“I’m a Casting Director for Music”: A Conversation With Karyn Rachtman

Over the last 30 years, Karyn Rachtman has brought her taste and business savvy to some of the most iconic soundtracks of all time: Clueless, Pulp Fiction, Reality Bites, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and Boogie Nights, just to name a few. Rachtman, who now runs her own music supervision firm, Mind Your Music, and lives in New Zealand, called Pitchfork to talk about career hangups, convincing musicians to participate in scandalous scenes, and one unforgettable dream meeting.

Pitchfork: When you’re not actively working on a movie, do you look for songs to put on the back burner for future soundtracks?

Karyn Rachtman: Back in the day, I was a hoarder. I could go into Tower Records with an expense account. If I liked the artwork, if somebody told me about the band, if it was from a different country, I would always pick up whatever cassette was on the shelf. Now, I’m really appreciating the daily mixes on Spotify, even though I always prided myself on being that person who digs through crates. When people just send me general submissions, I usually listen to the more obscure stuff. I figure I’ll hear all the pop stuff anyway, but I’m not really into pop, and I don’t think people are hiring me on projects because I’m going to bring them a pop song.

Is being a music supervisor way more business-focused than people assume?

It’s a creative business, but it’s business. I’m like the casting director for music. Like, tell me what you’re looking for, I’m going to get it for you. In the case of Quentin Tarantino, I got to put in my two cents on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. He knew every song he wanted but he was told he couldn’t have them, like Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You” for Reservoir Dogs. I didn’t even have the job and I was on the phone begging and pleading Stealers Wheel members Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty to let us use it. One of them was religious and didn’t like the idea of using their song to a scene where somebody’s ear gets cut off. And I had to be like, “By the way, I don’t have any money.”

Paul Thomas Anderson came to me because he wanted to make sure his vision for Boogie Nights was delivered and that he got the songs he wanted. It was very hard to get people to commit their songs in a movie about porn. It’s a lot of strategy and planning. How are you going to get these people involved? Most of the time, it all comes down to how good your film is—and in my early career, I worked with great directors.

When you’re reaching out to musicians and labels, do you always have to describe the scene?

Absolutely—and sometimes, you play it down. Like for Reservoir Dogs’s ear-cutting scene, I would hype up the movie, then if it’s anything that might turn off the publisher or the record company or the artist, you explain the best you can. Sometimes, you selectively leave things out.