (2009)), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award ( Drive). He earned a Robert Award for Best Score for his work on Only God Forgives (2013).
Martinez's use of audio manipulations, particularly for percussive sounds, has been evolving through the years and is evident by the hammered dulcimer of Kafka, the gray-areas between sound design and score for Traffic, the steel drums and textures of Solaris, what Martinez called "rhythmi-tizing pitched, ambient textures" of Narc (2002), and "using percussion performances to trigger and shape the rhythmic and tonal characteristics of those ambient textures," as he described his score for 2011's The Lincoln Lawyer.
Martinez served as a juror for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and served on the International Feature nominating committee for the 27th Independent Spirit Awards in February that same year. Martinez's recent films include Robert Redford's The Company You Keep (2012), Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage (2012), Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers (2012) (co-composed with Skrillex), and Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives
Video game composing
Martinez composed the main menu music titled "Galaxy Theme" for Spore in 2008.
Advertising
In 2013, Martinez scored the "Fly Beyond" Grey Goose vodka commercial.[[2] ] Martinez also composed two songs, "Vibe" and "Kotopulse", for the 2014 Lincoln Motor Company advertising campaign featuring Matthew McConaughey.
Discography
The Weirdos
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Weird World (compilation)
Lydia Lunch
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13.13 (1982)
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Stinkfist (1986)
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
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Ice Cream for Crow (1982)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
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The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)
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Freaky Styley (1985)
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The Abbey Road E.P. – (1988)
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What Hits!? – (1992)
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Out in L.A. – (1994)
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– (1998)
The Dickies
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Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
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The Second Coming (1989)
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Locked N' Loaded Live in London (1991)
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Idjit Savant (1994)
As composer
Film
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| 1989
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Sex, Lies, and Videotape | Steven Soderbergh | Miramax Films | |
| 1990
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Pump Up the Volume | Allan Moyle | New Line Cinema | |
| 1991
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Kafka | Steven Soderbergh | Miramax Films | |
| 1992
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Black Magic | Daniel Taplitz | | |
| 1993
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | King of the Hill | Steven Soderbergh | Gramercy Pictures | |
| 1995
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Underneath | |
| 1996
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Gray's Anatomy | | |
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| 1998
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Wicked | Michael Steinberg | | |
| 1999
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Limey | Steven Soderbergh | Artisan Entertainment | |
| 2000
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Traffic | USA Films | |
| 2002
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Narc | Joe Carnahan | Paramount Pictures
Lionsgate Films | |
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| 2003
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Wonderland | James Cox | Lionsgate | |
| 2004
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Wicker Park | Paul McGuigan | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | |
| 2005
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Havoc | Barbara Kopple | New Line Cinema | |
| 2006
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | First Snow | Mark Fergus | Freestyle Releasing | |
| 2008
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Stiletto | Nick Vallelonga | First Look International | |
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| 2009
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Espion | Nicolas Saada | | |
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| 2011
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Lincoln Lawyer | Brad Furman | Lionsgate | |
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| 2012
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Arbitrage | Nicholas Jarecki | Lionsgate |
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| 2013
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Spring Breakers | Harmony Korine | A24 | Composed with Skrillex
Additional music by Mac Quayle & Gregory Tripi |
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| 2014
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Mea Culpa | Fred Cavayé | Gaumont | |
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| 2016
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Neon Demon | Nicolas Winding Refn | Gaumont | Additional music by Peter G. Adams & Gregory Tripi |
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| 2017
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Foreigner | Martin Campbell | STX Entertainment | Additional music by Peter G. Adams, Thor Lawae & Gregory Tripi |
| 2018
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Den of Thieves | Christian Gudegast |
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| 2022
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Kimi | Steven Soderbergh | Warner Bros. Pictures
New Line Cinema | |
Television
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| 2014–2017
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Knick | |
| 2019
!style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Too Old to Die Young | additional music by Peter G. Adams & Thor Lawae |
| 2020–2022
!style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | The Wilds | |
| 2022
!style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Copenhagen Cowboy | |
Video games
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| 2008
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Spore | Maxis | Electronic Arts | Galaxy Main Theme and other unspecified compositions
Composed with Brian Eno |
| 2014
! style="text-align:center;" scope="row" | Far Cry 4 | Ubisoft Montreal | Ubisoft | Additional music and arrangements by Peter G. Adams, Gregory Tripi, Mac Quayle and Jeff Rona |
External links
