John Debney Creates the Score for "Jobs"

ET gives us a peek at John Debney's thought process behind his original score to the upcoming bio-pic "Jobs," which will give audiences another peek at the life of the Apple creative-visionary, Steve Jobs. 

"My job was to try to get the essence of this guy, and then try to crystallize that into the different musical iterations of what his life was," says prolific composer John Debney, whose other scores include Sin City, Iron Man 2 and Elf. "Every era of Steve's life, musically, becomes represented in the score."

From clips we can hear in the piece, we are definitely going on a musical tour spanning several decades, which should prove intriguing if Debney takes specific motifs and transforms them as per the conventions of a given decade.  It also sounds as though Debney's main them for Steve Jobs certainly has a melancholic, Thomas Newman vibe with its simple, piano textures.

So what do you think of what we are hearing here?  Are you excited for this film and Debney's score?

No Strings Attached (Soundtrack) by John Debney - Review

No Attachment
Review by Richard Buxton

JOHN DEBNEY is certainly no stranger to the romantic comedy, having previously scored numerous examples of the genre with relative success. Such experience comes at a cost however as DEBNEY’S score for NO STRINGS ATTACHED is a pleasant but altogether predictable and formulaic offering from the composer. This, perhaps, is not the fault of DEBNEY, but is due to the romantic comedy genre itself, which rarely proves to be a musically demanding one, and subsequently rarely lets the composer explore their musical talents to the full.

The story of NO STRINGS ATTACHED is little more than what can be expected of a typical Hollywood romance, and this shows clearly through the music. The themes heard on various instruments veer through all of the expected emotions of love, sorrow, and all the others in between, with ease, but never captivate the audience in a way that might perhaps keep them entranced after they leave the theatre.

Read the full review here

Predators (Soundtrack) by John Debney - Review

Bittersweet Nostalgia
Review by Marius Masalar

For JOHN DEBNEY, who spent a great part of this year working to produce the score to IRON MAN 2 (the album for which was only recently released), PREDATORS was by his own admission a much more fast-paced and brief scoring project with significantly different challenges. Not the least of which was filling the shoes of the series’ first composer, Alan Silvestri, whose iconic music for the first film still represents one of cinema’s most accomplished action/horror scores.

DEBNEY’s score attempts to do two major and obvious things: serve as a strong homage to Silvestri’s original score, and integrate that with his own sound to reflect the new film’s contemporary feel. Unfortunately, whether because of time pressures or strange directorial initiatives or some other reason, he fails to adequately achieve either of his two goals, which makes the generous 66-minute album drag on unpleasantly. In fact it isn’t so much unpleasant as surprisingly uninteresting given that this is the man who brought us masterpieces of sophistication and musicality like CUTTHROAT ISLAND and, more recently, LAIR.

Read the full review

Variety Interviews Game Composers

VARIETY has just posted an interesting article regarding the state of video game music as described by some well-known game composers...and feature film composers. Mentioned in the article are composers such as: HOWARD SHORE, MICHAEL GIACCHINO, HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS, CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ, LAURA KARPMAN and GERARD MARINO.

Some brow-furrowers from the article:

Music budgets have risen from $30,000 (in the early '90s) to $1 million in some cases today, execs say. Composers tend to be paid by the minute, but with games requiring 90 minutes-120 minutes of music each, the $1,000- to $2,000-per-minute rate quickly adds up to creative fees in excess of $100,000.

Debney committed to writing the music for the knights-and-dragons game "Lair," but has turned down subsequent projects because there are no provisions for backend payments for successful games (as composers receive, via ASCAP and BMI, for successful films and TV shows). "The game companies are extremely resistant," he says. "I don't know if it'll change. It's a big problem."

Gerard Marino, whose "God of War" games are among the most popular (and whose music is featured on "Video Games Live"), recently heard a fellow composer complain that "there is no middle class anymore." His response: "Well, I think there is. It's games."

Also mentioned is that CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ will be scoring the QUANTUM OF SOLACE tie-in game.


There's more so check out the full article here!

High Score! The New Era of Video Game Music - Relaunched

Just relaunched the feature HIGH SCORE: THE NEW ERA OF VIDEO GAME MUSIC. Included in the relaunch is a total redesign of the feature page, but more importantly a couple new additions:

First - a new interview with COMPOSER JESPER KYD centering around his work for the upcoming game, ASSASSIN'S CREED (the game looks incredibly engaging and Jesper Kyd's score is fascinating.)

Second - a full review of JOHN DEBNEY'S epic score for LAIR. If you thought I gushed over the 5-track promo then wait 'til you read the review of the soundtrack as released by iTunes!

