God of War, Lord of the Rings composer Bear McCreary on dream projects, character themes, and his new rock concert

From Battlestar Galactica to Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. If you can remember a powerful theme from a TV show, movie, or game, chances are it could have come from the mind of Bear McCreary. Recently, we got the chance to speak with the composer, and despite a power cut threatening our interview, McCreary took the call and our questions like an absolute pro. Check out the full conversation below:

Q: So, you've got a new rock album, The Singularity, coming with a show as well. How does it feel to be touring Europe for the first time, and how have you condensed your career into it?

McCreary: "You know, The Singularity was born from something I've been writing since I was 16 years old, right? Like the one of the songs, Escape From The Machines I actually wrote when I was 16 and I just released that demo yesterday, so it's always been rolling around in my brain. But for the last 20 years, I've been focused predominantly on scoring for media, for film, television, and video games. And I think it started to add up that I was really missing being out in front of an audience."

"I did a lot of concerts during my run with Battlestar Galactica 15 years ago now. I performed live, I performed the theme to God of War when God of War 2018 came out. I performed Blood Upon the Snow with Hozier when God of War Ragnarök came out. I had these opportunities to do these performances and honestly, it just started weighing on me like I want to do that more but I don't want to wait for those opportunities because I want to make that opportunity. So that was really how the singularity started. I wrote a concept rock record that started off just being something I would want to do live. But then it sort of grew and I started bringing in my friends and asking my friends of friends. And before you know it, there's Slash and Serge Tonkin and Corey Taylor and Scott Ian and Jens Kidman and Joe Satriani and Guthrie Coven and Rufus Wainwright. It became this really cool collection of people that I know and people that I got to know. And then it was time to take it on the road, man. And combine it, as you said, with everything else."

"It's not the Singularity tour. It's the Themes and Variations tour. It is a little bit of everything. So for me, it brings it all full circle. And I'm playing a piece of music that I wrote when I was 16. And I am playing music from God of War and Battlestar Galactica and new rock songs that I wrote with artists like Serge and Rufus. And to me, it's sort of a celebration of all the music that I've been so excited to do over the last 20 years. And to be able to get it all into one set, get everybody under one roof, and slam through it. It's pretty exciting."

Q: As you say, you're writing, you're performing, but there's also this graphic novel attached. You've got a lot of stuff going on here. First of all, how do you find the time? And second of all, do you want to do more stuff like that? Like branch out creatively on stuff that maybe people don't immediately associate you with?

McCreary: "I mean, I definitely do. As you said, I started off doing a concept rock record and then created a graphic novel called The Singularity published by Image Comics. And like the album itself, it is also a behemoth that is like 16 different artists from across the industry telling this really cool sci-fi story that is connected to my album. That was really fun. I'm also in the final stages of developing a musical intended for Broadway. This is another area of creativity that I'm really enjoying. I think all of it is a response to me writing music for other people's stories for so long and loving that, but recognizing that there's other ways of collaborating with people and that I don't want to limit myself. I don't know what else is on the horizon. I'm definitely having fun with all this stuff. And I still love scoring film, television, and video games. I'm not giving that up. It's a very exciting time."

"How do I find the time? I don't sleep a lot. I don't have any hobbies. This is what I do."

Q: You've got this hefty experience with these fantastical worlds in the movie scoring from Godzilla to Battlestar Galactica to Lord of the Rings God of War, as you mentioned before. Do you think there's anything in particular that suits you to these wider worlds, completely beyond our imagination that you managed to capture with your scores? Or do you think it's maybe something that's more landed in your lap as time's gone on?

McCreary: "I grew up absolutely immersed in sci-fi, fantasy, horror. Other genres started to grab my attention in high school. And I really dove into classic film and foreign film. But really my heart, it's like Star Wars, Aliens, The Thing, Highlander. These are the stories that Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek, Willow, Lord of the Rings. It's like there's so many things that that's where I grew up."

"My first job was Battlestar Galactica. My first job was going to outer space in a thing that at the time was very tonally daring. The tone of that show I think younger people today don't appreciate because they look at it and go, every show is like that. Yeah, not in 2003, man. Not in 2003, okay? And said with love, it was Stargate and Farscape and Star Trek Enterprise. That's what sci-fi was. And I love those shows too, but Battlestar really confused people. And delighted them. It captured imaginations."

