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The Age
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
When he was 16 this musician met Elmer Bernstein. It changed everything
Enthralled by the work of film composers such as James Horner, Alan Silvestri and Danny Elfman ('my north star'), going to the movies became an obsession, although his motives were different to those of his friends. 'They would go, 'Wow, that chick was so hot' or, 'Did you see that scene where the guy exploded?' 'And I would go, 'Did you guys hear what Jerry Goldsmith did with the French horns? I think that was the bad guys' theme, but he turned it upside down. I'm going to see it again tomorrow to find out.' 'They thought I was a weirdo,' he laughs. In high school, McCreary met an elderly gentleman named Joe, who ran the Bellingham Yacht Club and told him legendary composer Elmer Bernstein, who wrote McCreary's favourite score of all time in To Kill a Mockingbird, moored his yacht there. Joe offered to give Bernstein a tape of the then 16-year-old's work. Bernstein then took McCreary under his wing as a protege until his death in 2004. 'The reason I wanted to work with her is because of who she is, not just her voice. The rebel that she was. Between that recording and her untimely death we became friends. We were texting all the time. She was so funny.' Bear McCreary on Sinead O'Connor 'I didn't know what a life in film music could be,' McCreary reflects. 'And then I met Elmer, who was the sweetest, most thoughtful man I'd ever met. He had a great relationship with his wife and kids, people respected him immensely, and yet he took no shit. 'Getting to know him gave me something to point to. It wasn't even about the music, it was personal. You could have a life. That's where I want to be when I'm pushing 80.' McCreary's big break was scoring the 2004 TV reboot of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. But just as significant was working with Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who sang the main title for season seven of Outlander, her final ever recording. 'The reason I wanted to work with her is because of who she is, not just her voice,' McCreary says. 'The rebel that she was. Between that recording and her untimely death we became friends. We were texting all the time. She was so funny.' Another life-changing moment came with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), for which McCreary recorded a hard rock cover of Blue Öyster Cult's Godzilla featuring System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian and legendary heavy metal drummer Gene Hoglan. 'It was one of the best days of my life,' he beams. 'And I got in the car and I was driving home and I was totally buzzed. But by the time I got into my driveway I was really sad.' Over the space of that short car ride, it dawned on McCreary that this was likely a one-off experience. Then he was struck by a revelation. 'What if I just started writing some music for the people I want to work with, and it's not for a film?' he says. The result was McCreary's 2024 album The Singularity, a two-LP set that merges the grandeur of his scoring work with the bombast of hard rock and heavy metal. It features guests such as Tankian, Hoglan, Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, Slipknot's Corey Taylor and guitar heroes Joe Satriani and Slash from Guns N' Roses. McCreary will perform songs from The Singularity and his scoring career in Australia in July on his Themes & Variations tour. 'It's a celebration of everything I've written in my life. And it's a chance to hear all these pieces from The Singularity, from The Walking Dead, from Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Godzilla. I'm re-envisioning it all in a format that fits the stage we're on.' Loading For someone experiencing his first taste of touring, adjusting to life on the road has taken some work. Luckily, McCreary has some experienced pals to call on. 'I got fantastic touring laundry advice from [Guns N' Roses bassist] Duff McKagan,' he says. 'I find myself texting a picture of my laundry to Slash and Duff and I'm like, I think I've got this figured out!' Given the contrast between his orchestral film scores and the guitar-fuelled tracks from The Singularity, one wonders what kind of audience he's been attracting on the tour. He reflects on a recent show in Europe.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
When he was 16 this musician met Elmer Bernstein. It changed everything
