Noah Baumbach’s movies regularly feature people who debate and rave about their favorite bands with the zeal of a true believer. Over his 25-year career, the writer-director has also used music references and cues to amplify his characters’ messy, hyper-specific emotions: From the son who plagiarizes Pink Floyd in The Squid and the Whale to Ben Stiller defending Duran Duran as “great coke music” in Greenberg to Greta Gerwig joyously dancing down the street to David Bowie’s “Modern Love” in Frances Ha. And when it comes to his movies’ scores, he’s worked with similarly analytical artists including Randy Newman, James Murphy, and Dean Wareham.

Baumbach has said that he considers his characters’ taste in music when writing a script. So when I ask him what the two leads of his gut-wrenching new film Marriage Story like to listen to, he doesn’t hesitate before answering. “Nicole [Scarlett Johansson] grew up with musicals, and she and her mom and sister would go to New York to see shows and then perform the songs together back at home,” he explains. “Charlie [Adam Driver], coming from Indiana, would listen to a lot of heavy metal or classic rock, and then once he came to New York, his taste shifted more to art-rock.” As he talks about his favorite records, it’s clear that the Brooklyn-born Baumbach’s own taste has shifted substantially over time, too.