I think that one of the things I'd learned from being so attentive to the careers of the people I've admired is the fact that they would say 'no' a lot. Early on, I took that as a cue to only work on things that I knew I would be passionate about.
It wasn't until high school that I actually started writing. I was in a lot of the school plays and musicals, and there was a lot of down time during rehearsals. I would go into the orchestra pit and mess around on the grand piano.
Because of John Williams, I began collecting all kinds of film scores. I listened to them when I fell asleep, and it was through my obsessive listening that I learned what all the different parts of the orchestra were. I learnt a great deal from him by just simply listening.
People on 'The Incredibles' would ask me if I listened to a lot of spy scores, but no, I don't.
I grew up listening to every style of music you can imagine, and I have a love for all of it.
You've all seen movies where the music isn't working with the story. And it's either because... the story isn't working itself. Or the composer kinda just wants to write whatever they want to write, not paying attention to the thing.
I grew up with so many different sounds, and 'Lost' allows me to express all of it, the melodic and the atonal.
For some reason, as a kid, I felt outwardly embarrassed to say that I liked rock music. I don't know where that came from. For me, it just wasn't cool - orchestral music was cool.
As a kid I was obsessed with monster movies.
My great uncle, my mom's uncle, had an appliance store in Philadelphia, and it was called Peter's TV. They sold stereos and televisions and washers, dryers, all kinds of stuff.
There was a paperwork mishap on 'War For The Planet Of The Apes,' in that the end credits was simply called 'End Credits.' And that's what appears on the album. Once we realised that was out there, we were so ashamed.
There have been several movies that I've done over the years that have got a bad shake - 'Speed Racer' was one of them. I loved that movie, and the fact it got such a bad reception was disheartening.
I was pretty lucky to have grown up during the 'Star Wars,' 'Indiana Jones' and 'E.T.' years.
The very first game I worked on was for DreamWorks Interactive's 'The Lost World: Jurassic Park.'
I love Glenn Gould. Max Steiner. John Williams. Louis Prima. Benny Goodman. Miles Davis. John Philip Sousa.
When artists find other artists that they love to work with, they more than likely will continue to work with them throughout their career.
When I was a kid, there was no DVD, no VHS. The only way to re-live a movie once it was out of the theater was to listen to its film score.
The 'Jonny Quest' theme had a huge influence on me while I was growing up.
I love classic animation, and I especially love classic cartoon music.
Filmmaking is hard enough as it is. If you can find a group you love working with, it makes it just a little bit easier.
