The Journal. - My Monday Morning: Ludwig Göransson

Episode Date: October 11, 2026

Composer Ludwig Göransson has scored films like “Black Panther” and “Oppenheimer,” and his latest is Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey.” In My Monday Morning, a new Journal video series inspired by the longstanding column of the same name, Lane Florsheim sits down with Ludwig to talk about his Christmassy oatmeal, writing music with 40 bronze gongs during the LA fires and the bottom shelf where he keeps his Oscars. Photo: Austin Hargrave Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Ludwig Joranson, and this is my Monday morning. Ludwig Joranson is one of the most successful music composers in the world. He's composed for TV shows like Community and New Girl, produced for Adele and Alicia Keys, and scored blockbuster films for Ryan Coogler and Christopher Nolan, which landed him three Oscars. He also has a number of Grammys, Golden Globes, and Emmys, and he's only 42.

His latest project is Nolan's The Loweens, Odyssey, and for it, Ludwig went looking for instruments most people haven't heard for thousands of years. For his Monday morning, Ludwig told me about pre-don hikes past coyotes in Griffith Park, why Swedes are entitled to Daily Cinnamon Buns, and how he professionally collaborates with his wife, Serena. I'm Lane Fulersheim, and that's coming up after the break. This episode is brought to you by IG Private Wealth. When your financial life gets more complex, Having a clear plan matters. IG advisors build personalized, integrated financial plans that connect your investments, tax strategies, retirement income, and estate planning into one coordinated plan.

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All on a single platform that's easy to manage, industry-ready, and designed to scale with your business. Bring it with SAP Grow. AICloud ERP for any size business. SAP.com slash grow. This is a show where we get into morning routines. So what time do you usually wake up on a Monday and what's the first thing? you do after waking up? So it depends on kind of where I'm at in my work, if it's like one of the craziest times

or if it's one of the lesser crazier times. Because when I'm during a final time of a project, you know, two, three months before the movie comes out, I'm like, you know, work very late and stuff. But if not, I try to get up early in the morning, get up like, I've actually got in a really great routine lately where I get up at around 540. and I do a little hike around Griffith Park with my dog Barbara. But it's crazy because now it's so dark in the morning. So it's so, you know, I almost need to have a flashlight on or something because there's a bunch of coyotes and stuff in the park.

But it's, that's, so I do like a four to five minute hike, Armand Griffith Park, go around the Greek theater. And then, you know, it's so beautiful over there. And then I come home, make some coffee. I wake the kids up. And we actually have, we started getting the newspaper. So that's like a nice thing. Like right before you get into the front door, you just pick up the newspaper, put on the table. It feels like such an adult, accomplished adults.

So that's been great. And then at 7.30, we're off to drive to school. That sounds like a really nice morning, minus perhaps the potential coyote sightings. How do you take your coffee and do you eat breakfast in the morning? Yeah, I do coffee, just black. I mean, growing up in Sweden, you kind of, you start, everyone start drinking coffee very early, you know, in age, because that's kind of how you survived the long winters. And also in Sweden there's something called fika. FICA means it's a word for taking a break and drinking coffee and eat buns, cinnamon buns.

At every workplace you have to have at least two FECAs in the day. So it's kind of ingrained in the system kind of drinking a lot of coffee. And I don't get too affected by it either. So I can kind of have it pretty late in the day too. So I kind of have, you know, one at six, one at eight, one at ten. And then at two maybe. Well, I was going to ask if you take Ficas during your workday here, too. I do, but the cinnamon bun has been, you know, there's some great places in L.A. now where you can get Swedish cinema buns.

But I don't have it for breakfast. Normally for breakfast, I usually, I'd really do the oatmeal. It's really nice, like steel-cut oatmeal. And then usually also the tip is a trick is that you can put some banana in it while you're boiling it. So that makes it a little sweeter. Nice. And I also put the cinnamon and cardam in the steel cut oatmeal. So it feels a little crisp, you know, a little Christmas you when you eat it. Nice. What's the first thing that you intentionally listen to on most days?

