How The 'X-Men 97' Composers Reinvented Its Legendary Theme Song | Behind the Song - video Dailymotion

Variety

Enter the studio of the Newton Brothers as they break down the title sequence of 'X-Men 97'.They explain how they modernized the track while always staying true to what original fans loved.   Variety Artisans presented by HBO.

Transcript

00:00I'm Andy Grush, I'm one of the Newton Brothers.

00:07And I'm Taylor Stewart.

00:08We're going to take you behind the main title of X-Men 97.

00:23The way we were brought into this project was first through the music supervision team.

00:30We were both very, very excited because, I mean, I watched the original series as a kid.

00:35To see it come off of the page and onto the TV, I mean, we all know that feeling.

00:39As a kid on Saturday mornings, I would hear the theme song and I would always get super

00:42duper pumped up.

00:43We went through the original series, it was sort of like a time capsule going back and

00:47sort of re-experiencing.

00:49So it was great from a fan perspective and also as, you know, getting involved in the

00:53composition side.

00:54Yeah, and it was real dense too, which is fun musically, you know, like there's like

00:59a lot going on with the story, but then a lot going on musically.

01:03There's lots to grab onto and interesting, a lot of interesting sounds.

01:06For Taylor and I, we wanted to sort of explore where that could go.

01:10Ron was using a lot of technology that nowadays, like it's just so easy for us to grab, even

01:17to get an analog synth to sync up is much easier.

01:21But to be able to hear that technology back in that time was really pretty exciting.

01:32So we did how many versions?

01:34Seven or eight versions.

01:35The idea was just to take it to different styles, modernize it, to see sort of where

01:41we landed.

01:42We're more invested, I feel like, because we grew up, like a lot of the fans, being

01:46a fan ourselves.

01:47I think there was that scrutiny of the score as we were going through it.

01:52Obviously when the fans were super happy, you know, that's a good feeling versus the

01:56fear of them saying how much they hate it and why did you ruin this character and why

02:00is this ruined?

02:01And that's obviously the nightmare.

02:06We were told that the main title would kind of stay in the exact same ballpark.

02:11So we didn't want to change the timing.

02:13And then when we got into it, it came down to sort of piecing together the rhythm section

02:18to start with.

02:19An interesting thing we discovered was that having some sounds that by themselves don't

02:25necessarily sound like something you'd ever use go nicely with things that would.

02:29So for example, this bass is probably a bass sound that I don't think we'd ever use,

02:37but it has a nice attack to it.

02:38And when you add in a modern synth, it starts to like, have a little, you know, a little

02:46flavor to it.

02:51Within that, it was like, okay, let's kind of bulk that up even more just to give it

02:55like.

02:57And then comes in this, this piano that was like famous in like the 80s.

03:04Another important sound that we spent a lot of time on is this, this glissando.

03:10Let's see, is this, is this the track right here?

03:13That.

03:14So we did that probably a hundred times with every synthesizer in this studio.

03:22We did it with digital synthesizers.

03:25The first time we played that sound, it was like, definitely not.

03:27No.

03:28A lot of the modern sounds of that era too could come across maybe silly, you know, if

03:33it's not done in the right way.

03:35And I think we didn't want to make this feel obviously silly, we wanted to honor it properly.

03:39So hence we went through several variations and versions.

03:42Here's the lead line with the, the synth playing the lead line and the little glissando with

03:48our fun.

03:58We were confused as to whether or not we were calling that the chorus or the verse, but

04:02in our case, we call it the verse, even though it's probably the chorus.

04:05All right, so this is, this is Nilly Brosh playing this guitar.

04:13And you can hear it really adds like an element where like, if you just, if you just have.

04:22That's a very modern version of it.

04:26This is just the demo orchestra before the live orchestra.

04:28And you can kind of hear like.

04:37I think the orchestra, you know, adding the human nature to it is such a vital importance

04:42to this show because there's so many synthesizers, there's so much drum machines, there's so

04:47much of that.

04:49But at the same time, we had to really get the orchestra not to be so, they approached

04:54it very much originally, a little, a little stiff, a little more of a classical, actually

04:59with virtuosity and what you'd want out of really, you know, amazing players.

05:03Our orchestrator, Mark Graham, he kind of went in and got them to, you know, relax,

05:07try some things.

05:08And that really gave it a little bit more of a space and not so on the click.

05:14But then after that, it was more of a rock band with an orchestra.

05:17And then it's just about like being very big with things, even from the rhythmic standpoint,

05:24it's very just like no frills in your face.

05:31And this sort of sets the rhythm of it like, and we talked about, let's get our buddy to

05:35play double kick on this and, but a lot of it is that it's kind of like mechanics.

05:40So strangely, like the, the sample works well, just hitting on that double kick.

05:45Let's see.

05:46And then of course, yeah, we're pretty sure that there are orchestra chimes throughout

05:54the like, we'll call it the triplet section in the original that are kind of like buried

05:58in the mix.

05:59We opted to just go with the one on the end.

06:01So that was like very impactful.

06:03Here's the sound by itself, but the fans for some reason have an absolute love for this

06:07particular sound.

06:10There it is.

06:11In all its glory to throw it in there with everything else, it's like it worked.

06:20I think I read somewhere, someone wanted us to add more of that back into it, which

06:24I thought was super funny, but yeah, people love that sound.

06:28Oh, there's so many little, let me see here.

06:31This is like sort of some distorted.

06:38It's just adding aggression.

06:39And I think a lot of it too is, is thickening up and doubling the orchestra, doubling up

06:44different parts and pieces.

06:46We did use this theme throughout the show and slowed down, sped up different variations

06:52and tempos, mainly sort of to honor how the show runs and starts and begins.

06:58But we did play this amazing theme that Ron did in several places.

07:02I remember one of the days we were sort of having a feedback and we were talking to one

07:06of the execs, Brad, I didn't know him yet.

07:09And I remember seeing all these sort of X-Men like figurines behind him and like all this

07:15stuff.

07:16He's such a fan of the show.

07:18And so was Bo and like everybody.

07:20And it really helped, I think, bouncing out ideas because everyone really loves the material

07:26and we're all super nerds and it helps because we want to capture what the fans want.

07:31So I think it helps.

07:34Seeing the final animation and the sort of the fans reaction was super impactful.

07:41You don't really understand it until you sort of see it in that setting.

07:44Yeah, to not hear the main title when it starts because people are cheering so loud was like

07:50awesome.

07:51That was fantastic.

07:52Yeah, it's pretty fun.

How The 'X-Men 97' Composers Reinvented Its Legendary Theme Song | Behind the Song

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