Composers
WAMG’s Conversation With Composer Christopher Lennertz On His Super-Hero Score For Amazon Prime’s THE BOYS
When Hughie (Jack Quaid, “The Hunger Games”) suffers a devastating loss at the hands of a reckless Supe his devastation turns to outrage when he discovers there is no legal recourse for victims of collateral superhero damage. While still reeling from his trauma Hughie meets a mysterious operative, Billy Butcher (Karl Urban, “Star Trek”), who recruits him to join in his pursuit of some vigilante justice against the Supes—who are not exactly what they seem.
“The Boys” is a fun and irreverent take on what happens when superheroes – who are as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians and as revered as Gods – abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the super powerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about The Seven, and Vought – the multi-billion dollar conglomerate that manages these superheroes and covers up all of their dirty secrets. The Boys are rounded out by Mother’s Milk (Laz Alonso, “Detroit”), Frenchie (Tomer Capon, “Hostages”), and The Female (Karen Fukuhara, “Suicide Squad”). Simon Pegg (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”) guest stars as Hughie’s father.
The Supes of The Seven are led by Homelander (Antony Starr, “Banshee”) who is joined by Starlight (Erin Moriarty, “Captain Fantastic”), Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott, “House of Cards”), A-Train (Jessie T. Usher, “Independence Day: Resurgence”), The Deep (Chace Crawford, “Gossip Girl”) and Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell, “Supernatural”). Academy Award® nominee Elisabeth Shue (“Leaving Las Vegas”) stars as Madelyn Stillwell, Vought’s Senior VP of Hero Management.
Based on The New York Times best-selling comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, “The Boys” was developed by showrunner Eric Kripke (“Supernatural”), who also serves as writer, executive producer and directed the season finale. Joining Kripke as executive producers are Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen (“Preacher”), Evan Goldberg (“Preacher”), and James Weaver (“Preacher”), Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz (“Prison Break”), Pavun Shetty (“New Girl”) and Ori Marmur (“Preacher”), as well as Ken Levin and Jason Netter. Ennis and Robertson also co-executive produce. The pilot episode was directed by Dan Trachtenberg (“10 Cloverfield Lane”).
The score is by Christopher Lennertz. He is one of the most prolific and diverse composers working today, creating music in virtually every genre. He has spent weeks on Billboard charts, received an Emmy nomination for the cult hit Supernatural, a Grammy for his arrangements on Ozomatli’s album Street Signs, and won 14 BMI Awards to date.
Recently the composer and I spoke on the phone about creating music for THE BOYS. The show and Lennertz’s score are astounding. I love superhero TV shows and movies, and being a huge fan this skewed twist on the genre has made it my new favorite series.
THE BOYS reunites Lennertz with the series’ creator Eric Kripke, creator and producer of CW’s Supernatural, which Lennertz has scored since the show’s inception in 2005, and for which he received an Emmy nomination. The duo also worked together on the NBC series Revolution.
My previous conversations with Chris have been about his work on Agent Carter HERE and THINK LIKE A MAN TOO here.
During our conversation this time we talked about the Amazon Prime series as well as his recent projects UGLY DOLLS, SHAFT and his return for a second season for NETFLIX’s hit sci-fi show LOST IN SPACE.
WAMG: How was the COMIC CON Anatomy of a Superhero Panel which you attended in July?
CL: I couldn’t believe how many people were there – it was a blast. There were thousands of people there.
WAMG: Over the weekend we binged watch THE BOYS and Oh My Gosh!
CL: It’s really something isn’t it? It’s insane! You think to yourself, ‘I can’t believe they just did that.
WAMG: I kept saying to myself, okay it’s not going to get any crazier… and then it goes right off the rails! Who approached you about working on this project?
CL: I heard about it quite awhile ago when I was working on SAUSAGE PARTY with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and that they were making a show based on the comic about corrupt superheroes driven by greed and power and the team of badass misfits that try to take them down. Then I received an email from Eric Kripke who mentioned it to Seth and they both said they wanted me to do it, so we said, let’s do this!
WAMG: You worked on the Marvel limited series Agent Carter, so you’re well acquainted with composing a musical voice for the superhero genre. The tracks for “Starlight” “Hospital Shootout”, “BOYS” are amazing. Your score had to make these “the Seven” kinda horrible!
CL: Kinda? (Laughs) Your heroes are not the heroes. The music for The Seven, our corrupt hero team, is traditional orchestra and electronics done in as corporate a way as possible, trying to feel like it was created after one too many focus groups…but then we used processing to warp, mangle, and sometimes crush that sound to feel like it was ‘going wrong’ as the perfect stereotypes of comic book heroes begin to shatter. It starts out great but by the end you realize the superheroes are betraying everyone’s trust.
For “The Boys” Eric said he wanted the music to have all the dirt and grime of a messy garage band with the energy of British punk, and that he wanted to poke fun at traditional superhero clichés… Its supposed to sound sloppy on purpose.
WAMG: I love how much percussion runs through the show. What instruments did you use?
CL: Lots of drums and metal – banging on broken instruments. Old amps that we tried to use to get a mix things going horribly wrong. We went with ‘garage band’ sounds of cheap guitars, lo-fi gear, broken cymbals, and… looking for as much noise and feedback as possible.
Listen to Chris’s score on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1KzVgZutMfVuz4lTcYws7F
WAMG: How did you transition between THE BOYS to the recent UGLY DOLLS and then SHAFT?
CL: SHAFT came first. It had that 70’s sound, so that was a lot of fun. Music has always played a key role in the “Shaft” films, beginning with the instantly recognizable theme from the first film in 1972.
And then at the same time I was working on UGLY DOLLS. I did that score plus recording 8 original songs with Oscar nominated and Tony Award-winning lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled, Broadway’s School of Rock) for the soundtrack sung by these amazing artists Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monae and Blake Shelton. It was funny going from an R-rated Shaft to a family friendly UGLY DOLLS, and then kicked back into gear with THE BOYS. It was never boring.
Finally, Chris and I spoke about Netflix’s LOST IN SPACE, one of Lennertz’s best scores of 2018. During its initial release Lennertz said, “From the beginning, the producers wanted a classic main title sequence to play during at least some of the episodes,” said Lennertz. “I wanted to tease the show’s premise with a hint of the Alpha Centauri program theme, then a full statement of the new LOST IN SPACE theme, followed by a triumphant finish that showcased now legendary composer John Williams’ original theme from season 3 that people are so familiar with. It was such an honor to be able to incorporate such a classic melody from the man who made me fall in love with film music from the very beginning.”
WAMG: Being a huge sci-fi geek, I loved your score for LOST IN SPACE on Netflix. The first season was so great, especially for fans of the TV show. I loved how your score was interwoven with the classic music of the 1960’s science fiction series. You recently updated your Instagram account with info about scoring the second season of Netflix’s Lost in Space. Can you give us an update on how it’s coming along?
CL: I just finished a cue for episode 10 for Season 2 as we speak – I finished it, saved it and closed it just before I took your call. We are well into the next season with the score. There are ten more episodes coming out right before Christmas this year so I’m about 80 percent done. They are really good too! Everyone is back plus there are new characters and its really going to be great!
WAMG: What other projects do you have in the works?
CL: I’m working on Tim Story’s next movie for Warner Bros. Pictures and the second season of THE BOYS in October.
Follow Christopher Lennertz on:
Website – http://christopherlennertz.com/
Twitter – @CLennertz
Instagram – clennertzmusic
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