Working with the Ubisoft team was a joy.
— Lorne Balfe
I studied percussion as a music student, and I didn't have the best of timing, so I could never make it as a professional, unfortunately.
Ideally, it's great to gain inspiration from the script, but when filming starts, characters and their journeys can change.
I think it's harder when you get older and you start having children because you've got to get up in the morning and you've got actual responsibilities instead of just writing music for yourself.
My father was a songwriter and he had a studio, and I was always surrounded by musicians and people creating music. I think I just always believed that that was a normal job, and people waking up at lunchtime and working until late at night, that to me always just was quite a normal job.
Every single project deserves a different approach.
Con Air' and all these movies were what made me want to get into film and if 'Crimson Tide' is on the television, that's me for the next two hours. I'm not leaving.
As a composer, every project begins with either a blank sequence or a blank manuscript and for the first couple of days you cover and experience every emotion under the sun. Fear being the main one.
I'm a failed percussionist, you see.
Many times, what's in the script doesn't make it to the film these days, and when you choose a job, you take it based on genre and whom you're going to work with, if you believe in them.
I wish I could have more faith in my own music. Unfortunately, I don't.
I think that the whole point of music is that there shouldn't be rules. There is no right or wrong. And the fact that I may not like that piece of music and you may... The validation is in the fact that somebody gets something from it.
My first ever job of doing additional writing for Hans was 'Batman Begins', so that's going back I don't know, are we at 13 years now? I was his assistant for maybe ten years, a long journey.
I think TV composers don't get enough credit. I really think it is one of the hardest jobs.
I think that purists may regard the '80s and Jerry Goldsmith being the quintessential example of film scoring, but that was also a very prominent type during a time when soundtracks were purely songs, and there was very little score.
Ad Astra' is a visually beautiful film but the story is the interesting part.
Hans Zimmer and I considered 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows' to be a steampunk genre; our inspiration came from Sherlock's own travels.
I just think I started off like many composers, just in different fields of music I was doing. I started doing a lot of commercials and jingles, and then that led to doing TV and then films and games and TV.
A composer's a pretty lonely life. When people talk about premieres and movie star - no. We sit in a dark room and spend a lot of time alone.
I can think, probably in my head, as a child I thought I always wanted to be soldier. So action music to me is something that I just absolutely love writing. So thankfully, I get to do Michael Bay movies.
When you're working on a film, it's not always finished visually, what you're looking at.
