Wing Commander Composer David Arnold Interviewed

Modern Vinyl has posted an interesting interview with David Arnold, the composer behind the Wing Commander Movie's famous Overture theme. Much of the article focuses on the recent vinyl release of his work on Hot Fuzz, but it also notes his wide ranging involvement with films from James Bond to Stargate. Check out the full article here. On a totally coincidental note, interviewer Brock Wilbur goes by the handle The Pilgrim's Regress on Twitter. It's also still possible to find the movie soundtrack on disc relatively easily, and the album is available for both digital download and streaming at Amazon or iTunes.

You’ve also written music for video games, like “Wing Commander,” that often involves someone else arranging the final songs and so forth. Is that a strange situation?

Arnold: It’s the hardest job in the world to score, unless it isn’t. Writing something and handing it off for arrangement is probably the easiest version of this. When I approach a film, the toughest thing is coming up with the key music solution to a film: the main theme. It dictates to everyone else what the film will be and you don’t have restrictions of making it fit a thing. And sure, not every film needs a theme, but when one does I write it away from the film. I’ll watch some of what was shot or read the script and hopefully come up with something. To link this back, Wing Commander had an air about it, so writing a theme came quickly and handing that off to Kevin [Kiner] was quite easy. He’s extraordinarily talented and he knows the style. He’d also send me pieces of what he was making as he worked along. Soundtracking is about being in love with coming up with solutions. I like coming up with solutions.