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© 2008 Bear McCreary
Composer Bear McCreary
Exclusive Interview:
E-Notes: COMPOSER BEAR MCCREARY FIGHTS THE FUTURE IN 'BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'
From Cylons and cyborgs, Bear McCreary is TV's hardest-working sci-fi scorer
By DANIEL SCHWEIGER, Soundtrack Editor
Published 10/29/2008
His innovative music has helped make BATTLESTAR GALACTICA into one of the greatest anti-space operas of all time. TV terminators groove to his metallic beat as they stalk Sarah Connor. The town of Eureka creates its mad science to his comedic country funk. And you’ll be chilled with the eerie rural atmospheres and hellbilly songs when you dare to make a pit break again at the REST STOP.
Indeed, it’s hard to stop on any channel these days without seeing the name of Bear McCreary, a young scoring Turk who’s helping to change the face of the boob tube’s genre music into something as innovative and challenging as it is fun. Having trained under the likes of Elmer Bernstein and Richard Gibbs, McCreary assumed the musical captaincy of the revamped GALACTICA with an intriguing mix of ethnic music, creepy electronics, jamming rock and gorgeous orchestral melody, a winning combo that was unlike any sci-fi score out there. Soon he was on the map to apply a lighter touch to the second season of EUREKA, with the success of that show bringing him into the TERMINATOR’s new video universe, where he’s effectively carried the cold, robotic torch for the SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. And now McCreary’s more horrific feature-worthy talents have returned with a vengeance to the REST STOP series with DON’T LOOK BACK.
New editions of these aforementioned scores have recently come out through La La Land Records. And his BATTLESTAR GALACTICA albums there will doubtlessly be expanded when McCreary returns next year to score the final season of the show that launched his career from its Viper tubes. Now McCreary joins a new edition of E-notes to talk about his unceasing volumes of intriguing genre work.
iF Magazine: What do you think it is about your music that's attracted so many genre projects? Have you always loved sci-fi and horror, and if so, how do you think that enthusiasm transfers to your music?
BEAR McCREARY: I've always adored science fiction and horror, but I think that's coincidental, actually. My work attracts genre projects simply because my first big project out of the gate was BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and that's a sound and an approach that many filmmakers and producers now associate with my name. After all, I'm scoring dramatic story lines that just happen to be about spaceships, or killer robots, or mad scientists. All the crazy genre elements are secondary to the character arcs, as far as I'm concerned. However, with that said, it is an incredible honor to make a small contribution to the body of work and genre scores, that inspired me to become a film composer in the first place.
iF: How much of Brad Fiedel's theme did you want to keep in SARAH CONNOR? And would you say your music is a "spin off" of the tone he established in the first two TERMINATOR films?
McCREARY: I kept as much as I was allowed: 5 seconds over the title card. I was disappointed at first, since I wanted to incorporate Brad's theme song throughout the score. Legal and financial reasons completely out of my control made that impossible. However, I think it was a blessing in disguise. Being unable to use the recognizable "Terminator" melody, I set out to write a "Sarah Connor" theme. Clearly, I'm biased, but I think my theme suits the series perfectly. Brad's theme is so powerful, so iconic... yet when I hear it, I always picture Schwarzenegger. It always struck me as being representative of the terminator himself, and of the universe, but not necessarily about Sarah Connor personally. And while this series takes places in that universe, it focuses more on the character relationships than the films did. But is my music a "spin off"? No, I wouldn't say so. But, the homage is certainly there. I wanted to make the music feel like a credible heir to TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2. It was an approach that the producers and I saw eye to eye on from day one. As I began scoring Sarah Connor, my initial intentions were to solely live up to Brad Fiedel’s legacy and create worthy Terminator music. However, the score, like the series itself, has branched off and become its own entity. This show now has its own unique sound that honors the James Cameron films and simultaneously moves into unexplored thematic territory.
iF: How do you think you've musically "warmed up" the cold, robotic tone of the TERMINATOR saga?
McCREARY: My first mission was to update the robotic tone of the Fiedel
"Terminator" scores. Inspired by the metallic pounding of those scores, I spent all summer recording metal with percussionist M.B. Gordy. Together we created sample libraries, recording oil cans, chains, aluminum sheets, anvils, hub caps, brake drums, garbage cans, thundersheets… anything we could get our hands on. This was just the beginning. For every episode, we would return to M.B.’s studio, to add a distinct element of live human performance. The Fiedel scores were constructed with very expressive synthesizers. However, the idea of scoring SARAH CONNOR entirely with electronics didn’t excite me. So, I filled out the orchestration with a unique ensemble of “electric” string instruments. Typically, a quartet of two violins, viola (or baritone violin in this case) and cello are recorded playing together in a studio. For SARAH CONNOR, they play through pick-ups that run into amplifiers and only the amps are mic’ed. Despite the unusual production techniques, the quartet still performs together as a singular ensemble. The live string group sounds lush and warm, a lyrical backdrop for the emotional story arcs of the series. But, these strings also feel manipulated, distorted by speakers and wires. In the same way that Cameron is a robot hidden beneath human flesh, the string ensemble is an electronic entity masked by acoustic instruments and live musicians.
iF: EUREKA is certainly one of the oddest sci-fi shows in a while. Was it difficult to find match its rural weird science approach in your music?
