War Of The Worlds

Tyler Bates on Film Scoring, Producing Marilyn Manson, and Abandoning Ego

- Michael Molenda

JUST LIKE MANY OF THE SUPERHEROES IN THE BIG-BUDGET MOVIES HE COMPOSES ORCHESTRAL soundtracks for, Tyler Bates rocks a dual identity. In his own words, he is someone who has worked on films grossing billions of dollars, but then jumps back into the rock world as lead guitarist for Marilyn Manson. Does the animated thought balloon in this flick say “Conflicting Alter Egos”?

Actually, it all seems to make perfect sense to Bates—even though, in his own “origin story,” he had to negotiate a creative rethink about the guitar before he could truly embrace his muse. The basic plot unfolds as follows: Act I—Bates starts out playing guitar in rock bands. Act II—His brother introduces him to a movie producer who needs a rock soundtrack on the cheap. Act III (Years Later)—Bates is celebrated as the composer for mega-films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, John Wick, and Atomic Blonde, as well as television shows (Californication, The Punisher) and video games (Transformers: War for Cybertron, Killzone Shadow Fall). Epilog—Bates produces Heaven Upside Down, the brand-new album from Manson.

We’ll let Bates narrate the rest of the story…

I’d think that, for many GP readers, going from playing in a rock band to scoring movies—where you typically need tons of skills to arrange and orchestrate music for different types of instruments—would be something of a crap your pants moment. How did you survive your initial forays into scoring?