Van Tongeren: The London Assignment

John Van Tongeren's music for the animated short, VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT, is as full-blooded and musically direct as that of Alan Silvestri in the feature film the animated short prefaces. The short has to do with Van Helsing's first encounter with Jekyll and Hyde, before Hyde escaped to Paris, which is where Van Helsing meets up with him in the feature film. The score (released on CD on Decca B0002757-02) is a furious piece of orchestral action scoring, resonating with a palpitating energy and only occasionally slowing for a more reflective moment. The music is grandly symphonic, incorporating real and sampled orchestral instruments but throughout emphasizing a very orchestral, symphonic musical sensibility.

Van Tongeren has been involved in film scoring for more than a dozen years ago, starting out as one of the initial members of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures workshop. His background prior to that was in popular music, where he worked as a performer and arranger for such bands as The Pointer Sisters, Chicago, and Jeff Beck. He has composed nearly two dozen film scores and dozens of television episodes since his apprenticeship at Media Ventures, including notable music for the new version of THE OUTER LIMITS, POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY and THE LEGEND OF TARZAN cable TV series, and such television and feature films as CREATURE, MALIBU'S MOST WANTED, and THE CHEETAH GIRLS, demonstrating his capabilities as a composer of both dramatic and pop-oriented film music that took advantage of his significant background in the pop music field. His work on THE OUTER LIMITS won a Gemini award in 2000 for Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series, for his fifth season episode score, "Tribunal." A second music Gemini came the following season for his score for the episode, "Simon Says." His work on the series is available on CD from Sonic Images; which also released a CD of his score for the POLTERGEIST. Music from the CREATURE miniseries was released on CD by Intrada.

Van Tongeren recently collaborated with John Debney, performing the ethnic percussion parts of Debney's acclaimed score for Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. He also co-produced, co-wrote, and co-arranged the music for RHYTHM OF THE PRIDE LANDS, the first follow-up to Disney's celebrated THE LION KING.

VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT is Van Tongeren's highest profile score to date, aided perhaps by its association with the big budget blockbuster. Musically, there's not an extensive association between Alan Silvestri's score for the feature film, VAN HELSING, and Van Tongeren's music for LONDON ASSIGNMENT, although both films have much of the same energy conveyed through a potent and quickly-paced rhythmic pulse that runs throughout much of both scores. The music resonates with, slowing occasionally for a more reflective moment. But the bulk of the music is highly action oriented.

Because of the hurried schedule on the project which had to have the film and score finished in time to prepare the DVD for release concurrently with the Stephen Sommers' feature film, Van Tongeren was scoring the short at the same time Silvestri was scoring the feature. As a result, he wasn't able to hear enough of Silvestri's score to compose a suitable compatible score for LONDON ASSIGNMENT that would thematically relate to the feature score. As it turned out, however, both composers chose similar avenues of approach, which Van Tongeren feels is due to Sommers' input. The directed wanted a hard-driving, orchestral approach for VAN HELSING, and that influence crept into the animated short was well (which Sommers produced). Even though much of the orchestral sound on LONDON ASSIGNMENT was produced with sampled acoustic instruments performed electronically, the approach was far from being electronic or even a noticeably hybrid score.

Q: What is your background in music and how did you get started in film scoring?

John Van Tongeren: I came from the pop record side of things as a performer, musician, and [IMG2R]songwriter and producer. By a lucky chance I was introduced to Hans Zimmer right when he first came over to the U.S. I was a friend of his partner, Jay Rifkin, and I became a colleague of his for quite a few years, so I'm a graduate of Media Ventures. I was the first guy brought into the organization by Hans, and Mark Mancina was the second guy, so it was the three of us.

Q: How was it making the transition from being in pop music, performing and doing song-oriented material, to following the more strict rigors of making music for movies?

