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The movie, of course, is a somewhat unique one in that its perception has been so defined by the pop soundtrack. While Bates didn’t write those songs, obviously, he’s been doing his work in the shadow of that — even though he scored many of the film’s key moments early on and the actors performed to them, meaning that many of those pop songs were likely not in place yet at that time.
Bates joined ComicBook.com to talk about Guardians of the Galaxy and working with James Gunn.
Tyler Bates: Hey, man, things just go the way they go sometimes. I guess there were a lot of factors that came into Man of Steel, none of which I’m apprised to entirely. But you know, the producers involved and their people and I imagine that had a little bit of influence in the way that everything developed, but, I’m just super happy to… [search for words] to work with James on Guardians, we’ve been collaborators for a long time, so it’s really great to work on something that we both had a chance to work on something that we both really had a chance to let loose with.
One of the things I’ve been told consistently is that the process you’re doing is uncommon, in terms of actually already having the score in place for the actors, and I understand it’s probably not completed…
Bates: It’s because we don’t get paid to do that!
So, why did you guys decide to go that way on this one?
Bates: Well, James and I, our friendship had started about ten years ago, on Dawn of the Dead, when it came out, he and I met as he wrote that. And Zack Snyder directed it. So James and I, he’d asked me if I’d work for him on Slither, and he was already in production by the time we got around to it, so I didn’t really get a chance to do any writing prior to post-production.
But we really formed a great bond through that. Then after that, I I think, we did a webseries called PG Porn and it was just us having fun. Just silly little comedy bits. Then we did something for Movie 43, and then Super. And with Super, you know, that was a very personal movie for James, I think, and Rainn Wilson is a close friend of his and the part was really written for Rainn and he thought, at least for the end of the movie, let’s try and film to the music. And I thought, “Yeah, that’s a great idea.” The more we can film to original music and not deal with tracks that someone else is playing around with, well, the better.
Super was a tiny film, but it wasn’t really a surprise to me that James got Guardians of the Galaxy, because he’s brilliant, a real comic fan, and a real artist. He embodies all of the qualities you want to have in a collaborator in film as a composer.
When he called me to tell me he got the movie, he said, “Dude, are you in?” and I was saying “Seriously! Yeah, I think so!” [laughs] Of course! [First time he’s sounded really happy in the recording.] Then he said, “I would love to shoot you the script, when that’s ready, and then you can start to think about the music.”
So, that’s what happened: he sent me some key artwork and as we developed some of the pre-viz sequences, I worked from those. Then he said, “I want to play this stuff over the PA on the set.” I thought, “Hey, that’s cool,” and I didn’t think a whole lot about that, but I did write five or six pieces that he cranked over the set. He had me come visit about two weeks before they wrapped filming and I went into the tent where his monitors are, which he watches what’s being filmed, because it was a huge sound stage and he communicates with the actors a lot of the time over microphones, doing multiple takes — that’s coming through a huge PA. Most of the time he’s yelling out really funny, obnoxious stuff to Michael Rooker, but…! [Laughs]
Then James thought it would be hilarious if I were a Ravager pilot, so before I had much chance to object he had people from hair and make-up take me off to wardrobe and put dreadlocks on me and scar up my face and give me Ravager garb, and all I can hear are people in back, laughing uncontrollably [laughs]. And he was all, “Cool man, you’re going to be a Ravager!” in, uh, maybe a little more colorful language than that.
So when I was on-set with the actors and I — I don’t want to act, I’m just having fun as an extra — so he plays “Cherry Bomb” really loud on the PA, and immediately it struck me that, “Wow, that is cool,” because I even know what the hell we’re doing, just by hearing the music.
So, I can only imagine what a more emotional themes – to have heard that as far as a point of reference or to contextualize what was going on in any given scene at any given time, it was really powerful. It’s really neat to be able to imbibe in that process. And it’s uncommon because, generally, they wait until post-production to bring the composers on, and it’s not something you get paid to do, but you want to do it. They pay you for your work in post-production as a composer. I wrote on Guardians when there are other things I could have done in the meantime.
