“Twisters” director Lee Isaac Chung wanted to capture the spirit and culture of storm trackers, whose profession requires a great deal of time in cars and trucks.
“Everybody I talked to in Oklahoma who chases, music is such an integral part of it,” said Chung when he was a recent guest on IndieWire’s Toolkit podcast. “Anytime I’d ask, ‘What’s on your playlist?’ you’d see them break into a smile, and everybody has a different music choice.”
In the Chung household, there is a rule: Whoever is driving picks the music. On “Twisters,” director Chung drove the proverbial train, and the country music lover got to build his dream soundtrack. For a film that takes part mostly on dirt roads in rural areas of Oklahoma, with characters driving into storms when most sane people are headed in the other direction, an outlaw country music sound also made sense. In fact, when Chung first read Mark L. Smith’s script, he’d been listening to Chris Stapleton and imagined Tyler (Glen Powell) listening to the country artist’s music as he read.
“I’d never seen a country album in an action film before,” said Chung. “That was the idea I had, and everybody at Universal [was] really excited about that opportunity. Then, we brought on Kevin Weaver at Atlantic Records [who] helped us run with it.”
Universal film music executives Mike Knobloch and Rachel Levy saw great potential in Chung’s idea for the soundtrack and encouraged the “Twisters” team to go all in on the idea: Instead of licensing music, they should create an original soundtrack. At this point, the studio partnered with Weaver, Atlantic Records West Coast president and a two-time Grammy Award-winning producer.
Chung’s approach to working with country acts wasn’t simply to ask his favorite performers to contribute a song. Instead, he and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire identified ideal moments for new songs, sent the musicians an edited version of the scenes, and asked them to write for that particular moment in the movie.
“They would just be responding to what they’re seeing,” said Chung. “I was sending scenes over to people who I’m just super fans of like Luke Combs, and they would just send something back within a day or two. It was incredible.”
Chung would hop on the phone with some artists to discuss the sequence and supply context, so the musicians would have a better sense of what they were writing for.
“I would tell them what’s going on, what it means, who the characters are, and just the mood and vibe of what’s going on,” said Chung. “When I talked to Miranda Lambert, I was saying, ‘This person, it’s about Kate Carter [Daisy Edgar-Jones], she’s kind of a badass,’ and Miranda said, ‘Well, badass girl is kind of my thing.’”
In total, the “Twisters” soundtrack is comprised of 29 tracks, 19 of which are original songs, two are new cover tracks of classic country hits, and eight were “inspired by” the film. A full tracklist is below.
IN-FILM ORIGINALS
1 “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma” – Luke Combs
2 “Ain’t in Kansas Anymore” – Miranda Lambert
3 “Steal My Thunder” – Conner Smith (feat. Tucker Wetmore)
4 “Feelin’ Country” – Thomas Rhett
5 “The Cards I’ve Been Dealt” – Warren Zeiders
6 “Never Left Me” – Megan Moroney
7 “Out of Oklahoma” – Lainey Wilson
8 “Hell or High Water” – Bailey Zimmerman
9 “Dead End Road” – Jelly Roll
10 “Country Classic” – Kane Brown
11 “Tear Us Apart” – Sam Barber
12 “Song While You’re Away” – Tyler Childers
13 “Already Had It” – Tucker Wetmore
14 “Chrome Cowgirl” – Leon Bridges
15 “Death Wish Love” – Benson Boone
16 “Boots Don’t” – Shania Twain & Breland
17 “Chasing the Wind” – Lanie Gardner
18 “Leave the Light On” – Jelly Roll (feat. Alexandra Kay)
19 “Too Easy” – Tanner Adell
IN-FILM COVERS
1 “Wall of Death” – Wilderado, Ken Pomeroy, & James McAlister
2 “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” – Charley Crockett
SOUNDTRACK-ONLY “INSPIRED BY” TRACKS
1 “Stronger Than a Storm” – Dylan Gossett
2 “Before I Do” – Wyatt Flores & Jake Kohn
3 “Caddo County” – The Red Clay Strays
4 “Blackberry Wine” – Tanner Usrey
5 “Shake Shake (All Night Long)” – Mason Ramsey
6 “New Loop” – Tyler Halverson
7 “Touchdown” – Flatland Cavalry
8 “Driving You Home” – Nolan Taylor
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