Interview with the director of Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn

NWR:  ...And that basically started that whole fascination with Europop, because I essentially wanted this whole Eurovision sound."

Like the song contest?

NWR: "Yeah, it was a certain kind of pop that was made in the late '70s and early '80s in Europe, that would mostly come out of Germany and Italy and so forth, a little bit of the U.K. You know, pop-ish, electronic sounds that came out of the whole Kraftwerk electronic wave of the late '70s. So when I was making the movie — because I always try to figure out what kind of music a film would be that I make — I would use that music to give me inspiration. A bit like a fetish. It would give me images because I don't do drugs any more. The electronic score was something I knew I wanted to use, and I listened to a lot of Kraftwerk when I was developing the film, and while I was shooting it. And then in [post-production], we would find these songs, and then I would have Cliff Martinez emulate the sound of it."

It's funny you mention Eurovision, because the soundtrack is very international. There are musicians from Brazil and France and Canada and the United States and yet it fits very well within the setting of Los Angeles at night and the idea of being alone in your car. Was there some idea of Los Angeles that you were trying to illustrate?

NWR: "What's interesting about L.A. is that it basically feels like a city that never left the '80s. Everything about L.A. — the architecture and the feel of the city — it just feels so '80s in all it's aspects. The lighting, the kind of golden glow aura is very '80s appeal. And a lot of the stuff came out of ideas I had while listening to music. Like the white satin scorpion jacket came out of listening to Kiss's 'I Was Made For Loving You' like 1,000 times over and over again in a car."

Back on September 14th I linked to the following cool video provided by a commenter at Crooked Timber. It's from a 1979 Italian movie Zombie 2. Note the awesome Europop music.