More cool game-music-stuff on the way, but don't wait...

CHECK OUT HIGH SCORE! HERE

Lair Soundtrack Available on iTunes

In case you've been sleeping in a cave, composer JOHN DEBNEY's score crept onto iTunes a few days ago. My personal cave was the Adobe conference in Chicago, hence the tardiness of this post.

Anyway - to my shigrin the initial release of Debney's epic score has ended up being iTunes...but based on the tracks released on the promo (reviewed here) I personally can't wait for a physical release on CD. A work like this is deserving of a nicely packaged release though. Let's hope for one.

The iTunes release sports 26 tracks containing 70 minutes of musical goodness. And it's worth every penny of that $9.99. Still...if "the powers that be are listening" please give us a higher fidelity recording on CD, SACD, DVD-AUDIO!

For now, on this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend...we give thanks that we have what we have.

Go to iTunes now (and search for "John Debney")

Track from John Debney's LAIR at Playstation Store

For those of you who dropped $500+ on the Sony Playstation 3, Sony has recently released one track from John Debney's popular score for the game LAIR...and you can get it through the Playstation Store.

The track that has been released is "Battle for Asylia." Apparently, there will be more tracks released through this same channel in the future. I have not heard the track released but, if you want a taste of JOHN DEBNEY'S score you can hear a few clips here...and read a review of the 5 track Lair promo disc.

Still no word on a more complete and official soundtrack release.

LAIR by JOHN DEBNEY (Promo Soundtrack)

What Layeth in Wait in Debney's Lair?
Review by Christopher Coleman

What layeth in wait in John Debney's LAIR? Be this a film? A concert? A video game dare?
Surely not such a work as this. A piece that none honest could easily resist.
Musical themes? A film score fan's dreams.
Yes for the gameplay itself,and, of course, the cut-scenes.
Doth today's orchestras blare with such bold fanfare?
Indeed they do...in John Debney's LAIR!

What is a poem doing here you might ask. It's simple. This 5-track promo of composer JOHN DEBNEY's upcoming score for the Playstation 3 video game, LAIR, has inspired this bit of spontaneous poetry. Now any score that can do that might just be worth a listen. But before you listen...read on.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE (w/ soundclips)

The LAIR of JOHN DEBNEY

(Originally posted on 7/29/07; updated 8/5/2007)

Composer John Debney has long been one of Hollywood's most versatile, not to mention prolific, and his first foray into the ever-growing, world of video games is the upcoming LAIR. In an earlier post you'll find some video of a live performance of score excerpts. Suffice it to say that fans of Shore, Williams, Elfman, and (dare I invoke the names of) North and Rozsa, will find moments a familiarity, but with great appreciation for the whole. The clip below is over 16 minutes long.

We should give thanks that the game genre is keeping alive this type of score. John Debney's work for LAIR goes beyond just about anything I've heard in a video game. This fantasy/action genre of game is certainly well populated, but not since Shore's work for SUN: SOUL OF THE ULTIMATE NATION, have a I heard a game-score with this amount of depth and richness. The original score for LAIR was recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios in London with a 90-piece orchestra. LAIR, the game, releases on August 14, 2007 (sadly) only for the Sony

Playstation 3.

UPDATE: 8/5/2007 - Having received a 5 track promo of the LAIR soundtrack, there's little doubt that this might be the must-have soundtrack of the year - game soundtrack or otherwise. The score for LAIR is as big or as bold as one could want, so hears hoping negotiations with interested labels will happen quickly and an epic release of the Debney's score is forthcoming.

First IRON MAN Footage from Comic Con

If you were wondering, like me, just how well Mr. Robert Downey Jr. would be pull of the famous alter-superhero-ego of Tony Stark...well wonder no more. Here is some YouTube footage from this year's Comic-Con.

If the rest of the film can hold form to what we see here, we just might be in for a treat. Currently, JOHN DEBNEY is linked to the film as composer. With past collaborations with director JON FAVERAU: ELF and ZATHURA, this seems plausible if not more-than-likely. Debney has yet to do a straight-hero score, but has danced around the edges of the genre with projects like: THE SCORPION KING and SPY KIDS among others.

Doubting DEBNEY'S ability to go all epic and heroic? Check out the live performance for his work for the upcoming game LAIR:

Ha! Yes...that's what I thought. That's good stuff. Everything seems to bode well for next year's IRON MAN....although some of the music in the clips above would seem to indicate that there will be a strong "music from and inspired by" component.

In order to get a proper score somewhere in the remote vicinity of the release of the film, someone ought to begin the campaign/petition right now.