Musicians@google - Bear mccreary with raya yarbrough

Host: Hi, everybody. Welcome to a very exciting Musicians@Google event, and before I’m actually gonna say more, I wanna show you this. ♪ [music playing] [applause] Hi. I hope I’m gonna make it brief. I was thinking about soundtracks. The bad soundtrack can make a movie much, much worse. Mediocre soundtrack— you know it’s just gonna be there in the background. A good soundtrack is gonna make a movie a little bit better. A great soundtrack is gonna define the movie. An amazing soundtrack is gonna define the genre. If you really, really like it, if you have a really, really incredible soundtrack it’s gonna make you wish your life is a soundtrack of its own. Now when you think about Bear’s Battlestar Galactica soundtrack it’s really in a league of its own because, all of the these things aside, it actually became a part of the series, just integral part of what Battlestar Gallactica was about. And it shattered a couple of fourth walls in the process and I’m sure there were many more people than me that it left speechless. And if you look at other projects by Bear McCreary you know he did the TV show Trauma and he incorporated actual helicopters and ambulances in the soundtrack. For Human Target, which is another show Bear’s scoring right now he routinely goes out and, and has 50–, 60–people orchestra which is unprecedented for modern TV. And the whole story of videogame Dark Void which is a, Bear just went and did the 8-bit version of the tune and it kind of started a videogame of its own. Maybe he’ll talk about it a little bit more. Bear composes, but he also plays piano, he plays accordion, he actually writes lyrics in all sorts of different languages, and I think I even saw him sing once or twice. But whatever he does he approaches with so much enthusiasm and passion that I think we are all very lucky to have him here, talk about what he does; and maybe play something if we can convince him to. And this is where my original introduction ends, but we’re actually really, really lucky because we also have Raya Yarbrough, I don’t know where she is there, who’s an incredibly talented vocalist. And you think you don’t know her, but if we can convince her to sing with Bear you will kind of quickly realize where do you know that gorgeous voice from. So that’s the end of my thing here. Please give it up for Bear McCreary and Raya Yarbrough. [applause] Bear McCreary: Thank you, thank you. That was a pretty cool introduction. I don’t know how to follow that exactly. This is Raya Yarbrough. [applause] So what we’re gonna, before we do anything else- Raya Yarbrough: Wanna, like, get you started. Bear: Yeah. You were, you were gonna ask me some things. Raya: Okay. There’s a lot stuff that Bear did before Battlestar Galactica, so— Why don’t we begin at the beginning. Bear: Grab the mike. Raya: Is this on? Oh, it did it by itself. It’s the magic of Google. Okay, so I guess I’ll just, oh, you’re miked, so you’re all good. So why don’t you tell the good people how you started off in music, when you started, how. Bear: Well, you were, you were clever enough to include the Megaman clip in there. Actually, 8-bit videogames were part of the first musical experience I ever had. And the combination of videogames and movies and TV that I grew up on, is what inspired me to become a musician. And as I was growing up, I listened to nothing but movie music. It’s all I ever wanted to do and really I never considered for a moment that I would do anything else. So I’m really lucky that it kind of worked out because I didn’t have a backup plan. And so I started— I started writing my own music when I was about, I don’t know, maybe ten; and I sucked; I was not working. But I just kept trying and I kept trying and I kept listening to the pieces of music that I was really responding to, and, I don’t know, somewhere in high school I started— I started to kind of figure a few things out. And I started scoring little movies that I was making and my friends were making and trying to see if I could connect music that I heard in my head with the pictures that I was, the pictures that I was dealing with, and the images that I was dealing with. And the answer was – no, I couldn’t, at first. But then I did it again and I kept working at it, and finally started to kind of find some, I don’t know, I don’t wanna say my own kind of inner voice, but I did find some things that I was able to do and gravitate towards. And then I, so then I ended up the USC Thornton School of Music where I actually learned how to do music on a more formal level. I didn’t have a lot of training up until that point except for— I studied classical piano for many years. But that was sort of my musical education was formalized there, but it really started by watching a bunch of movies and playing videogames more than anything else. Raya: Yeah. I think, and if I can weigh in here just ’cause I’ve happen to know you sort of well, as your music has developed through all the films and TV shows and things you’ve done, you’ve, I’ve heard you saying that you reflected back to music that your wrote when you were 15 or 16, and you realized, “you know, I kind of did have a voice, even then.” Bear: Yeah. That’s funny I can find pieces when, that I wrote in high school and there’s a piece actually, when I wrote the big theme for Dark Void I played it for a buddy of mine and he’s like, “You wrote that in high school.” I’m like, “What are you talkin’ about?” And he goes, “You know that one thing?” and I went back and thought about it and I went back to actually go and listen to it and was like, “Oh, yeah.” I mean it’s not as good, but there was like all these little, these little things that I was kind of stumbling upon in high school and then when I got this Dark Void videogame I was able to kind of draw on all these different influences. And there’s pieces I wrote that sound kind of like Battlestar, I mean, other things that I’ve done. Raya: And listening to your older music and to music that you’re doing like right now, it’s funny, it’s almost like from your high school time it was the seed and it grew into this forest which was Battlestar Galactica and everything. And now it’s almost like you’re kind of harkening back to some of your original– could you talk about some of your original inspirations, some of the people who influenced you from way, way back– Bear: The first film score that I noticed was Back To The Future by Alan Silvestri. Anybody remember that score? Yeah. Raya: Somebody saying— Bear: That one. No, it’s weird. I talk to people and they are like, they’ve never even heard of the movie sometimes. It’s just one of those franchises. [laughter] I know. That’s when I was like, “I feel old.” You can talk to a perfectly formed human being who was born after Back To The Future 3 came out. So, yeah, it’s weird. That was one of the first ones that caught my ear. And, simultaneously, it was the same year, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure by Danny Elfman really struck a chord with me and that was – starting after that point my parents would notice that any time that I went and saw a movie, I would identify the composer within the first five or ten seconds of the movie. And I was six, seven, eight years old. And then the credits would come up and they’re like, “God damn, he’s right.” And so they kind of knew, they could kind of see where I was going. Then in, I also, as a kid, really loved the music of John Williams. Temple Of Doom and Empire Strikes Back had a big impression on me for sure. And then it was in high school that I discovered– I had