Jake Gyllenhaal

Actor Jake Gyllenhaal was heavily influenced by his parents’ musical tastes and repaid the favor with a Guest DJ set dedicated entirely to family – from the folk song that his dad sang him to sleep to the live track that makes him sob on set. He also puts his performer hat on, with a host of great imitations – including a few of Director Jim Sheridan, who directed him in the new film “Brothers.”

For more: www.brothersfilm.com/

Tracks

1.) Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - The River (Live)

2.) Burl Ives - The Fox

3.) Danny Kaye - Inchworm

4.) Saint-Saëns - Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso

5.) Loudon Wainwright III - A Father and a Son

Transcript

Liza Richardson: Hi, I’m Liza Richardson from KCRW, and I am here with actor Jake Gyllenhaal. We will be playing excerpts of songs that have inspired him over the years as part of KCRW’s Guest DJ Project. How’s it going, Jake?

JG: Actually, I just did this movie with Jim Sheridan called “Brothers” and randomly he picked this song “The River,” by Bruce Springsteen. He picked the live version. During rehearsals he would play it, and then he would play it on set too to get us in the mood of the scene, or he would play it in the middle of the scene. And so there’s this scene in the film where my brother has died and I am with his wife. We don’t get along very well, but as the movie has progressed we’ve started to get along better. We’re sitting together in front of a fire and we end up kissing at the end of the scene, which makes the movie very complex, and Jim decided to play this song, play “The River.”

JG: I would pick “The Fox” and this version is by Burl Ives. My father used to sing this to me -- and I love Burl Ives just as a character, just as a musician -- and when I was a little kid we were robbed outside of our house. We were driving home, we pulled up and we were robbed and ever since I was always really nervous about falling asleep, you know, naturally, and so my dad would sing this to me before I’d go to bed.

JG: So I would say “Inchworm,” would be my next choice because Danny Kaye was and is still a HUGE influence on me as an actor and a performer. I just watched him so much when I was a kid and he had this love of entertaining, I think I’ve heard also about him this real love of children and caring for them, and you can tell that it in this song

JG: This is “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,” by Saint-Saëns, it’s the Philadelphia Orchestra with Sarah Chang. I just imagine the finger work of this soloist and people who play fretless instruments always boggle me. I’m always am amazed like, ‘That has no frets?!’ *laughs* And this in particular, I’m taken so many places with this song. It really broke me out as a kid into the emotions and the intensity of classical music. This is another one of those things where I just remember being in the car and this is something that my father played me, and he’s *imitates his father’s voice* ‘Listen how the violin just dances on top of all the orchestra and then when the orchestra comes in…!’ You know, it’s so intense this song

JG: My last one is called “A Father and A Son,” by Loudon Wainwright III. Although it’s called “A Father and A Son,” it was actually played for me by my mother first. Loudon Wainwright is extraordinary. Rufus is a friend of mine and I think he’s extraordinary.