Have you achieved what you’ve set out to do?
Yes. I’m one of the fortunate people who still gets to work with an orchestra every week or so on Star Trek. I can experiment with music and have a great time with the orchestra. You have to try new things. There’s nothing like working with the orchestra itself and finding out what’s going to make it and what’s going to fall on its face.

Are you one of the few composers left composing with a full orchestra for television series today?
There’s a few other shows that use an orchestra, but I don’t think anyone uses 45 or 50 pieces like we do on a weekly basis. I really wish there was more of it. Television budgets have shrunk so much that we’re kind of an anomaly here on Star Trek. Most shows, you’ve got a roomful of equipment and you bring in four real players and that’s your score. I think that’s effective in some situations, but I think Star Trek would be dead meat without the full orchestra. We have tried that in the past. I know Ron Jones experimented with this on a show, but it just wasn’t Star Trek. Star Trek needs the breath, the air that only a studio of real musicians can give you.

In the last year, what has excited you most about film scoring?
In my own personal experiences, it was doing Letters From A Killer with David Carson as the director. It was a great opportunity to bring some of my country musical experiences in with contemporary electronic/orchestral 20th Century scoring. I had a really wonderful time scoring that film.

Do you think scoring for television has helped you get ready to score major motion pictures?
Absolutely. It’s like going to graduate school. Every time I do a television show, I try to take at least one cue or a part into something I’ve never done before. I always try to use it as an experimental palette, try to stretch it into another direction. When it becomes time to do a movie, you’ve got this whole background of experimentation that you’ve already done. If you need to come up with a certain effect, sound, or mood on a film, you’ve already done it in a smaller form on television. You pretty much know what direction to head in.

You’re known as one of the fastest guys in town, and not just because you drive a hot-rod Suburban. I know fast cars run in the McCarthy family, but do you have any advice to give about working with an orchestra and getting the best sound and performance out of them under time constraints?
First of all, try to give the orchestra something interesting to play so that they stay interested in the project. Number two is keep a good attitude, because if you’re good to them, they’re good to you. It’s as simple as that. What I want to hear out of the orchestra are some really resounding mistakes. I want to hear a French horn that just blows the whole room up with a wrong note, whether I’ve written it or whether it’s a performance, because that means everybody is kicking ass. If you set up an atmosphere where mistakes are not tolerated or are looked down on as being "Oh-my-God you made an error," then everybody’s going to pull back, because they’ll play safely. I don’t want to hear safe, I want to hear balls. Plus, another point is I always try to use the same orchestra or players for everything I do. My feeling is that you develop a family and everybody’s part of it.

Can you give any hints or ideas on how composers can improve their speed while composing? I know that’s important with today’s post-production schedules.
Basically, you just simply have to have faith in what you’ve written. You have to have confidence that what you’ve done on first instinct is correct, and go with it. When you get to the stage, if it’s not correct, be prepared to stand there and fix it on the spot. My philosophy is that I have a gut instinct when I write, and I don’t sketch. I go straight to score when I write, and fully orchestrate it never looking back. In other words, I do a cue from the left-hand side to the right-hand side, I throw it to the copyist, I get to the stage, if it doesn’t work, I fix it on the spot. I don’t waste time second guessing myself.

PREVIOUS • NEXT