Roger writes music for 'Ascenders' book trailer

The story from MTV:

‘Ascenders’ Is Supernatural Teen Angst Like You’ve Never Seen It Before

The Cure's Roger O'Donnell shares his inspiration for the book trailer's score.
by Kase Wickman

The afterlife has always been a great big question mark: where do we go when we die? Do we go anywhere?

As the new book “Ascenders: High School for the Recently Departed” by C.L. Gaber sees it, those whose lives are cut extremely short — think in the teen years — go to an adolescent in-between known as The Academy. The human brain isn’t fully formed until age 24, so even if a person is dead, their formative years aren’t necessarily over.

There are no rules at The Academy — you’re already dead, so what’s the worst that could happen?

MTV News is exclusively debuting the book trailer, featuring music by Roger O’Donnell of The Cure. O’Donnell told MTV News that it was “Ascenders” fresh take on the supernatural teen genre that inspired him to write a score for the trailer.

“It just sounded like a really intriguing take on the all these kind of zombie and vampire and ghost stories; a new take on it,” he said. “I thought it was really interesting, and it inspired me to write music.”

That’s not just lip service, either.

“I’m not a craft composer, it has to be a real feeling or inspiration thing. If I wasn’t feeling it I’d have to say ’I’m sorry, I can’t do this,'” he said.

He began with a piano throughline, then added cello, choral and various instrumentals to flesh out his score, which he said came from “a place of uneasiness and sadness.”

“A kind of desperation, a kind of loss, when a life is cut short. It’s like the loss of what should come from that,” he said of his score’s tone.

Plus, it’s not like unease and sadness are unfamiliar themes for him: “Those kinds of emotions come easily to me, I’ve been in The Cure for 30 years, I can do sad,” he said, laughing.