this sort of epiphany when I discovered the film music of Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone. I think of these five guys as the people that I, I’m influenced by the most, and the reason I say that is that I realize that everybody that I adored was borrowing from them. And I would go and discover these scores from the 50s that sounded like the scores from the late 80s and 90s that I was falling in love with. Not in a bad way, I mean, just the influence was there and that they were innovating, I mean stuff like Herrmann’s The Day The Earth Stood Still or Elmer Bernstein’s To Kill A Mockingbird, which if you put that in a movie trailer today, I don’t think anyone would think that that music was 55 years old. So it’s, that was a big sort of epiphany for me when I realized how far back this tradition goes and started studying very closely what those guys were doing. Raya: Can you say a little about Elmer? Bear: I can. I knew Elmer, I met him when I was in high school and— Raya: It’s Elmer Bernstein. Bear: Yeah. Elmer Bernstein who, who did so many of the most important film scores to ever be written; The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Magnificent Seven, Animal House, Ghost Busters, the list goes on and on. I met him when I was in high school and I played him a bunch of my music ’cause we had a mutual friend through this weirdest coincidence in the world. And he was really impressed with, I think the energy that I had, and the amount of stuff I was writing and he asked if I was formally trained, although I’m sure in hindsight he knew that I wasn’t. And he really kind of took me under his wing. And when I came down to Los Angeles to go to school, I started working for him and one of the, no, I guess the first professional job I ever had was at his, at his, at his house, his estate. And he was gone for the summer and he goes, “Hey, like, can you housesit the place and then I’ll give you a film to orchestrate over the summer.” And I was like— [laughter] “Yeah, let me check my schedule.” You know. So actually a quick side story. I was, I had to, I had to dog sit— he had these dogs— and you had to give them these pills and stuff, and I’m like, “Alright, sure.” I did not tell him that since I was a kid I had this phobia of dogs, ’cause when I was a little kid I got attacked by a dog. And I was like, “Alright, I just, I just gotta get over this. How big can this dog be?” Irish Wolfhound. Okay. [laughter] It is this big, I mean on all fours. It comes up to here on me. And in fact, when it was a puppy they, they had to put it on downers because it would jump up on Elmer and it’s like eight feet high. So I get over there and I see this dog and it was like, “Okay. Let’s…” My dog, my fear of dogs is of course non-existent anymore after that summer. Anyway, so that was a huge influence on me because I spent the whole summer re-orchestrating a film score called Kings Of The Sun. This was a movie starring Yul Brynner that came out in 1968. I think it’s on DVD, no, it is on DVD now. At the time it wasn’t on DVD, it wasn’t on TV, it wasn’t screened anywhere, it had had a theatrical run and that was it. And it was still one of the most highly sought-after scores that Elmer had written. Fans were writing him and saying, “Oh, when are you gonna perform that music? Is it gonna be on a soundtrack album?” And the recordings had been destroyed, the scores had been destroyed, because at that point in time the studio would keep everything. And in fact he would tell me stories of sometimes he’d go to music departments to meet a director and he would look at someone’s writing on a scrap of paper like, just notes, they have a stack of old scrap paper and you’d flip it over and it’s a handwritten Jerry Goldsmith score from like the late 70s. It was “Oh, there it is.” But anyway, so who knows where his score is now somebody’s laundry list or, or grocery list or something. So I re-orchestrated this whole film. So I spent the summer, he had his handwritten sketches were literally all that remained— and so I was able to go through and recreate the orchestration and I didn’t have a recording or anything to go by. And that taught me more than any program, any class, any teacher could have ever taught me, because I was just was able to see exactly how the germs of the ideas became this finished score. And in fact, one of the other things that I did for him was, was, I sort of organized his whole closet full of archives which is now in a collection at the USC Music Library. But at the time it was just a closet full of stuff, and I was going through it with him and there were all these things that he didn’t wanna keep. He was just gonna, he’s like, “No. Throw all that stuff out.” And I said, “I can’t, I don’t know why, but I can’t throw this out.” It’s like a stack of parts from the day they recorded the cues on To Kill A Mockingbird. He was gonna throw them out. These are the actual parts that the musicians read from. They’re in my closet now and I don’t know what to do with them, but I was like “Do you mind if I keep these?” And one of the things that he was gonna throw out that’s on my wall that I look at every day is a handwritten sketch of the main title in The Great Escape. And you can see how he thought of it and before he wrote this, that melody didn’t exist. I mean like, I’ll play it real quick. I mean this kind of blows, blows my mind, right? That he wrote this— ♪ [playing upbeat piano] I mean, everybody knows this tune, right? I mean you think it’s like an old American folk tune. But he wrote it. And, I just thought before this piece of paper existed that song did not exist. And when he was gonna throw that out I was just like, “No, no way, can I, I gotta, I gotta keep this.” And so he had a great impact on me creatively, professionally, but also personally because I, I got to spend so much time with him and, see that it is possible to be successful in the movie business and the music business, and not turn out to be a big ***. [laughter] So that was, that was an eye opener for sure. Raya: So in the steps of not becoming a big ***, shortly after that— Bear: Oh, I am a big ***. I failed at that. [laughter] Raya: Well, but you grew into it. Bear: Yeah, so— Raya: Of course the four seasons of Battlestar Gallactica. Bear: Yes. Raya: So, so let’s, let’s talk about this. Bear: Um… Raya: How did you, how did you get into Battlestar and, yeah. Bear: Battlestar was my first job out of school. I, I got it, the first job that I got, I was, I graduated, I had nothing going on, I was actually even, I crashed at Elmer’s place, at his Santa Monica house, for a month. So I could score a student film with a budget of zero dollars. But I said, it was like, “I gotta finish this movie.” So I was like literally about to go hand in applications at grocery stores and video stores— Raya: There was florist store— Bear: Florist. Yeah, florist, I could have done that. Raya: He makes brilliant flower arrangements. Bear: I could have been a florist. Raya: If you like his music, you should see… Bear: Yeah. Raya: …his flower arrangements. [laughter] Bear: But I got a job working for Richard Gibbs. Richard Gibbs is a film composer and former keyboardist of Oingo Boingo which is another story for later on, I guess. And, so I got a job working for him and I was his assistant. I kept the studio running. I converted all his computers to the new sampling software which has since become a dinosaur and I’m the only one who uses it now. But at the time, it was new. And I also wrote a bunch of cues and worked with the producers and helped him meet his deadlines. And he, so