Star Wars composer takes us on a journey to create music for a galaxy far, far away

For anyone stepping into the role of a composer, taking up the mantle of John Williams can be a daunting task. Star Wars universe. after all, Star Wars not Star Wars without its signature theme.But for Ryan Shore, he’s recently composed music for a number of traditional series, including scooby dooI am honored to seize this opportunity.

io9 recently discussed composing the online series with Shore Star Wars: Forces of Destiny and Star Wars: Galactic Adventures. He walks us through the process of using the iconic series of themes Williams created that remain a thread throughout all musicals Star Wars story, while also leaving its own mark on Lucasfilm and Disney’s beloved mythology.

Sabina Graves, io9: When you become part of the io9 program Star Wars Universe, was it daunting to immerse yourself in those very iconic sounds, or were you excited to add your own talents to it?

Ruian Coast: Mostly the former. I was a little nervous because I grew up watching these franchises but I never really thought about what I would write for them. I just enjoy them the way they are meant to be. So I remember the first time I scored a moment like this, I was thinking, “I wonder how this moment has been done before and what I’m supposed to do.”

io9: Is there more pressure on people like fans? Star Wars’?

support: The score is Star Wars, I know there is such a huge fan base and the fan base knows so much about the characters, the world, and the storyline. So it’s a little daunting when you think, “Okay, I want to make sure I get it right.” But after the initial nerves, I tried to switch all of that off, put on my composer hat, and think, “What is the story about? How can I best use music to tell this story and this moment?” ?” [I] Really just focus on telling the story and try not to think about [the] People may hear this and have their own ideas about the whole history and the legacy of everything.

io9: I like your work Star Wars: Forces of Destiny. Is there a particularly favorite scoring moment?

support: I can tell you a story about my first encounter with this series. My friend and I worked at an animation company called Ghost Bot, and we did some advertising for a completely unrelated project for Lucasfilm. After we finished another project, they called me and said, “We’re working on an animated television series for Lucasfilm, and we’d love to recommend you to score it. Would you be interested?” I said: “certainly.” [Then] They said, “We can’t tell you what it is because we all signed non-disclosure agreements. But they were looking for something like adventure music. So can you put together adventure music that you’ve done before, and we made it for the filmmakers Play it?” I said, “Yeah, of course.” But in the back of my mind I was thinking, you know, adventure. Like, adventure can be a lot of different things.it may be Indiana Jones-These are very different types of fractions -[or] Star Wars.So they made a call, it was me and one of the producers of the show, and I still didn’t know it was Star Wars. I remember saying to the producers, “I know I’m not allowed to know a lot of details. So, of course, don’t tell me anything I’m not supposed to know. But can I ask a question about the series?” He said: “Of course.” I said, “Do these stories take place on Earth?” They said, “No.” I said, “Thank you.”

io9: Oh my gosh, that’s so smart!

support: That’s all I need to know, because with this information, [knowing] It’s not on Earth – so it’s probably space.Now this being science fiction, this could very well be Star Wars Because this is Lucasfilm. So I immediately replaced the entire reel.I took everything that sounded like Star Wars, I put it on top.And then one day I got a call from Lucasfilm and they said, “Okay, remember that series we were talking about with you? We wanted to hire you, and here’s a new guy Star Wars series. “

io9: That’s incredible!

support: So you ask, what was my favorite part about scoring?The first episode I did because it was the first time I had a chance to write music for it Star Wars. [To] See these characters, use John Williams’ iconic themes, delve into that world, and have a live session with Dave Filoni to discuss what the music should be and what role it will play – immersed in Star Wars The universe – that’s my favorite.

io9: What was it like working with Dave Filoni as he began overseeing more of the ever-expanding animation slate? Star Wars universe?

support: Dave trusted him a lot. I remember we had a positioning meeting at the beginning and found out about six episodes and we watched the episodes and we talked about what kind of music was going to be in it and where we were going to make musical transitions. I went back to my studio, I wrote all of this and delivered it to them, and they had no comments – like, zero comments on the six episodes of music. So I remember thinking to myself, either they really like this, or I’m going to get fired. [Not getting any comments is] So rare. So when we do the next round of discovery sessions, it’s going to be much faster. And then Dave stopped and it was the biggest compliment ever – Dave said to me, “You know what you’re doing. Just do it.” I don’t even remember watching some of the later ones Episodes. It was really fast and they trusted me.

io9: What’s the best advice Dave Filoni or Lucasfilm has given you when it comes to taking you into the universe?

support: What I really remember about working with Dave is that he didn’t really offer a lot of advice.Main recommendations [I got from Lucasfilm] is how to utilize the John Williams theme.This is a big deal because we all know these iconic themes and if you played them musically it would sound like Star Wars. You play this theme that we all know and then you combine it with Star Wars Video, okay, this is Star Wars, But that’s a little too easy—Williams wouldn’t do it.Williams doesn’t just take one of these themes and put it in a scene and say, “This is it, now it’s Star Wars”. So that was one of the main pieces of advice they gave me: use Williams’ themes in the right way at the right time, and use them wisely; that way, I don’t overuse them. I also got to write some of my own themes, which was amazing to me to be able to write my own themes with Williams – and then to see my name on the paper next to Williams’s after the show. Like, “What? How did that happen?”

watch Star Wars: Forces of Destiny and Star Wars: Galactic Adventures on YouTube.

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