But then when I’m doing stuff, completely samples or in the box, I don’t record musicians, but I do get it out of the case and layer it in just to get a little bit more realness in my demos if it’s just samples and not recording an orchestra. Anytime I need a little rough around the edges cello, because I’m a bit out of practice these days, I use it as a tool to make cool noises but not necessarily traditional cello lines.
#DUCKTALES THEME SONG DOG TV#
It featured very heavily in the TV show I worked on, The Man in High Castle, for Amazon. I fell into it, I was quite lucky.ĪD: Speaking of your cello, do you use it in some of your composing or even perform with it during recordings?ĭL: Yeah, totally! I try to put it in a lot of stuff.
So I was very lucky to have that broad spectrum of everything from classical to hip-hop. But then I had the classical music background as well. I was very lucky because I had an older sister, who was 5 years older than me, and she was into the newest coolest music and so helped me be cool. I was desperate to play the cello and luckily my parents got me one and the rest was just a snowball effect. With both parents being musicians and me wanting to be like dad and play the cello (I think all little boys worship their father), I was just in awe of my dad and wanted to do what he did.
I see it in my youngest now, this anytime music is on, there is a switch that goes off in his head and I guess I was the same. How did you know when you were so young that music is what you wanted to pursue?ĭL: I don’t know. Your parents are musicians, you have been playing the cello since you were three. It brought in new audiences and didn’t piss off the old audience too much.ĪD: Looking over your biography it seems like music was always a part of your life. Smidi took that job and I just came on and helped a little bit at the end.ĪD: Well, as a fan of the original, I thought the new one worked really well.ĭL: Yeah, it’s different enough to be fresh and cool without it becoming a what is this, it’s way too different. So my first experience was with the theme song, and fortunately I didn’t have to come to it from scratch, because that would have been very daunting. Eventually I decided to put those original horn lines on strings and then the big orchestra came in, I think, in the second verse. I fought for pop horns but that was a no go, they didn’t want too much of a call back to the original. I was, like, ‘Whoa, whoa, what happened? What happened there? Why did that chord change?’ So my first experience in all of this was me basically crapping on poor Smidi saying: ‘You can’t change the chords, they’re sacred, you have to keep the chords the same.’ So then, from obviously seeing my passion and how much I was in love with this thing already, I was brought on as a sort of secondary producer, to not see it home but, like, make sure the score changes were there, and to cinematicify (if that’s even a word) the final product. So when I first heard it and, being a huge fan of the original and knowing the song note for note, word for word, it really kind of took me back. What happened was when I came on board the song had already been done, and what they had done was simplified the chords in the bridge. Then fortunately all the stars aligned, I was able to do it, and the rest is history.ĪD: What was it like taking on the classic DuckTales theme song, changing it just a little bit for the reboot?ĭL: It was kind of cool because a lot of the pressure wasn’t on me, because the producer did a lot of the legwork with Michael “Smidi” Smith. Eventually they came with DuckTales and there was no way I was turning that down because I was such a huge fan as a kid. But then I was so busy over the last couple of years, and they would come to my agent to see if I was interested in different projects, and I would be, like, arghh, I can’t fit it in. So, we had this meet-and-greet, and I said I was really interested in working with them and we really got on. Finally, he reveals how so many different things came together to get him into the career for which he seems destined.Īwards Daily: Were you a fan of the original DuckTales?ĪD: How did you get involved in the reboot?ĭL: I had sort of a meet-and-greet with Jay Stutle and Mark Karafilis who are head of music and vice head of music at Disney TV.
We also discuss his history with music and how it has been with him forever. He just finished his run on the Disney Channel’s reboot of Ducktales, and here, he talks about how he got involved in that project and why it was a no brainer to take it on. Dominic Lewis is a composer of both TV and movies both live action and animated.