Category: The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead: Vatos

Tonight’s episode of “The Walking Dead” proved to be my biggest challenge yet on the series.  There were so many opportunities to create a dark, rich and bottom-heavy sound, I decided to make our string ensemble even more unusual.  I wrote the score for Vatos with an orchestra made up entirely of celli and a single contrabass, as shown in this week’s video blog:

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The Walking Dead: Tell it to the Frogs

Some of the most unique and characteristic sounds in “The Walking Dead” score come from bluegrass instrumentation, including electric banjo, dulcimer, autoharp, dobro and guitars.  This week’s video blog focuses on these unusual instruments and how I use them in the score:

Ever since my first meeting with producers Frank Darabont and Gale Anne Hurd, I knew that southern blues instrumentation would be a big part of “The Walking Dead” sound.  I wanted to represent the geographic location of the story, without overtly calling attention to the score.  So, I worked closely with my musicians to create timbres that are reminiscent of country music, but ultimately unique to the series. (more…)

The Walking Dead: Guts

This week’s episode of “The Walking Dead,” appropriately entitled Guts, expands the cast and the world of the series.  Rick encounters a group of survivors, some of whom are more helpful than others, and we experience some intense action scenes as well.  The music, too, develops and the orchestration has become more layered.  This week’s blog video takes an in-depth look at the various orchestration techniques and effects I played around with in this episode:

SPOILERS BEYOND: This episode was an experiment in string textures.  I used the small ensemble of 2 violins, viola, 2 celli and a bass to create ambiguous harmonic “clouds.”  I avoided typical “horror genre” clusters, however, and searched for sonorities that were more emotionally nebulous.

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The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye

Tonight, celebrate a spooky Halloween with the world premiere of my newest series, THE WALKING DEAD.  Welcome to the first of six in-depth video blogs that will go online with each new episode.  The first focuses on the piece of music that I’m sure you all noticed tonight, The Walking Dead Main Title:

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