You’ve likely heard the musical orchestrations of Tree Adams on hit shows like The 100, Californication, and Lethal Weapon. Now you can hear his music in a whole new way, music that is scored to his new creator-owned comic series Duskriders.
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Duskriders tells a story of a dying earth, which leads to the colonization of a new planet. Now the residents of the earth are being utilized as labor for the rich and powerful, and it will come down to a three-person squad led by the lethal Dublyn to take down the corporation responsible.
In a unique twist, the comic also comes with an accompanying soundtrack created by Adams, and definitely, adds a distinct flavor to the first issue.
For Adams, this project has been a long time coming and the book gave the composer the chance to spread his wings musically as well. He sat down with ComicBook.com to talk a bit about the new project.
“Yeah. I obviously, as a kid, I was really into comics, superhero stuff” said Adams. “As I got older, I got into sort of a little more of the darker and more mature graphic novel stuff. I was a big fan of Heavy Metal Magazine, some of these kinds of more absurdist things.”
“And I would say about eight years ago, I was just getting sick of … I had done the show Californication, and I had been kind of branded as a guitar and rock guy. And I was getting sick of doing that same score over and over again, and I was like, you know, I was getting other jobs where they basically wanted me to redo my Californication sound.”
So Adams decided to create something that piqued his own interest.
“And I was like, you know what, I’m gonna create a story that I would like to write the music for. Because I was sort of more interested in sci-fi, and I had this idea for Duskriders. And I kind of wrote that story, and then I wrote … Between gigs when I had time, I started writing songs and a soundtrack for the story. And then, a year or two ago, I met with a friend who knew somebody who could maybe help me get this thing made, because I had contacted some different artists trying to see if I could get somebody to help draw this thing for me, and I just never really got anywhere with it. And I kept getting pulled into different jobs as a composer.”
Initially, Duskriders was going to feature the art of Darick Robertson (Transmetropolitan), who he struck up a friendship with. The two continued to get new projects, however, not leaving much time to work with on personal projects.
That paved the way though for artist Josh Zingerman.
“So it never happened. And then, I ended up meeting up with a friend of mine, Ramon Govea, who was somebody who could help me figure out how to get this made. He introduced me to Josh Zingerman, who’s the artist who did Duskriders. And Josh and I hit it off, and yeah, then we just started the process of getting this thing made. So now it’s a six issue arc. The first one is complete. The second one is … We’re about midway through it. I’m just really excited to get it out there and share it with the world. And there’s been a lot of excitement about it.”
Hit the next slide to find out more about the cast of Duskriders!
Duskriders
Duskridersย centers on three main characters named Dublyn, Tyrus, and Cordell. All three fit perfectly within the science fiction dirty dozen vibe of the series, but Dublynย is clearly the star.
“Well, I think part of it is that the three of them have this … The backstory is really the key. And it’ll start to unfold over the course of six issues. But they are all related in this way. And Dublyn’s father was the scientist who discovered the Rolveron, which is the organism that is sortย of a controversial thing at the center of the story here, which is basically going toย be the key to saving Earth. And we discover dark secrets about it over time.”
“And then, Tyrus Maddock, he’d been going out with Dublyn’s sister, and had been the protรฉgรฉ of Dublyn’s father, ” said Adams. “Tyrus is like a scientist himself. I see Dublyn as more of like just a brute force Ninja, crazy, kind of hard partying chick, like a very sort of angry woman, and just super powerful. And then, we discover Maddock is really tight with this guy Cordell, they kind of partnered up somewhere along the line. Cordell was the ex-Strailing commander. The Strailings are sort of like our version of the Stormtroopers or something, they’re Perceval, the bad guy’s army.”
“And Cordell was a Strail, and he got betrayed by them. And then he and Tyrus, they kind of went on this sort of renegade, subversive mission as a duo to try and blow up Terranox Industries anywhere they could. So it sort of was a logical thing for them to team up when … Wel, I don’t want to give away the whole story. But it becomes sort of … Their interests are aligned.”
All three bring something unique to the group, and seeing them try to get through this mission without killing each other first should provide some humorous moments.
“And Dublyn is kind of in charge, in a way, but the three of them, there’s a lot of personality between them. I’d say, Maddock is kind of this brooding scientist guy with a crowbar. Cordell is more of like a wisecracking, British sort of military guy, with these two machine guns he’s always got with him, his two favorite machine guns. And Dublyn’s kind of like the sensible one, who’s like, the kind of powerful leader.”
While there is a great deal of history between Dublynย and Tyrus, Cordell will quickly become a fan favorite.
