Exclusive: Composer Bear McCreary talks Caprica, Dark Void soundtracks, and Battlestar Galactica!

courtesy of CineMedia Promotions

Since the mid-1990s, television soundtrack music has taken a dramatic turn towards the exotic. What used to sound like an afterthought, or a string of keyboard loops and uninspired flash cues has evolved into a genre that is entertaining, and at times exhilarating. One of the current masters of this revitalized artform (which really hasn’t been this exciting since the late 1960s / early ‘70s) is composer Bear McCreary.

Having just turned 30 this year, the man is already known as one of the most eclectic composers of television soundtrack music in history. Since 2006, he has almost single-handedly sculpted the musical landscape of the ever-growing Battlestar Galactica series (and its spin-offs), he’s done both seasons of Eureka, as well as every episode of the now defunct Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

He was trained, in part, by the late, legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein (who was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, winning one), and genuinely seems to be a tireless wellspring of musical creativity.

La-La Land Records recently released his score to the new Battlestar Galactica prequel miniseries Caprica, and on July 28 will be releasing the two-disc set, Battlestar Galactica: Season 4. McCreary will be bringing the music of Battlestar Galactica to the stage between July 23-25, when he brings his ensemble crew to the San Diego House of Blues during Comic-Con. And in September, Capcom will release the new video game Dark Void, which features an orchestral score by none other than Bear McCreary.

As luck would have it, Examiner managed to pull Mr. McCreary away from his manic schedule for a few minutes to discuss his labyrinth of music projects. Enjoy!

One of the things that really glared at me when reading up on you was that you studied under Elmer Bernstein. I thought that was amazing that you had such a great opportunity. Talk about a guy with a lot of breadth and diversity. What did you pull from his tutelage?

Many things, actually. He was very influential on me, but I think the most important things I learned from Elmer were personal and not musical. He showed me that it is possible to have a career in the music business, have longevity and success, and also a good family and a stable life, respect from your peers. He really didn’t have the tumultuous, dramatic life of the musician and the stereotypes. He really opened my eyes, especially when I was a kid, as to what success in this business was. That had a huge impact on me.

Wow, that is something I never even considered. From an outsider perspective, I’d always thought that longevity in this business is contingent on how diverse you are and how far you can stretch your abilities. Take Bernstein for example. The man pretty much wrote for every genre.

Absolutely! What became bothersome, though, was that he reached points in his career, frequently, where he was completely pigeonholed and typecast as “the” composer for certain genres. First, the big ones were westerns, and then, starting with Animal House, he got roped into comedies throughout the 1970s, and he almost did nothing but comedies for 13-15 years. And then he still continued to reinvent himself. Being able to draw from different styles is an incredibly important thing. Elmer did that with the best of them.

Likewise, it seems as the Battlestar Galactica series progresses and grows; you react by pulling influences and inspiration from pretty much everywhere. And by the time the Season 3 CD came out, it was almost a genre-less album.

Yeah, that came out of necessity, really. The show itself evolved so much, and that is what makes it different from everything else. Take Elmer, who would work on different projects simultaneously, like westerns, comedies, and whatnot. This one show alone has required me to use so many different kinds of music yet retain a musical voice that makes sense. It shouldn’t feel like that there’s a schizophrenic composer on the show (though I guess people might think that sometimes), but the idea really is that all these different styles fit in the Battlestar universe somehow.

Word recently came out that you are plunging into the world of video game music. Can you tell me a little bit about this Dark Void project?

Dark Void is an exciting project, because it allows me to write more in the style of Elmer Bernstein than any other project I’ve ever done before. It’s a swashbuckling, epic orchestral score, in the traditional sense. The game is a science fiction shooter, and you play this guy, who is essentially stuck in the Bermuda Triangle, and you’re given a rocket pack and you fight aliens in this parallel universe. It’s pretty fun. We had a huge orchestra, and I’ve got a lot of epic soloists. It was a chance for me to really have fun with science fiction music. Battlestar is fun, but Dark Void is definitely more playful. I think, when you hear this music, I’m definitely having fun and letting my imagination go crazy on it. I think not only gamers, but a lot of soundtrack fans are going to freak out over this. It’s a lot of fun!

Is it a little bit along the lines of Eureka, as that was somewhat of a departure from the compositions you’ve previously released?