Enthralled by the work of film composers such as James Horner, Alan Silvestri and Danny Elfman ('my north star'), going to the movies became an obsession, although his motives were different to those of his friends. 'They would go, 'Wow, that chick was so hot' or, 'Did you see that scene where the guy exploded?' 'And I would go, 'Did you guys hear what Jerry Goldsmith did with the French horns? I think that was the bad guys' theme, but he turned it upside down. I'm going to see it again tomorrow to find out.' 'They thought I was a weirdo,' he laughs. In high school, McCreary met an elderly gentleman named Joe, who ran the Bellingham Yacht Club and told him legendary composer Elmer Bernstein, who wrote McCreary's favourite score of all time in To Kill a Mockingbird, moored his yacht there. Joe offered to give Bernstein a tape of the then 16-year-old's work. Bernstein then took McCreary under his wing as a protege until his death in 2004. 'The reason I wanted to work with her is because of who she is, not just her voice. The rebel that she was. Between that recording and her untimely death we became friends. We were texting all the time. She was so funny.' Bear McCreary on Sinead O'Connor 'I didn't know what a life in film music could be,' McCreary reflects. 'And then I met Elmer, who was the sweetest, most thoughtful man I'd ever met. He had a great relationship with his wife and kids, people respected him immensely, and yet he took no shit. 'Getting to know him gave me something to point to. It wasn't even about the music, it was personal. You could have a life. That's where I want to be when I'm pushing 80.' McCreary's big break was scoring the 2004 TV reboot of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. But just as significant was working with Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who sang the main title for season seven of Outlander, her final ever recording. 'The reason I wanted to work with her is because of who she is, not just her voice,' McCreary says. 'The rebel that she was. Between that recording and her untimely death we became friends. We were texting all the time. She was so funny.' Another life-changing moment came with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), for which McCreary recorded a hard rock cover of Blue Öyster Cult's Godzilla featuring System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian and legendary heavy metal drummer Gene Hoglan. 'It was one of the best days of my life,' he beams. 'And I got in the car and I was driving home and I was totally buzzed. But by the time I got into my driveway I was really sad.' Over the space of that short car ride, it dawned on McCreary that this was likely a one-off experience. Then he was struck by a revelation. 'What if I just started writing some music for the people I want to work with, and it's not for a film?' he says. The result was McCreary's 2024 album The Singularity, a two-LP set that merges the grandeur of his scoring work with the bombast of hard rock and heavy metal. It features guests such as Tankian, Hoglan, Kim Thayil from Soundgarden, Slipknot's Corey Taylor and guitar heroes Joe Satriani and Slash from Guns N' Roses. McCreary will perform songs from The Singularity and his scoring career in Australia in July on his Themes & Variations tour. 'It's a celebration of everything I've written in my life. And it's a chance to hear all these pieces from The Singularity, from The Walking Dead, from Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Godzilla. I'm re-envisioning it all in a format that fits the stage we're on.' Loading For someone experiencing his first taste of touring, adjusting to life on the road has taken some work. Luckily, McCreary has some experienced pals to call on. 'I got fantastic touring laundry advice from [Guns N' Roses bassist] Duff McKagan,' he says. 'I find myself texting a picture of my laundry to Slash and Duff and I'm like, I think I've got this figured out!' Given the contrast between his orchestral film scores and the guitar-fuelled tracks from The Singularity, one wonders what kind of audience he's been attracting on the tour. He reflects on a recent show in Europe.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jann Arden planned to make a 1970s-flavoured covers album; her label had other ideas
TORONTO — Jann Arden's nostalgia trip faced a major detour partway through making "Mixtape," her new album of 1990s pop covers. When the Calgary-based singer-songwriter first set out to record a throwback project with producing partner Russell Bloom, the two imagined her taking on classic songs from further back in the zeitgeist than three decades ago. They saw it as a 1970s rock-inspired affair featuring her spins on Blondie's 'Call Me,' Cat Stevens' 'Moonshadow' and Blue Öyster Cult's '(Don't Fear) the Reaper.' All those songs were recorded, but none appear on the final project. Instead, Arden's 16th studio album looks quite different than her original idea. It mainly features '90s tracks that were climbing the global music charts at the same time that Arden's breakout singles "Insensitive" and "Good Mother" were all over the radio. Staying open to creative compromise has served the oft-self-deprecating, eight-time Juno winner well over the years as she's expanded her brand outside of music. Her career has spanned work as a TV personality, novelist, podcast host, and the star of her own CTV sitcom. "I'm not Margaret Atwood, and I'm not Maria Callas,' she said pointing to the acclaimed Canadian novelist and the legendary soprano who was recently portrayed in a biopic by Angelina Jolie. "I'm just this artist that floats in the atmosphere.' That perspective might help explain why Arden was willing to reshape "Mixtape" partway through its creation. 