First, thank you for the compliment and again this is a great question. This is why I work with the people I do so often such as Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson (First Flight) and Fred Savage (Daddy Day Camp). They all will find beauty where no one else will see it and that is what I find inspiring. An analogy I have is someone could read War and Peace and come away saying that was a great war story while another person could read the book of ingredients to chewing gum and unlock the mysteries of the universe. It is all perception. I surround myself with those that inspire me and support my creative decision no matter what the project may be.

In almost every form of art there has in place an apprentice system and this is no different when it comes to working with Hans Zimmer.What confounds me is the focus on Hans Zimmer's team which is no different than any other apprenticeship yet it seems to always attract feedback. Look at West Side Story, for example. Leonard Bernstein didn't do it all himself. He had Irwin Kostal assisting him in the orchestrations.

Film music specifically is a craft that requires a skill to write in the likeness of the master. For example, I worked with Danny Elfman on The Hulk which required me to learn his style and to be able to write in the likeness of him. It is all about learning the harmonics and orchestrations so that we are all on the same page. Look at Disney. It is pretty miraculous to see a group of artists get together and continue to produce in the likeness of Walt Disney. So for me, I have been working with Hans for about eight years now and I know what goes in to his music, being the meticulous workhorse that he is. I have seen him do it and I have learned his techniques. It doesn't mean that I can produce his music the same way he would. He's a genius. It's like no one can out-Strauss Strauss. You have got to give people a little bit of a break. We are all trying to find our way learn it and it is hard. You sometimes have to break some eggs and do things like other people have done in order to develop your own style.

Well, thank you. I didn't mean to take you to negative land. It is just that I get this question all the time and I wanted to share my enthusiasm for this great opportunity with collaborating in a colony of musicians, I guess you could say. There is a skill involved in this process that I feel is often overlooked.
 

What is more challenging I find is that is that there are so many talented musicians around the world and the recod business has somewhat collapsed since its hayday and now you see a lot more crossing over in to film scoring side of things since you can make a descent living in comparison to making a successful record. So I think there is a saturation of talents trying to get in the business. There are exceptions of course. Overall though, just because you can write a good tune doesn't mean that you are going to react to a film and working with dialogue will mean that you will be successful at it.

Another challenge is keeping in touch with all the music in the world when I am spending most of my time composing music. It is important for me to stay abreast of what is happening in the world musically because there is so much terrific music being produced and yet this takes time which I am much more limited because I am doing my thing versus sitting in an office. It is a lifelong pursuit and it is great just to be able to have an intelligent conversation and know what is going on.

As far as rewards go, I have to say I love my job. I get these unique experiences where I try to be cool about it but for example, On Daddy Day Camp I had an experience that goes right to the heart. Fred Savage was at the recording session and we were taking a break for a minute when Fred Savage leaves the room whistling the Camp tune. I thinking, 'That's awesome!" and I will never forget that. It is moments like that you just can not beat. There was another situation during the film First Flight where I was brought in after another composer whose music didn't make it. The directors, Cameron (Hood) and Kyle (Jefferson) were unsure if it could be done and even for me, I wasn't sure if I could do it. It was one of the most difficult things that I have ever done. But after hearing it played I heard them in the hall saying "we're going to be fine." I am thinking, that's why I do it. I took the pressure off them and we did something great together. It is like a lightning bolt going to your heart- it's fantastic.

This was co-composed with a wonderful friend of mine, Mel Wesson whom I work a lot together with. He is a fantastic musician and sound designer that does some weird and wonderful things. He does some amazing things that I can't do and vice versa so we make a great team working together. On Electroland, we broke it up in to segments. We would each start a cue and swap our ideas back and fourth, having a solid plan to begin with of course. I think we did this score in three days actually. It was a challenge.The approach was to bring some dynamics to these grand images. We broke it up in to all types of energy sources that were in the picture and tried to create a sound for each of them using a bit of a mix with pop sounds and combining them with a more technical approach to things when it came to energy sources like solar energy. To illustrate the magnitude of damns for example, we added a more powerful human-like emotion to the music. We also wanted the music to highlight the seriousness of the message by adding these qualities.