No, actually it’s very different from Eureka. Really, if anything, Dark Void is more like those traditional orchestral scores that I am relatively well-known for avoiding. With Battlestar, I’ve obtained this reputation for this modern, ethnic…I think the most memorable parts of the Battlestar scores are not orchestral, though, ironically, there is a lot of orchestra in Battlestar. Dark Void is definitely more traditional; it still sounds like me, but I’m completely playing with the orchestra more and using that classical language that I go out of my way to avoid on Battlestar.

On the subject of Battlestar Galactica, word is out that you’ve completed compiling the music for the Season 4 two-disc set. How did this project grow beyond the confines of one disc?

Fans have been bugging me for a two-disc album since the beginning of Season 4. I’ve honestly been fighting it. I wanted to compose a nice companion piece the ever-expanding BSG universe. I don’t like having filler on my soundtrack albums, so if a cue isn’t good enough for me to put it on CD, I don’t put it on for the sake of filling space. So I really didn’t think I could fill two CDs, but when I got to the end, I realized that the finale alone had over 60 minutes of scoring that I thought was really good. There was maybe 100 minutes of music in that episode, but there was about 65 minutes of it that was worth putting on CD. So it was then that I realized that we really did have to do a two-CD set to do the show justice. I mentioned it to La-La Land Records, and I believe their words to me were, “well, duh!”

Regarding your latest release, Caprica, it sounds to me more emotive and character-centric than the Battlestar scores, which are very atmospheric, encapsulating all the action and drama of the environment.

Well, Caprica has a much smaller cast, and that cast can essentially be divided into two families – The Adamas and the Graystones. So I wrote two themes, one for each family, and they serve as the thematic thread that ties the Caprica score together. Battlestar, as you mentioned, tends to be attached to arcs, subplots, and sometimes thematic ideas. There are also themes for every single character on the show, and there are at least 50 of those alone, not that they all get used all the time. So Caprica was a very different approach.

Was it difficult at all to pull back from the expansiveness of Battlestar and hone in on this smaller story?

It was a bit of a relief, honestly. If the producers wanted Caprica to sound bigger, I might have died. The Battlestar score has reached a point where it is so unwieldy and massive, in terms of the amount of instruments in it, the style it encapsulates. It’s difficult to work with this language, and Caprica was like a breath of fresh air. I got a small chamber-sized orchestra together, and I was able to fall back on just writing, technique, and ideas, and the spectacle of the score wasn’t part of it.

Did you approach it more as a classic drama than as a sci-fi epic?

Well, I don’t approach anything as a sci-fi epic. I look at everything from a dramatic standpoint. Battlestar is certainly no exception to that. There are more family-drama storylines happening in Caprica, and Battlestar certainly does have its share of big, sci-fi plots that are not solely character based. But I have to admit that I try to ignore them, from a musical standpoint. What can one do to write science fiction music in the first place? I write narrative music. So, in that regard, it wasn’t any different than doing Battlestar. But I think the biggest difference was the ensemble, which was much more traditional, more contained, and much more classical. And the signature instruments like the ethnic drums, Middle Eastern flutes, and whatnot that are all over Battlestar, only make sporadic appearances throughout Caprica.

Something I found puzzling, given your credentials, was that in the press surrounding Caprica’s development, you weren’t even originally considered to do the score. I read something about the director having conversations and you were eventually suggested. What happened there?

Well, they honestly wanted a very different sound. And the director, Jeffrey Reiner, who had never previously worked on Battlestar, came in to direct Caprica, and wanted to go in a completely different direction. He didn’t want to re-create Battlestar…none of us did. So, I wasn’t an obvious choice, because I WAS the guy who did Battlestar. I had a meeting with Jeff, and we realized immediately that we were both on the same page about how the music should be. In fact, we had an incredible relationship artistically; he and I really got along, so it worked out for the best. But no, I wasn’t the obvious first choice. But like I said, the producers were concerned; they wanted something different, so I had to prove that I could deliver it.

What exactly is your compositional process? Do you write suites or individual miniature cues?

I generally start with a theme piece or some version of the theme that I want to use throughout the score. Then once I have that, I roll up my sleeves and attack one of the bigger scenes that require music as a means of warming up. Honestly, the shorter cues are often the hardest.

How often do you have to go back to the drawing board and do rewrites for something that doesn’t work for you or the director?

In my entire career working on Battlestar and Caprica, I have only ever done one rewrite. It was in one of the very first episodes of Season 1, and I’ve never done one since. That’s for two reasons: one, the producers and I have worked together for a really long time and we see eye-to-eye. Generally I know what they want, and they trust my instincts. And two, there’s no time for rewrites. I had to write the entire score for Caprica in nine days. So I was just churning out cues as fast as humanly possible. I turned out between five to eight minutes of music for nine days straight, and on the tenth day, I was in front of the orchestra conducting it. So we definitely make revisions, tweaks – Jeff and I worked together on it very closely. But as far as going back and rewriting something from scratch; there was no time for that.