“He’s one of my favorite characters,” said Adams. “I like the wisecracking that happens, you know? I think I’ve done a lot of these cop shows, like Lethal Weapon, Good Guys, In Plain Sight … I’ve done a lot of cop shows over the years doing the music for them. And I love this kind of wisecracking buddy cop thing that happens. Like while they’re on the way to save the day, or while they’re being chased, or while they’re in mortal danger, I like a little wisecracking. So Cordell gives us that.”
For more on the art of Duskriders and universe, it the next slide.
The Art
Thinking up an idea for a comic is the easy part, but seeing that through to fruition and an actual physical product is anything but.ย Despite all of his previous accomplishment, seeing Duskriders come together is easily one of his career highlights.
“Oh yeah. This is a huge thrill for me. And there’s something about the medium that I really love, because it’s like, first there’s a bit of a dialogue between the writer and the artist, that’s like a very direct dialogue, that’s it’s un-watered down, like the way it can be in film and television. It’s just sort of a real interesting, intimate dialogue that gets reflected. I like that.”
Adams has also come to appreciate how far you can go with ideas on the comic page, a format that allows for unprecedented imagination.
“And then second, there are no budgetary constraints on your imagination. You can have a ship land, and you know, shoot out like quadrilateral form buckets at a whale’s head in the middle of the Statue of Liberty or something like … You can just do that. There’s no, “Okay, well that’s gonna cost us a lot, we’re gonna get a lot of cranes, we’re gonna need some CGI.” Whatever you imagine, you can be, which is really … There’s a lot of freedom in that. So that’s kind of cool.”
Every new endeavor includes a few challenges, and Duskridersย is no different. For Adams, it had to do with preconceived ideas.
“Well, the big challenge is letting go of whatever I saw in my head when working with an artist,” Adams said. “Basically, when you write a comic script, it’s like, there’s the part that we see when we’re reading it, like the captions and dialogue. But the big part of it is really a letter of direction and instruction for the artist. How you want the panel laid out, and what you want to see them do, and what they’re gonna be wearing, and what the characters are like, and new personality and all these things …”
“And you have an idea, like as the director of a movie or something, and then what gets made is not what your idea was. Like, some morphed, off to the side of it. And there’s a point at which you have to delegate because also, I’m not an artist. If I were to be the guy drawing it, I’d just draw what I had in my brain. So what I have to do is kind of like, what directors do with me when I write music for them, which is sort of like, give me my intentions with the story, so that the story can really bloom and translate as best as I intend it.”
In the end, you have to let the artist take the baton.
“But then, let the expert do what they’re good at. And let them have a little room to do their thing. And that … I knew that that was going to be a thing going into it, because I deal with it all the time, as I said, working with directors, writing them music. But you get some picture back, that you’re like, “Wow, that is not at all what I expected.” But you’re like, “Okay, let’s go with that,” you know? That was a big thing to adjust to, I think, for me.”
That challenge also extends to creating soundtracks and musical scores.
“The same thing goes on with music when I write it for films or television, you just picture it from yourย iPod, you know? Maybe it’s the soundtrack to f****** Star Wars, or you know … they put something in there that they think works, and I’m like, “Okay, well that all works, but I’ve got these other colors too. Let me show you some of this.” And they’re like, “Oh, that’s cool too.” And then you find your way. And it’s the same exact process, really.”
Hit the next slide to find out more aboutย the Duskridersย soundtrack!
The Soundtrack
Duskridersย breaks the mold of other comics in the fact that it comes with its very own soundtrack. After reading the first issue with and without the accompanying score, it is easily recommendable to have the music going in the background.
“It’s a fun thing to kind of have a multidimensional … I mean, I’m kind of making a show or movie, basically, by flushing out the things that I can, you know? I can write it, I can get it drawn, I can write the music to it … That’s what I can get,” said Adams.
It won’t be the last musical selection to be released for the series either, and fans will definitelyย like what Adams has planned.
“Well, I think what we’re planning to do is, we’re trying to get other musicians, composers, artists, to create Duskriders inspired tracks, and then … So we’ve already gotten a couple of great tracks written for this series, one by my friend Matt Hutchinson, one by my friend Andy Forsberg, and they’re reallyย excited. ย I’ll probably make some more as well, we’ll get more people, and we’ll make another, either soundtrack onย iTunes, or release like a playlist on Spotify … We’ll be doing that kind of as we go.”
Adams friends and collaboratorsย will also be contributingย art based on Duskriders, and that will be released in the future.
“And meanwhile, we’ve had some fan art, or art inspired by or created by some of the other artists working on it. And friends of those artists, I guess. So we’ll be featuring new artwork as well. And basically, just trying to get a creative community to kind of help flush out the world a little bit, and it’s fun to just sort of share ideas and stuff.”
Duskridersย benefits from the work Adams has done on The 100, and you can hit the next slide to learn more!
