Angela Leus, senior vice president of Film Music at Universal Pictures, on how the "Forgotten Island" soundtrack came together
H.E.R., Bini, Lea Salonga and Katseye’s Sophia Laforteza are among the artists leading the soundtrack on Dreamworks Animation’s “Forgotten Island.”
The film, which is set to preview at next week’s Annecy Animation Film Festival, will open in theaters later this year. It follows H.E.R. and Liza Soberano as the voices of Jo and Raissa, two best friends who embark on one last adventure together. Their journey takes them into a night filled with shapeshifters, demons and witches, testing their friendship as they struggle to find their way out of a magical portal and return home.
The music in the film blends influences from the 1980s and ’90s, particularly drawing inspiration from Filipino and Filipino-American musical culture.
When Angela Leus, senior vice president of Film Music at Universal Pictures and a Filipina-American, first met with the film’s directors — Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado — they agreed that the music in the film had to be rooted in authenticity. Having grown up in the Philippines and surrounded by the music her parents loved, Leus saw an opportunity to pay homage to the artists who influenced her life while also raising awareness of Filipino music and artists from both older and newer generations.
“From the very beginning, I said, ‘I need to be aware of every Filipino music creator out there,’ so it was a deep dive and a lot of reaching out to our community in the Philippines and here,” Leus says. “It was about educating myself on who’s out there.”
Hot off wowing Coachella both weekends, P-Pop band Bini deliver a new song for the soundtrack, titled “A Parallel World,” produced by composer Nathan Matthew David and Shawn Wasabi. When it came to Bini, Leus already had them on her radar very early on.
“Joel and Jan had a very creative understanding of what the music was going to be, so it was very easy to come to them and say, ‘There’s this group called Bini — they’re amazing.’ It was a no-brainer and easy to get to that point,” she says. The song incorporates David’s friendship theme for Jo and Raissa but reimagines it in a fresh way.
Similarly, the film features a remixed version of INXS’ classic “Never Tear Us Apart,” sung by Katseye’s Sophia Laforteza, for an emotional moment between the two friends.
Leus explains that the INXS tune was important to the filmmakers and encapsulated the relationship between Jo and Raissa. “It was important for us to use the original INXS recording because it signified their friendship as young girls. But as you see them grow, that’s where the idea to bring in Sophia Laforteza from Katseye — who’s a badass — came from. She put a new twist on it to signify the evolution of their friendship,” Leus says, adding: “The song parallels their friendship and captures the journey from where they were to what they become.”
The film’s two female leads, H.E.R. and Soberano, are at the helm of the film’s title track “Forgotten Island.” Their voices capture the nostalgia, warmth and joy that radiate from their characters and the movie as a whole. Leus says neither she nor the filmmakers wanted to assume that H.E.R. would create an original song. “Everything needed to come from an organic place,” Leus says. “But when H.E.R. saw the film, she was so inspired that she decided to write something — and she was even more inspired to bring in Liza.”
Leus adds, “We’re so lucky to have that as the end result because it’s a perfect representation of Jo and Raissa in the story, but also of two strong Filipinas.” She further teases that “we wanted to make sure there’s Tagalog in the song. As a Filipina, hearing that song, seeing it on screen, and hearing the Tagalog language on a global stage is incredibly special.”
And what would the soundtrack be without Salonga’s vocals?
When composing the music, David had the idea of having Salonga create vocalizations to bring musicality to the film. Leus says, “She was able to bring that in a musical way while staying true to the story. Watching Lea Salonga work — she’s such a pro and a badass.”
Aside from original songs by SB19 and Ruby Ibarra, who sings “Salbaha Ako,” the soundtrack also includes DMX’s “Party Up” and Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out.”
When it came to composing the film’s score, David knew it needed a nostalgic feeling. “We leaned heavily on analog synths from that era,” he says. There are elements of ’80s pop and hip-hop. But when the girls stumble into the mystical portal and end up on the island of Nakali, “the story evolves, and so does the sound,” David says. He introduces music and instruments from indigenous Filipino tribes, utilizing traditional Filipino instruments like chanters, the Las Piñas bamboo pipe organ, and a Filipino choir singing Tagalog phrases.
For David, the score wasn’t just about incorporating unique sounds from the Philippines — it was about using them with intention. For Salonga’s dreaded creature, he used the talking gong, known as the indigenous gandingan, a traditional instrument of the southern Philippines.
Crawford and Mercado shared their excitement. Crawford said, “What’s been thrilling for us all along is giving a voice to Filipino culture and Filipino stories, and seeing how that has translated into this freshness in the music. Whether it’s having Bini perform — who’s sweeping the world with their talent — or having Sophia Laforteza bring a new perspective to a classic song like ‘Never Tear Us Apart,’ all these voices, which people may already be aware of, are now getting a center stage. It’s really cool.”
He added, “Many amazingly talented Filipino artists have come together to create this unified experience. We couldn’t have imagined it coming together this perfectly.”