Was there a period where you and the producers had to break the director into the mythos of Battlestar?

Sort of, but like I said, he and I got along pretty much right away, so there weren’t any issues that way. The first set of cues I sent him were the tracks on the album “Grieving” (which was the first piece I wrote) and Jeff loved it. In fact, he even came to the orchestra session just to sit there and enjoy it. He really didn’t have anything to say; he heard everything and liked it all. It was a really great relationship. He and I are going to work on some other projects together in the near future.

So what is next for you, now that all the Battlestar stuff is winding down?

I wish I could say that were true. I’m actually working on Battlestar Galactica: The Plan right now. It’s direct-to-DVD movie. So I’m not even done with the Battlestar world.

Are you comfortable in this arena, or are you making moves to broaden your horizons as a composer?

Oh, I’m definitely branching out. I’m doing another video game this summer, and I’ve got a couple other non-science fiction projects on deck that I can’t announce just yet. But I’m very excited to have some non-sci-fi stuff coming up soon.

Has anyone ever compared you to a young John Williams, who basically started on his career path similarly to you? Back in the 1960s, he essentially cut his teeth on science fiction adventure television shows.

Well, no, actually. But I must say that doing quality music on a television budget and on a television schedule will take some years off your life. That prepares you for anything, and so I can certainly see where he got his preparation. I think TV is a great place to learn the ropes, and I certainly feel that if I had a couple of weeks to do any project, it wouldn’t feel like a stressful deadline, it would feel like a vacation.

Were there ever any plans to release a second Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles CD, or has that been quashed since the series was cancelled?

I don’t think so, and the main reason is because, like I said, I don’t like to put out anything superfluous. And musically, that first volume we put out had all the major themes on it, all the best cues from the first season and some from the second season. There was some great music I did for Season Two, but I don’t know if it was enough to fill a CD. I want to release it at some point, but will it be a Terminator: Volume Two? I don’t think so. I don’t want to put out anything that is diluted. I’d rather put out half a CD of material as part of a box set down the line or whatever, but there are no immediate plans.

And finally, let’s talk about your live performances. They aren’t listed anywhere on your website, but I’ve heard you have some new concerts coming up.

Yes, in a few weeks. We’re going to be playing The Music of Battlestar Galactica live at the House of Blues in San Diego on July 23, 24, and 25, which the same weekend as Comic Con, so I think we’ll get a good crowd.

What kind of crew do you use for these performances?

It’s either a small orchestra or a really large band; I don’t know any other way to describe it. It’s a 17-piece ensemble with a whole bunch of percussionists and drums, bass, vocalists, strings, bagpipes, ethnic woodwinds. I play keyboards and piano. We have guest singers…it’s a pretty unusual ensemble. It feels half like a symphonic orchestra and half like a rock concert. It’s exciting for me, because it gets me out of the studio.

That’s incredible that you are one of the few composers to have the gumption to go out there and present this music to an audience in a different fashion.

That’s what’s so amazing about it. The music really stands up on its own. These are all pieces that I wrote solely to support the drama in a TV show. It’s gone out there on TV and on the albums, and fans get to come to the concerts and experience it in a whole new format. It really is about the music. We’re not projecting video, we’re not watching Battlestar. We’re watching these musicians. And that’s the other thing that’s exciting. You’re going to get a chance to see the actual musicians who play on the show. This is not the Hollywood Bowl or the Boston Pops; this is the actual set of musicians who you hear every week on Battlestar. These are totally unique players; they’re irreplaceable.

Would you ever consider touring, or would that be a logistical nightmare?

Well, we are hoping to put together some kind of tour next year, but right now, logistically, it is difficult. It requires a tremendous operation, and we’re still at the stage where we need to convince promoters that people want to see this. You can imagine people being skeptical when you tell them that you want to bring a 20-piece ensemble around the world to play background music from a cable television show. It’s weird, but every time I’ve done a show here in Los Angeles, I’ve had people fly in from all over the world just to attend. I did a free concert a few weeks ago in downtown LA and we had people fly in from New Zealand. The year before, we had people come in from Australia, Malaysia, and the East Coast. I know the fans are out there. I think we can absolutely play in any city where the show is on the air. The fans are there!

Tickets are available for McCreary's House of Blues performances here!