I worked there about a year, and at the end of that year he landed the Battlestar Galactica mini-series. So he asked me to come on board and help him finish this pilot, it was essentially a backdoor pilot. And we had to write three, almost three hours of music, maybe two and a half hours of music, in about 14 days. So it was an incredible turnaround and on top of that, the producer had this really wacky idea of using taiko drums and that was kind of all that he said. He was like, “We like taiko drums.” [laughter] And I was like, “Okay. I don’t know what that means.” And so actually in that creative process, I worked very closely with Richard and also with, with the director Michael Rymer, and so when we got through the mini-series, and we did use a hefty amount of taiko drums. But also a lot of, there was a lot of orchestral writing and, and a very sort of ambient non-thematic approach. And this was because the producers felt very strongly that they didn’t want the kind of Star Wars or Star Trek approach to their mini-series. In fact, if you think about it in comparing the new, the mini-series to the old show, the thing that is the most different is the music. I think more than anything else. it’s the one part of the old show that was completely, well, except for the Casino Planet, that was dropped too. [laughter] Alright. So there were two things: the music and the Casino Planet. Raya: Boxey, don’t forget about Boxey. Bear: We had Boxey in the pilot. Raya: You did? Bear: We did. And in season one they dropped him on his ***. Raya: That’s right. [laughs] Bear: But yeah, he was there briefly. It was the dagget that was also missing. Alright, there were a few things missing. Raya: There was a dagget at one point, remember? Bear: Oh, yeah. Raya: Yeah. I don’t know what scene it is, but if you look at one scene you can see a dagget flying out of the airlock. Bear: Yeah. It’s true. There is a dagget and— And, I think the Starship Enterprise and the Millennium Falcon are in the fleet in a couple of shots. Raya: Oh, that’s right. [laughter] Bear: Yeah. A bunch of nerds worked on the show. [laughter] So, but anyway, so long, long story medium-long, the pilot is relatively successful and it goes to series. And at that point Richard needs to go on to feature films. He’s got his slate is full with feature films and he can’t take on a weekly series that would require the amount of original music that Battlestar required. So, of course, the producers didn’t wanna hire me at all. And while they were off looking for other people, there was one deadline coming up which was for this episode “33,” which was the first episode aired. So they go, “Alright, well, you can take, you can do this while we’re off looking for somebody else.” And so I did it. I did the hell out of it and really gave it my all and, and brought in all the musicians that I wanted to bring in. All of whom stayed on ’til the end. That episode planted the seeds thematically that would go all the way to the last episode. But I didn’t know any better at the time. I mean, I was just, I was just trying to, I don’t even wanna say I was trying to keep the job, I was just trying to do an excellent job because I really adored that episode. I mean I thought it was so gripping and powerful and a worthy follow-up of the mini-series. And after the playback the producers invited me to come look at the next episode. And I thought, “Okay. We’re doing two episodes of Battlestar.” So that feeling of waiting for, I can get fired tomorrow, though, that went away about halfway through season four. [laughter] That’s when I started, when I was like, “You know, I probably am gonna finish this show. I think, I think I’m gonna stick around.” But that’s it. I was, I had just turned 24 when I became the composer of Battlestar Galactica and it was, it was really through— Raya: How did you feel starting your career so late? [laughter] Bear: Yeah, I know. I know. [laughter] It was tough. It was tough. Well, seriously when I was 15, I was like, “I’m gonna be famous by the time I’m 20. I’ll just land a big movie.” The funny thing is when I was, when I was a kid I never wanted to do TV. I wanted to do movies. And ironically the creative freedom that I have found in television, and I find that the quality in television surpasses most of what comes out in theaters, and I think about all the big summer action blockbusters that come out and I go, “Well, this would be cool if I did that,” but would I have traded four years of Battlestar, you know? Raya: Actually that, that leads me, blah, blah, that leads me to a question. You were talking about the, in television you really have time to develop the sound of a show. Can you talk a little bit about how the Battlestar music developed? Bear: Yeah. Raya: From your beginnings in season one to the stuff in season four. Bear: Well, like I said— Raya: There’s some really unique narrative stuff. Bear: Yeah. The show, the music went through a lot of changes, which is something that I think is unusual for television or, or it’s unusual for what people think of as typical television scoring. The idea, I think, of TV scoring is that I think of the pinnacle and also the pinnacle of functional TV music was something like Seinfeld, right, where you can hear that slap bass sound, yeah you, can you give us an example? Raya: [making sounds] Bear: There you go. [laughter] Alright. And you know exactly what show you’re watching, there’s no question, it’s doing exactly what it needs to do to get us from point B to point C. With Battlestar it needed a much more cinematic and dramatic approach, but they also didn’t want what they felt was a cinematic typical sci-fi opera score. So they said, they said, “no themes” in the beginning. So I go, “Okay. No themes.” And yet in the first episode that I did, I wrote this little thing when, when Boomer and Helo are down on the planet I had this little thing, I remember it— ♪ [playing pensive piano] I’m not gonna win any awards for that, but it’s a little germ of an idea that I used whenever Helo and Boomer were on, were on Caprica. And then in the second episode we went back to Caprica to follow that story line more and I thought, “Well, why should I write a new little melody, I’ll just use that one.” But that’s a theme now. [laughter] And especially at this point when I’m fearing for my job, I thought, “If I tell them I’m doing this, then I’m gonna get fired.” So I didn’t tell them and used that again. And then there was a little, there was a, in episode four of season one I should stay at the piano – there was a theme for Kara— ♪ [playing piano] And that came back in episode, it was in episode four and then it came back in episode five and then the next couple of scenes with Kara, I had a chance to use it again and it was clearly a theme, but I was just, I was afraid to tell anybody. [laughter] And then in episode eight, so in episode eight, which is “Flesh and bone,” that episode to me is a pivotal one because it begins what became a, a unique trait to Battlestar which is our characters, all of our characters become repulsive in one way or another. All of our characters do something that makes us question whether they’re, they’re doing the right thing or not. And in this particular episode Kara Thrace starts torturing Leoben, and of course this also sets in motion the end of her whole story line and her relationship with Leoben and all these things. But I don’t think, I’m not sure the writers knew all of that ahead. They certainly didn’t tell me if they did. But in that episode I thought, “Well, if this is the triumphant Kara— ♪ [playing piano] then Film