Alex Gibney goes into four hours of detail in his documentary Musk. Over the end credits, songwriter Daniel Pemberton and singer David Byrne summarize Elon Musk in one song, “Let Me Sell You a Dream.”
In a virtual Q&A at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Film event, they shared how the song’s title and chorus encapsulate the mogul.
“We had this one idea of let me sell you a dream, which was the way in,” Pemberton said. “How do you encapsulate who Musk is? At the end of the day I think he’s an amazing salesperson who sells these dreams that are maybe not really reality.”
Byrne remembers recognizing the line during their brainstorming session. The two musicians met outside a London coffee shop.
“Somewhere in our conversation there, that phrase came up, let me sell you a dream,” Byrne said. “And I thought, ‘There’s our chorus. That’s our chorus line right there.’”
Clockwise from top let: Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro, David Byrne and Daniel Pemberton
JC Olivera for Deadline
Pemberton also composes the score for the entire film. He needed a song to bring the energy back up at the end.
“There was a Flaming Lips song,” Byrne said. “It was very dreamy. Daniel said to me, ‘I think we need something really upbeat and hard-hitting after that. We don’t want to end on this floating dreamy note. We want to just then hit with something hard, grab your attention and bring the energy at the end.’”
Gibney suggested Byrne, Pemberton remembered. Given Byrne’s career with the band Talking Heads, as a solo artist and filmmaker, Pemberton agreed.
“I think David is a generational commentator and observer,” Pemberton said. “We sat outside the coffee shop and I literally played this early idea in my head off my phone to him, and that got us talking. We went back to my studio. We looked at a few things but then we worked very remotely and we talked about the idea for the song. Then David just ran with it.”
Byrne was previously Oscar nominated for his song “This Is a Life” with Ryan Lott and Mitski for the Best Picture Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. After Musk. He is open to more film work.
“My phone’s right there,” Byrne said. “If I get the calls then who knows what can happen? A lot of those were the same kind of thing. Somebody calls up and goes hey, do you think you can do this?”
Check out the conversation in the panel video above.
