In an interview with the Sabatoge Times, Matt Biffa talks about why he chose Nick Cave’s ‘O Children’ for the Harry/Hermione dance scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as mentioning his work on Goblet of Fire.  Some of that interview may be read below, but there is far more at the source, so be sure to check it out.

Why did you select Nick Cave’s O Children for ‘that scene’ in The Deathly Hallows? What was your creative process?
Well first of all, my job here was to send songs to the three Davids, and David Yates made the final decision in consultation with the others. I try not to second-guess the director too much, and to that end, I always think my job is to just put the songs out there and see how they go down. It’s just as important to know what doesn’t work, and why, as what does, so you have to be as broad as possible.

First I read the script, at least five times to start with, and countless times after that. It was beautifully written, and there was this real palpable sadness in it – all those beautiful little touches, like the toy soldiers lying abandoned in the cupboard under the stairs, and Hermione tying the scarf to the tree after Ron’s departure – that was all there, and it was all really evocative.

So then I just focused on the dancing scene itself, which on the page was all of about five inches wide, just thinking about how Harry and Hermione felt. I did that solidly for about a month, reading it again and again, listening to hundreds of songs. Basically, it was pretty daunting, because I knew if we got it wrong we’d be crucified, especially as the scene wasn’t in the book. So really that meant we couldn’t have anything that had been used in a film or on television before, but also, there are certain songs that would pull you out of the wizard world and into ours.

When did you first hear the song  O Children?
I first came across O Children in 2004, and to be honest, I’d been saving it for the right scene since then. You do that with songs, sometimes. I knew it would be incredible, but that it needed something extraordinary to really do it justice. Anyway, truth is, I’d started listening to the song again because at the time my wife and I were going through a really tough time, and I was sort of using the song to help me through…we were about to separate, and I was terrified we were going to really hurt our little boys, who were one and three at the time. I totally identified with the lyrics: “Forgive us now for what we’ve done, it started out as a bit of fun”, “we’re older now and the light is dim, and you are only just beginning”, and particularly ”we’re all weeping now, weeping because there ain’t nothing we can do to protect you”. So in many ways, it had become a sort of love letter to my sons, if that’s not too cheesy, and then when I started working on this, I realised that it seemed as if it had everything that David wanted.