Score 101 says, says to just make it minor— ♪ [playing piano] and then you have moody, dark— conflicted Kara. [laughter] But then the producers might feel it’s a theme. And— [laughter] I would get fired. [laughter] So I did it anyway, and I didn’t get fired. And so by about the, so now at the end of season one in episode ten which is called “The hand of God”, I was spotting with, with one of the producers and there is a scene there where Helo and Boomer are hiding out— there is this whole story line throughout that season— and every episode I’m playing a little Boomer theme. And the producers look at that scene and he’s like, “You know having trouble, this one’s not quite working, something’s not connecting, can we, can we use that Boomer theme that you wrote. Can we use a little Boomer theme there?” I was like, [laughter] “Um, good idea boss. Yeah. Boomer theme.” And at that point I thought, “Okay.” But it was a, that was a big sort of moment for me when I realized, “Okay. They get it that themes can be subtle. Themes can be a color. Themes can be a couple of notes.” I think that to a sci-fi audience, well, pre-Battlestar perhaps, the word theme means Luke staring off into the twin sunsets and the french horn is playing “THE THEME” and anything less than that, and I love that stuff, but it would have sunk Battlestar. That kind of approach in early Battlestar would have, would have been, I think just, I don’t know. It wouldn’t have been, it wouldn’t have been right. But I had a highly thematic approach. I was doing the same thing that Williams was doing, I was just doing it with different musical tools. As that, once I knew that was okay, which was episode ten of season one, and you can, you can tell in the scores the point at which the producer used the word theme and I realize I wasn’t gonna get fired. So starting with episode ten things start to blossom. And I introduced— Raya: In what ways did you expand your musical palette, like instrument wise. Bear: Well, I was going to get to that. In episode ten there was a, there was a, a Gaelic element that I introduced with this theme— ♪ [playing very melodic piano] So in the texture of Battlestar this did not fit at all. And I knew that it didn’t fit, but there was this one scene that it did fit. At the end of this episode there was this big jubilant celebration which itself didn’t fit the tone of the show at that point. But one of the things I was realizing is that this show was expanding and developing and changing. So once that was, that scene was in there, I thought, “Well, maybe I can use that as a theme earlier in the episode in a more emotional setting.” So I did and I didn’t get fired. So that became a theme for, for Lee and his father and then that started coming back in season two. That start set me on this path where now the score was beginning to expand instrumentally. And what used to be just taiko drums and an occasional Middle Eastern woodwind and an electric fiddle, now included bagpipes. Raya: Don’t forget the wailing chick. Bear: And the wailing chick. [laughter] And… [laughter] [applause] Yes. Yes. And then, so then in, in the end of season one we added the orchestra back in which is the thing that the producers said adamantly that they wanted no orchestra. Well, they changed their mind. And the orchestra again, it wasn’t Luke staring off into twin sunsets, it was, it could be used in, in more tasteful ways for Battlestar, not *** on Williams. I love that stuff. But when the season ended, the score had changed dramatically. And so then in season two, it began to change right from the get go and we started adding in some Indian sitar and some tabla. And then in the middle of season two, about another ten episodes in, we added a rock band, with this episode called “Pegasus.” And then the orchestral music became more pronounced. And so now there was a pop-rock element. We went into season three and I changed up the taiko writing. I added a lot more authentic Japanese percussion. Between season two and three, I did a lot of research into how Japanese music uses taiko drums and that, on the soundtrack album there’s this track called “Storming New Caprica” which sounds different. I mean you can just tell it sounds different than season one and two. And the bagpipes are still being used in these episodes and you get to season three, the end of season three, with “All along the watchtower” which was a weird enough inclusion- on its own- Raya: But you want to tell them how that came to be at all or— kind of a little synopsis. Bear: Well, the interesting thing is all of these things, I wanna stress I’m not just throwing these in because I got bored. Quite the contrary. Most of the time, as a composer if you were working on a show that is in one language and you just come in and you’re like, “Hey, I wanna do some bagpipes in this episode,” you’re gonna get fired. It was something that the producers encouraged and in many ways forced me to do. Because the writing evolved, the acting evolved, the characters changed so much; Kara Thrace is a perfect example. Her opening theme which I played you, was rather warm and triumphant and then I created a dark version of it. Well, in season three we learned all about this special destiny that she might have, so I wrote a theme for that. And then later in season three we learned about this relationship that she has with Lee and that got expanded on dramatically. None of these other themes would work and I wrote a theme for that. And Baltar was another character that had multiple themes for their different personalities and one of the things that I realized is that these people are not archetypes. You can’t write one theme that encapsulates everything about them. And if you think about your own personality, as much as we’d like to think, “Well, if I’m the hero of my movie, I’d have the hero theme.” Well, there’s days when your cranky and you have to have a cranky theme. I mean people are complicated, multi-faceted individuals and Battlestar is a perfect example of every character being like this. So I was forced to expand greatly as this show went on. And “Watchtower” came along— this was an idea that Ron Moore had in season one. He wanted the ending of season one to be Baltar in his dream walking into the symphony hall and there’s somebody playing “All along the watchtower” and the writer’s like, “Dude, no way.” [laughter] So, and then in season two we wanted to bring it back and the writers were like, “No way.” In season three finally I think he came up with the reason to use it. And they go, “Well, okay.” And— Raya: What, what was your first response when you— Bear: I thought he was nuts. I thought it was— [laughter] I thought it was the end of the show. Honestly, I thought it was the end of the show. Because I didn’t know how it was gonna be used. I didn’t see the episode, I also hadn’t read the script. All I got a phone call was producer going, “Dude, Ron wants you to do an All Along The Watchtower.” I was just like, “Good-bye.” [laughter] But the more I thought about it, I thought, “Well, there might be some potential here.” Raya: There might be some way… out of here? Bear: Yes. [laughter] That was the second thing I thought. [laughter] Well, you know, I had an idea and I thought, “Well, I’ll try this.” I had an idea to do— we had introduced taiko drums, we’d introduced Middle Eastern music, we’d introduced African music, heavy metal had snuck into the score in an episode called “Black market,” which was just this source piece that I’d done because I wanted to a heavy metal song but there it was, on the season two soundtrack, and it was in