Bates: Oh, it is. It really has nothing to do with – at least for me – it has nothing to do with money. James is somebody that I’ve shared so many experiences with over the last decade, when you do this stuff, with the time spent and the things you work on, and how that impacts your life. It’s not just about scoring a movie or having your name on a billing. That doesn’t mean anything to me, it’s really about the artistic experience and the experience with friends.
I want to do it, I want to have that collaborative experience with James, because I knew once it got to post-production it would be totally crazy and it would not be laid back, and I wouldn’t see much of him in the studio, but the opportunity to create the initial DNA for the score, before we had anything in post, it was awesome and were both geeks on this stuff…we get off on it. It’s not anything while it’s happening that anyone thinks about or knows about except for us, until obviously after hearing stuff — it was motivated only by trying to do something great and personal and special to us; we hoped people would realize, err would respond to. That’s all… artistic endeavor in that regard.
Is there a kind of shorthand for how you can describe your approach to the score? Obviously, I think there would be overt references to Raiders and the overall tone of the film. It feels like, almost inevitably, people are going to be like, “Oh, so it’s a John Williams thing.”
Bates: Oh no, don’t do that to me! [Laughs]
I don’t mean as a comparison, I mean that, from your approach did you go with a more orchestral score, a more modern score, because I feel like the gut instinct for people who haven’t seen anything except for the trailers is going to be, “Oh okay, [orchestral] is the feel I wanna go for.”
Bates: First off, I don’t think it’s that simple.
There are a lot of films like Star Wars and Jaws and Halloween-type movies and things we saw on TV as kids because we didn’t have – it was before cable TV, we heard on the radio or something. Just – the scope of those movies and the impact of the music did resonate with me and most of my influences came from jazz or rock. Or classic or even electronic music. So I don’t really know scores that well — I know John Williams because you can’t not know John Williams, but I could never even begin to think in this movie, “What would John Williams do?” You just can’t — if you have any degree of humility at all, you can’t do that. [Laughs]
So, I didn’t think about it that way at all, or I probably would have been paralyzed and wouldn’t be able to write anything. What James discussed with me initially, he said, “Look, we’re making a space-rock-opera and I want the music to feel post-rock, but deeply emotional, and totally kick-ass and powerful.” Usually you would think, if you heard my work, is we’re going to have a shitton of guitars and synth-work and all that, and really the majority of the score is the most purely orchestral and choral score I’ve ever done. Part of it is because I didn’t have enough time to develop a lot of the electronica because of the pace at which I had to write and perform music and redraft music as the picture evolved and the visual effects evolved. I started assigning those aspects of the music to the orchestra and choir which is how it wound up more purely organic. However, at times, it has a rock intent about it.
Emotionally, we just wanted to keep this movie in real, deep emotions, with epic themes like the movies we saw as kids. Everybody was writing huge melodies and the movies got insane. Then at the end of the 90’s and through the 2000’s movies got real serious and hyper-realistic. It seemed like there was a phobia of big thematic music. We’re just celebrating this movie and enjoying the chance to express what we feel is fantastic and fantastical. So we’re unapologetic about it. [laughs] Hopefully people like it.
I can’t think of another film during the time I’ve been covering media, 15 years, less than a week from release – I’ve heard nothing bad from anyone at any level. Even when you look back at last year with Pacific Rim, there were so many people who were so incredibly excited about that film and the word of mouth was electric. Then you got down to the last week, ten days when the professional critics were there and started to really even them out. With Guardians the evening-out process has been “Oh, darn, we went from 100% to 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.” It’s bizarre.
James pushed me — the Guardians theme wouldn’t have happened the way it did if he didn’t push me a little harder to get to that. I don’t always agree with everything but I trust him enough that I’m fully invested in pursuing any of his ideas and there are times when we find it that I realize he was onto something. It’s cool to work with people who respect you but they challenge you to do your best work.
As a human being, you’re not going to find a person who’s more solid than James. He’s very aware of himself and is always trying to do better and I think that this movie embodies that spirit.
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