In case you missed it, read part one.
On the Directors
So, it's been a pleasure to work with them—especially because their feedback cycles [have] allowed me to grow as a composer. I [also] adore working with them because I know by the end of our detailed efforts, we've collaborated as storytellers. With my background in theatre, I feel I can connect to them better because we're [each of us] trying to "hear" the emotion in a scene and understand it from the [characters'] perspectives, too. [editor's note: Theatre-wise, Kailey and Sam are actually Shakespeareans, which you can read about, here.]
Getting Hired
Rose: It's frikkin' Alien! What’s not to love?Nick: Were you excited, nervous?
Rose: Wasn't nervous—usually, haha! The only fear we held was "Is Fox going to rewrite everything we did?" Completely unfounded, I know, but these are the types of crazy-cat thoughts do occur during a project, [especially] after working solidly on this for two months (combined with lack of sleep and showers and eating whatever was at hand to get through sixteen-hour marathon sessions in our studios). I suppose I over-compensated a little, was slightly OCD on this one; we wanted it to be as good as possible. Considering how much we loved this story and that it was such a visible project, we put in extra effort and detail.
Nick: Did the fact that Kailey and Sam Spear were directing help put your fears to rest, given you've worked with them, before?
Rose: We were both very excited to be asked to write the music—we loved their story and knew we'd love working with their team.
Nick: When working on the score for "Alien: Ore," did you have access to any material from the original production, courtesy of Fox?For example, when developing Alien: Isolation (2014), Creative Assembly were given a "master file," which included musical data from the original, 1979 film. [editor's note: For more information on that, read this interview with Joe Henson and Alexis Smith from The Flight, the production group tasked with producing that game's music.]
Rose: Nope. That'd have been cool. But we also cared about bringing a fresh perspective to the music, while still paying homage. So in this case, we did a deep study of the original score. We realized, early on, that this storyline needed a hybrid approach, and that we didn't want to land too bombastically on the score. [editor's note: Goldsmith's original score featured a lot of Romantic elements and elaborate musical moments.][We opted for a] more modern and subtle approach, but [included] a little bombast. If we do our job right, the score isn't actively heard (unless the scene demands it). Rather, we wanted the score to be "felt" as part of the audience's visual experience. So, we try to [support] the emotional quotient of a scene without getting in the way of dialogue or sound design elements. Tricky.
Rose: We didn't have an opportunity for this. If we were to be asked to do an Alien feature, we'd love an opportunity to consult with anyone who worked with Jerry Goldsmith on the original—to pay some homage to where it [all] started.
Rose: About one month prior [to writing anything], we began the official "spotting" sessions with the Spears, and began designing "scoring sounds" and synths for [our] hybrid score. This process began in early November, and ended in mid-late January. We spent approximately three months on this one—with the production and recording efforts in December and through the holiday season, and final sync edits, mixes and delivery prep (with a couple quick final edits) in January.Delivery of the score to the post-production and sound mix team was by mid-January.
Nick: When composing your music, did you listen to the original score(s) while composing and draw inspiration from them?Gerry: Definitely. We listened to the original and drew a couple of things from it (most notably the piano and harp hit echo, on my end).
Nick: During "Alien: Ore," I noticed a segment that sounded like Goldsmith's Freud (1962). That score had been used by editor Terry Rawlings when editing the original, "silent" cut of Alien, and everyone liked it so much they decided to keep it in the movie. This includes the acid scene, which your music reminded me of.Were you trying to emulate Freud, in "Alien: Ore," "nodding" to its adoption by Scott, in Alien?
Gerry: Definitely. An ambient approach supported the mine environment best (we thought).
Rose: We allocated plenty of time on this project, and blocked it off on our work schedule so that we wouldn't feel too rushed—four weeks [for] the core work, but an additional four weeks [for] scratching out ideas.Nick: How did that go?
Rose: We'd move [it] into more of an arranged piece, meet with the Spears and make sure we’re on track before moving [into] official production mode. Then, we'd have to blend both of our composition stems into one piece, maybe have to create a new sound, and [experiment] until the whole team was happy with it. We reserved our stem mixing until final approval from the Spears.
We were waiting on this until the end. Then, we mixed down all our tracks—a hundred tracks down into about twenty—and created all the stems to be remixed by the final post-production mixer. So although we had a reference as to what we'd like to hear [in the final product], we delivered the [finalized] stems to the post production teams, [who helped deliver] the final product [too].
