I kind of scored this more like I would score a film. The music is basically the character's facial expression.Ĭan you play with that spotting differently on a streaming series than you might for a movie? So what the music needs to do is to reveal what the character is feeling in the show. Something that's different about this show than any other Star Wars shows is that the main character has a helmet on. I think that was one of the best things about Star Wars was spotting when do you determine when the music comes in and when it comes out? That's a discussion that Dave Filoni, he knows Star Wars so well, and also Jon, that was always an important discussion we had about where the music should come in and where it shouldn't come in and where to leave breaths and where to leave the pauses. Is when not to score just as important as when to score?Ībsolutely. The first song I did is what basically ended up in the end titles. And then I went onto the drums, onto the piano, to the guitar so I created five songs. Every instrument led me to another instrument so I start with recorders, I made up that melody that you hear in The Mandalorian. I bought these recorders and I started to improvise. I just wanted to play instruments myself. I went back to my studio and closed myself off for a month and said I want to take a step away from the computer because I wanted to kind of connect with my inner child. Just by reading the script and by seeing the artwork a year ago when I first met with Jon, I started writing. So the end titles was kind of the first thing I wrote for the show before I even saw footage. Was that a major piece to write for The Mandalorian ? I can't give away any spoilers but for the first three episodes they're the same. Right now, there is a theme for Baby Yoda, but you haven't heard it yet. There's also a theme for the Razor Crest. Then there's another traveling theme and then there's a theme for the Mandalorians. The thing you heard the very first time you see him, that comes back in the show a bunch of times. Yeah, so you probably heard the Mandalorian theme play a couple times. I can't put a number to it but there's a lot of instruments.ĭid you write themes for each character that recur? So there's a lot of instruments in the score. And then there's another element which consists of organic instruments like recorders, piano, guitars. It also consists of tech, modern production and the tech element, using modern synthesizers and modern production. I work with a 70 piece orchestra, a full symphony orchestra. How many instruments do you have in your orchestra?
to really honor the legacy of Star Wars, this orchestral sound but I wanted to use it in a way you haven't heard before. And also it was very important to me to also use the orchestra in every episode. I use those kinds of harmonies and chords in my music. I also think, maybe you can hear it hopefully in my music, both John Williams and I have a pretty extensive jazz background. To me, I was always intrigued by what was John Williams thinking at the time, '75, '76? What was the music he was listening to? What were some of the other scores he did at the time? How did he use modern elements into his music, as a producer incorporate modern technology into his music? To me, that was something I was very fascinated by. I can't give you any spoilers but I did a lot of research. Well, does his theme ever appear in The Mandalorian ? Was that also the goal, to take those emotions you're describing but not do John Williams? Yet it sounds different from any Star Wars music we've ever heard before. To me, it's like how can I take the soul of that and capture those emotions with my music? That's what I did the whole time. I felt like I was on a different planet hearing this music for the first time. I think what I remember the most was hearing the music and how it transferred me. Something that was very important to me was one of the important things I did when I was writing the score, I was trying to go back to feelings and emotions when I heard Star Wars for the first time. I think that's something I was very inspired by through my whole career, how you can make a sound and make it super distinctive.ĭoes any John Williams influence creep in? Some of the most iconic western scores, it was just taking one sound, playing one note, just making it so distinctive so the first time you hear it it's burnt into your brain for the rest of your life. I think something that's really interesting, being inspired by some of the great film composers like John Williams and Morricone is that something Morricone was so great at is being a music producer. Does that mean classic western scores like Morricone and Elmer Bernstein?