I am pleased to announce a little career shift. I have always gone to great lengths to be clear that I am NOT a ‘film’ composer. I do everything but. However, I have also always said I would write my own score one day, just that I would never go out of my way to chase it. It seems that day has almost come.
Last year Gustavo Santaolalla asked me to help him with the score to The Book of Life. It was the first time I had written a proper score; had meetings with directors, producers, and studios; got used to the process of revisions and conforms — it was quite the experience. I thought I would just go back to my day job orchestrating and conducting, then one day in November I got an email from Jorge Gutierrez, the director of Book of Life. He told me to expect ‘an email’. Three minutes later there was an email from Guillermo Del Toro asking if I was busy as he needed my help! It’s a good thing Jorge had tipped me off or I would have thought I was being punked. I said sure, though of course at the time I was at LAX on my way to Mexico, and then to Australia. Long story short I soon ended up in Toronto spotting the film with Guillermo. The movie is called Crimson Peak, and comes out in October. I wrote 30 minutes of additional music, a lot of it using some very cool themes by Fernando Velazquez. The irony here is that I did not orchestrate a note myself in either of these scores.
That day spotting in Toronto was the first time I had met Guillermo. On the way out he asked me if I was also interested in scoring his new TV show. I said sure (what else could I say?). That totally put a lot of pressure on me to not screw up Crimson Peak. Nothing more was said for a while, then an email came in introducing me to the producer. However, at the same time three composer friends each told me they were asked for demos for a project that sounded exactly like this one. I thought maybe I did not have it after all. Well, I can finally announce my deal is done and I am scoring a show written and produced by Guillermo del Toro. More details to come. I also now have an agent at WME. Never thought I would say that!