JVT: I had to do a lot of homework! I was very happy to do that, because the pop format was becoming pretty boring for me. It got so formulaic that it wasn't really challenging me anymore, musically, so I just took it upon myself to immerse myself in the craft of writing music for orchestra and writing music for different things outside of what I was doing in the pop world, even though that was pretty varied by itself. I was pretty much a specialist when I made records, producers like Quincy Jones and David Foster would hire me to sweeten their projects, so I was literally listening to their tracks and doing quasi-orchestra type things with synthesizers. I was doing a lot of arranging, so to speak. Moving into motion pictures was a logical step for me, but obviously one that I needed to rise to the occasion for, and I felt I was up to the challenge. I thought it was a fairly easy segue for me, because I was a big fan of movies and I'm a big fan of all kinds of music, so it just made sense. I always knew that I was probably going to end up there, I just didn't know when and I didn't think it was going to be as soon as it was.

Q: It's interesting, up until the last couple of decades, film composers all seemed to come out of classical music or had a very strict academic training background, but nowadays the majority of the major new film composers have all come out of pop music. It's a different kind of a paradigm and they're bringing a new kind of a sensibility to the podium, but one that seems to be really working with modern day film music mores.

JVT: I think you're right. Hans Zimmer is one of the classic cases, where somebody that has a songish sense a sense for the hook, as we say, the elusive hook in pop music and can bring that sensibility to music and especially to Hollywood movies, is quite a plus. I think a lot of producers and directors like to have that flowing across their film. It's not for every film, of course, but I think some of the more academically, classically trained musicians haven't been immersed in that approach to the music, and consequently they tend to maybe not gravitate towards those kind of theme-driven, hook-driven elements that can really punch up a film as far as what the music can bring in.

But I also think, on the other hand, some of the guys don't have the other stuff. They might be able to write a good tune, but that's about it, so when they have to do a movie where it's not really a theme-driven movie, it's tough for them. It's a really nice tool to have access to, and writing songs and being able to work with singers and being a singer myself, all that stuff does come into play somehow. Alan Silvestri comes from that world as does Danny Elfman, and a lot of guys. As long as we can hold up the other end of things with the orchestra, I think it's a great place to come from.

Q: When you first came into films, did you find any difficulty being accepted because you didn't have the academic background that maybe some people at the time felt you should have, or by that time was it already accepted?

JVT: I think it was already accepted, because this has only been the last probably twelve years now, and of course, I was in Hans' camp, so all bets were off at that point, because he wasn't coming from there. As a matter of fact, I think he was learning some of the more orchestral stuff from us, from the people around him. I'm not going to say that Media Ventures isn't a good thing, but I think at the beginning there weren't as many people, it was just the three of us, and there was something a little more "lab" about it. There was a kind of musical lab approach to it, and we were all really, really learning from each other. That it was definitely a cool thing.

Q: But you hadn't yet defined what it was all about yet.

JVT: That's true. But then I got onto the OUTER LIMITS series, which took me into a whole new bizarre type of music. I was able to use a lot of 20^th Century devices and things that I was listening to in classical music. I felt fortunate to have a canvass to create it on in that series. Different things were going on at the same time; we'd have some really, kind of straight ahead movie going on in one room, and we'd have this wacky, weird sci-fi going on in my room, and then SPEED was going on in another. It was great!

Q: What were some of the conditions that you worked with on OUTER LIMITS [1995]? What kind of music were you asked to write for this revival of the classic sci-fi series from the 60s?

JVT: There wasn't really [IMG3L]any mention of the musical statement of the new series having any kind of tip of the hat to Dominic Frontiere's music for the original series. It was never discussed that we were going to try and stay in any kind of stylistic relationship to that. I think they just wanted the themes of the show and the concepts of the shows to tie with the old one, but that was about it. So it was an open call for style on that. Obviously, the three producers [Trilogy Entertainment Group's Richard B. Lewis, Pen Densham. John Watson] liked the approach of the new guys, Hans included, because he had done BACKDRAFT for them. They kind of left me to my own devices, because they really wanted a lot of rhythm, and they wanted a lot of music. There was music under dialog constantly. My biggest challenge was writing all the music that was under dialog, and give it enough energy to propel the show. They were really keen on having the show be really propulsive and driving from one moment to the next. That was my challenge, and I feel I came up with a great way of doing that in my own style.

Q: How did you get the assignment to score THE OUTER LIMITS show?

JVT: That just came floating through. Mark and I had just done something for the producers previous to that, so they came to us with the series. Mark felt he was a little too busy to take it on, so we wrote the theme together and then all decided that I would do the scoring.

Q: Did the entire series have original scores or was there any reuse of tracking?