the fabric of the show. So I thought, “Well, I’ll try to do the version of this, of Watchtower that I think would be cool. And then I can at least tell everybody that there was a cool version at one point in the past.” ’Cause I was sure that this wouldn’t fly. So I did this, what I called, George Harrison sits in with Rage Against The Machine, kind of Indian, Middle Eastern version of “All along the watchtower.” So I threw it together – a demo. My brother stepped off a plane and he recorded the demo vocals and I sent it to Ron and I was just like, “Okay. Well, that will be the end of this.” And Ron writes back and he’s like, “Oh, it’s great.” [laughter] And it was, that was it. “No, I can totally see that fitting with the action in the episode.” And I was like, “There’s action in the episode?” I didn’t even know. And ultimately the version that you hear on the album and in the show is almost identical; some of the tracks are from the demo. It’s exactly what my initial vision was, and I think part of that is, is thanks to Ron letting me do whatever I wanted; he gave me no input. I mean it was literally the first time that the producer said nothing to me. Before I wrote it, I caught him in the hallway and I said, “Ron, dude, what, what do you want me to do? It is, should it sound like Bob Dylan? Should it sound like Jimi Hendrix?” And he goes, “Make it sound like Battlestar.” And he walked away. [laughter] Like this was easy, you know? [laughter] And I also think that the network had faith in Ron. I personally believe that they weren’t sure what to make of it. I think it was something that was extremely daring, I mean whether you liked it or not, it was extremely daring. And that blasted open the doors in season four where now the music is something the characters hear; the themes are melodies they’re aware of; and the music became a part of the show in a way that I can’t think of another film or television show that did it in this exact way. And the writers began calling me. I was on set. I was involved in the scripts— Raya: It got kind of meta eventually, because first it was kinda like you’re following the narrative of the show— And then, and what’s, what’s the name of the episode— Bear: Well, “Someone to watch over me” was one of the first ones. Raya: Yeah, suddenly the show started following you. Bear: Exactly. The character in that named Slick, who’s this piano player, every time he’s talking about music, what he’s saying is what I was saying when I was writing that season’s mid-season cliffhanger in an episode called “Revelations.” So you’ve got to think about this; I’m writing, I’m struggling to write this cue that was one of the toughest cues I’d ever written, and the writers called me up and they’re like, “Can we take a minute of your time? We got this character, a composer; he’s writing a cue; he’s having trouble with it. What is that like?” And I was just like— [laughter] “Dammit.” [laughter] So like it was, it was perfect. I mean literally David Weddle was like, “Hang on. Don’t, don’t figure it out, don’t figure it out, let me get a pencil, we’ll write this down.” [laughter] So that’s exact, it was me, that was me, what I was going through to write this, this other cue. Raya: And in fact you got so close that you went up to the set for that one. Bear: Yeah, I was, I was on set and I worked with the actors, I worked with Katee and Roark, I taught them the piano parts. Roark is an excellent pianist and as he was actually cast so that he could play my music. They only auditioned people that could play piano. And – fun trivia – they actually auditioned me for this. [laughter] Needless to say, my talents are clearly on the compositional side. [laughter] But— Raya: But you went to the audition. Bear: I did. I did. It was, yeah. [laughter] So, and then even in the last episode, I will keep this, is there anyone here who hasn’t seen the last episode? Raise your hand. It’s okay. Okay. I just, alright. I won’t spoil it. In the last episode, something happens, yeah. And there, there are— And there are, there are, there are coordinates involved. And these are coordinates that, that I came up with. Actually Ron called me and was like, “Hey, we need a way to, to communicate this idea that the music and the coordinates are tied together.” And actually I worked with Kevin Grazier, the science advisor, and I was like, “Well, tell me how many coordinates, how many digits do we need?” And he would, he’s, you guys probably know better than I do, it was, he needed 12 digits to create this set of coordinates. And by coincidence the theme that I was messing around with at the time had 12 notes. ♪ [playing piano] And then returning to one is 13. ♪ [plays one note on piano] For the thirteenth colony. Ooh. [laughter] Naah, I’m making that up. Yeah, that was a coincidence. But anyway, it was a happy coincidence and then I thought, “okay”— and I devised a number of different ways we could generate these pitches and I came up with complex grids of intervals and different scaling, ways of numbering a scale to create these numbers. And I said to the writers, “Okay, well how long is the scene that we have to explain this. I mean is it like, how many, how many lines of dialog do we have to like to sell this idea?” Somebody’d be like, “Well, actually let’s microanalyze the blah, blah, blah.” And he’s like, “Oh, there’s no dialog.” And— well, one little spoiler. “They’re about to get sucked into the black hole, everyone’s about to die, and there’s no dialog, they just have to kind of do it. And you have, but you have to sell that it comes from the music.” And I was like, “Uh, okay.” And then actually I worked with the editor very closely to create this idea that these are numbers that come to Kara and what I ended up doing was numbering the scale, just the very bottom note is one, and then just going up the scale not counting the chromatic notes, so going up the scale one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And then she just – fortunately they were all, they’re all numbers under 10, so they’re all single digit numbers, so those, the twelve digits that she plays in are the twelve notes that of the theme. And, I know, and then as the editor cut it together we cut her punching in the numbers on the keypad to her playing the notes on the piano and, I don’t know, did that come across at all, or were you guys like, “what the hell just happened?” Did that, did you get it? Alright. So that was pretty extraordinary, I mean that was sort of the evolution of that score and it was, it was a pretty extraordinary journey. Raya: It’s pretty amazing that way the show and the music really did mesh entirely. Bear: Yeah. Raya: In the same thing. Well, let’s see, there are two directions we could go in right now. We could play some music, or we could play some video. What would you like to do? Bear: Music, huh? Raya: Wanna make music? Bear: Alright. Raya: Alright. Bear: Well, let’s play something then. Raya: So what makes sense is what you were talking about. Bear: Well, you wanna do the theme? “Apocalypse”? Raya: Okay. Should I say what it is? Bear: ♪ [playing piano] Yeah, if you want. Raya: Okay. Bear: Yeah, go for it. Raya: Alright. See if you remember this little diddy. Welcome to the Battlestar Galactica lounge, after hours. [laughter] So glad you could join us. Bear: Don’t forget to tip your waitress. Raya: Yeah, don’t forget to tip your waitress. ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt [applause] Bear: Cool. Do you wanna do the other one? Raya: Yeah. Bear: Yeah? Raya: Yeah. Let’s do that. Bear: Alright. Raya: So that was, should I say what that was? Does anybody know what that was? You call yourselves Battlestar fans. Thank you. Yes, that was the opening theme. Bear: ♪ [playing piano] Yeah. Raya: Otherwise known as the Gayatri Mantra. Otherwise known as “Apocalypse.” Bear: Yeah, that theme had a lot of different forms. Raya: That theme has a lot of names. A lot of different places. Bear: ♪ [playing piano] Raya: ♪ Dei Kobol ♪ una apita athoukarana ♪ Ukthea mavatha ♪ gaman kerimjuta Raya: ♪ Dei Kobol Bear: ♪ [dramatic piano] Raya: ♪ Dei Kobol ♪ una apita athoukarana ♪ Ukthea mavatha ♪ gaman kerimjuta ♪ Dei Kobol ♪ una apita athoukarana ♪ Ukthea mavatha ♪ gaman kerimjuta ♪ Dei Kobol Bear: ♪ [dramatic piano] [laughter] [applause] Raya: Happy ending. [applause] Bear: Yeah, I know. Two downers in a row. Raya: Should we do a little pop quiz? Bear: Yeah. It’s a good idea. Raya: Just for those two songs? Bear: You think? Raya: Yeah. Should we do the pop quiz we’ve been talking about? Bear: Do we want, you want to do, you want to try see if… Raya: Yeah, let’s do the one we’ve been talking about. Bear: Yeah. Alright. That’d be fun. Raya: Do we have our questions? Bear: Yeah. Raya: We have a special event. Even more special than this overarching event. Bear: Yeah. Why don’t you ask the questions. Raya: Okay. Should I? Bear: Here’s the question, though— Raya: Okay. Bear: Which— we have four prizes, and three of them are cool and one’s not as cool. Raya: Even cooler, oh. Bear: Yes, even cooler. Raya: Okay. So should I ask these questions? And should I say what the prize is or should we…? Bear: Yeah, why don’t we give those three away first. Raya: Okay. Bear: And then the fourth person gets stuck with the less cool one, or more cool depending on how… what they… Raya: Okay, so whoever gets this right will get those prizes… Bear: No, this— Raya: Talk amongst yourselves. Bear: This one should be the fourth, so they are in the right order. Raya: Okay, okay, okay. So whoever knows this, just kind of jump up and shout it. And then you’ll win. Bear: And no googling the answers. Raya: Yeah, seriously, guys, come on. Okay, so get ready. Question number one. What was Caprica Six’s first line ever? Raya: There you go. “Are you alive?” “Are you alive?” Bear: Close. So what is – what has she won? I don’t even— [laughter] Host: Is this on? We do have all the Battlestar Galactica CDs, including the new one that’s unavailable anywhere else, even on iTunes. The Caprica CD and the sheet music for “Battlestar Sonatica.” [applause] Raya: Okay, now, question number two is actually linked to what… what we just did up here right now. What language is the BSG main title sung in? Bear: I heard one over here. Close. Raya: Good guess, but no cigar. I heard it over there. Yeah, you got it. [laughter] Forgive me for pronouncing things wrong. The answer was Sanskrit. Bear: The answer is Sanskrit. Although, who said Armenian? There is a song in Armenian. Raya: Yeah, that’s why there was a – do you know which one? Bear: But not the main title. Raya: Supplemental question: Lords of Kobol. What language is that in? Anyone know? Bear: Close. Raya: There is a Gaelic song but that’s not it. Raya: Greek? There is something in Greek. Bear: Caprica, all the Caprica stuff is in Greek. Raya: Caprica’s on Greek. Raya: “Battlestar Operatica.” Uh-huh, good. The answer is Sinhalese. Actually, didn’t expect anyone to get that. Okay. Number three: Name – sound good? Bear: Yeah. This, this might, we might— I don’t know if anyone will get that. Raya: Might stump someone. Number three: Name a player in Bear McCreary’s orchestra— Bear: – who is not one of us or my brother – Raya: – who is neither of us or Bear’s brother, who played in, on the show at some point. Some musician. Anyone? Bear: Oh, stumped them. Bear: Yeah, we would have accepted Alessandro Juliani. No, I’m kidding. Raya: Well, that’s true, actually. Bear: Okay. I got another one. I got another one. Do we take partial credit for a half answer? Raya: That’s pretty deep, actually, that you know that. Bear: All right. All right. I got another one. What… Members of my orchestra are also members of a famous cult band from the 80s. I heard it. Who said it? There it is. Oingo Boingo. But I think she said it first. [applause] Bear: There you go. Raya: And this for our final prize? This one here? Bear: Yeah, our last kind of not cool, but not horrible prize. Raya: The might-be-interesting prize. Bear: I want somebody from the audience to come up and I’m going to teach them how to play the Katee Sackhoff’s part from “All along the watchtower.” So— Raya: Best prize ever?! Bear: the question— Raya: Do you want to say the question? Bear: No, you can do it. Raya: Do you want me to say the question? Okay. What was the name of the episode where Bear had a cameo? Where Bear was onscreen? Anyone? Some head scratching going on. Member of the audience: “Making of.” Bear: I think for partial credit, since we did not say, I’m not counting “the making of.” I think we have a winner. Raya: You think so? Bear: Yeah. Raya: All right. Come on up. [laughter] [applause] Bear: What’s your name? Member of the audience: Minh. Bear: Hi, nice to meet you. So have you ever played piano at all? Minh: Yeah, but I’m very basic. Bear: So, all right. So your first note is here. ♪ [playing piano] Bear: You got it. ♪ [piano playing continues] [applause] Bear: There you go. Awesome. Yeah, great work. Great work. [applause] Bear: Excellent. Excellent. Um, any questions? We can do Q&A, I guess, if there’s anything I didn’t cover. All right, good night! No, I’m kidding. Just step up to the mike. Member of the audience: I haven’t quite figured out how to phrase this, but you talked a lot about melodies and, you know, notes and pitches during your stuff, but I’m kind of curious to hear more about rhythm. Since you use a lot of rhythm in your music of all different cultures and particularly how that corresponds to the pacing over the whole— like an episode is a really long thing, right? So— Bear: Well, rhythm is an important tool when you’re not allowed to write melodies, which is how I started. I literally had nothing but rhythm. So that was how I started the score and I would think of themes in terms of rhythmic ideas. And I find that melodies are probably more effective for use as themes because it’s easier to have a melody stuck in your head than a rhythm. But in terms of pacing across a whole episode— I always think about the bigger picture when I— when I compose. And, generally, what I do is I look at an episode and I start with the biggest part of it— what I know is the most intense cue and I— not only because it’s the most difficult and then it feels really good when you’re done with it, but that way I also know that everything that I write needs to lead up to that and it’s generally toward the end of the episode. Sometimes like in the case of “The ties that bind,” which is an episode where this character that we know and love started going crazy, I intentionally mapped out the whole episode where every act, the music got a little bit faster and the key dropped. So that, you know, to put this sort of in really easy terms— so, like in the beginning of the episode we’re here ♪ [playing note on piano] and then in the second act, ♪ [playing piano] you know, just down and down and down. And you don’t notice it because it’s over the course of 44 minutes, but I think that subconsciously things like that— that and the way that the rhythm is just getting faster and faster, it does create this feeling that you’re kind of spiraling out of control towards something. So that can be a really powerful tool, and obviously when you’re thinking