'We were well on our way to making this nutty, I don't know what it was, more '70s and '80s album,' Arden explained in a call from her home. 'And when I got it to the label, they liked where I was going.' Except Arden says the leaders at Universal Music Canada were stuck on how to market a throwback of half-century-old songs in a contemporary landscape. 'How do we sell this? And what is it?' she remembers them asking her. They suggested Arden wade into the '90s, a fruitful period for pop music that would be catnip to Arden's fans. After giving it some thought, she saw their point. 'From a marketing point of view, it really did make sense,' she said. And so she began working on the revised album, which is arguably an even nuttier execution than her initial concept. It draws on songs that wouldn't instantly bring to mind Arden's syllabically pronounced singing style, and which carry a certain cool factor the singer never really courted herself. However, Arden said she felt a connection to many of the songs before she recorded them. She remembers some of the hits existing in her orbit around the time her 1994 album "Living Under June" found its audience, and confesses she sometimes wondered if her own music compared. "There was a lot of envy on my part," she said. "And I remember having impostor syndrome a little bit. Like, what am I doing here? And do I belong with all these people?" Arden doesn't seem to carry the same anxieties she did back then. She's figured out her place in the Canadian entertainment industry — she doesn't consider herself a celebrity and humbly remarks she's "not really relevant" in the grander scheme of things. "I mean these things earnestly," she said. "I know what my place is in the world because I live it every day — and it's making stuff. I just like to make stuff." "Mixtape" is an assemblage of that perspective; a collection of random '90s moments with a light Arden touch. Her version of Seal's "Crazy" sees Arden trade his smooth funkiness for a more haunting tone that begins when her voice emerges from a fog of swirling guitars. Her take on Des'ree's 'You Gotta Be' strips out the English singer's soulful purr for Arden's more instructive delivery. A swing at TLC's "Waterfalls" goes heavy on a psychedelic synth vibe in a way that sounds closest to Arden's original vision for the album. She also slips in a few tracks recorded before the concept changed, such as Don Henley's 1984 hit 'Boys of Summer' and Simon and Garfunkel's late '60s classic "The Boxer." A cover of Sia's 2004 single "Breathe Me" helps earn the album's slipshod title. "There's a sense of comfort that I hope people derive from it," she said. "It's very nostalgic." Absent are any renditions of songs originally performed by Canadians, which Arden says wasn't intentional. She said she briefly considered tackling Sarah McLachlan's 'Building a Mystery' before concluding that she would've been out of her mind to mount such an ambitious effort. Natalie Imbruglia's 'Torn" was also on the table at one point and she flirted with bringing a female perspective to Tom Petty's 1994 hit 'You Don't Know How It Feels.' While none of those were committed to tape, Arden wonders if there's still a life for the handful that were. "I don't know what I'm going to do with the stuff we recorded, but it's all so cool," she said. "You'll never hear a more wacky version of '(Don't Fear) the Reaper.'" This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025. David Friend, The Canadian Press
The Independent
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
'Saturday Night Live' stars name their favorite sketches and reflect on show's legacy
Legions of comedic talent have paraded through NBC's Studio 8H, whether as cast members, writers or hosts of 'Saturday Night Live.' As the sketch show marks its 50th anniversary with a bevy of celebrations, its cast members and alumni look back on their favorite sketches and the enduring legacy of 'Saturday Night Live.' Fred Armisen, cast member 2002-2013, one-time host FAVORITE SKETCH: 'The Wizard of Oz' 'There's a 'Wizard of Oz' one that we did that actually John Mulaney wrote, where there's like this new footage of 'Wizard of Oz,' of a character that got cut out of a movie, and it's a weather vane,' said Armisen, who played Weathervane alongside Anne Hathaway's Dorothy. 'Something about it, I just I really love that sketch.' Chloe Fineman, cast member 2019-present FAVORITE SKETCH: 'Everything is amazing,' the current cast member said, but she seemed to hope the anniversary special would see a reprise of 'The Californians.' 'All of it are sort of 'pinch me' moments and I feel like it'll be even bigger than the 40th,' she said of the upcoming special. Will Forte, cast member 2002-2010, one-time host FAVORITE SKETCHES: 'More Cowbell,' with Christopher Walken fixated on adding that signature sound to Blue Öyster Cult's 'Don't Fear the Reaper.' Forte named a few, but 'Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer' was another favorite. Then, of course, there's Adam Sandler's classic 'The Chanukah Song.' 