Words by Lillian Crawford

The alumni of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions dominate the modern movie music landscape. John Powell, Henry Jackman, Rupert and Harry Gregson-Williams - all of these composers are listed among the mentors of British composer Dominic Lewis, one of the bold new voices to have emerged from this hub of mainstream film composers.

Having started out providing additional music to scores helmed by his idols from Clash of the Titans and How To Train Your Dragon to Big Hero 6 and Kingsman, he’s now taking the lead on a host of exciting blockbuster projects. Beginning with his Annie Award-nominated score to Thanksgiving-set animation Free Birds in 2014, Lewis received a nod as Discovery of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards the following year with his solo compositional work on Spooks: The Greater Good.

He’s since gone on to work with directors including Ari Sandel on The DUFF and Goosebumps 2, Will Gluck for both Peter Rabbit films and now with David Leitch beginning with the recent release Bullet Train. His beginnings in animation have inspired his fun and whimsical multi-genre approach, pulling from his wide-ranging musical education to produce incredibly versatile and surprising work that he only hopes to expand as his career develops.

Music has always been a part of your life, and you play multiple instruments. What role has your musical education played in your work so far?

I started playing the cello when I was three! My dad was a cellist - he’s alive, he’s just retired! - in the Medici String Quartet and I just wanted to be like Dad when I was little. I was taught the Suzuki cello method, which has really helped me as a composer because it forces you to rely on your ear rather than reading music. I think that really set a foundation for using my ears and improvising. Then my mum’s a singer, so I was in a lot of choirs as a kid. 

When I was at school my neighbour, Paul Pritchard, was a TV composer, so I worked on commercials for him if he needed a boy chorister. He was friends with Richard Harvey, and Rupert and Harry Gregson-Williams. Rupert took me under his wing to start teaching me composition, he taught me so much as a 15-year-old kid. I started dabbling with pianos and guitars in a pop sense when I was 11 or 12, so I’ve got this band side of me and an instrumental side of me, which I think helps me to do lots of different projects now as a film and TV composer.

Later on, I went to the Royal Academy of Music, planning to study media composition. But, when I arrived, they told me that the course wasn’t running anymore, so I went into classical contemporary composition for two years. At the time I didn’t know anything about it because it was really modern music, what my parents call “squeaky gate” or “fire in a pet shop music”, really crazy stuff. But actually, it was brilliant for me as a film composer, getting to know all those techniques and that music, specifically in horror genres or more avant-garde action pieces that I’ve been writing recently. I’ve been very lucky really, I had a really awesome education and some amazing mentors to get me to where I am now.

What influence did working with people like John Powell, Henry Jackman, Rupert and Harry Gregson-Williams, and being at Remote Control Productions with Hans Zimmer have on your career?

So much. I mean, the Royal Academy was great but Remote Control is the best university you can ever go to. You learn everything in like three weeks otherwise you’re out! I was supposed to do stuff with Hans when I got there but he was so busy with Sherlock that he couldn’t really find the time to find me a room and put me on something. A few friends of mine were staying with John Powell so I went over to visit them, and I met John and didn’t leave his house for like three days. He told me he had this movie he was working on and needed help on it, which was How To Train Your Dragon.

That was my first project, out here in LA, with John Powell who I couldn’t even dream that I was going to get to work with. I was suddenly in front of a big major Hollywood movie with a Hollywood composer. I was constantly trying to push myself, trying to find the best orchestrations for what could be like a twenty-second cue where a couple of dragons were flying off somewhere - like a really meaningless cue -  but I wanted to make it the best I possibly could. I just didn’t want to lose that opportunity. 

After that film, I went back to Remote Control and I was given a save job with Ramin Djawadi on Clash of the Titans. From there I got to work with Henry Jackman and then with Hans on Kung Fu Panda 2 and Rango. I was just being a sponge with those guys, at the age of 26 or whatever I was at that point. It was a dream come true really, I never wanted to leave.