"I was 23. That's where my career started. It also means that not only am I aligned with these sorts of genres and enjoy them, but that's where my career started, right? I mean, if anything, after 10 years of working professionally, I had to start actively and aggressively pursuing non-genre projects. I did a film called The Professor and the Madman about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. Beautiful period. I mean, it's like I had to hustle to be like, I can do this! My mentor was Elmer Bernstein, who scored The Age of Innocence. I can do this. And they're like, aren't you the zombie guy? So, it's fun. But look, it's a great place to be typecast. I mean, I'm so happy. It's allowed me to play in so many sandboxes with my favourite toys. Terminator, Godzilla, Child's Play, Lord of the Rings, Halo, Percy Jackson, Walking Dead. It's an embarrassment of riches, all the things I get to play around with. That's also one of the things I think will be fun about my tour. You're going to hear a lot of that stuff."

Q: How do you plot that out in the tour, with where you're going to go?

McCreary: "I definitely have some deep cuts. I definitely have some deep cuts. A couple of things that I thought only I like. Yet, I've heard from fans, I ask people, what do they want to hear? They're impressing me. Everything on my set has been called out by somebody. In addition to scoring music and playing games and movies, I have been going to concerts my entire life. I love going to concerts. A concert is like a movie. It's tension and release. Tension and release. When are they going to play that thing that I really love? Oh, they're playing this. I don't know what that is."

"It's like you buoy it up with, here's something you know, here's something you don't. Then that tension of, yeah, but they haven't played the one. They haven't played the one. It's like you go see Guns and Roses, and it's like the longer they go not playing Sweet Child of Mine or Paradise City, the more you want it. I've been thinking about this. For my fan base, it's really fun because I've got my rock record. I've got all these themes. I'm mixing things up. I'm definitely playing with that in the set list. I also love the idea of, I'm not going to make you wait. Early on in the set, we're going to get to some things that people know that I think are going to be really exciting."

Q: What would you say are the key differences that you find with say scoring something like a movie versus a game or a TV show versus a movie? What approaches do you take? Are there any sort of differences, or do you go in with the same mindset for each?

MCreary: "I'll tell you there's obvious, many differences. I would even add two other mediums. I'm at this very moment working in film, television, video games, the musical, headed for Broadway, and doing rock records. In all five of these things, your job fundamentally is to make people feel something. And for me, that something is narrative."

"Even a song has a narrative."

"It takes you on a journey. A Broadway show has a narrative. So fundamentally, it's all the same. And it's all equally challenging. Writing a good theme for some purpose is incredibly difficult. There's no science to it. You just have to fumble your way through it. What makes those three notes that I wrote for Kratos work? Or what is it about the Godzilla theme that was written in 1954 that is so effective that I know I can't top it, so I'm not gonna try. That's the magic of music for me. And then from there, whether you're going to a game, a film, a show, an album, a musical theatre piece, or a concert stage, it's all details after that. You're getting that core thematic material that makes somebody feel something. That's 99% of the job."

Q: Something that I found was really interesting is talking about the narrative and the way you create that in themes. And I think something that you've done really well in the scores that I've listened to and the work that I've listened to is character. I was wondering how you go about that. Do you picture the character in their whole as who they are all the time, or do you think about maybe what are they like in this moment, what are they like in this situation when you're picking them apart?

McCreary: "That's a great question. The best way to look at it is to take a listen to the thematic pieces from God of War, God of War Ragnarök, and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. These three projects I, and many others, but these are just the best examples, I wrote theme pieces."

"I didn't just write a theme. I wrote a fully functioning piece of concert music. And when you listen to that, for example, the Huldra brothers, the dwarven brothers in God of War Ragnarök got their own theme. That's the first thing I wrote for them. I didn't have any footage, I just knew their story. It tells their whole story. Every chuckle, every laugh, every twist, the bitter ending. It's all there. And I used it, and the reason I did that is I wanted to show the directors and the development team this is how the theme is going to go through its shape."

