Jake Xerxes Fussell from North Carolina and James Elkington from Chicago teamed up to create music for Max Walker-Silverman’s movie Rebuilding, and their first soundtrack drops on November 14, right when the film hits theaters in New York.
Before the film even starts rolling, you can listen to “Contemplating the Moon” and “Glow in the Dark”—two tracks that really set the mood. The producer, Dan Janvey, shared, “I could hear the cinema in it right away.” He talked about how Jake’s sound feels old but fresh at the same time, almost like the movie itself, where the past is close but everything feels current. Janvey added, “And since so much of his music has no lyrics, Jake already understood the challenge of telling a story through instrumentation alone.”
Elkington said something cool too: “I think Max had a suspicion that we’d be able to improvise a couple of new pieces in the room, while watching the picture, which turned out to be true. Some of our favorite cues were written that way—in the room while watching the picture.” That sounds like a fun way to make music together.
Fans sometimes wonder how these artists keep surprising us with new ideas.
Elkington has actually worked with Fussell before, producing his last two records—Good and Green Again in 2022 and When I’m Called in 2024. Plus, Elkington put out his own album called Pastel de Nada earlier this year.
Switching gears, Rebuilding is the director’s first movie since A Love Song in 2022. This one is about Josh O’Connor playing a cowboy whose ranch in southern Colorado gets destroyed by a wildfire. The cast also includes Lily LaToree, Meghann Fahy, Kali Reis, and Amy Madigan. Sometimes, I wonder if the actors ever get to hear the music before filming those big scenes.