'I hadn't seen 'The Chanukah Song' in a long time. ... It just happened to be on the other day,' said Forte, who was freshly reminded: 'It's so good.' Seth Meyers, cast member 2001-2014, former head writer, one-time host FAVORITE SKETCH: 'More Cowbell,' perhaps a universal favorite. 'I think 'Cowbell' would work if English was your like 10th language. ... I think that's a safe pick,' he said. 'It's Will Ferrell at the height of his powers. ... It's an all-time host Christopher Walken doing a thing that only Christopher Walken could do.' (Of the last 12 months, Meyers is also partial to Nate Bargatze's 'Washington's Dream' sketches.) WHY 'SNL' ENDURES: To Meyers, who now hosts 'Late Night' in Studio 8G, 'Saturday Night Live' is like sports. It's live. No one knows what's going to happen. 'It's so beautifully uneven. I've always said the worst show has something great and the best show has something terrible,' Meyers said. 'And there's no there's no host that can guarantee consistency. ... If you laid all the Alec Baldwin-hosted episodes out there, there's a huge gap between the best one and the worst one. And there's no real reason to explain that, other than just everybody sort of had a bad week.' Bobby Moynihan, cast member 2008-2017 FAVORITE SKETCHES: 'Haunted Elevator,' with Tom Hanks as the spooky-yet-goofy David S. Pumpkins; 'Calculator Christmas Gift,' where Fred Armisen and John Malkovich have their odd holiday wish list fulfilled; 'Tennis Talk with Time-Traveling Scott Joplin,' which is somehow exactly what it sounds like. 'David Pumpkins always comes to mind as just, like, the weirdest thing we ever got on. And I love the idea of future generations trying to figure it out, as well,' said Moynihan, who added that he was drawn to 'amazing, weird sketches.' John Mulaney, writer 2008-2013, six-time host FAVORITE SKETCHES: 'Toilet Death Ejector,' an infomercial flogging an 'elegant' solution to avert the indignity of dying on the commode, and 'Monkey Trial,' featuring, yes, a monkey but not one on trial — one presiding over it. 'Those are two quality Simon Rich premises executed,' said Mulaney, who wrote the former with frequent collaborators Rich and Marika Sawyer and the latter with Rich. Both sketches date to Mulaney's hosting stints. Laraine Newman, cast member 1975-1980 FAVORITE SKETCH: 'Plato's Cave' from the Not Ready for Prime Time Players era, where Steve Martin plays a beatnik, and 'The Swan,' a parody of a 2000s reality show. 'I remember seeing there was a horrible reality show called 'The Swan' where they did this massive plastic surgery on people. And I think they did a parody of that with Amy Poehler and a bunch of other people. And it was the first time I'd seen her and I was like, 'My God, this girl is so good,'' Newman said. 'But as far as our show, I think that this one sketch called 'Plato's Cave' or the beatnik sketch, is, I think, a really good representation of our show. And it's the whole cast.' WHY 'SNL' ENDURES: There's a long list of people responsible, she says, but atop that list? Show creator Lorne Michaels. 'The fact that the show has remained relevant is because of the approach that Lorne has, which is that he always has new people, whether they be writers or performers with new perspectives and original ideas and characters,' Newman said. 'And that's, I think, what moves the show along in terms of tone and relevance.' Jason Sudeikis, writer 2003-2005, cast member 2005-2013, one-time host FAVORITE SKETCH: 'What's Up With That?' a recurring series with Kenan Thompson as a game show host. 'Part of the reason I put it in there is because I feel very proud of the group, the generation I came up on and through the show ... both on camera and behind the scenes,' Sudeikis said, noting the 'real wild' cameos like Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Kenan Thompson, cast member 2003-present WHY 'SNL' ENDURES: It has good people, and they know where the line is. 'We work with brilliant people. I think we all have a pretty solid sensibility, where we kind of know where the offense is and we work really hard trying not to tread in places that are uncomfortable or whatever without warrant,' the longtime cast member said. 'But at the same time, I can't please everybody and we're still trying to like, like lighten the mood, if you will. So, you know, we're doing that as long as we're not like overly stepping — like if you step on a toe, you say, 'I'm sorry. Excuse me.' Then that should be OK. ... We should be able to just move on and continue to explore or continue conversations that may or may not be uncomfortable. That's kind of our job.' Bowen Yang, writer 2018-2019, cast member 2019-present WHY 'SNL' ENDURES: At its heart, it's a variety show. 'I think with a show like 'SNL,' we have the latitude to be a little variety show and give you different sensibilities and different parts of that, different perspectives. I love it,' the current cast member said. 'It's a very pluralistic place for comedy because it's one of the last places where you can sort of have a grab bag of different kinds of stuff.' ___
