TD with Gustavo Santaolalla and director Jorge Gutierrez
Book of Life is out! I worked with Gustavo Santaolalla on the score. Firstly arranging strings for his and Paul William’s awesome songs, then I took those themes, and some more that he gave me (his demos will be on the score album) and arranged them into over an hour of underscore. We used a 90-piece orchestra and lots of guitar, ethnic flute and accordion. I even convinced them to let me record it all together (usually we would pre-record or overdub those things.) Working with an Argentinian legend on an animated Mexican folk tale, a big band composer from Brisvegas was the natural choice. I read The Idiots Guide to Pre-Hispanic Music and was off. Joking aside, working with Gustavo was an amazing experience and I learnt a lot.
I also conducted it, played some percussion and electric guitar, I even sang on one of the cues (take that Brian Tyler!) The irony here is that I did not orchestrate any of the score. My long time collaborator Jeremy Levy was lead orchestrator with some help from Susie Seiter, Jim McWilliam, Ryan Humphrey, Devin Roth, John Ashton Thomas and Andres Montero. John Jennings Boyd and Germaine Franco did some additional arranging and Julia Sokolowska did the takedowns of all the demos from GS. The score was recorded and mixed by Casey Stone.
Here are a few tracks:
Candle Maker See’s All [Check out the Score]
Maria Agrees to Marry Joaquin
Manolo Faces All Bulls
