Bear McCreary Interview

Bear McCreary (the composer for BSG) was interviewed by Robin Parrish of InFuze Magazine. Go check it out. Registration is required, but here is a sample to wet your appetite!

Robin: Take us through what a typical episode cycle looks like for you, from start to finish.

Bear: Oh, Robin, I wish I could! (Laughs.) There is no typical episode of this show!

(Laughs.) In a nutshell, then.

The producers, the writers, and the actors are constantly growing, in regards to what they've learned, what the show needs. Over time, I've gotten pretty good at predicting what works best, musically, in any given episode. Now that I say that, the next few episodes may prove me wrong! But in general, from start to finish, it takes me about ten to twenty days to do a show. That doesn't mean I can only do one show at a time on that schedule; the shows always overlap. Right now, I'm working on two or three.

That's pretty typical. It's really tough on me because I haven't adjusted -- I haven't gotten to the place where I feel like I have a solid handle on this thing, you know what I mean? In a lot of tv shows, you're using the same palette that you paint from, week to week, using a lot of the same themes over and over. With our show, it's different almost every single week. Musically, each episode is almost a big movie adventure all by itself, in a way.

And it's pretty music-heavy, right? There aren't a lot of moments in the show where there's no music playing...

I think it's very music heavy. The average hour-long show on tv has anywhere from twelve to eighteen minutes of music. Our show, I've had episodes that run anywhere from twenty-five to thirty minutes of music. But it's very subtle; it doesn't feel like it's a lot of music. Because a lot of the time, the music is part of the atmosphere, part of the texture of the scene. It doesn't necessarily come at you in a big way.

...

What episode are you working on right now?

I am about to dive into episode fifteen. The break was at ten, so I've finished eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen...

I can tell you this much: the second half of this season is stronger than the first half. I've been really enjoying the episodes that I've seen. In particular, the resolution to the "Pegasus" storyline is really cool.

Read more (free registration required)

It is a great article with some excellent pictures. Bear says he hates spoilers so there aren't any in the article. It is worth the free registration if are interested in the music, the soundtracks and the man behind it all.

The best tid bit of all? The next soundtrack CD! Planned for release late spring or early summer 2006... possibly double-disc!

Comments

[aragorn]

Hee, Bear Mcreary looks pretty saucy.

and YES! NEXT CD!!!! I have to say, I liked the season 2 score significantly more than the season 1.

[Dia]

He makes great music, very atmospheric. Can't wait for the next soundtrack.

[Cpt Chaos]

hell yeah the music is really on of the things that is setting this show apart from others:
The drums, the strings, the "new age" sound (for lack of a better term) provides some musical character that allows to instantly recognize the music as "BSG-music" and easily distinguishes it from the often 08/15 scores of others scifi-shows I know. I mean: its the first time that I listen to the soundtrack of a tv-series without the pictures, because the pictures come all by itself when listening to the various tracks (e.g. when listening to "The shape of things to come" I immidiately have the scene with Baltar an 6 in my mind)
That proves IMHO that in this show music is an art that works perfectly in harmony with the pictures to provide an even greater emotional impact on the viewer - just like it should be in a great epic tale :)

Having that said, it sucks that I have to register just to read a interview! What do these people think? I mean come on - its a frakking INTERVIEW!
oh well yeah - I guess its time again for Santa Claus and his (probably well overused) email-addy xyz@gmx.de... ;)