"And I knew the theme worked. Same thing with Lord of the Rings. If you listen to Elendil and Isildur on the Lord of the Rings Season 1 record, there's material there that isn't in Season 1. It's not even in Season 2! But you're going to hear it, I think, at the end of the show. There's a thing that happens if you know the material, and I thought, I wrote this great little theme for the father and son on Numenor in Season 1, but I have to know, right now, what does it sound like in a bigger, more tragic, epic version? So I just did it. I think what's fun is that I put those out on the album, I'm sort of revealing my process. When I know a theme is malleable, that's the way I think of it, it's malleable, so that you can change its tone, and you still know what it is. Then it's working."

"And there are themes that I've written that are generic enough, that are not well constructed enough, that if you change them from major to minor, for example, you don't recognize it anymore. Or it sounds like something else. If you slow it down or speed it up, you don't recognize it. It's almost like stress testing. Alright, I wrote a theme. To answer your question, I'm not just thinking about the moment, right? I'm thinking about all the moments. Put it through its paces, then I know oh, if the character's in a funny moment, I can use this variation. Oh, tragic ending, I use this variation."

Q: So in that sense then, do you see yourself more as sort of a maybe like a storyteller for the future, almost a prophetic storyteller?

McCreary: "Always. Well, it's interesting. First and foremost, my job is to serve the moment, and make sure you feel the right thing in the moment. That is the top priority. The reason I sort of glided past that is that sort of goes without saying, right? If you screw that up, you aren't doing the right thing. So I immediately then start focusing on what else can you do? I learned this from Elmer Bernstein, my mentor, one of the great film composers of all time, who always talked about subtext. He said the first thing to do is turn off the music and watch the scene."

"Anything that is already working does not need music."

"If the scene is supposed to be scary, and you turn the music off and it's scary, well then don't do anything. Or, if you're going to do something, do something else. What's the subtext? What happened before with this character? What might they be thinking about? Are we foreshadowing something ahead? You see how I'm getting to your question? You use that broader context to inform the audience on a subconscious level about more nuanced layers of the story."

"I will tell you that when I started Rings of Power, which is maybe among the more secretive projects I've worked on, I got hired and they sent me the first two scripts. The first thing I said was, okay, who's the stranger? What's his deal? The room went ice cold and they all looked at each other and it became clear that almost no one knew this. Then I said, 'guys, I've got to stop you right now. I understand the secrecy, I understand the stakes, but I can't do my job unless I know everything.' They were like, 'okay, we'll send you all the scripts.'"

"You could tell that it was a big ask. I am usually among the first people to learn the story arcs, where is it going, because it ultimately benefits the project if the composer has that information. You've worked with, as you said before, secret projects, big projects."

Q: With your reputation and your production arm, Sparks and Shadows, it seems that you can work with whoever you like, but are there any companies or IPs that you would instantly jump at to work with, either again or for the first time?

McCreary: "Sony Santa Monica are definitely among my favorite collaborators. They're just wonderful people. Over the years, they've really made me feel like a part of the team there, even though there are people there that have been working on God of War for 20 years. I say to them, I'm a newbie, and they're like, you've been working here for 11 or 12 years. I'm not one of the old-timers, but I'm getting there. I love working there. I would work there again in a heartbeat."

"I've really enjoyed my time working with Marvel and Star Wars. I did Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and I did the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge VR experience. I was like a kid in a candy store playing with those IPs. That would be really fun. Honestly, man, I would say the dream would be to do Lord of the Rings. I'm doing it. I've been so lucky. Honestly, the pie-in-the-sky dream for me is a game one. I would love to score a Mega Man game."

"Mega Man 2 is the thing that got me into game music. I want Capcom to go back and make another Mega Man game. In fact, if you listen to a song on my Singularity record called Redshift, Redshift is built from samples that I pulled off NES hardware, Nintendo hardware. Redshift is what my Mega Man score would sound like."

Q: On the ideas of collaboration with Singularity you've mentioned before, and with this tour as well, your collaboration with a lot of artists. As you say, friends of friends, people that you've dreamed to work with. Is there anyone that you've still got left that you'd quite like to work with?

McCreary: "So many. There are so many. And I am doing some pretty cool stuff right now that I really can't get to. But I will say that doing the Singularity started off as a chance to write some songs that I enjoy and maybe play them live. And it has become one of the most creatively fulfilling aspects of my life. And it is not the end, it is the beginning of a new journey for me. I think that I've learned a lot about how I want my life to go. And it's going there and I'm very grateful."