in terms of drums and a lot of my music is very percussion heavy, rhythm is— you got to have a cool groove. Member of the audience: Do you have a dream of something you want to do that you haven’t been able to do? And if so, what is that? Bear: Boy, I don’t know. I got to score a Terminator TV show, and, yeah, do an 8-bit thing. I don’t know. I mean, my dream is keep writing music and continuing to do what I love, you know. And the fact that people are out there listening to it is wonderful and icing on the cake. But I mean like the fact that I can keep— just keep writing music is my dream, you know, for sure. Member of the audience: How did you pick the Gayatri Mantra for the title, and more generally, how do you come up with these lyrics in all these different languages? Bear: Well, it’s interesting the mantra came from Eddie Olmos. Eddie played this on the set so it was something that even before any composer was hired was part of the Battlestar Galactica universe, you know, in an indirect way. And what was the other question? It was about— Member of the audience: Lyrics. Bear: Oh, lyrics. Thank you. Lyrics are interesting. I didn’t write any lyrics for the first couple of tunes. The first time I wrote lyrics for the show was for an Italian opera scene in this comedic moment. And I wrote these lyrics that were sort of a parody. I mean, they were like very operatic, angsty lyrics. “Woe unto your Cylon heart, my girlfriend is a toaster, the spine glows red,” and you know, blah blah blah. And it’s clear as day, I mean it’s in Italian but it’s like, if you speak Italian, there’s no dialogue obscuring it. And at the dub where the producers heard it for the first time, they were like, dude, this music is really beautiful. What are those lyrics, by the way? And I was like, oh, I don’t have them on me – I’m sorry. [laughter] Can I – I’ll show them to you tomorrow. Knowing that we were shipping that night and— cause, you know, I didn’t want them to get cold feet. And then after I started approaching the lyrics more seriously. In season three, I got to write the tune that was in Armenian, and comment on things that I was feeling. And write a song that I wanted to write, but also that commented on the— on the events of the episode. And it was great because I could always hide in another, you know, language. And I always get kind of— people sometimes they ask, dude, is that outer space language that they’re singing in? And I was like, no way. Like, I go out of my way to write these lyrics and to translate them and to have them sung authentically. That’s something – that’s a layer that I think adds a lot of authenticity. I love the Ewok song. I’m not *** on that. But I think for Battlestar, it wouldn’t have been appropriate. Member of the audience: Have you ever been like doing the music for a project and you were like “This is the worst TV show ever.” Bear: No, generally I don’t take those on. If it’s truly the worst TV show ever. There are plenty of times, though, when, you know, you’re working on something that you have to do your best on whether you believe in it or not. You know, I mean, that’s part of your job. You’re a craftsman, and sometimes I think about it like sometimes I’m a guy who gets to, you know, paint the painting. Other times, I’m a guy who comes in to fix your leaky pipe. And this thing isn’t working, and you got to fix it. And the music can make things better so sometimes it— you just got to wear different hats and it depends on the quality of what you’re working on. Thankfully on Battlestar, most of the time, I was the painter and not the plumber. You know. Member of the audience: I appreciate your defense of the Yub Dub song, by the way. Bear: Totally, dude. I miss it. Member of the audience: I like the fact that Battlestar Galactica got to have a theme. Bear: Yeah. Member of the audience: And everyone’s familiar with television theme songs or whatever. Is… Are people in your position, is the industry, do they have to defend the idea of having an opening theme now with, you know, *** Wolf, with, you know, two notes and some of these shows that are in prime time who don’t get one? Bear: Can we show the Human Target main theme? Let me show you a main theme I just did. And then I’ll answer that question. ♪ [music playing] Bear: So there is an example of not having to fight for the theme. I mean, clearly the guys that produce this show wanted a strong main title theme with beautiful visuals and a memorable, melodic theme. And it is something that, if the producers don’t want it, you know, as a composer, you can’t change their minds. But I think that is coming back. Getting to do a theme song like that, with a full orchestra at my disposal, and getting to write a melody like that, is pretty unusual. And I’d love for it to become more usual, and I think not coincidentally, the guy that hired me to do this show is a big fan of Battlestar, and that’s one of the reasons I got the job is he heard what I doing in Battlestar and wanted to bring that kind of energy to his show. So I’d love to be able to do more of that. But for a while there it was a dying art, for sure. Raya: Can I make a special request? Bear: What’s that? Raya: Can you play the Sarah Connor theme? ’Cause it’s one of my favorites? Bear: I don’t have it. I only have the Samson and Delilah theme. Hang on. Fiancée asks. ♪ [playing the Sarah Connor theme on the piano] Bear: I miss that show. Okay. Any other questions? Member of the audience: Yeah, actually that’s a good segue. I was going to ask about Sarah Connor Chronicles, and you did that show for two seasons, which if I’m not mistaken, which is the second longest run you’ve had on a show. Bear: Up there. So far. Member of the audience: So far, of course. I’m curious if you feel like you’ve had an opportunity on that to have fun and basically explore themes. Obviously, you didn’t have as long as on Battlestar, but do you feel like you missed an opportunity to explore those themes and those story lines more? Bear: Well, I mean— I think I can answer your question. Yeah, I had a very thematic score on Terminator. We were in a very similar situation with Battlestar, where we were coming from something that existed already and needed to know— are we acknowledging or are we distancing ourselves? And with Battlestar, I could do everything except for what Stu Phillips did on the old show. Obviously, with some disclaimer, I could spend on hour talking about how wonderful Stu is and how wonderful it was to bring his theme back. But it really was a special occasion in Battlestar. Terminator was different because we wanted to— we wanted to connect directly to Terminator 2, and it should feel very much like a sequel. So the score needed to kind of help ease that in. “Yeah, I know it’s Lena Headey but she’s the same person that Linda Hamilton was.” This is the spirit of this is very much coming out of T2. So I had that as a starting point, but I was also able to say to the producers that the Terminator theme, I felt, from the movies, is excellent as it is, I think of Schwarzenegger, I think of those movies. I don’t even think of the characters, like the movies themselves have become such phenomena that it’s hard to distance ourselves from them. So I thought I don’t think there’s a theme that’s Sarah Connor’s theme. So can we try writing one? And they were open to exploring this new, you know, musical universe. And I had an electric string quartet where we were running the quartet through amplifiers and digital effects, actually mostly analog effects, and recorded the group that way. We had big metallic percussion, we had car