This is a very interesting and complex story. First of all, what is funny is that the Thomas Newman approach never came into the conversation. The direction given to me by the creator of the show, Brian Fuller was to reflect the music more along the lines of Danny Elfman, Mark Mothersbaugh or Jon Brion. Going back to the beginning, I had to write a love theme that I found challenging because the characters can never touch. It was music that I designed to have hope in it but it never quite reaches fulfillment. Although the theme reoccures, the chords change and the music oscillates up and down with no resolution. It will never quite get there which is a challenge to do with music. So in a sense we took the approach of a Wes Anderson film. It is like a modern day fairy tale. To highlight the feel of the story I used things a reverse music box for example. It was about creating simple tunes and making the music accessible. It is a lot of melody and harmony versus complicating the music with mixed up drum beats and so on. The music for this show sets me in motion. Although this story provided challenges, this is exactly what excites me and where I feel my strengths are.

Pushing Daisies is one of the most brilliant stories I have ever seen. Everything about it is so well crafted. I can watch it over and over again and it still makes me laugh- it's so well written...it is my honor to be a part of the show.

Well, first of all I have known Fred Savage for a long time so coming in to this project was already going to be fun. We used to hang out and play video games and talk about films and so on but he was always involved in the acting and writing side of things and I was always in the music side obviously so now we could actually combine the two on Fred's first feature film which was exciting.

For direction, what Fred explained to me is that he wanted a catchy camp tune like a Great Escape sort of sound. So I sat down and put together this simple tune arranging it with some acoustic guitars, banjos, whistles, spoons and other camp flavored instruments and I brought it to him. I first explained my idea for it. You have to know that this is the not so luxurious underdog of camps so my idea was to start off with this camp tune that would evolve in to this superhero theme, depicting the triumph over the other camps as the story unfolded. I other words it starts off small and builds to a full orchestra. We didn't break new ground in this sense because its a kids movie and it called for certain sounds and emotions but we did allow for time to experiment with kazoos and toys and other things to put a fun spin on the movie.

This is a very interesting thing. For example, for Daddy Day Camp, I didn't score the trailer but I scored the movie and vice versa on Spiderman 3. In essence, there is really no tie between the marketing and the production of the film. Plus the dynamics of a complete score verses a 3 minute trailer are going to be completely different. The music serves two different purposes. For a trailer, you are not applying the same technique or discipline as you would if you were scoring to the ebb and flow of emotion through an entire movie. You want to capture the viewer with intensity so that the music builds and builds and just when you think you couldn't get any larger, you take the music a step further. You have little time to capture the audience so really this is as over the top as music can get.

I have done several trailers and the direction is usually the same but it interesting because if you think about it, what does big mean? You can add sound to a certain point but there becomes a fine line where music can become dense and sounding the opposite of what you were trying to create. It is a challenge and a skill that takes time to develop. The cool thing with Spiderman 3 was that I did not see the movie first so I came up with my interpretation of what I thought the theme should sound like. Once I sent them the theme they asked me to give them different versions, making the sound darker, adding drums here...what ultimately happened was the cues I was sending them, there were editing it to the film using my music as a tool kit in a sense. Think of it this way, without Picasso we wouldn't have this idea of collage where you are making something larger out of completed smaller pieces.

You know this is interesting for me and although I know you want a definitive answer, I have to say all of them and I will tell you why. Once I have cracked the code to a specific project I like to move on to something completely because it keeps me fresh. Think of the outpouring of music since the beginning of man and your job is to come to the table with a fresh and new idea that becomes the personality of that specific film or show. It is an incredibly daunting task when you consider the many great talents in the business but the challenge of the job is what is exciting to me. I like to cross different paths all the time because it keeps me on my toes and it allows me to experience something new every time.