JVT: It wasn't all scored, but the majority of it was. It went about half and half towards the third or fourth season, but the first three seasons were all scored.

Q: You went on to do another series, POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY [1996].

JVT: That was a sister project to OUTER LIMITS for MGM and for Trilogy Entertainment as well. They had gotten OUTER LIMITS going and the next year they had POLTERGEIST kick up. They wanted me to establish that tone for that, so I didn't do quite as much for OUTER LIMITS that year. That's when Joel Goldsmith and a few of the other guys came on board. And then I wanted to get back on there, so I said "okay, it's time for me to hop back," so, with the help of a couple composer friends, we did both series. One person couldn't do each episode, one after another, because there was 30+ minutes of music of big, orchestral music, and their schedules were ten or eleven days long, so they overlapped.

Q: On POLTERGEIST you did the theme and you did the pilot, so you set the main musical tone for that series. What was your approach there?

JVT: That was far more Gothic; very strong, overt orchestral music, even though it [IMG4R]wasn't with orchestra! I definitely got those chops together working with those guys, they wanted the big sound without the real orchestra. So I got really good at that but I'd still rather work with the real orchestra! POLTERGEIST used a Gothic orchestral type sound, very dark, with a lot of twisted harmony. I think my musical byline for that show was "twisted romantic."

Q: It wasn't all chaotic dissonance, there's definitely a tone of melodic romance in there that is rather compelling.

JVT: Absolutely. I think that was one of the things that made that show kind of feel really nice is we just weren't doing a lot of scary sounds. It was tonal and it was thematic. It had themes, whether they were motifs or actually longer themes. I always tried to have something like that going in the show, and I think the producers were appreciative of that, because it really took it to another level, as opposed to just having a bunch of music going on.

Q: How closely did you work with those producers as far as establishing the tone for those two series? Were they real hands on?

JVT: I worked extremely close. I did both pilots, although the pilot for OUTER LIMITS didn't happen until after somebody else had composed a few episodes, which was kind of bizarre. They didn't like the way it was headed, and that's actually how I got involved. I think they had a Canadian composer starting the show, because they weren't quite sure if they were gong to be able to have a US composer.

Q: Was any of the Canadian music used in the final run?

JVT: Yeah, in some of the first few episodes, and then they did the last season. It became a Canadian content show in the seventh season. But then there were a couple US composers who were brought in before me, too, as the producers were trying to find the right tone for it. There were some really good scores that were done for it, prior to me; they were just coming from a different place. Even with me, on POLTERGEIST, they previewed the final cut for MGM, with about two and a half weeks left before it was about to air, and MGM didn't think it was scary enough. They wanted it less thematic and with less of the tone that we established, and I had to go back and revisit almost half the score to make it more atonal. It became a hybrid right out of the gate.

Q: You did another MGM miniseries called, CREATURE, based on the Peter Benchley book. Did that give you the chance for something a little more adventurous than the dark tonalities of POLTERGEIST or OUTER LIMITS?

JVT: Oh yeah, there was a whole island type vibe that was going on. The show was set out in the ocean, so I got to open up and write some pretty sweeping things for a few scenes. There was a military aspect that hung over the series that was fun, and I tried to actually write something a little atypical to the usual military style of scoring. I took some time and really tried to craft something really nice there. I know Doug Fake at Intrada really picked up on that, I think that was one of the main reasons he wanted to release the soundtrack; he thought that all that stuff was so cool that people needed to hear it. That was a nice compliment from him. Here again, the show had a lot of music. But creating that tension-in-the-jungle kind of thing was pretty cool, trying to have something scary happening in a tropical location. It was definitely a nice chance of pace, even though the approach was conceptually still the same, working for the same production company.

Q: And you're essentially dealing with a suspense thriller type of film. Did you feel at all like you were becoming typecast into the horror composer, at that period at time?

JVT: I was thinking about it, absolutely. The interesting thing about that period of my life, which was about seven years, was that I was working so much and [IMG5L]there was so much music written the hour shows were 30-plus minutes, and then this four-hour show had about 100 minutes of music. There was so much music that I didn't have time to do anything. I was concerned that I wasn't going to recognize my kids, you know?! But it was a great experience, because you're writing volumes of music, and you don't really have any real strict format over your head as far as what you can or can't do. Musically, it was pretty much an open palette, so it was a wonderful time for me. I love music for comedy, and I've actually done a fair amount of that writing since then, but it's always a fear. At the time, I think my agents weren't probably thinking far outside of that box either.

