Michael Giacchino Talks About His Score To ‘Star Trek’
'Star Trek' Director J.J. Abrams and Composer Michael Giacchino
The latest issue of ‘Star Trek Magazine’ features an interview with Star Trek music composer Michael Giacchino. Here’s a short excerpt from that interview in which he explains why the direction of the score went towards sad and brooding themes.
Your approach to the score is very different from the John Williams template from Star Wars…
Michael Giacchino: Quite honestly, that was the first direction we went in, and I had written several themes that we’re in that space opera kind of vein, somewhere between what Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams did, in that language of what we’ve all come to know as ’space music.’ On every one of them, it felt right for a big space movie, but it didn’t feel like our movie. Again it goes back to the idea that we were trying to do something that wasn’t exactly what you had seen or heard before. We wanted to do something that was a little different, space movies don’t have to have this sound.
J.J. [Abrams] always wanted to make it about the character. He’d say that the theme for this movie can’t be polished, it can’t be soaring, it has to have an almost unfinished feel in the way that Kirk is almost an unfinished character. He’s not a finished person he’s getting there but he’s not there. He’s a little rough around the edges. J.J. wanted something that was somewhat sad, somewhat brooding. That is clearly not what Star Trek has been in the past, or Star Wars, or anything that would normally go in that direction.
I think he was absolutely right to say what he said and it really took the music in a different direction. We are dealing with the start of the relationships with these characters that we know so well. It’s a tough beginning for them, not an easy one. Any time we did try to be too heroic or too traditional, it felt wrong, and not true to what was going on emotionally in the story. Musically, had we gone in a direction that it had gone before, it might have felt hollow. It wouldn’t have felt like we were taking it anywhere different. I feel like it really needed to be treated differently than it has been the last 10 years.
On-sale dates: US Issue #19, on sale now / UK Issue #146, on sale 9 July
For more information and to subscribe visit:
US: http://titanmagazines.com/startrek
UK: http://titanmagazines.co.uk/startrek
Image courtesy of ScoringSessions.com
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