McCREARY: My approach for the score was to leave the crazy sci-fi elements alone. I felt that the characters needed recognizable themes, and that the series itself needed a trademark sound. I wanted the music to underscore the relationships, and the small-town setting. As a result, the score has an intimate, warm tone blended with folky-blue-grass riffs. However, because this is no ordinary small town, there are, of course, some oddities in the ensemble. In addition to the woodwinds, strings and guitars, I layered in 80s and 90s synthesizer textures, inspired by the 8-bit and 16-bit video game consoles of my youth. So, the score could best be described as chamber-orchestra meets blue-grass / Zydeco meets 80s-new-wave meets Super Mario Brothers... if that makes any sense at all.
iF: Having dealt with so much darkness in your other shows, what's it like to mostly give EUREKA's music a comedic "country" tone?
McCREARY: The second season of Eureka (when I was brought on board) was an incredible challenge. It made me realize how out-of-shape my comedy chops had become. In college, I scored over 30 student films and indie projects, many of which were zany comedies or full-fledged musicals. However, in the intervening years, I had focused my energies solely on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. As a result, I hadn't approached comedic scoring at all. So, the transition was awkward at first, but ultimately felt like a release. Besides, it finally gave me an excuse to play lots of accordion, which is my main instrument!
iF: Like EUREKA, REST STOP 2 has a "country" tone to its musical horror. How did you capture that that isolated, creepy atmosphere?
McCREARY: I laid the groundwork during my score for the first film REST STOP: DEAD AHEAD. In that movie, we established a rich and lush sonic
soundscape, filled with distorted banjos, wailing electric bass and detuned country fiddle. These often lyrical and melodic ideas ran contrary to the expectations of standard horror scoring, and all these elements returned for DON’T LOOK BACK with a vengeance.
iF: REST STOP 2 avoids the kind of clichés you'd expect from a "slasher" score like this. How do you think you got over those speed bumps?
McCREARY: They were easy to avoid because I loathe contemporary horror scores. When I was hired on for both REST STOP films I made it clear early on that I had no interest in doing the clichéd "orchestral-screaming" score, the kind of Ligeti / Penderecki rip-offs that dominate almost every horror film out there. The instrumentation for both REST STOP films is pretty unique, basically a blue-grass band. I knew I had to raise the musical stakes this time around and incorporated a full rhythm section. The sound I was going for was "Lynrd Skynrd Trapped in Hell." I don't know if that's where I ended up, but it was my starting point.
iF: Original songs play a big part in all of your scores. Tell us about how you approach tunes from outright satire in REST STOP 2 to earnestly moving ones in GALACTICA?
McCREARY: Songs are a wonderful departure from scoring to picture, an excuse to turn the television monitor off and just have fun with music. The songs in DEAD AHEAD are some of the best I've ever done. "Rattlesnake on the Highway" is a completely insane Southern rock tune, ripping along in 6/4 with bass and guitar solos that sound like coyotes howling at the moon. And "Jesus, He Forgives You Too" was my second chance to collaborate with the Rev. Buford "Buck" Davis and his band. He's got a great sense of humor that comes through on the tracks (both of which are the on the new CD). We've done these bizarre bluegrass spirituals that sound normal, but have extremely offensive lyrics if you choose to listen to them. They were written for this insane preacher character in the REST STOP films. The new CD also includes two other songs from the first film, including "All That Remains," a tune performed by Raya Yarbrough that was also featured prominently on several episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
iF: How do you think GALACTICA will change in its forthcoming season, and your music with it?
McCREARY: BATTLESTAR is becoming incredibly complex and sophisticated in its final season, and I must confess the score is evolving along similar lines. If you saw the most recent episode, appropriately called "Revelations" you heard the last cue that really shows where we're headed. Full orchestra, the usual barrage of ethnic soloists and percussion were combined with SATB choir, singing an original text in Latin. It was really lovely, and took the show to a whole new level.
While the next few episodes sound very different, they retain that sense of majesty and power. There's an episode towards the end that redefines what is possible for score and narrative interaction. I worked with the writers on it, I was on set during production helping the actors and I'm just now beginning the scoring process on it. So, I've been working on that episode off and on for 8 months already.
It's going to be a good one.
iF: You've done some amazing live performances of your GALACTICA music in LA clubs. Do you have any future shows planned, and will you be taking them on the road?
McCREARY: Thanks, yeah, those shows were an incredible amount of fun. I was stunned by the turnout. No future performances are planned yet, but we'll definitely do another series of concerts soon. I'm hoping 2009. And I'd love to take the band on the road, but we're still figuring out our options. It's a huge group of musicians, which makes for a logistical nightmare trying to take the whole act on the road. Still, we had fans fly into LA to see us from New York, Connecticut, London, Australia and Malaysia. So, there's clearly a fan base out there.
iF: With so many television shows going on at the same time, how do you keep yourself from getting stylistically confused? Or do you think they are all similar in a way?
McCREARY: I've worked hard to give each series a unique sound, and so far there's not been any issues. But, if 8-bit video game synths and
accordion pop up on the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA score, or you start
hearing a bunch of taikos and duduk on SARAH CONNOR, you'll know that I've finally lost my mind.
iF: Now that you've conquered genre television, how do you hope to parlay that success into the kind of Hollywood films your talent deserves?
McCREARY: I don't know if I've "conquered" anything yet. I'm just happy to be working on projects I love, and that audiences love. It's a real thrill to be involved with a show like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and I'm only now beginning to realize how many doors it has opened for me.
Join the tunes of Bear McCreary to take a look back at BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and then visit a second REST STOP in EUREKA with SARAH CONNOR HERE
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