Tyler Bates
Tyler Bates (born June 5, 1965) is an American musician,[2] producer, and composer for film, television, and video game scores.[3] Much of his work is in the action and horror film genres,[4] with films like Dawn of the Dead, 300, Sucker Punch, and the John Wick franchise. He has collaborated with directors like Zack Snyder, Rob Zombie, Neil Marshall, William Friedkin, Scott Derrickson, James Gunn, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch.[5] In addition, he is also the former lead guitarist of the American rock band Marilyn Manson, and produced its albums The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down.[6]
Tyler Bates | |
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![]() Bates at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2014 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Tyler Lucas Bates |
Born | [1] Los Angeles, California, United States | June 5, 1965
Genres |
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Occupation(s) |
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Instruments | Guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, programming |
Years active | 1993–present |
Associated acts | Marilyn Manson Joel J. Richard Timothy Williams (composer) |
Website | tylerbates |
Biography
Film scoring
Bates began his career in the 1990s scoring low-budget films like Tammy and the T-Rex, The Last Time I Committed Suicide, and Denial. His breakthrough into the mainstream arguably came in the early 2000s, when he worked on higher-profile projects like Get Carter, Half Past Dead, and Baadasssss! The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead was significant, as he would maintain long-term collaborations with its director Zack Snyder, and writer James Gunn.
Bates scored four of director Rob Zombie's films, beginning with 2005's The Devil's Rejects. For Zombie's remake of Halloween and its subsequent sequel, Bates adapted John Carpenter's original themes and motifs in order to fit the darker, grittier, and more contemporary atmosphere of the films. It was around 2007 that Bates began working regularly on big-budget, blockbuster films; including 300, Doomsday, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sucker Punch, and Conan the Barbarian. This did not, however, dissuade him from composing scores to smaller, independent films like The Way, Killer Joe, The Sacrament, and Flight 7500.
Bates composed the score for Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014. Having worked with James Gunn in the past, Bates had a good idea on how Gunn wanted things done.[7] Before any of the cinematography actually started, Gunn had Bates write several themes prior to shooting so the scene could be matched to the music instead of the score being created to fit the scene. This required a fair bit of cooperation between Bates and Gunn in advance since these scores would not only be the final piece, instead of a temporary filler acting as a placeholder, but they also influenced the actual performance of everyone on set. This amount of work and effort required a massive undertaking by both Bates and his team. For 4 months, they clocked upwards of 100-hour work weeks to produce this finished product.[8] After all the work, they had a total of 29 different soundtracks giving a combined total of 64:34 of music.[9] "At least half the cues in the movie have more than 500 tracks of audio," Bates was quoted in an interview with Melinda Newman on HitFix. This was a result of there being orchestral passages that were doubled or tripled, choirs, overdubs, and other instrumentals.
That same year, Bates composed the score to the stylish neo-noir action film John Wick, collaborating with Joel J. Richard and Marilyn Manson. The film proved a surprise critical and financial success, and Bates returned to score its 2017 sequel, and also its third installment. He re-teamed with that film's co-director David Leitch to score a spiritual successor, the Cold War-era spy thriller Atomic Blonde.
Video game scoring
Bates composed the soundtrack for the PlayStation 3 games God of War: Ascension and Army of Two: The 40th Day, as well as the PlayStation 4 game Killzone Shadow Fall. Most recently he composed for the largest first-person shooter app in the world, China’s Crossfire.
Other projects
In 2014, Bates co-wrote and produced Marilyn Manson's record The Pale Emperor. The album debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200, while the single "Deep Six" went on to chart higher than any other single by Marilyn Manson on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart. Bates joined the band in 2015 as the lead guitarist for The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour. The album's song "Cupid Carries a Gun" was used as the opening title music of the TV show Salem, and Bates composed the show's score.[10] In April 2015 he left Marilyn Manson to resume film work.
