How Emmy-Nominated Composer Roger Suen Crafted the Score for Bring Them Home

How Emmy-Nominated Composer Roger Suen Crafted the Score for Bring Them Home 

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE: 

How do you create a documentary score that feels authentic, cinematic, and culturally meaningful? 

In this special AAPI Month episode of Sync Riffs, Charles sits down with Emmy-nominated composer Roger Suen to discuss the creative process behind scoring the documentary Bring Them Home. 

Roger shares how he collaborated with Indigenous musicians, blended Native American musical traditions with hip-hop, jazz, and contemporary orchestral influences, and developed a score that supports both the sweeping landscapes and deeply personal stories at the heart of the film. 

Whether you're a composer, filmmaker, music producer, or aspiring sync artist, this conversation offers valuable insights into documentary scoring, cultural representation in music, collaboration, and the evolving role of composers in modern storytelling. 

🎙 In This Episode: 

• Roger Suen's approach to documentary film scoring 

• Researching and collaborating with Indigenous musicians 

• Combining Native American traditions with modern genres 

• Creating cinematic impact during low-budget filmmaking 

• Building atmosphere through percussion, texture, and sound design 

• Balancing epic visuals with intimate emotional moments 

• Working across independent films and major studio projects 

• Mentorship and opportunities for emerging Asian American composers 

• The future of storytelling through music 

⏱ Chapters 

00:00 – Introduction to Roger Suen and Bring Them Home 

01:17 – Learning from Indigenous musicians 

01:47 – Blending Native American, hip-hop, jazz, and orchestral influences 

02:34 – Creating powerful sounds for documentary storytelling 

04:42 – Using percussion and traditional melodies to build emotion 

05:42 – Balancing grand visuals with intimate human stories 

07:21 – Cultural identity and representation in film scoring 

🎧 Listen to more Sync Riffs conversations with music supervisors, composers, producers, and sync licensing professionals. 

🎙️ SyncRiffs is a weekly podcast where we discuss sync placements in multimedia (TV/Film/Advertising, etc.), the music industry, pop culture, and everything in between, including exclusive interviews with musical artists, composers, agents, and music supervisors. We riff on sync strategies, music monetization, and the state of the music industry. Subscribe to the channel for future episodes! 

Podcast produced by Blue Buddha Entertainment 

This content is for educational purposes. We encourage others to conduct proper research, and if needed, consult an attorney for any legal advice regarding music licensing. (c) (p) 2026 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of Sync Rifts. Charles from Blue Buddhists. So stoked to have a very special guest in the studio for uh AAP iMonth. Want to welcome uh Emmy nominated composer Roger Swen. How's it going, Roger? Pretty good. How about yourself, Charles? It's going good. It's been a busy month, and um really want to thank you for taking the time out and uh really a huge fan of all of your work. And today uh we're gonna shine a spotlight on your work on Bring Them Home, um, which was uh narrated and executive produced by Lily Gladstone, and it follows the uh Blackfoot Confederate's long-term effort to return uh wild buffalo to the Blackfeet Reservation. And Roger, my first question to kind of set the table uh for you as a composer is how did you prepare uh for this particular documentary? What's kind of your process uh for crafting an you know an authentic uh soundtrack for this documentary?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yeah, um, I mean, aside from you know the usual conversations with um our director, Daniel Blick, um, in this one was really cool. We had the opportunity to talk to uh Blackfeet musicians. Um and you know, they they're people that are my age or even younger. Um so what was what I didn't expect was learning, aside from more like traditional musical, uh Native American musical traditions, I kind of learn more about what's going on nowadays, what all the cool kids are doing. And it it isn't it isn't what I expected. You know, the number one biggest influence is I is I learned that there's like a big, like kind of vibrant hip-hop scene in the Native American music. Um, you know, kind of using the the music of another culture as a form of like protest and you know, expression. And I just thought that was so cool. And even um, you know, the use of jazz and other forms of Western concert music or choral music. Um and while you wouldn't think that, you're like that that it does tie into the um the more traditional musical approaches as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yes, yes. I'm so glad you you brought that up, Roger, because I'll share in a minute the uh Spotify playlist at the soundtrack, and you know, watching the documentary and and the images that still stay with me, and I'll kind of you know set the stage, and that will be a great segue, Roger. If you want to talk about, you know, the opening with the ATVs, and then we have the shot of the Buffaloes running on the open plane. And what was the main focus, your intention when you were uh scoring that scene?

