Composer John Paesano Talks On How He Brought The Music Of Marvel’s DAREDEVIL To Life

TV has a new superhero. Marvel’s Daredevil follows the journey of Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, now fighting against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.

Starring Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock), Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson) and Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk), Marvel’s Daredevil remains faithful to the long-running comic’s reputation as a realistic crime drama.

The hit show premiered exclusively on April 10, 2015 and composer John Paesano (THE MAZE RUNNER) scored the 13-episode series for Netflix.

Marvel’s first original series on Netflix is Executive Produced by series Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel) and Drew Goddard (“Cabin in the Woods,” “Lost,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”, in addition to writing the first two episodes of Daredevil), and Jeph Loeb (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Lost,” and “Heroes”), who also serves as Marvel’s Head of Television.

Marvel’s Daredevil is the first of four planned live-action origin series featuring Marvel’s street level heroes – including Marvel’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Iron Fist and Marvel’s Luke Cage – that will lead up to the unprecedented teaming up of the main characters in Marvel’s The Defenders.

Busy with scores for both film and TV, the composer chatted with WAMG about his music for Marvel’s Daredevil and the highly anticipated MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS

WAMG: The first two Daredevil episodes were amazing – fans have been enthusiastic. The 13 episodes combined play like a movie.

John Paesano: They shot it like a film because Netflix releases everything all at once. It felt like a film broken up into 13 different parts – at least for the writing process. It was very rewarding because it felt like I was working on a film instead of a TV show. They did a really great job.

WAMG: The first episode sets up the series nicely, including your fantastic opening theme.

JP:  We had to demo for the job. I’m sure there were lots of people up for it, but it eventually came down to me and one other composer. The demo was actually the theme for the show. It was derived from a couple of scenes from episode two – it was the big hallway fight. At the end of that scene, Steven came up with the idea after watching Daredevil walking down the hallway where he rescues the boy. That eventually became our main title. It was nice that it worked out that way.

WAMG: It’s one continuous take – there are no edits.

JP: Our producer and showrunner Steven S. DeKnight did such a great job with it as well as doing things to make it feel like a film. TV has grown so much over the last 10 years that you’re starting to see a much high quality product being put out, whether its Dardevil or any of the other TV shows. The line is becoming blurred between TV and film and it makes it that more rewarding to work on.

WAMG: Drew Goddard is also a big part of the series.

JP: He started off on the show when Steven took over, but was still heavily involved with the show as executive producer. Drew and Steven had worked together in the past on “Buffy” with Joss Whedon and it’s been nice working with them. They have that cinematic background and it translates.

CHARLIE COX with Director and Executive Producer STEVEN DeKNIGHT on the set of the Netflix Original Series “Marvel’s Daredevil”
Photo: Barry Wetcher © 2014 Netflix, Inc. All rights reserved.

WAMG: “Battlin’ Jack Murdoch” and “Fogwell’s Gym” are great tracks and add to the mood of Daredevil’s journey.

We meet Wilton Fisk at the end of episode 3 – he even has his own theme. He is such a well written and very complicated figure.

JP: He does. I have a background in orchestral music and with this project we didn’t use a lot of orchestral music at all. In fact, Steven wanted to capture the grittiness and rawness of Hell’s Kitchen, but he also wanted to make sure that the score still had an emotional heart to it. Blending those two worlds made for a unique sounding soundtrack. There are a lot of industrial, ugly sounding noises and then underneath it is the ambient heartfelt type music.

WAMG: It’s a nice combination for this type of superhero series.

JP: Wilton Fisk was a very interesting character to score. He’s got such a range. There are times during the show where you almost feel bad for him and there are times where he’s a complete animal. He’s a very complicated figure.

We used a lot of classical music on it too and it seemed to go very well with it because from the exterior, Fisk is a very sophisticated, intelligent, well thought out person. On the inside is a lot of rage. We played with the yin and yang of his character with music as well.

WAMG:  It’s been announced that a season 2 for the show has been green-lit. Have you started on that?

JP: It’s just at the beginning stages of getting all the cast and story together.

WAMG: After the exciting first season, I’m kind of hoping to see Elektra myself.

JP: Marvel is doing some of the other characters from the Defenders series as well. It will be very interesting to see how they interweave all the different storylines because they’re all from that world. There’s a lot of crossover with some the same people working on the different shows so it will be fascinating to see it all come together.

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS
Photo credit: Richard Foreman, Jr. SMPSP
TM and © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  All Rights Reserved.

WAMG:  How far along are you with the score to the MAZE RUNNER sequel THE SCORCH TRIALS?

JP: I’m actually sitting here looking at it right now – that’s what I’m currently working on. It’s a much bigger, broader movie and it will be a much bigger score. The first one was pretty big too, but this one has a lot more music in it. There a many more locations and characters in SCORCH TRIALS. With all that’s going on, it translate into more score and more growth in the music.

It’s been fun taking what we started with MAZE RUNNER and having it grow up into this new world. I’m about two reels into it now and the director, Wes (Ball), and I are having a really good time just throwing paint at the wall to see what we come up with.

In this next chapter of the epic “Maze Runner” saga, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD.  Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all. (Sept 18)

WAMG:  MAZE RUNNER did very well at the box office.

JP: Wes worked his tail off on it and he’s a great filmmaker – I was really glad that it went off so well for him.

WAMG: You also scored the upcoming football drama MY ALL AMERICAN.

JP: That is a fantastic film that is coming out later this year. It’s all done and I finished it fall of 2014. We recorded it here at Sony with a big orchestra containing 90 plus players. It has a big thematic, old-school score ala Jerry Goldsmith

The director, Angelo Pizzo, was the producer and writer of RUDY and HOOSIERS. The last composer he worked with was Jerry Goldsmith. Being that I’m the second composer he worked with on a sports film, it was a pretty intimidating situation considering who I was following up.

Pizzo was fantastic to work for and the score turned out very well. He knows how to write a great sports movie and I’m really excited for everyone to see this film. MY ALL AMERICAN is an amazing story and a beautiful movie.

WAMG: What is the story about?

JP: The story is about a football player Freddie Steinmark, played by Finn Wittrock at the University of Texas who is diagnosed with cancer after winning the national title in 1969. It has a BRIAN’S SONG feel to it.

It also stars Robin Tunney, Sarah Bolger and Aaron Eckhart. It centers around football while not just being a story about football. This kid from Denver who wants to play Division I football but thinks he’s too small to play the game, but ends up getting a scholarship and a place on the team. He winds up being a starter his freshman year only to be crushed by this diagnosis. The film is all about his perseverance and how he uses the news to inspire people around him.

“Marvel’s Daredevil”
Photo: Barry Wetcher © 2014 Netflix, Inc. All rights reserved.

Original Series Marvel’s Daredevil soundtrack is now available on iTunes – apple.co/1bD4uGN

Marvel’s Daredevil is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix.

© 2014 Netflix, Inc. All rights reserved