James Cameron, Brad Fiedel, Mark Goldblatt and Adam Greenberg comprise the core of the creative forces behind both The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day aka T2. Brad Fiedel perfectly captured the feel of Jim Cameron's Terminator story contained in those two movies, and we had a pleasure to talk to him about the amazing, immersing music he did for those two movies and True Lies.
JAMESCAMERONONLINE: How
did you meet James Cameron and how did you get involved with The Terminator?
BRAD
FIEDEL: I believe one of my agents, Beth Donahue, had sent Jim a tape of
my work and then he and Gail Anne Hurd came to my studio and showed me the
film. I played them some additional music including a dark personal piece
for piano and synthesizers that I'd been working on. I think that piece
connected with Jim and his vision for the film and gave him the feeling that
I could do the job.
JCO: The Terminator is one of those movies where
the soundtrack is inseparable from the film. The music underlines the
constant feel of dread and looming danger, especially the low bass melody
that appears throughout the film, the first time during the Terminator's
arrival. It's dark, it's chilling, it's in some places creepy and spine
tingling. Some fans say it reveals influence of John Carpenter's early
stuff, would you say the soundtrack was in any way inspired by Carpenter's
early scores? Can you tell us about the design process of the soundtrack for
The Terminator?
BF: Actually, I hadn't heard any of John Carpenter's work at that point. I
felt that the film needed a mechanically based heartbeat pulsing almost
subliminally under the presence of the Terminator. I experimented until I
created a sound that matched my imagination. I added various electronic
textures that supported the unsettled feeling I got from the film and the
cold dark future it foretold and the look and feel of Jim's visual design.
The main melodic theme came from a piano improvisation I did the morning
after seeing the film. I also decided to use a lot of odd time signatures to
support the forward motion of the film, the rhythms always falling forward
to the next measure and the next.
I put these elements together into a them recording and when Jim heard it he
said, " thats the movie" and off we went working through the film cue by
cue. He was very conscious of not over using the melody. He wanted much of
the film to be a very visceral experience for the audience and he felt that
too much melody would bring them out of that experience.
JCO: T2's score, like the movie, feels like
it's on a much grander scale. The score often sounds like it's actually
orchestral. What was the approach in designing the soundtrack for T2?
BF: I felt that T2 was a warmer grander film and decided to incorporate a
more orchestral sound. I came up with some test cues and Jim was totally
supportive of this shift in the approach. There is hardly any synthesizer in
it. Instead of sounds that originated with oscillators etc like the first
film, most of the sounds were acoustic samples which I had altered to better
fit the mood of the film. Originally we had considered adding a real
orchestra, but the schedule was so tight and the score was working as it was
so we moved forward that way. One important element in both scores was the
very inventive work by electric violinist Ross Levinson. His live playing
brought a lot of guts to both scores.
JCO:
There are some tracks which contain an apocalyptic-like choir sound, during
the opening theme, in "Terminator Revives", "Cameron's Inferno" and more. It
adds an extra grandeur and apocalyptic feel to the movie, we were always
wondering about the thought behind the use of the choir-like sounds in T2,
as it gives the music and the film a great,deep and epic feel
BF: I felt that the fate of all humanity demanded that kind of sound. I
actually liked the rather primitive choir samples that were available back
then for their infinite quality. Not too specific. I altered them further to
accentuate that element to blend with the rest of the score and create the
feel you mentioned. Looking back, I think part of what unified the score and
added to it's impact was that by necessity, it was designed it to make the
most of the limits of the musical technology of the time.
JCO: How did you come up with the simple but
perfect theme for the T-1000?
BF: I heard something in my imagination and struggled a bit to find a way to
manifest it. Finally, I found a sample of a big brass group playing atonal
random sliding sounds. I played it backwards at a very low register( way
below the natural pitch of the instruments) and it became the foundation of
the churning sound of that liquid, menacing machine.
JCO: Much of T2's soundtrack hasn't been
released, such as the background tracks to the scene where John talks about
his mother at the parking lot, or T-800 revealing the future history to
Sarah in the car and much more. Do you think there will be any way to hear
those tracks released in any form anytime soon?
BF: It's a possibility I guess. We did put what we thought was important(
and could fit) on the CD at the time. I guess we could look for the
materials needed and put something together if the holders of the rights
wanted to do that. I've been flattered by the interest in my music that has
surfaced in recent years, but truthfully have always thought that a lot of
my scores were so married to the visual in the way I composed them that they
wouldn't really make for good listening apart from the scenes they were
designed to support.
JCO: Were you involved in Terminator 2 3D: Battle
Across Time? The general view is that you wrote the original music for T2 3D
as well, it seems very much in vein with T2 score
BF:Yes, I scored T23D.
JCO: How did you approach the soundtrack on
True Lies?
BF: Jim felt that from the very first measures of music in the film we had
to make it clear that this was for fun. This was not Jim and Arnold and me
in the same territory we'd been before. I approached the opening bars almost
like a overture to a broadway musical and a number of cues like they were
dance pieces. For instance, I used tango rhythms to score Arnold escaping
from the chateau. I was influenced by Bernstein's dance music from West Side
Story. We used a large orchestra as well as a lot of tracks I created in my
studio.
JCO: Any future projects you want to share?
BF: I've written a one man musical that I also perform called " Borrowed
Time". It's about what can happen to the dreams of our youth, and how
“growing up” affects the alignment between our soul’s purpose and what we
actually end up doing with our time on this planet. Coming of age in the
60’s, my dream was to write songs that told the truth and made a difference
in the world. Through stories, characters, and the songs I wrote throughout
my life, the show shares my journey from growing up in my parent’s zany
school of the arts on Long Island, auditioning for Clive Davis at Columbia
records, getting signed to Paul Simon’s publishing company, playing
keyboards for Hall and Oates, girlfriends, marriage, children, divorce,
getting immersed in the world of film composing, and eventually discovering
it’s never too late to change course and reclaim our dreams. We'll be doing
some touring with the show next year. There's more info and clips available
at BradFiedel.net
JCO: Again, we want to sincerely thank you for
taking the time to answer those questions
BF: My pleasure! Cheers!