Like, is sound part of your mornings at all? Yeah, I mean, I like, it depends. Again, like if I'm working, it's a great time to listen to, you know, the demos to where I'm at in the process. and I'd like listen, you know, to what I created in the studio the day before, how it sounds like. So that's a great time to listen to demos. Also, I love, you know, new music Friday. You know, that's when you can listen to the new songs and the new albums trying to stay up to date with, yeah, with the current music. And then also, and sometimes a lot lately I've been listening to a lot of,

podcasts. So I started listening to some Swedish podcasts which has been great actually. It's really enjoy it. In general, what draws you to the work of scoring a movie? What are like the most challenging and rewarding parts about collaborating with people kind of across art forms like that? I mean, I love learning things. You know, I love when you're, and that's so great with the films

I'm able to work on like nothing is the same. Like every move is completely different. You know, I mean, I feel like I'm very blessed in terms of like every artist and director I get to work with are so creative and trying to push the world of music and cinema and experiences forward. And also being giving the freedom to experiment and the time to experiment. Because normally a lot of times when you work in a film or like the schedule is so. The schedule is so congested. You're like, oh, you have two months to finish this. And like, and if there's no time, you know, there's no, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's no time for trial and error, you know, and, and working with great authors, like, like, you know, with Nolan and Coogler, like, they're also writing their film.

So I, I get to be involved at a very, very early stage of the process when I have a script. And they haven't even shot the film yet. So I, when they're shooting in the film, I can just be, you know, traveling around and, and experiment. and do things that I don't think is going to work and end up working. And that create, that's really where I can feel like I can be the most creative when I'm not locked in front of a screen, in front of a MIDI keyboard and in my studio, which is also a huge part of the process. But that's, in a way, it's not, I don't feel as creative as I do when I'm just completely free.

Yeah. Well, you have, you have these ongoing collaborations with both Christopher Nolan and Ryan Cookeler, what is it like working with each of them process-wise? Like, how are they different from each other? I mean, one thing that they're very similar to each other is that they, I feel like they know everything. I feel like they know in terms of everything that I'm doing. Like, I'm, if I'm like, if I didn't work a Tuesday night and or on a Tuesday morning deal, like they know exactly what I was, that I didn't work. And I was, I was, I was, Or if I'm working on a certain section of a movie, like, I don't know, it's like they, they, they both have an immense understanding of, of my process, you know, and, and, and I think that's, that's really important when you have, when you're working with some creative and they really are involved in my process and available any time for a question or can talk about music in a, you know, very break it down in a very, um,

real way, like point out the instruments, point out, you know, the feelings, talk about music in musical terms, you know? So that's very similar. And then what's different about them, you know, it's everyone has a different process. But for me, like, that's a great thing because, you know, not doing the same thing over and over again is, I think, very helpful. up, Ludwig gets into his musical journey scoring The Odyssey. Your most recent project, of course, was The Odyssey, and for it, you and your team

recreated ancient instruments. Can you tell me about some of them and the research that went into making and using them? Yeah. You know, I would say it was one of the things that Chris Nolan was very interested in. You know, that what we know from that area, you know, the Bronze Age is very, very, limited but but there's some paintings of of these ancient instruments like the the owls and and also in the actual odyssey you know the the the the the liar is part of the odyssey as well the the pluck of the the the plug of the bow sounds like the pluck of the liar um and so we just needed to

find the right people find people in the world that can still play those instruments um And there's, you know, maybe not that many in America. So so what I did was going to Europe and I found some like specialists, you know, working with Rosa, Fregaraption, an incredible liar player and Kalamonstrong, an incredible Aulus player. And these are, you know, instruments that I never worked with before. And also I think what's so interesting about these instruments is that they're so unique. So, you know, I had written music for.

for the film. I had early demos for the film that I, so I knew what the themes were and I knew what the chords were. But I needed to sit down with the musicians and, you know, they're also researchers. And I need to sit down and see, listen to how they're using their instruments

and really understand what it is that makes this instrument unique. And then I can infuse the music that I've written for the film into those instruments. Once I learn how they're, how to best optimize what makes them unique. How do you write music for an instrument like the alos that, well, I thought it hadn't been used in over a thousand years,

but I guess you found someone who plays it. But, you know, what are the challenges of that process? Yeah, I mean, not only does Colin play it, but he also makes it together with his companion Max. They have to recreate the instrument. and his friend is an incredible woodworker so they actually make the instrument from replicas from what they've seen in museums. And also they have to make the reeds as well.

So these are two basically two flutes to do double-reed pipes that you play at the same time. And what's unique about this is that when you play them at the same time, these two notes create these overtones in but you know they're the air that comes out creates these overtones so you get an incredible dynamic range of of of sounds and you can play it super super soft and you can play it super loud and the shift in tone is so interesting and and it makes

sense that this was the most popular instrument, you know, 4,000 years ago. It was, it was like the most popular instrument for about 2,000 years in the ancient, in the ancient world, up until, I think, 300 BC when Christianity became very popular and they said the instrument was too pagan. I heard an interview where you talked about how, as you've gotten older, you've realized the importance of reflecting after a project and thinking about the impact it had on you. And I was wondering what that looks like for you. Are you journaling and writing things down? Or are you just, you know, kind of taking time to contemplate or? I'm definitely taking time to contemplate. I think that's a very important part of it. And sometimes, you know, you're just forced into getting,

jumping straight into something new, which is tough. But having some time afterwards to contemplate what you did, what you went through your experience, because it's not just, it's not just music. Like you have to like also understand what it did to your life. You're like what it, like what effect did it have on me, you know, on, you know, my relationships, what effect did it have on my family? What effect, like how did I change as a person while working on this and the person I am afterwards? because I do