Q: Do you feel you've come full circle with your beginnings with your pop-oriented scores for MABILU'S MOST WANTED [2003] and THE CHEETAH GIRLS [2003]. Both of those projects are a far cry from THE OUTER LIMITS.

JVT: That's an extremely far cry! THE CHEETAH GIRLS was a very pop score and a very difficult movie to do. There were so many people who had so many ideas of what it should or shouldn't be that it took a lot of time to establish the tone, even within the fact that it was going to be a pop score. That always surprises you you think, how hard could it be, it's going to be a pop score but there's a lot of different ways to skin that cat...

Q: No pun intended....

JVT: Right! But that was a very pop score with grooves and all the stuff that seems to be happening now, although somewhat subdued for a younger audience. MALIBU'S MOST WANTED, which was just before that, was a harder version of that, in a way, because it was for a wider age group, and it had comedy with a hip hop element all us white guys doing the music John Debney and I as hip hop artists!

Q: Oh yeah, I can see the music video now!

JVT: Yeah! The music video would have been really scary! But it was a lot of fun doing those things. You're still using your scoring sensibility to an extent, but you've got a few of your appendages tied behind your back because it wasn't supposed to be orchestra. It wasn't to do this, or it wasn't supposed to do that. The decisions on how to make a cue happen with that limited palette is challenging, even if you're a pop musician. I did the animated TARZAN for a season. I fell into that pretty quickly I'm not sure why, but I felt pretty comfortable with that, again writing a lot of big music, and TARZAN obviously had all the ethnic elements going through it. I wrote about 10 episodes of that. I've done some independent films where there have been pretty some small ensembles, like string quartet with a few woodwinds and some percussionists, that kind of thing, which I really love doing as well. And I just finished a film where I played accordion and guitar.

Q: Which one was that?

JVT: It was a movie called JESUS THE DRIVER [2004]. I actually worked on two JESUS movies at the same time I don't know how many people get that honor! I was John Debney's ethnic percussionist on THE PASSION. So I had my share of JESUS for that few months of my life. It's unfair to typecast a lot of people who do what we do, but I think there are some people who are truly more eclectic than others, and I think eclectic is pretty high on my list. I feel pretty comfortable doing just about anything, musically. I think being a musician really helps that, because I've played in bands, and I've played theater; I've done so much performing in so many different styles that nothing feels uncomfortable. I can put those outfits on and they feel right, you know?

Q: What do you have coming up now that VAN HELSING is completed?

JVT: I'm going to be scoring some episodes of this Viacom science fiction TV project called THE 4400 [premiered in the USA on July 11^th, 2004], with Scott Peters who created the show. I scored his first project a couple of years back, and he's hired me to do his new project.

Q: And what was the one you worked with him earlier on?

JVT: He did a small comedy called DON: PLAIN AND TALL [2003], a funny little movie. It was a very, very small project. He was an OUTER LIMITS producer previous to that, so it's a relationship that's been around. In fact, he wrote the episode that I won my second Gemini Award for, "Simon Says."

Q: So how do you feel about where things are today? How do you think your career has gone so far and where would you like it to go?

JVT: First off, I feel really fortunate to be where I'm at right now. I feel very lucky, and I feel luck has a lot to do with what we do, because there's only so many slots available on the big projects, there's only so many guys who can get in there and to be in line for what's good. I would like to be doing bigger movies. I think I've got the goods to do that. I've obviously got the experience either on my own or from helping with the big guys. I've done a lot of work for the composers who are already there, so I know the process. I would like to tackle some big movies, and just stay busy. I don't have a big wish list.

Q: Just keep doing what you're doing.

JVT: Yeah. It's easy to say I'd like to make a little more money, of course! But, I mean, I'm doing it for the love of music. I've committed to being a composer, so I want to stay busy, and work on good projects. If I'm lucky enough to work on bigger projects, that would be great too, but just to stay busy and be able to spend time with my family and live a somewhat sane life.

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