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Superbad may just be the summer’s funniest – and sweetest – movie. Eschewing gross-out humor and other lurid American Pie-isms, it’s a heartfelt coming-of-age flick in wolf’s clothing. What else would you expect, seeing as how Judd Apatow regular Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Undeclared, Freaks & Geeks) and pal Evan Goldberg began the semi-autobiographical script when they were just 14? There are huge laughs to be had as our heroes – loudmouth Seth (Knocked Up’s Jonah Hill), timid Evan (Arrested Development’s Michael Cera) and the geeky sidekick best known as “McLovin” (secret weapon Christopher Mintz-Plasse) – make a long day’s journey into night in search of liquor and young love. But it’s those pathos-dripping characters and their smart, lively, and authentic banter that separates Superbad from the teen-comedy pack.

Oh, and there’s the bouncy soundtrack, featuring the Bar-Kays, the Roots, Curtis Mayfield, Rick James and Sergio Mendes, among others. The score and incidental music, composed by longtime session guitarist Lyle Workman with funk legend Bootsy Collins leading The Superbad Band, keeps with that carefree, feel-good vibe. This is Workman’s third score for a Judd Apatow production, following the Will Ferrell soccer comedy Kicking & Screaming and a little film called The 40-Year-Old Virgin. He’s also toured with Beck and Todd Rundgren for two years each and done studio time with everyone from Frank Black and Jessica Simpson to Rhett Miller and Shakira.

Workman was good enough to tell SIS all about his experiences creating the white-hot Superbad soundtrack, available now on Lakeshore Records.

Stranded In Stereo: Do you watch clips from a movie when composing the music?

Lyle Workman: It varies, depending on the project. Generally I’ll see a rough cut of the movie. That can often be a three-hour film. (Laughs) It’s just to get a feel for what’s going and see if any music is temped in. After that I would get some scenes to work on. Sometimes it can be the last scene, the most crucial scene, and then I work backwards. If you’re making cookies, you want to start with the flour, not the icing.

SIS: How did you start working with Judd Apatow?

LW: I actually did a little work on Judd’s production, Kicking & Screaming. That got me the opportunity to provide me a demo for The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

SIS: Why do think your demo was picked?

LW: I guess there was something in the music that showed him I had a sensibility that he found was closer to anybody else’s demos. [I wasn’t] given any direction. It was just a scene from the movie. But I knew it was a comedy. The demo was a scene that got cut from the movie entirely.

SIS: So for Superbad, music supervisor Jonathan Karp assembled all this vintage funk and asked you to follow suit?

LW: Prior to me being at all involved, he put in late-’60s, early-’70s R&B and funk. That was the concept from the beginning. And the movie’s called Superbad. I believe the James Brown song “Superbad” was temped in. It was obvious to me and everyone else that we had to stick with that [vibe]. The easiest way to keep the integrity was to enlist the musicians who made those records. And we got all the top names we were after. Bootsy and some of the other guys played in James Brown’s band. It was a big family reunion we amassed in our head. Once we figured out that’s what we wanted, it was my task to write the music. Over the next few months I’d demo the music in my studio and bring in musicians. The time came and we booked the studio and flew everyone out. It was a very interesting process of recording the music because usually everything is written out and followed, but this was more like rehearsing a band. It was refreshing. We wanted to forgo the use of a click track, which is very crucial because it establishes the beginning and end and pacing of the track. [But] you don’t get these drummers and confine them. You want them to use their natural skill. We nailed it. We got that feel of a loose band.

SIS: Was it weird being in charge after so much time as a session musician yourself?

LW: I’ve spent enough time doing both now that I’m comfortable wearing both hats. As a player, I know what I like. But the tone is set by the person in charge. I really wanted to provide an atmosphere of fun and relaxation. That was my prime directive.

SIS: People sometimes think that fun music is somehow easier to play.

LW: The reverse can almost be true. To make the easiest music, technically, requires more skill to make it sound legitimate and make it sound real. For a guitar player, a blues scale is one of the first things you learn when you want to play leads, and that’s basically everything B.B. King plays. But there’s a universe between him and the average guitar player.

SIS: Was it tough capturing a very specific genre of music without carbon-copying it?

LW: I’m working with pictures so I’m having to encompass another medium into the music. There’s never any desire to carbon copy something. In this case, I was trying to make music that sounded like it was made from that period originally, like, ‘That’s a cool funk song.’ I was really trying to write songs as if I was in a funk band in the late ’60s, early ’70s, but sometimes that worked against the picture.

SIS: What’s next for you?

LW: I’m up for [composing music for] a couple of films, but nothing I can talk about. I’m working on a solo project that’s just solo guitar music. And I have a lot of session work.

SIS: It seems like you’ve worked with pretty much everybody.

LW: I’ve been really lucky.