How much creative control do you get as a composer credited with providing additional music? A lot of your projects have been on pre-existing franchises, so how do you take that material and put your own spin on it?

It depends. As an additional composer, you’re at the service of the lead composer and you have to try to sound like them as much as you can and use their themes. As I moved on with Henry Jackman I was starting to contribute themes of my own, I think I’ve got one in Wreck-It Ralph for example. When I did The Man in the High Castle with Henry, that was a 50-50 collaboration on the first season, thematically.

Then when I did The King’s Man with Matthew Margeson, who was part of the original duo on those films with Henry, the cool thing was we got to create something new. Matthew Vaughn didn’t want to use the old ‘Kingsman’ theme, he wanted something completely fresh, a throwback à la John Barry. We got to have so much fun with that. We used the earlier theme a couple of times at the beginning and at the end but for the rest, we didn’t really have to work with pre-existing material. But then Goosebumps 2 was kind of tricky because they really wanted to use Danny Elfman’s theme from the first film on that one. When you’re trying to make your mark on the industry, you really want to use your own themes.

As a singer, you often do vocal work in your scores like the a cappella arrangement of Randy Newman’s Monsters Inc. theme for Monsters at Work. What draws you to add your voice to the mix in your scores?

I mean, trying to follow in Randy Newman’s footsteps, you just can’t, so you just bring what you can to the table. I did my best to try to put a new spin on the main theme with the a cappella version. That’s just going back to what I know. With The Man in the High Castle it was pulling out the cello, but often it's returning to the singing I did as a kid. I love to not do my own voice in real life, I’m always impersonating people and doing stupid voices with my wife or my kids. I carry that through into my vocals. I just reach for a mic and go for it. I have quite a big range so I can track up most voices. I have fun with it and people apparently don’t think I’m an idiot, they put it in their movies, so what more can you want?

Having started out working in the music department for a lot of animated films and then helming projects like Peter Rabbit, how does composing for animation compare to live-action projects?

Animation lets you be a bit freer with the orchestra; it’s more over-the-top. Matthew Vaughn would constantly tell me off on The King’s Man and be like, “What the hell is this? It sounds like animation!” I’d constantly get slapped on the wrist during that. I feel like with live-action stuff we’re always pushing to be cool and fresh, to find new things when actually we’re at a point where everything has really been done. So when I did Bullet Train with David Leitch, I was working out how to combine stuff in ways that haven’t been done. We came up with this ‘needle drop’ concept, where you use songs instead of score.

I’ve just done two Christmas movies and it’s been completely orchestral, old-school throwback stuff which has been so nice. One of them’s a musical called Spirited with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. I did the score for that, the songs are by Pasek and Paul. Then on the flip side of that, there’s Violent Night which is kind of a cross between Die Hard and Home Alone, so I’m getting to do stuff in the style of Mark Kamen and John Williams, but also darker things like manipulating Christmas carols. It’s a full-on, adult live-action film with lots of blood and lots of violence. Maybe we’re coming full circle with the whole live-action thing; it’s not all about synths and cool drums all the time.

There’s a lot of animated energy to the Bullet Train score, but it also feels inspired by old thriller music like John Barry’s James Bond soundtracks. Is that a genre you would like to work in more?

I’m desperate to do a Bond movie. If anyone’s reading this, please hire me to do the next Bond! I think subconsciously there’s always a cue or two in a movie that is sort of my audition piece to do the next Bond movie. I used to watch those films most weekends with my dad. I've been obsessed with Bond scores since I was tiny. John Barry was an absolute genius. Maybe that’s just subconsciously coming through in my music! With Bullet Train I was taking two different genres at a time and seeing how they could work together. Things like Bond were definitely in my head, but also old ‘60s superhero TV themes, mixed with ‘70s psychedelic rock and big orchestral stuff. Anything I could throw at it, I did.