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah, so I mean, like really with any like kind of performance piece, whether it's like an opera or musical, I still think of old school terms of having that overture, that opening number. We gotta set the stage, we've gonna, we gotta let the crowd know what they're in for. Um, so the first bit with the ATVs, you know, and talking to Daniel is we just really want to feel hooves on the ground. You want to feel that rumble like in your chest. Um like, and so I I tried to obviously create that sound with a lot of percussion, um, which also ties into both the traditional and the more contemporary musical traditions in the Blackfeet community. Um, so that was a lot of fun, and hopefully that rumble comes across, especially if you're you know in a theater. Um and then the second half, and this is kind of the balance of the whole score and the whole movie, is kind of that the excitement, the um the cinematic nature of the story. Um because it's there's there's like a real like underdog kind of feeling to it in a way. Uh, and then the second part is kind of the more human aspect, um, which is actually what kind of where I pulled the title from, we call ourselves. And, you know, this is this is us kind of a feel. And I wanted to have uh just a very traditional melody that you could kind of whistle, you know, hum to yourself when you walk out of the theater and kind of bring in that human element.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

What instruments do you did you use and and walk us what uh that process was like?

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Yeah, so uh it it's always uh it's different every time. And you know, um we really have to be creative with the resources that we have for projects like this. You know, these obviously aren't big budget uh kinds of productions. Um so a lot of it is just very, you know, you could call it DIY. A lot of it is is me. A lot of it is me singing, a lot of it is me banging on this or that. Um I even have a violin, I don't play violin, but I you know, with a lot of editing. Um, and then you know, occasionally hitting up a friend, and it's really scrappy. It's really um uh this director I work with, Justin Chan, um, he always calls it, you know, just very gorilla filmmaking. And so it's I guess this is gorilla score making.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Very nice, Roger. And since you had mentioned Justin, I was curious what other projects you've might have uh collaborated uh and worked uh with Justin uh in the past.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Uh we've done quite a bit now. Um we started our first film we did together was uh Gook back in 2016, I believe, Sundance. Um and then most recently we did a couple. There's one called Blue Bayou. Um that one was really cool. And then uh we got one coming up called Tommy Karate. And um, yeah, we we've done we've done quite a bit, you know. We're we're old farts at this point, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yes, and one thing that would love to spend some time, Roger, in chatting about is the closing track. It was a montage scene uh in the film, and there was a collab that you did with a rapper, such a strong uh piece that really dovetailed the narrative of the overall documentary. Tell us about who that rapper vocalist was and what that collaboration uh was like and how how it came to fruition.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Yeah, so how that came about was, you know, we had uh pretty much like finished the score, and we had, you know, our our homages to hip hop beats and and stuff, you know, sprinkled throughout the score. And then towards the end, Daniel came and said to me, you know, want you to meet uh DJ Foreshadow. He has this really cool track. Um, and he worked with the vocalist, um, Dustin, uh I can't think of his last name right now, but um who who does this the singing in it. And the three of us, you know, he he had this thing mostly put together, and I I kind of just helped flush it out a bit and um kind of bring it home, so to speak. Um, and then that's kind of how it came back, and it was just kind of a happy accident that it kind of like the score was setting you up for it. You know what I mean? Because like you don't expect this kind of hip-hop number to close out the movie, but hopefully it was it was less of a surprise and felt uh it felt like it was warranted by how the score led up to it.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So that's a great segue, Roger. I would love to talk about and spend some uh time if you'd tell us about the dynamics of bring them home. There were big action scenes, and then also at the same time, there were quieter moments. So, as a composer, what are some of those nuances uh that you had to do uh in the storytelling sonically to balance action scenes and quieter moments? What kind of instrumentation uh might you have had to uh look to to uh create that score seamlessly?

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Um so it it is it is an interesting project, you know, where it is very hybrid in a way, because we need to hit those those big, really like Hollywood moments, these expansive shots of Montana, just the most awesome landscape. Um, but then we also need to bring it to that real true indie feeling, you know, talking right next to you kind of feeling. Um so, you know, I think just given my experience, I I I kind of have worked on both ends of the spectrum, you know, worked on big studio films, um, you know, your your Marvel films kind of stuff, and then done a bunch of you know independent stuff. And it just it was kind of the perfect thing of what I've been working on for so long. And the score actually came together pretty smoothly. There wasn't a lot of drama with this. Uh so if you're looking for juicy gossip, they're not not a whole lot on this one. But um, yeah, it's really, it's really just um writing those big moments, but then counterbalancing that with, say, a smaller ensemble, right? So a chamber ensemble, quartet, quintet, but doing those big, the, the big chromatic, harmonic languages that we so come to love with Hollywood writing. Um and then in these smaller moments, um just letting it be small and and maybe bringing in a little bit of these these um the chanting and and these kind of ethnic adjacent, I suppose, uh vibes. And I think it's just by stepping outside of its traditional lanes just a little bit here and there, I think it becomes this really cool hybrid. And I just love doing that stuff. It's so fun.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

