Do the characters inspire you in writing the score, if so, then in what
ways?

Always- the characters are the inspiration for what I write. It’s all written around
their motivations and personalities. Every main character has a theme or a sound
or an instrument associated with them. With so many characters and story lines
to keep track of, it’s a good way to let the music help the audience connect some
of the dots. We also vary the themes depending on what is happening with a
particular character at a particular time. For example, there are at least five or
six different variations of Scott and Allison’s love theme, which are all written to
reflect different stages in their relationship.

Will the OST for Season 1 and 2 ever be released?

Great question. All I can say is that I’m working on it, but unfortunately, it’s not my
decision.

And can you give us some news about the music that will feature in
Season 3?

The “This Might Hurt” trailer that aired during the MTV Movie Awards has some
big clues!

How do you prepare yourself before you start writing the music?

First, I prepare myself physically. Seriously! The hours can be ridiculous, and it’s
important to be healthy to get through it. Musically, we prepare by assembling a
palate of sounds that will used throughout the season. My assistant, Sam Thorn,
and I do experiments with synthesizers, sampling, etc., and pick out the things
that work well with the show, since there really isn’t time to do that once the
season has started. I also start writing themes for new characters so some of the
heavy lifting is already finished before we start working under heavy deadlines.

How long have you been composing scores?

I’ve been writing music for television and advertisements since about 2006, but I
am relatively new to film scoring. Teen Wolf was my first real scoring job, which
I started in 2011!

Approximately, how long does it take to write one piece?

It really depends on the type of piece and how long it is. A two-minute action
sequence will usually take longer to write than, for example, two minutes of
underscore. The big horror cues are often very dense and very sound design-
heavy, so those tend to involve a little more planning as well. The more stuff
that’s going on in a cue, and the more things that are going on onscreen that I
have to take into account, the longer a cue usually takes to write.

Which episode has been your favorite to score so far?

From Season 2, I loved episode 10, “Fury.” It had some of my favorite work to
date. In the new season, we’ve already scored episodes one and two, and I have
to say that I’m really happy with the scores to those so far. They say your best
work is always ahead of you, so I hope my favorite cue is something I haven’t
written yet!

What instrument do you most like the sound of in the final song?

Oh, boy… that’s a tough one. I’ll say this- I have a real affinity for brass in
general, and especially low brass. There’s nothing like standing in front of a brass
section just hammering away at something- it’s so powerful.

Which musicians have influenced your style?

So many. I came up in the music industry as a guitarist, starting in the R&B
world, moving then to rock, and then to pop, so there are a whole bunch of
different influences there. In terms of scoring, there are so many great guys
writing today, both established heavy-hitters and up-and-coming guys. Anyone
who says that film music today isn’t as good or better than it was in the past
isn’t listening. One of my favorite contemporary guys is Fernando Velasquez.
His scores for The Impossible and Mama are wonderful. He has an amazing
sensibility with melody. Another guy who I really like is iZler, whose work you
can hear on Revenge. Robert Duncan is another one- he’s done a million
shows, and he has a really great way of infusing a uniqueness of sound and of
compositional style into television, where, because of time constraints, that can
be very difficult. In terms of the legends of our business, Ennio Morricone is a
huge influence on me- his melodies are just so memorable, and they are very
different from any other composer I can think of. Bernard Herrmann is someone
who’s influence is undeniable on any composer working today. There are other

guys, too- Hans Zimmer, of course. The way he blends his concept of 70′s and
80′s electronic music with modern film scoring is very important to me, as I am a
big fan of Kraftwerk and other electronic bands of that ilk. Rolfe Kent also does
really great stuff- I love how he approaches comedy, which is very difficult to do
properly. The list goes on and on- I try to listen to as much film music as I can
and absorb everything.

Does each character have their own theme? If so, how have the
themes changes from the beginning of the series?

Each major character does, yes. The themes evolve over time because
as composers, we primarily deal in theme and variation. You present a
theme and then present different versions of it to represent different moods
and situations. It’s both an emotional as well as an intellectual challenge
to take something and say, “how can I vary this and make it different but
still keep it recognizable?” It’s a lot of fun for me. Some of it takes me back
to my days as a jazz musician re-harmonizing melodies. You can take the
same melody and put it in a different context and completely change the
emotional impact of it.

Is scoring a TV episode different than scoring a film? Like, is there a
different process?

Well, like I said before, I’m relatively new to film scoring, and I haven’t yet
had the chance to do a proper film, but I have friends who do them, and we
get to talk about work a lot. The deadlines on television tend to be a little
more brutal, I think. 90-minute film might have 60-70 minutes of music,
whereas we do about 30 minutes a week. I think the nice thing about film
is that sometimes you get a little more time to try to really work things out.
In television, we concentrate a lot on workflow and making sure there are
systems in place to make everything happen as quickly as possible. There
are so many great film composers working in television now, it’s set the
bar for quality very high, so we’re really delivering film-quality music every
week. It results in some pretty crazy sleepless nights, but in the end, it’s
worth it.

Huge thanks to Dino for taking the time to answer the questions you guys submitted!