I met Eric when we were both at college and we did a lot of short films and student films together. We worked together a lot, we had a lot of similar tastes , understood how music worked in a show. So we have a long history together. So, working with him, it almost becomes a kind of shorthand because of that. With this show, we’re still working out how it sounds, but working with him, it’s that kind of shorthand.
Can you talk about the differences, stylistically, between the music you’ve written for Supernatural and Revolution? How are the two shows different for you?
Well, Revolution’s much less of a scary show than Supernatural, there are no shapeshifters or any of that stuff. It’s more post-apocalyptic, so you’re in less of a horror mode, more of a drama mode. But also you’re years in the future without power, in a completely different world. Supernatural is a fiction, but it sort of takes place in the real current world. So those things definitely make the sound different.
How did you first become interested in writing music for television (and for cinema and video games?) as opposed to going in a different direction and writing, say, for concerts and a different kind of performance?
I studied composition in college, where I had a chance to study with Elmer Bernstein, who’s an Academy Award winning composer - he’s written things like Ghostbusters and To Kill a Mockingbird. I also apprenticed with some other composers and I started doing smaller projects. And then as people I knew became more successful, I began writing music for their projects. I did a lot of short films, independent films, practice my craft. It sort of developed that way. I’ve been doing it for fifteen years now, so every year hopefully I get better at it, more accustomed to the way it works.
And one final question: could you tell us about any upcoming projects that you’re working on right now?
Right now I’m doing two movies. The first one is called Thanks for Sharing, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s a comic drama with Gwyneth Paltrow and it’s all about sex addiction. The second is called Identity Thief, which comes out in February.
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