JoBlo had the pleasure of talking to one of the greatest composers of our time; Steve Jablonsky. In their exclusive interview, Mr. Jablonsky mentions how he got into scoring the Michael Bay Transformers live action movies as well as the project he’s currently working on; Transformers: Age Of Extinction.
I would argue that TRANSFORMERS was your “he’s done it” score. Do you feel that’s accurate?
I have heard that before and I appreciate it. Even Hans Zimmer had said to me one day, like, “You realize you have written something that’s now part of the culture?” I said, “Wow I didn’t know, I didn’t actually realize that” but especially coming from him who has done that time and time again.
What was the process of doing TRANSFORMERS like?
I don’t know, I didn’t even know if I was doing it until he [Michael Bay] called me one day and started talking about it like I was doing it. I said, “oh, am I doing it?” [laughter] And he said, “Oh, yeah what do you think?” [laughter] I thought great. And of course TRANSFORMERS is- I had known about it since I was a kid. My brother was way into it, my younger brother. That was another level of…there is going to be a lot of people looking at this movie.
I wrote a ton of themes for that, I just started writing and writing as much as I could and because I really wanted to…and as Spielberg was involved and I always had that in the back of my mind. I wanted to give them many options, I just remember writing a lot of stuff. I think most of it ended up in the film but the main theme, it’s interesting. I wrote this piece that is now considered the main Autobot theme. I just wrote it, it came out and I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it.
And Michael picked up on that and Hans came into my room one day he is like that right there saying “that is good.” Everybody told me that, that part was good. I didn’t realize…I didn’t think it was any better than anything else in the score so far.
Then, there’s TRANSFORMERS 4…
Yeah, it’s definitely-I haven’t quite met with Michael on Transformers 4 yet, but I have heard probably he wants to do something new which I am totally up for. I think it’s a….I don’t know if you call it a reboot, but it’s all different actors and I haven’t seen it yet. We will see if, if you even hear that theme in the new ones or not. I am not sure yet.
Are you doing the score regardless or this is still unknown?
Am I doing the score for TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION ?
Yeah.
Yes, I am.
You can read more at JoBlo.
LegendAntihero
I hope the music in the next movie is epic. The score where Optimus fought in the forest is one of my favorites.
Bgrngod
"Even Hans Zimmer had said to me one day.."
If you're talking to Hans Zimmer enough where you can say this line above.. you've probably made it.
HoneyPrime
I'm so glad he's back to do AOE. I heard "Arrival to Earth" and just totally fell in love with his music.
payton34
"one of the greatest composers of our time…"
Seriously?
RedAlert Rescue
Arrival of the Autobots is good everything else is Just "OK" The Transformers score reminds me of Man of steel in that regard it's got a good score but it's also lacking much in the way of stand out stuff too.
A good score can make a movie even a awful piece of garbage like Pacific Rim is raised up quite a bit by having a good score.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the score for DOTM – probably the best bit is he instrumental pop song bit.
I think he needs to try to sound a bit like every oter videogame score he;s ever done to make each project stand alone – John Williams might be very generic too but at least most of his stuff it's obvious which music goes in which movie (baring Superman sounding a bit like Indian Jones and Princess Leia's theme being in Home Alone that is). but it's what Steve needs to aim for more often that and not sounding exactly like his boss and his immediate colleagues so much.
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I agree something a teeny bit like this would be nice :
Oh and the Transformers Prime score is far far superior as it's got several stand out tracks not just one over 3 movies.
Dormamu
^ This. Something with a little dee doo doo doo doo in it would be nice.
SilverBlade
My hope is that we can get an orchestrated version of the 80's cartoon theme somewhere. Been waiting 3 movies for it and still nothing on that…
Autovolt 127
I'm surprised that he hadn't met with Bay in a while.
Either way i can't wait to see what Steve plans to come up with.
Decepticons
Same! I love it so much, it's my ringtone!
Eurobeatking
Ditto.
Im hoping with the new movie,well actually get a DOTM CD score released.
Sumirster
One of my Favorite Transformers Score is "Optimus Vs Megatron" it makes me really pumped for when i run or do physical Activities !
Spaceman1251
Man, I love Jablonsky's scores. I can't wait to hear the new score while watching the movie. I usually buy the score and save it for after the movie, just to keep the high going.
It really sucks that they never did a US DOTM Score CD release. I was waiting for the actual CD so I never bought the score on iTunes. And now you can't even get the score there either.
Raiju
The musical score for the Bayverse movies have been one of the shining high points of the franchise. Too bad the writing isn't as stellar. Looking forward to Jablonsky's new work in AOE.
primushatesyou
If memory serves me correct, I believe his name was Josh Solomon.
His bio said the he's a music producer, who makes music for movies as well.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see. The music he posted was great, movie worthy.
Niv3k
There are many fakes for the music that they are apparantly working on. There also was a YouTube channel claiming he had obtained many songs. All of them turned out to be fake.
tonyformer
I'm sure it was fake. When it comes to score music for a movie like this, they normally only use one composer.
primushatesyou
I found someone on Instagram who posted an Instagram video of what he claimed to be a part of the AOE score, and he told me that he was working on one scene (He said it was the Optimus Prime chase scene with the black truck)
The music he posted seemed legit, but he deleted it after it began getting discovered.
So in the case that it was real, it looks like Jablonsky is no doing the entire score.
QLRformer
He's done some great scores for all three films. I look forward to his score in TF4.
BeeOtch217
By far the best part and one of the reasons I loved TF '07.
tonyformer
Yeah by far my favorite part of the movie.