The 100
Adams is used to taking an established IP and creating music that fits within it but also pushes its boundaries.ย Creating the score for Duskridersย and even his own original music still shares plenty in common with his soundtrack work, as it all still stems from telling a story.
“Sure. It’s all about story-telling. And when you’re making a record as an artist, it’s a little bit more about kind of songs that you’re putting forth, and they themselves, often are kind of like their whole little individual world, each song. But when you’re writing music for a film or a TV show, it’s to be sort of a loyal companion to whatever that story is. And it’s a bit more of a complex, woven fabric, where you’re kind of taking a thematic approach to things, and you’re trying to sort of put stuff with different characters, developed over the course of a whole season, or it could be over the course of seven seasons, or it could be motifs that developed throughout a film that kind of help to underscore all of the different twists and turns as the layers unfold in the story.”
It also requires navigating around plenty of creative opinions.
“And in this situation, there’s a lot of people with different ideas for the story they’re telling, particularly if it’s a director or a showrunner in the case of television, who’s like the executive producer, who’s kind of running the ship. They have a specific vision, and your job is kind of help bring out that vision. It’s not your record. So they’re both using the same box of crayons, but in very different disciplines.”
The 100 will be comingย back for season 5 in September, and Adams has nothing but good things to say about the fans.
“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s got a really engaged fandom, as you said. They are basically hitting me up all the time about different scenes for different characters. There are people who are creating artwork to accompany songs that we released on soundtrack. There are people who are creating inspired music themselves for their own scenes that they’ve created, that they send me, and they’re like, “What do you think of this?” And it’s really kind of cool, and I think, in terms of the actual show, it’s been a lot of fun, because you always have these new tribes or places they’re going. So there’s a lot of different new textures and themes to come up with.”
The show has allowed for Adams to experiment with his sound, something a period project wouldn’t necessarilyย allow.
“And I think we’ve really had a lot of freedom to create new sounds, and to experiment with different things in the palate, because in an imagined future, there’s a lot of freedom. You don’t have … Like if we were doing a period piece, and say, it was like Italy in the 1500s, there’s like a certain kind of sound that might be expected for that, a certain thing that we … Knowing what we know historically about like what instruments were there then, what kinds of music was being made then, that might be something that we had to sort of keep in mind as we went, right? Whereas like in an imagined future, it’s just pretty wide open. So that’s kind of a fun thing too.”
Adams is a fan of taking chances, something that has become more commonplace in recent scores.
“I think nowadays, a lot of people when they do anything from the past, they’re starting to try and throw more contemporary stuff against it. You see like a lot of … I remember when not too long ago, it was about Lizzy Borden, and it was … They wanted the movie … Sort of rock-driven, almost like industrial kind of soundscape, churning, kind of bass, synth stuff, and weird kind of glitchy rhythm stuff behind it. And it was interesting to see that against like horse and carriages, and ladies with corsets strung up. Weird juxtaposition. But I think with an imagined future, you can really … All bets are off. For a composer, it’s a lot of fun.”
What’s coming for Duskriders? Hit the next slide to find out!
What To Expect In The Future
Adams also gave fans a quick glimpse of what is to come.
“What to expect … Well, I would say, issue two we end up in Siberia, and in Brazil, and this is sort of one of these adventures that takes you kind of all over the world with this team, and there’s a lot of backstory that unfolds, and layers that come to light where you have a lot of these moments where, oh my God, things click, and they make sense, and these realizations and stuff … And it’s really a fun read.”
Issue #1 sets the stage, but hopefully, fans will soon get a look at issue #2.
“Issue one just begins to crack the surface. We just start to kind of meet the team, and as it goes, it’s really a lot of fun. So I hope people give it a look, and I’m hoping to get the second issue done, I think I’m supposed to do a panel at Comic-Con in July. Hopefully, we’ll have it done in time for that. If not, it will be shortly there after.”
Fans will also want to keep an eye on the website, as that will be the place to check out new exclusive art and music from Adamsย and his collaborators. He also wants fans to send their favorite creations his way.
And yeah, right now, I guess it’s out there on Comixology, and the website Duskriderscomic.com. We’ve done a lot of … That’s where we’ll be placing some of the fan artwork or music. So if there are any artists or musicians who are inspired by what we are doing, please hit us up through the website there, Duskriderscomic.com, and send us what you got, and we’ll feature it. It’s exciting to hear from you guys whenever we do. We’re really fired up about it.”
You can find out more about Duskriders on the official website, and you can order the first issue and its soundtrack there as well. The first issue is also availableย onย ComiXology. You can also find more music from Tree Adams on Soundcloud. Issue #1 of Duskridersย is out now.
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