parts, and brakes and anvils and hammers and like – I mean, it was a blast. And that album is worth checking out for some of those colors alone. Thematically, I feel like I was just getting started. I mean, I would adore to go back. And there was some talk of doing a straight-to-DVD movie. And I think that ultimately, it’s the just legalities and the business of it. You know, the rights are tangled up with a company that went Chapter 11. And so it may never happen and that would make me sad, but I’m really happy that that album is out there, that show is out there, and I was able to – going back to whoever asked me about my dream, I was able to contribute something to the Terminator universe. I’m thrilled with that, you know. Member of the audience: Thanks. Bear: Thanks. Host: One last question? Okay. Member of the audience: For those of us who aren’t familiar with the terminology, can you talk about what’s involved in writing a cue and why is that more difficult than writing just some music independently? Bear: Well, it depends on your perspective. I don’t think it is more difficult, personally. I think that the difference is that when you’re writing a piece of music for yourself, you need to make yourself happy and express yourself and figure out what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it and who your audience is and how you’re going to perform it— there’s a lot of variables. And most of the time when – when you have an idea, it’s wonderful. “I just have an idea and it’s going to spill forth, and the audience will find it,” but a lot of the times those things are not as easy. With scoring for picture, you know how long it’s going to be, you know the shape, you know which characters are involved, you know the emotions you’re probably going to want to play. And I found that I’d become very quick at looking at a scene and in my mind almost being able to score it instantly. I don’t know the themes. I don’t know the exact rhythms but it’s like I can see the shape. I can see the shape that’s it like, it’s almost like geometric. It’s gonna start this way and be purple and kind of dark and brooding and then a rhythm comes in here when this guy says something or when this action happens. And then a lot of the times, I’ll just look at a scene and then I’ll see these kind of blocks, and now I go, okay, what are my rhythms? What are the pitches? What are the melodies I’m going to use? These things are – for me, they’re relatively easy to that basic idea of what am I going to say? And when I’m writing music on my own, which I love to do— I’m a tough critic, you know. And that’s self-censorship kicks in. I got a cool idea. No, it’s not a cool enough idea. Screw it. And the other thing I find useful about scoring for TV and movies, you have a deadline. So your first idea, you don’t have time to go back. And you’re not going to write three drafts and pick the best one. The thing you sit down to write, that’s what’s going on the air. So if it’s not good when you write it, you tweak it or you get the performer to change it, or you edit it later, but it’s – it’s trained me to become very fast. And in fact, I think of myself creatively almost like a— I think of my creative mind the way I think a marathon runner thinks about their body where it’s just like I’m always training myself, and I know the days I need to get more sleep. I know the days that I can sacrifice sleep. I know the hours that I write the best. I know the cues that I should write in those hours, you know what I mean? If I didn’t figure all these thing out and I was like I’m going to write some cues, it would be difficult. But I have kind of learned how to do these things. And I mean, with Human Target being a full orchestra now, I’m generating between 45 minutes and 55 minutes of original music a week. And in fact, today’s the first day I haven’t written music since New Year’s. So – it’s something that you just rely on the— the craft and the technique, and the things you know. And when you’re doing a song for yourself, it’s fun but all those parameters are gone. You could do anything. I find that slows me down, you know. Member of the audience: So I’m not trying to evoke like things you hate— Bear: Oh, go for it. Member of the audience: But do you ever watch a program or a movie or a project and you say not only could I have done it better but I wish I had been able to that? Not necessarily hating on the person who did it. Bear: You know it’s difficult. I mean, when I— I have found that, again, going back to that marathon runner mentality, I can’t – I can’t shut that off. So when I go— I’m so used to looking at picture and just constantly analyzing every facial tic, every line of dialogue, every cut, thinking “all right, what can we do?” “What’s the best way to do this?” I can’t shut that off when I watch anything else. So it’s very difficult for me— it’s not about thinking that this score isn’t adequate. If anything, I just keep thinking about what else could be done? And what I would do and I actually have to make a conscious effort to shut that part of my brain off to enjoy something. And admittedly, that’s becoming very, very difficult. And I’ve been working professionally— I mean, I’ve been working under deadlines like this for 7 or 8 years now. And I – it’s almost impossible. And should I be fortunate enough to end up like Elmer Bernstein and do this until I’m 80, I can’t imagine that’s it’s going to get any better, you know, just doing the condition the same thing everyday. So it is tough. It’s harder to enjoy— it’s harder to enjoy media in general. Somebody asked me earlier at lunch what kind of music do you listen to? I don’t – I love music but I don’t necessarily listen to it for fun anymore because I’m always listening to the mixes that I’ve got to approve or listening to the cues that I just wrote trying to figure out how I’m going to orchestrate them. So it’s a part of my life that I— that I’ve got a new side of it. A quick tangential side story to that and the way this has sort of changed my life. When I was growing up, the first pop band I was into was Oingo Boingo, huge fan of Oingo Boingo. Huge fan. And now, it’s like I think, well, am I fan of Oingo Boingo? And I am not because I work with these guys almost every day. I’ve – me and my brother have performed with them doing Oingo Boingo music on stage in these crazy sold-out Halloween concerts. It’s funny, cause I go, well, no I’m not— I still love their music, but it’s like a different relationship that I have. And then, that’s my relationship with music and art has changed because of my involvement in it every day. So it isn’t something I enjoy. I’m sure if any of you guys use another computer program or look at another search engine or another phone or something you – you’re like, can you just enjoy on its own? Oh, this is awesome. I mean, you’re probably all thinking, you know, the stuff you think everyday. [laughter] Anyway, it’s – it’s a lot of fun. It’s – you know, a wonderful dream come true for me to be able to do this, so. Bear: On the way, as we’re walking out, I want to show the “Apocalypse” video. I think that’s pretty awesome. Host: So first of all we’re going to have a table set up later for Bear to— if you have time? Bear: Yes, yes. Host: Sign some things. Other than that, thank you all for coming, and thank you to Bear and Raya. Bear: Thank you, everyone. [applause] ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ♪ Oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ ♪ Tat savitur vareṇyaṃ ♪ Bhargo devasya dhīmahi ♪ dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ♪ Oṃ ♪ Oṃ ♪ Oṃ ♪ Oṃ