In October 2015, during a Q&A with Marilyn Manson at the Grammy Museum, Manson announced that he and Tyler were working on new music together again. In 2015 Loudwire listed "The Mephistopheles Of Los Angeles" No. 1 best rock track and Rolling Stone included The Pale Emperor in its Top 50 list of the best albums of 2015. He returned as the lead guitarist during the tour with Slipknot in July 2016. [11] In 2017, they once again joined forces in the studio for the follow-up Heaven Upside Down with a world tour kicking off July 20, in Budapest,[12] playing more than 100 shows around the world. In January 2018, Tyler announced via Twitter that he left the band and returned to his studio to work exclusively on film and television.[13]
Tyler composed the song, "Monsters After Dark" for the night Halloween mode of the ride GOTG: Mission Breakout!.
Discography
Film scores
Year | Title | Director(s) | Notes |
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1993 | Blue Flame | Cassian Elwes | Composed with George Andrian |
1994 | Deep Down | John Travers | N/A |
Tammy and the T-Rex | Stewart Raffill | Composed with Jack Conrad and Anthony Riparetti | |
1995 | Not Like Us | Dave Payne | N/A |
Criminal Hearts | N/A | ||
1997 | The Last Time I Committed Suicide | Stephen T. Kay | N/A |
1998 | Suicide, the Comedy | Glen Freyer | N/A |
Denial | Adam Rifkin | N/A | |
1999 | Thicker than Water | Richard Cummings Jr. | Composed with Quincy Jones III |
2000 | Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth | John Blanchard | N/A |
Get Carter | Stephen Kay | Themes by Roy Budd | |
2001 | Kingdom Come | Doug McHenry | Composed with John E. Rhone |
What's the Worst That Could Happen? | Sam Weisman | N/A | |
Night at the Golden Eagle | Adam Rifkin | N/A | |
2002 | Love and a Bullet | Ben Ramsey | Composed with Wolfgang Matthes |
Half Past Dead | Don Michael Paul | N/A | |
Lone Star State of Mind | David Semel | N/A | |
City of Ghosts | Matt Dillon | N/A | |
2003 | Baadasssss! | Mario Van Peebles | N/A |
2004 | You Got Served | Chris Stokes | N/A |
Dawn of the Dead | Zack Snyder | 1st collaboration with Zack Snyder
Nominated- IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Horror/Thriller Film | |
2005 | The Devil's Rejects | Rob Zombie | 1st collaboration with Rob Zombie |
2006 | See No Evil | Gregory Dark | N/A |
Slither | James Gunn | 1st collaboration with James Gunn | |
300 | Zack Snyder | Adapted from material by Elliot Goldenthal 2nd collaboration with Zack Snyder | |
2007 | Grindhouse | Rob Zombie | Segment: "Werewolf Women of the SS" |
Halloween | Themes by John Carpenter | ||
2008 | Doomsday | Neil Marshall | N/A |
The Day the Earth Stood Still | Scott Derrickson | N/A | |
2009 | Watchmen | Zack Snyder | 3rd collaboration with Zack Snyder |
Halloween II | Rob Zombie | Themes by John Carpenter 2nd collaboration with Rob Zombie | |
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto | 3rd collaboration with Rob Zombie | ||
2010 | Super | James Gunn | 2nd collaboration with James Gunn |
The Way | Emilio Estevez | N/A | |
2011 | Sucker Punch | Zack Snyder | Composed with Marius de Vries 4th collaboration with Zack Snyder |
Conan the Barbarian | Marcus Nispel | N/A | |
Killer Joe | William Friedkin | N/A | |
The Darkest Hour | Chris Gorak | N/A | |
2013 | Movie 43 | James Gunn | Segment: "Beezel" 3rd collaboration with James Gunn |
The Sacrament | Ti West | N/A | |
2014 | Not Safe for Work | Joe Johnston | N/A |
Flight 7500 | Takashi Shimizu | N/A | |
Guardians of the Galaxy | James Gunn | 4th collaboration with James Gunn
Nominated- Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi Film | |
John Wick | Chad Stahelski David Leitch |
