Maxance Vincent
Daredevil: Born Again marks The Newton Brothers‘ second collaboration with Marvel Studios, after they were tasked to score the revival of X-Men: The Animated Series, with X-Men ’97. In approaching the musical palette of a series that had a very distinct, and beloved, score, composer Taylor Newton tells Awards Radar on Zoom that one has to be aware of what came before when it comes to making music that fits into the world of the series:
“You have to be very aware of what came before. We were lucky enough to have that pressure on us before, with Doctor Sleep, coming into The Shining, and then X-Men ‘97. With Doctor Sleep, The Shining came out so long ago, and even X-Men. That was out when I was a kid. However, Daredevil, the original series, was not that long ago. Knowing how long it has been since the last time we saw the series, how much it has been revamped or if it’s a continuation, bringing the old and the new, I think, affects how you’re going to approach it, because you’re always dealing with the familiarity of what the fans and the viewers are seeing.”
In the show’s first episode, the character of Matt Murdock is pushed to his limit after his best friend, Foggy Nelson, is killed by Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye. For Andy Grush, scoring a moment like this took them many tries to get right, as they weren’t focusing on the right aspect of the scene, until they realized that it was all about Foggy, and not on whether Daredevil would break his “no kill” rule:
“The snake charm effect of his moral ethic lured us into wanting to score that moment when he’s up on the ledge with Bullseye. It took us working through this moment and discussing with the team to figure it out. It has nothing to do with, “Is he going to kill Bullseye or not?” That’s part of it, but really, it’s about Foggy being dead. We got caught up in, “Oh my God, will he kill Bullseye? Here we go. It’s going to happen.” That was like an obstacle for us, because we kept scoring it through that, and it didn’t feel right. It didn’t, because it was actually about Foggy. This creates a fun challenge to stay focused on what’s actually happening.”
As with any Newton Brothers score, there was much to discuss, including the process of scoring some of the show’s numerous action sequences, how the two wanted to reflect Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk’s emotional journeys, and finally giving Bullseye an iconic theme.
The Newton Brothers have also recently worked on Fear Street: Prom Queen, which is now available to stream on Netflix, and Mike Flanagan‘s masterpiece The Life of Chuck (raved about by Joey here), which will be expanding in more theatres Friday. You definitely do not want to miss this one in a cinema!
Listen to our full conversation about Daredevil: Born Again below:
[Some of the quotes in this article have been edited for length and clarity]
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