Bear McCreary
When I got hired on 'Battlestar,' they said 'No themes!' At the time 'Battlestar' came out, if you were making a scifi show and you heard the word 'theme,' what most people think of is Luke staring off into the twin sunsets and the French horn is playing BIG! And they really did not want to do this.
A theme can be a little melody, it can be a couple of notes. It can underscore and add subtext.
The first season of 'Human Target' was to me the pinnacle of my career as a composer. It pushed me to become a much more sophisticated orchestral writer.
I read 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' when I was in middle school. But it was the films which brought Middle Earth alive for me. Those films changed my life: I was in my early 20s when they came out, and they made me feel like a kid again.
Diversity in sound, just like diversity in storytelling, is a great thing.
The harfoots are nomadic. And if a society is on the move, its instruments have to be portable.
One of the great things about working on 'Battlestar' is, while we don't use orchestra all the time, when we do, I don't need to put up a fight for it. The episodes that require an orchestral presence are self-evident, and everybody at Sci Fi and the producers know it's money well-spent.
Typically, I think television music is meant to be consistent from episode to episode, to remind you what show you're watching. I feel like I've done that on 'Battlestar.'
People that don't write, whatever it is, they just assume you sit down and it magically pours out like Amaedus, and it's definitely humbling to know that it doesn't necessarily happen that way.
I like to bring something unique to every project I take on, something that can immediately hook the audience and tell them what show or film they're watching, or game they're playing.
At first glance, I was nervous that 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' would be difficult to approach... It ties together a cinematic universe that spans years of characters, storylines and scores by talented composers. The instant I saw the pilot, I connected immediately with the characters.
To me, a superheroic score is only as good as its main theme. If you're not singing the tune in the shower a few days after hearing it, then an opportunity has been lost.
To me, the bar for television music is forever set by Shirley Walker's score for 'Batman: The Animated Series.'
I understand fans being hesitant to embrace 'The Rings of Power.'
When I was between the ages of 5 and 8 years old, I fell in love with the music of composers like Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Alan Silvestri, and John Williams.
I was growing up at a time when you just couldn't go to the movies without hearing immortal film music. And I inherited from all these composers, I think, a love of musical personality.
I feel like the score is a chance for an artist to exercise their voice and augment a film.
I approach everything from the same perspective which is character and story, which then influence the musical style.
There are tons of 'go-to' scary sounds in film scoring.
When I'm thinking about themes for Elrond, Elendil, Isildur, these are characters that I think all fans have an idea where they're going to go. So I wanted to write a theme for them, and Sauron as well.
I feel like deep down inside, I think I am one of the dwarves.
I always love to use exciting colors from cultural music from around the world in my scores.
Remember, a TV pilot is like an experiment. You try it out, and if it works, then they make it a series. So, the cheaper you can make the pilot the better.
I mean, if anything, 'Dark Void' is the bridge between 'Battlestar' and 'Human Target.'
I think as a composer, you need to have enough of a reputation so that people know if they give you the budget you're not going to screw it up.
Well, all of my shows are done with live instruments.
There was a time after doing 'Battlestar Galactica,' where I had my pick of projects that wanted taiko drums and ethnic vocals. You know, that was like, I was the guy who did that.
Going into 'Da Vinci's Demons' I didn't know anything about renaissance music and going into 'Black Sails,' I didn't know about sea shanties and popular music from the 1700s.
Yes, there have been musicians on both sides of my family going back several generations.
There's always been a lot of musical talent in our family.
My brother grew up listening to rock n' roll and then he started to discover film music. I was the exact opposite. I grew up listening to nothing but film music.
I didn't listen to anything with electric bass, guitars, or drums until I was fifteen!
The 'Black Sails' theme is purposefully nasty, sloppy and chaotic. It feels improvised, even though it's not; the idea was to make it sound as if it was actually being played on a ship by weary sailors after a long day's work.
The great thing about scoring sci-fi shows is that you basically get to make up the rules, because you're creating a self-contained universe; when you're doing a period piece set during the Renaissance, however, there's a strong history you have to honor.
In 'Battlestar Galactica,' at the beginning of my career, I explored middle Eastern and Japanese percussion that got pulled into the score.
I didn't become a TV and film composer because I wanted to play sold-out rock concerts, but that's what's ended up happening. And it's fun.
Sometimes the entire tone of an episode can be reshaped in directing or editing or acting.
On a network show, you can get six days to score an episode. On 'Outlander,' because it's premium cable and because of the way Starz works, I usually end up with a month or more for an episode, which is extravagant.
I enjoy the opportunity to step back and let a piece of the source music or a song come to the forefront in 'Outlander' because it is so rare.
I mean, I think as a composer for film, I am very frequently deferential to the drama. My motto is, 'Do no harm.' My goal is that you don't notice the music.
I think 'Masters of the Universe' might be the first fictional universe that I dove into.
It's easy to get stuck in a rut when you're writing in one genre for too long. So, when you've been writing for science fiction for a long time and a horror project comes along, it's really exciting and rejuvenating!
I thrive on multitasking.
Galadriel is driven by a sense of justice, if not a sense of revenge.
Battlestar Galactica' was my first job as a composer. To say that it changed my life is the understatement of the century.
I mean, 'Battlestar' was - it doesn't sound it now, but then, that was not how you scored sci-fi space operas on TV. It was a very modern approach.
I studied under Elmer Bernstein.
Both the composer and the filmmaker have to let go of their preconceived notions and listen to the film... When you do that, and everybody is open-minded, you can explore that together and combine your instincts and your ideas. It's an evolving adaptive process.
Music is such a throughline in my family.
I find reading books about music is sometimes tricky, because you can't hear it. But when you read a book about filmmaking, it's a much easier thing to get across on the page.