Composed with Joel J. Richard 1st collaboration with David Leitch & Chad Stahelski | |
2016 | The Belko Experiment | Greg McLean | N/A |
2017 | John Wick: Chapter 2 | Chad Stahelski | Composed with Joel J. Richard 2nd collaboration with Chad Stahelski |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | James Gunn | 5th collaboration with James Gunn | |
Atomic Blonde | David Leitch | 2nd collaboration with David Leitch | |
Keep Watching | Sean Carter | N/A | |
24 Hours to Live | Brian Smrz | N/A | |
2018 | The Public | Emilio Estevez | Composed with Joanne Higginbottom |
Deadpool 2 | David Leitch | 3rd collaboration with David Leitch
Nominated- Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi Film | |
The Spy Who Dumped Me | Susanna Fogel | N/A | |
2019 | John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum | Chad Stahelski | Composed with Joel J. Richard 3rd collaboration with Chad Stahelski |
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw | David Leitch | 4th collaboration with David Leitch | |
Television scores
Year | Title | Notes |
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2001 | Strange Frequency | 3 episodes |
American High | Documentary series 4 episodes | |
2003 | Black Sash | 8 episodes |
2004 | Pornucopia | 2 episodes |
2007-14 | Californication | 84 episodes |
2008-09 | James Gunn's PG Porn | 7 episodes |
2010-11 | Sym-Bionic Titan | 20 episodes |
2013 | Low Winter Sun | 10 episodes |
2014 | Hysteria | Failed TV Pilot |
2014-16 | Salem | 29 episodes |
2014-17 | Kingdom | 31 episodes |
2017 | Samurai Jack | 10 episodes Themes by James L. Venable, will.i.am & George Pajon |
The Exorcist | 10 episodes Themes by Daniel Hart | |
2017-19 | The Punisher | 26 episodes |
2018-present | The Purge | 13 episodes |
2019 | Stumptown | TBA |
2019-present | Primal | with Joanne Higginbottom |
Video games soundtracks
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2008 | Rise of the Argonauts | |
2009 | Watchmen: The End Is Nigh | |
2010 | Army of Two: The 40th Day | |
Transformers: War For Cybertron | ||
2013 | God of War: Ascension | |
Killzone Shadow Fall | Composed with Lorn | |
2019 | Far Cry New Dawn | Composed with John Swihart |
with Marilyn Manson
- The Pale Emperor (2015)
- Heaven Upside Down (2017)
with Bush
- The Kingdom (2020) (songwriting)
References
- "familysearch.org". Retrieved August 8, 2015.
- "Tyler Bates Biography". www.tylerbates.com. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- "Famed Composer Tyler Bates to Score ARMY OF TWO: THE 40TH DAY". Leisure and Travel Week – via Highbeam (subscription required) . October 31, 2009. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
- "Work Credits". www.tylerbates.com. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- "Work Credits". www.tylerbates.com. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- "Tyler Bates Biography". www.tylerbates.com. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- "Tyler Bates Discusses making the Deadpool 2 soundtrack". Film Industry Network. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
- Hitfix
- Filmmusicreporter.com
- Marilyn Manson Streams “Cupid Carries A Gun”
- Interview with Tyler Bates
- "Tyler Bates Biography". tylerbates.com. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- Tyler Bates [@tyler_bates] (January 16, 2018). "Dear Friends, the time has come..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
External links
- Tyler Bates' Website (includes samples of music and many video clips from movies worked on)
- Tyler Bates on IMDb
- Tyler Bates Interview on KCRW featuring Watchmen Soundtrack
- Tyler Bates being interviewed at the Grammy Museum
- Shock Till you Drop Exclusive Interview
- Tyler Bate Interview at www.reviewgraveard.com