I do like to you know when I do really like to dive into the problems that I'm working on like very very you know heavily so like if I'm into something I'm into it

or you know 100 10% you know and so it's it's you get into it so so hard so you're when you get out of it you need some time to kind of

compress and you know, what do you call like a diver? And when you're down as a diver, you have to compress before you go up, you know? Have you had time to have, like, have those kind of reflections for the Odyssey and think about what impact it had on you? Yeah, I feel like I'm going through it right now. Yeah. Like right now is we're talking. Yeah.

So, yeah, I think it's been, and I do feel like kind of what I was saying in the beginning of our conversation was like, like, like I love going into every project with the curiosity of like learning something new. And I feel very so so happy and lucky that I'm able to learn a lot of like meeting people from completely different cultures or the play a completely different music. And so at this time, you know, this, the, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm having some time to reflect about kind of what we did and how fun it actually, you know, it was so much fun. What's one of your most fun memories? I think it was just the places I got to go to.

The first time I started writing for The Odyssey was actually in L.A. in January during the crazy fires. Oh, wow. And I remember Serena and the kids, they went up, you know, up north their parents. And like, so where I was staying, there was a, it was about to evacuate, but we didn't have to. But, but I was in the studio and we, I rented about like 40, 40 bronze gongs. So, and I had a week in the studio. And so it was a time where it was like ghostly quiet, you know, but I was in there trying to make songs, compositions just by playing these huge gongs and figuring out how I can, come up with a system where I can just make songs with just gongs. So that's where the journey started. And then a couple of months later, I was in Italy and Lippery.

They were all there on set shooting the sirens, like shooting the sirens. And then I got to go on the boat. And, you know, just step in that world for a little bit. Before I went on to my next adventure, which was going back to L.A. in the studio, right? 10 more days in a studio and in my studio write more songs and then after that I went to southern Albania recorded with some incredible musicians there so I got to I got to just travel a lot and meet a lot of incredible people it sounds like you went on your very own journey yeah this is kind of a silly question but where do you keep your awards right now they're in the

studio, which is about 10 minutes from the house. It's on the bottom shelf. And I have this bookshelf behind my couch. And that's where the words are right now. And I think I'll keep them there. You've talked about being someone who always has a five or a 10 year plan. What are some of your current goals? Do you have a dream project you haven't worked on yet? Yeah. I mean, right now my goal is to I do want to finish my record which has been sitting on in the back

of my mind since you know almost eight years ago I started it so that's uh so that's my goal now before I start my next my next movie project to finish my own record and you know just

just we always I think everyone we're always looking for the perfect balance so So I feel like every year I'm getting closer to that, you know, and also just thinking about kind of like, you know, what makes you happy in life except from work, you know. I know that work makes me really happy and playing music, but you know, finding those things, you know, outside of that. That also makes me happy is something that I'm working on too. And sometimes in this series I like to ask people what the secret to a happy marriage or relationship. is and I know that you and your wife Serena, who's a violinist and producer, also frequently collaborate together. So I wanted to ask you, what's the secret to working together so well.

I mean, first of all, it comes down to, you know, respect, you know, and we have a mutual respect for each other in terms of, you know, human beings, but also as musicians. And, you know, I really trust her opinions as a musician and what her tastes is as a musician. And I think that's a huge part of it You know Like whatever she has to say of the music that we're working on Is always just extremely important And she's able to

And she's also able to hear things that I'm not And and you know Together we're able to You know take it to the next level And bring it further And you know Yeah I'm just being able to do that with your partner

is, I think, incredible. Well, it was so much fun talking to you for this. Thank you so much for joining My Monday Morning and, you know, telling us about your mornings and your work. Thank you, Lane. It was great to be here and great talking to you. My Monday Morning is part of the Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify Studios and the Wall Street Journal.

I'm Lane Fulersheim and we'll be back with another episode of My Monday Morning next week. Follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. and follow me on Instagram at Lane Flesheim for more behind-the-scenes stuff from my Monday morning and to let me know what you think of the show. This episode was produced by Jivika Verma with help from Pia Gedkari. Edited by Catherine Brewer and Sarah Platt, video production by Peter Leonard,

original music by Nathan Singapak. Thanks so much for joining us.