Ryan Lott of the band Son Lux is preparing for his performance at the 95th Oscars ceremony, which airs Sunday, March 12 on WRTV.
The film Everything Everywhere All At Once is nominated for 11 Academy Awards including best picture, best original score and best original song.
Son Lux’s 49-track Everything Everywhere All At Once score, includes collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne, Randy Newman, Moses Sumney and more.
"It was a ton of work, I'm not gonna lie. There's so much music in this movie. It has to do so many different things, in succession, all at once," Lott said.
Son Lux began as a solo project for Lott, but it expanded to include Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia in 2014.
During the pandemic, the three worked in separate locations to finish the score for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Lott completed most of his work in Indianapolis.
"We've got tons of family there, so it was a really perfect place for us to spend the season," Lott said.
Lott is a graduate of the IU School of Music in Bloomington, where he majored in composition.
"I played in a band. I made some longtime, lifelong friends, including my lovely wife Jennifer," he said. "I would hit the concert hall in the evening, and then late at night I would go do a show at The Bluebird or Kilroy's."
Jennifer teaches dance at USC, but she's originally from Indianapolis. In March of 2020, the two were living in LA with their son who was 3-years-old at the time.
"It was March 15th, 2020 and everything was really shutting down," Lott recalls.
Jennifer had a trip planned to visit Indianapolis for spring break.
"Things were getting really wild. So I was like, I'm gonna go with y'all because I don't want to get separated. So I got on the plane with them and then we just did not take the return flight."
Lott and his wife stayed in Indianapolis until the summer of 2022.
"It's where almost all of the work for the score for this film, Everything Everywhere All At Once was done. Right there in Broad Ripple."
Now, he has two Oscars nominations for his work. Something he says was completely unexpected.
"We all knew that the potential of this movie was extraordinary," Lott said. "But it also goes against the grain in so many ways that we were more prepared for it to just be beloved by a few and then kind of move on."
Everything Everywhere All At Once is leading the nominations among all the films for the Oscars.
"No way did I think that was coming. No way. No way," Lott said. "I'm actually the only person in music who has two nominations this year. I think both of them are a long shot, but you know, this whole thing has been a long shot. So who knows?"
Lott will perform "This is a Life" which is nominated for best original song from Everything Everywhere All At Once with David Byrne and Stephanie Hsu during the Oscars ceremony.