And thanks, Roger, for that. Because something I always wanted to ask, you know, when I speak with various composers, is what's your overall process from when you're recording a score? Uh, are you one to craft something straight from the script? Or do you like to watch the first uh iteration of the visuals kind of get a uh idea of what kind of edits or what kind of cuts you're gonna need to do with uh the composition? Or do you like to take the other approach uh and and not fall into sort of sort of pitfalls when you're composing something direct to picture?

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Yeah, I I've done both and I I love doing both. They they both have their plus and minuses. Um, like a lot of Justin's films, I'm writing uh scenes based on the script. Um, typically what happens though is the the uh what I write to that particular scene, once they shoot it, and you know what all the stuff that happens in production, a lot of times the cues get moved around and used for different things, and I think it's it's really cool. Um, for this particular project, um, it was a rough cut. And in that way, it's it's like an entirely, not entirely, but it's a different approach. And it's just kind of allowing myself to be the audience more so. It kind of has that feeling rather than like being with the filmmaker and in their head. And so in this case, it's like, how am I feeling, you know, as an audience member, what do I want to feel? What's the experience that I want to have? And I try to let that guide the tone and everything else.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

And in the next section, would love Roger to talk about the uh Buffalo Drive Sequence. Uh, it's a cue uh in the soundtrack. And if you could spend some time talking about it, it played pretty much like an action scene through the rhythm and texture. And I know in the past you had worked on projects like Daredevil and how that might have weaved in uh with working on the action scene in this uh particular uh use.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

Yeah, I'm I'm really glad you call it an action scene because that's really how I approached it. Um and just as an aside, I love scoring action films. I think it's just so much fun. I love listening to it, I love writing it. And I I totally approached it that way because even though it's like it's kind of a fun scene, it's like a fun action scene. Um that seems so dangerous to me. Like having that much like animal coming at you. I know they're on ATVs or or horseback, but man, you know, you step right into that and you're you probably you're probably a goner. So it to me, there's a real danger to it. Um, so I hope that excitement and adrenaline comes through. And you know, it's really the two things I talked about is one is that um the driving percussion, which was just developing that first cue that you talked about, expanding on that, using some of the cool sounds that we have, um, a lot of the shouts, which some were made, you know, and um there's some like uh Native American flutes, but you know, kind of that also sound oddly like vocals, which I thought, which I thought was really fun. And to the point where if you play it back to me right now, I probably couldn't tell you exactly which one was a flute and which one was a vocal. Um but then allowing it to expand more on the melodic elements to give it that kind of grandness and that kind of heart.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

And so since it is AAPI month, Roger, would love to uh pose the question when it came to your breaking into the industry, uh, were there any AEPI mentors that might have helped um pave a way or open a door for you as a composer today? Uh would love to get those insights.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah, but I was lucky enough to work with um John Paisano um on two seasons of Daredevil, uh pre pre-Marvel, you know, the the original batch.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Um so much fun. So much fun. Very nice, very nice.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

And with that, you know, I I know you worked with the prolific uh Lily Gladstone and also the uh the director on uh uh Bring Them Home. Would love to hear about the collaborative process, what that's like when you uh uh work with the team early on and what what kind of the workflow is like.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Right. Yeah, so it's it's really interesting. I've I've always been a fan of her since you know she kind of came out with um killers and uh um when I jumped onto this with Daniel, and I've worked with Daniel even longer than Justin. Um it was really just uh Daniel, Ivy McDonald, and Ivan McDonald. They were kind of the three filmmakers, and I actually didn't know I um not Ivy, I didn't know Lily was a part of this. And so in all the cuts that I had, it was just temp narration, which is mostly Daniel doing the temp narration, and I scored to that. And it wasn't till the end, and it was it was like one of those things where Daniel called me, he's like, hey, I'm gonna be in LA, you know, you wanna you wanna hang out? Um, I'm like, yeah, what do you what are you doing in LA? He's like, oh, we're recording the narration with Louie Glassman. I was like, oh, no way. Um so it it was interesting, you know, all the scoring and all the choices are kind of based on him reading it. And obviously, you know, you know, being one of the directors, you know, he knew exactly what what he wanted. Um, and I was like, well, if it works there, and then then you put on what Lily does, and it's just gonna even be better.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

So, Roger, with that, you know, when it comes to internships and breaking into the industry, I was curious, what was your first job that uh led you to eventually become a composer?

