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While the show is set in and inspired by Mesoamerica, it isn’t a literal epic, Jorge took lots of liberties. I studied up on music from the period and used it as alleviation, a starting point. Big illustrations call for big music, so there were lots of places where I used a large symphony and chorus, recorded in Australia, my motherland. For specific scenes we also had a traditional chorus from Mexico. But at the other end of the diapason, for the tender moments I used a lot of solo violin and ocarina. For Mictlan and his world we used heavy essence and didgeridoo. There are a many effects Jorge always has in his scores the bad joe gets heavy essence, and there’s a Mayan folk song called “ Bolom Chon” that he has in every design. I remembered using it in The Book of Life. For Maya, it came an important theme in the score.
WoN Did director JorgeR. Gutiérrez have a specific idea of what he wanted the show’s score to sound like? Or were you allowed to experiment further?
I remembered when we had our first playback for The Book of Life, Jorge said “ I love it, but it isn’t my movie.” The notes were great, but it was missing the rudiments that would make it sound unique and match his illustrations. It was a Hollywood movie, so we were using a traditional symphony, but it was set in a fantasy interpretation of Mexico, a veritably stylized Jorge interpretation of Day of the Dead. In the case of Book of Life, I threw out utmost of the orchestral woodwinds, added in lots of other types of flutes, and included some accordion. I used a lot of guitar for air and harmony, but also percussion. For the main percussion I ended up using a lot of log cans and shakers, and of course heavy essence for the bad joe (a lot of which the plant threw out, but we‘ fixed’this wrong on Maya!).
So when it came time for Maya, we had that as a starting point, as I knew Jorge liked it. Gustavo had also written demonstrations for his themes and each of them came with a vibe that I incorporated into the score. I do remember saying to my programmer, Ryan Humphery that I really wanted to nail the sound right down and not relive the “ It doesn’t sound like my movie” moment! Jorge loved the direction right down, it was a home run, but one that had a lot of medication!
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WoN What didpre-production look like for you on Maya and the Three?
I had a many ideas on what I wanted to start with grounded on the music from BOL and effects I’ve learnt since, but until you get the illustrations you just noway relatively know what will work. I wanted new and unique percussion, so I rented a bunch of log cans, a bombo, shakers and a many other unique effects and made my own samples to use. I also had tried my own cans when I made my last reader, so I had them reprogrammed to use for all the big cans. I also had my guitarist, Michael‘Nomad’Ripoli, make some guitar percussion sounds, while fellow Aussie and woodwind player Anita Thomas transferred me a many passages on didgeridoo that I reused a lot and used for all the dark and minatory moments. I did some exploration on what flutes I would use and decided on ocarina as it’s close to what the Mayans had. Gustavo used the Kena and Sikus ( visage pipes) in some of his demonstrations so they come sounds I wanted to use. I did some googling and plant a lot of vids showing all of these cool instruments played by Ashley Jarmak. After watching a lot of her vids, I contacted her and asked if she’d be interested in playing on the score. She said yes and did an amazing job and we’ve now worked together on several other systems including the forthcoming Bob’s Burgers movie. I knew I would need a lot of solo violins, so I called my friend Max Karmazyn. Not only is Max a great violinist, but he’s also a musician. We were doing all of this right in the middle of the epidemic, so I demanded people that could record themselves at home and he was perfect.
WoN There are sketches devoted to certain characters at the morning of several occurrences. Did this allow you to go more in- depth with each character’s themes?
Gustavo wrote themes for all of those main characters, but they were written before the vitality was each done. They were amazing and really captured the substance of each character. I also had to acclimatize them to each scene. For illustration, occasion three is each about Rico’s back story. He has this Caribbean vibe, that works musically occasionally, but I took that theme and did lots of different effects to it. The occasion starts with the original interpretation that Gustavo did, also it has to go into a slow emotional interpretation where I used synth and guitar, as Rico is slow and floundering. Also he finds his way and starts to use his magic, so the music has to grow more grand as he finds out what he can do. There are some huge scenes where he uses his magic and the music gets huge as well, I nearly killed the cornucopias recording those cues!
.Maya’s theme goes on a trip with her. The original has a Morricone vibe with twangy guitar. I used that a lot, but also made it heroic by putting the tune in the cornucopias over action symphony. For the end of the series there’s a moment where Maya fulfils her fortune and we demanded a song-suchlike interpretation. I wanted it to be recognizable, but not the same as she’s no longer the same. I kept the same shape of the air, but the intervals are changed to fit new, upping harmony; as Maya develops and grows through the series, so does her theme.
WoN Did you have a favorite character to score for? Why?
I enjoyed writing for all of them and chancing sounds that congratulated their illustrations and character. But I suppose if I had to pick it would be Rico. Like I formerly mentioned, his character went on quite the trip and had some truly massive moments to score WoN Both visually and narratively Maya and the Three is massive. Was your score also grander because of this, in comparison to some of your former animated shows?
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This bone was grander as I had further plutocrat to spend! Trollhunters had no budget for live musicians at each, let alone an symphony and chorus, but Maya did! But like any assignment, the music is inspired by the illustrations and the story. There are veritably tender and emotional moments, grand battles, and big triumphs, all of which I try to capture with the music.
WoN You recorded this in the middle of the epidemic, how did you pull that off?
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Thanks to my‘ day job’orchestrating and conducting scores for melodists like Chris Beck, Mark Mothersabugh, and Fil Eisler, I had recorded numerous scores since Covid hit. Beforehand on we had an idea to record the symphony in Mexico, but that wasn’t going to work with Covid. We did manage to record some chorus in Guadalajara for some specific scenes. I formerly knew that Nomad, Ashley, and Max could record at their home workrooms, so also the question was where to record the symphony and chorus. I had always wanted to record my own score back home in Australia and this came the perfect design to do it on. I had formerly done a many scores there, including Mitchells vs the Machines for Netflix. Covid recording is tough however, you have to resolve the symphony up into sections as there are limits to the number of people you can fit in the room at formerly. So it takes further time and planning. But like I said, that’s my other job, so it wasn’t that hard to do. I got in touch with my musketeers at Trackdown in Sydney and we reserved the dates. I had to do two weeks in counterblockade before the first session, so I actually wrote the last cue from my hostel room in Sydney, overlooking the pieces house! I had to resolve up the sessions as we were chasing the dub for the first occurrences, but also staying on final picture for the last bones, so I stayed in Australia (and orchestrated and produced the score for Snake Eyes in the meantime!) also finished recording Maya. I ended up staying in Australia a little longer, as I was working on the coming Hostel Transylvania movie and was going to conduct that in Sydney, but I ended up getting stuck in Melbourne in a lockdown, so had to produce it online! Ironically, while I’m more known as an songwriter than a musician, I didn’t orchestrate any of Maya myself. I entrusted my longtime collaborator Jeremy Levy and my platoon to do it all
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