Modern Horror Soundtrack Master: An interview with RESIDENT EVIL's tomandandy

For approximately 20 years, the composing duo of tomandandy (Tom Hajdu and Andy Milburn separately) have been advancing the process of film scoring and the way music is used in the media. Experimental technicians in every genre by trade, the team is best known for its gripping thriller scores that include THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES, THE HILLS HAVE EYES, P2, THE COVENANT, THE ECHO, and THE STRANGERS.

Never resting on their laurels, they’ve got several other projects in the works, like AND SOON THE DARKNESS, THE APPARITION, RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN, and THE DETAILS. But tomandandy’s recent claim to fame is the stunningly startling score for RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE.

Read on as we open the “umbrella” with Tom Hajdu.

One of the things that immediately leaps out at me when listening to the RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE score is that there is the sensation that the music is not just serving the film, but also remaining faithful to the video game series.

Well, it is certainly the case that the film is the first one directed by Paul W.S. Anderson since the first one. And he was pretty adamant about wanting to maintain some spirit of the game, while at the same time creating a new evolution of the movie franchise. So yeah, that is definitely true.

So, when creating the sound palette for the film, how did you decide what instrumentation to use, where it didn’t sound like a rehash of the past?

We were pretty decidedly not going to use an orchestra, so the idea was to create a palette that was cinematic and yet familiar. It feels strangely familiar, but simultaneously new. So one of the things we did to try to ground it was to use guitars. There is a lot of music in this film – there is only one real song and 82 minutes of tomandandy. There are several sequences where it is just music – no sound effects, no dialogue, just us and the imagery.

Where you guys fans of the video game before coming into this film?

Oh sure! Andy and I did our PhD’s at Princeton, and we were into video games before video games really existed – when they were just characters on a screen. But yeah, we’ve tracked the evolution of RESIDENT EVIL and were really excited to be a part of this new representation of the brand.

It seems like the score suits the atmosphere of the film more than it does heighten the awareness of character theming.

Well, there are themes but they are not themes in the traditional film score sense. It’s more like there are chunks of the movie that take place in different parts of the world and different environments. And those environments have hooks and themes within them. So it’s all about thinking about thematic material and music slightly differently than you would with a traditional score. The process itself was actually pretty long – it was a 6-month ordeal, so things naturally evolved a great deal over time.

When creating environmental themes, do you ever fight the urge to break down and utilize organic orchestral instruments?

I fought the urge for about two or three weeks, and then after that, it was fine. When we met with Paul, he said, “I really don’t want to hear any orchestral instruments.” So, we presented him some stuff, and he said, “No, I REALLY don’t want to hear any orchestral stuff.” Then the idea became to try to come up with a new kind of cinematic sound.  And I think that really comes across, because it does have a cinematic feel, but it is not done using a traditional orchestra.

Well, what I really enjoyed about it was that, listening to the soundtrack on its own; it has this innate ability to make my skin crawl.

Oh, good. The funny thing is that it is actually presented in a linear fashion. The soundtrack CD represents the exact way the movie unfolds. It’s kind of a narrative representation of the film. We had a great time working with Milan Records, because it literally is a soundtrack from left to right. It is compressed, because there was a lot of music in the film, but the soundtrack does give you an accurate impression of the film.

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