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Uh no, so my first first uh foray was interning at Sony in in the sound department. So I floated around between you know ADR stage, foley, and scoring stage. And of course, I told him, I said, anytime there's a scoring session, put me in the, you know, I'll stock that fridge with Coke like you've never seen, you know. Um, and through there, I you know, met a lot of just amazing composers. Um, one of the first jobs that I had was um with Alex Hefies as his assistant, and I met him there and you know, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

And with that, what's one piece of advice you know uh you might have for APIs entering the entertainment, film, music space uh in honor of API month? Curious what advice you might have.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

I I don't know that I I have it figured out myself, but it's I'll just say what I what I did, and the number one thing that I can really accredit to it is just keep at it, just keep going. Um I don't know that I'm the best composer, but I just try and I just keep trying. And um that's kind of really what it's about. And at some point something will click. Um and the other part, you know, specific to AAPI, you know, traditionally is like there's a lot of pressure from our culture and our society of what you should do or what you shouldn't do. Um obviously the obvious thing is you know, be a be a doctor, be a this, be a whatever. Um, I used to be a mechanical engineer, I'm not anymore. You know, do what you want to do and then take that a step further when you're doing your music. Uh don't do what uh someone says you you should do, do what you think you should do, you know. Um if you want to put some hip hop in with a Native American score, do that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

So very nice, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

And you know, when it came to when it comes to AEPI, did you have any AEPI mentors along the way that helped uh open doors for you into the industry?

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Yeah, I mean, in terms of I mean, of course I had a lot of uh composers I looked up to, but it specifically as being a minority, um not really. Not really, you know. Um maybe some of the composers like like Tan Dunn or something like that. Um but not even, you know, there's there's a lot of amazing Asian composers, but Asian American at the time, it maybe wasn't as much. And I I see it a lot more now in a lot of my colleagues, and I think it's amazing. I think it's really cool. But yeah, not not a whole lot growing up.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Thanks, Roger. Some great insights, and I'm curious what the rest of your year looks like. I know you're in New York uh for the Emmys. Congrats on that, and curious uh what other projects you might have in the pipeline, and we'll be sure to share those uh details uh in the notes below.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yeah, I'm in New York. Um, I'll be here this week and then back home. And um, you know, we're we're already starting on Justin's film, and this is a process where, you know, I'm reading the script and I'm I'm writing and we're throwing ideas around and having a ton of fun. Um and that'll be the bulk of the remainder of the year. Um in terms of mentorship, I I teach a little class at at my alumater at UCLA, and and that's been a lot of fun too. And um there's there's a couple uh other documentaries, um, another one with Daniel. Um, but I'll have more info on all that stuff next time we chat.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

UCLA Extension, um great uh courses, knowledge that ones can learn about the uh music supervision space, also composers. So, yes, do Tell us more about uh what's your UCLA extension class that you're teaching, and we'll be sure to uh share a link to your course.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

Uh so it's video game music.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Um yeah, and and um while I don't actually have like I have like you know a good chunk of video game experience, um, but the most recent one was uh an Assassin's Creed installment, and which was just fortuitous. Uh, it was set in ancient China. So speaking of AAPI and all that, uh I guess that's a good mix of that. But um, yeah, and that's been really fun. And it really, I've really enjoyed the mentorship aspect. Honestly, I don't know how good of an educator I am, but I try to bring like usable real-world information to the students. And um, because I'm like, you know, you guys can write music. That's not a problem. All your you guys write great stuff. Um, but here, let me let me save you guys some headaches and give you some tips and tricks, and hopefully that'll make life easier for you guys.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Thanks so much, Roger. The time flies by. Great to have you on the podcast for AAPI month.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

No, that was that was really great chatting. And uh yeah, it's it's always it's really special. You know, I'm always so thrilled when I meet uh another Asian American in in our industry. Um yeah. Look forward to uh staying in touch and hearing about your future projects.