The
Arrow interviews Kevin Kliesch
Well I’ve had this interview in the
bag for a while and decided to let it out now before it became too
dated. Composer and Orchestror Kevin Kliesch composed the heart
pounding scores for Patrick “class act” Luissier’s
Dracula 2 Ascension and
Dracula 3 Legacy. I was waiting for
Dimension Films to release the latter to slap up this interview
(initial release date was October 2004) but it seems that they’re
sitting on it; just like 85% of their properties. Since Dracula 3;
Kevin has composed for the recently released Fat Albert Movie and
has acted as Orchestrator on the upcoming ELEKTRA. Here’s what the
kool dude had to say.
What’s your favorite
horror movie?
You know, I don’t really
have one. I was never a big fan of horror flicks. I was always into
sci-fi growing up. If I really had to pick one, though, I think it
might be Evil Dead. Groovy…
How did you get into
this line of the biz; was it by stroke of luck or was it a long time
objective?
I started writing music
as a hobby when I was 13. I decided to go to Berklee College of
Music when I was 17, and that’s when I discovered how much of a
challenge writing music for picture was. After that, I knew that I
would be doing this as a career.
I must commend you on
your somber score for Dracula 2 Ascension and Dracula 3 Legacy; what
is your process in terms of finding the right sound for a particular
film?
It really has to do with
what’s happening on screen. The story and characters, above all
else, drive my choices in terms of melody, harmony, and
orchestration. For Dracula 2, that choice was more complicated,
since the score became so dependent on sound design. The director,
Patrick Lussier, wanted a score that was very dark and moody. When I
first started presenting him with ideas, he initially threw a lot of
them out, since I was writing mostly melodies for the characters.
He would ask me to remove
quite a bit of material and get to the essence of the scene, which
involved boiling it down to creating moody sound design over low
brass and string writing. Drac 3, on the other hand, was very much a
location-based film (it takes place in Romania), so Patrick wanted
that score to have more of an ethnic feel to it, while keeping the
same creepy mood of the music I wrote for Drac 2.
Would you say the
process is more technical than artistic or vice versa?
For me, it’s more
artistic, but that’s not to say the technical side isn’t daunting.
You’ve got to know your way around a computer rig pretty well, since
the deadlines in this business are crazy, and you can’t afford to
have anything go down. I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to
computers (I chose music college over a computer science major), so
it feels like second nature to me when I write. Because of that, I
find the aesthetic decisions are much more of a challenge.
Is there a genre
you’re more comfortable playing in when composing? Why?
I’ve always been a sucker
for big, sweeping adventure scores. I’ve been lucky enough to have
written for some movies in that style. With my background in
orchestration, I feel very comfortable when I’m given the chance to
write in that genre.
Of all the scores you
have composed which one are you most proud of and why?
Dracula 2 is my current
favorite, since I got to write for a huge “orchestra.” It was really
100% synthetic, but I fooled a lot of people into thinking that I
had this 100-piece orchestra with a 50-member choir. I have a lot of
experience doing “synthestration” (mocking up the score on
synthesizers and samplers to sound exactly like it would coming from
a real orchestra), so it came out sounding pretty close to a live
orchestra.
I’m also really proud of
the work I did with my “singers” on Drac 2 – I took some of the text
that Dracula speaks in the movie (spoken in ancient Aramaic) and
constructed the phrases vowel by vowel, consonant by consonant. That
eventually turned into the main theme of the movie.
You’ve co-composed
some scores with other composers. Do you find it tough to share the
procedure with another artist?
No, it’s always a
collaborative process from start to finish. We’ll make sure that we
have the same sounds from the start, as well as sharing the themes
we both come up with. Suggestions happen on both sides in terms of
how to approach a scene, whether they be melodic, harmonic, or
orchestrational.
What’s next on your
plate in terms of cinematic work?
I just finished
co-writing the score to the new Popeye special, which will be aired
on Fox at Christmas. I also finished orchestrating the score to
“Garfield: the Movie,” due out this month.
Is there a horror
franchise out there that you’d love to contribute to and that you
haven’t yet?
While I had a blast
writing for the Dracula films, I’d like to branch out into different
genres. Unfortunately, being typecast into one style seems to be how
it goes here in Hollywood, so a lot of people will assume that I can
only write horror music.
Do you have any other
cinematic aspirations than composer or orchestrator?
I’d give my left arm to
be Charlize Theron’s personal assistant for just one day. J
NICE! I’d give me left
nut! See ya in line!
I’d
like to thank Kevin for his time and would like to apologize to him
for taking so long to slap up this interview. Sorry dude! Hopefully
Dimension Films will get off their asses and release Dracula 3 on
DVD before I’m too old to give a shite! It’s a fine film.
READ ARROW’S REVIEW OF DRACULA 2 HERE
READ ARROW’S REVIEW OF DRACULA 3 HERE
CHECK OUT THE DRACULA 3 TRAILER HERE