We recently set up an interview with songwriter, film composer and actor Peter Salett. His songs have been featured in films such as Down in the Valley, Wet Hot American Summer, and most recently Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He has just released this fifth long-player, In the Ocean of Stars.

Brightest Young Things: So, what was the general mission statement going into your new record, In the Ocean of the Stars (Dusty Shoes)?

Peter Salett: I don’t know if there was one at the beginning. It developed along the way with my use of strings. I wanted to write songs with different stylistic elements, but with the strings coming through. I wanted to draw together the strings of American music with my use of strings.

BYT: How is this an evolution of your sound from your past records?

PS: Well, I hadn’t used strings before. Once I used a minor-key violin solo. But there were many similarities. Probably a little more piano. But I’d say [my body of work] functions more of a piece

BYT: It’s interesting that you said that. I noticed that most of In the Ocean of Stars doesn’t really stick to a certain genre, but they work as a whole.

PS: When I write, I try to be specific. It just happens naturally. I take a long time to write record, and if I hear something, I’ll pick up and it will find its way into the record. I’m not doing an imitative thing. I want every song to be its own thing with its own narrator. If I order the record correctly, I’ll hear it naturally moving from one thing to another. One thing I hate is that you get a record nowadays because you like one song, and then the entire record is same song. I like to get away from that.

BYT: I understand you release your music on your label, Dusty Shoes.

PS: It’s my own label, and I’ve been putting out your own records since 1998. There are positives and negatives to that, but it allows me to make the record I want, without listening to anybody except the friends I play it for.

BYT: What inspired your move to LA?

PS: I think it was… In New York I had been doing the same thing, being a singer songwriter, in stages, a natural sine curve of going up and down in popularity. I got a job scoring a film called Down in the Valley, and I stayed in LA for 4 months working on that. My songs had been used in movies before, but I didn’t get a chance to score one, and I dug that. I stayed in LA because it was a better place to do that. I still go back to NY, when I can to play shows.

BYT: Is scoring and self-publishing your way out from the car-crash music industry?

PS: It’s had something to do with that, but I don’t consciously do that. It’s been difficult for artists to sell a ton of records and survive solely on that. I think it was a natural thing to get my music out there and get paid. It was a very organic thing. I had a lot artists come to my shows in New York, and a lot of those people moved on to movies. I stayed in contact with those creative circles, and it has helped me get work.

BYT: Your most recent film work was in the Judd Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall. What was it like working in the Apatow machine?

PS: Well, it was the first big-budget movie I was a part of. The Apatow machine is like any crazy creative family. You have all these crazy creative people underneath Judd. He’s mastered the ability to give people opportunities and yet still have control.

BYT: What was your songwriting process working on those songs?

PS: The first drafts for Russell [Brant’s] songs were both written by [screenwriter and actor] Jason Segel. I made a bunch of changes to them, added chords here and there, and made the words scan better. After that, I worked with Russell on singing, teaching him the songs and figuring out how the character would sing them.

BYT: Is this generally how it is writing songs for films? A collaborative process?

PS: Yeah, it can work so many different ways. You know, everyone has a opinion, so it can become a lot of people putting different parts and contributing different ideas, that way they feel like they have some part of it.

BYT: I am obligated to ask you this: What’s your favorite Sarah Palin rumor?

PS: Jeese, anything I’ll tell you will be outdated by the time it’s written! Well, I know that the National Inquirer reported that Palin has had an affair with a business associate in the governor’s office, and how her campaign is trying to keep quiet his divorce.

BYT: Any plans to come out and play DC anytime soon?

PS: No plans just yet. It all comes down to how busy I am in LA. You know, I love coming to DC. I’ve played 9:30 and Iota many, many times, and I do have some friends and fans there. Give my regards to DC, and tell them I’m coming.

You can snag a copy of In the Ocean of the Stars (Dusty Shoes) now.

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