MRH: I find the way you combine electronic and orchestral sounds is very different from other composers. It's like an aggregation of electronics that are used as one instrument, but they're used in a very harsh, dissonant way; almost experimental. You're actually delving into sound effects, into ambience, but it ultimately functions as a whole instrument.

JF: That's really my intention – to blur the line and not feel that area where you cross over to what is a sound effect and what is a sort of gray line there. What I'm now enjoying is being able to gray the line as to what is orchestra and what is synth; basically have them meld back and forth into each other.

In Primeval, my intention is to take these African sounds and to digitally manipulate them, so that they cross the line back and forth between being electronics sounds and being very pure, un-westernized, traditional African sounds.

MRH: Are directors and producers often open to experimentation, or do you find that they prefer something more traditional and familiar?

JF: I think that in the right situations you get a lot of experimentation. Again, we're talking about the emotions of fear and dread and horror, or even just tension where you end up with the ability to experiment more.

MRH: My last question concerns a film called The Woods, which was scored several years ago –

JF: It's showing up in Montreal 's Fantasia 2006 for its North American premiere.

MRH: I wonder if you could briefly talk about the score – how it stylistically differs from your prior scores – because it's also a unique horror film.

JF: It's a very sarcastic horror film. It's got a very wonderful sense of humor to itself. It's almost a teen angst movie, but it definitely has its horror elements, too. It takes place in the 1960s, and there are several songs by Leslie Gore that are featured in the film. I was in a sense harking back to that era, and beginning with thematic ideas that are very pure and ominous – but not scary – and then the score deteriorates progressively as the film becomes more cerebral, more dreamlike, and eventually more aleatoric, and finally just pure cacophony.

MRH: Do you know if there will be an album for the score?

JF: I would like there to be. I just got a call from the director, Lucky McKee, who said the film will be showing very soon, so we'll just see what happens to the film after that. It's certainly a very interesting and wonderful film with really great subjects and acting, and I hope people get a chance to see it.

MRH: Is this the version that McKee originally edited together, because I understand that there were some changes that were made in the interim.

JF: Yeah, there were a lot of changes, but I think Lucky loves this version, which is the final version of the film… I worked very closely with him on this version, and he's very proud of it.