Hey guys, Gyt again. Sorry for the lull in-between posts, but I've been working on a few different things before going hiatus again, so hopefully most of them will be up before then.First up though, is something I started a long while back, but had to get some updated info on. Here I give you an interview with Scott Morgan, a composer who edited, arranged, and performed music for over 100 episodes of Dragon Ball Z, back in the day. That's right, from a time before wide-screen and English Dub with Japanese Music. ^_^
So, with no further ado, here goes.
Q. How were you approached to work with Bruce Falcouner to make music for Dragon Ball Z?I was spending some extra time in college studying conducting and jazz when I saw a posting on the composition department's bulletin board for an assistant composer job. I went out and bought a CD Burner (which were just becoming pretty affordable) and put together a demo. I sent the demo to Bruce and gave a follow up call later on. He hadn't listened to the demo yet but thanked me for sending it. When I called back repeatedly to see if he had listened, he still hadn't but thanked me for being persistent. Finally after a month of this he told me he would call back in like an hour. He went and listened right then and called me back. He liked the demos and invited me up to the studio to meet him.
There he asked me if I had watched DBZ. I hadn't though I had seen it in passing on TV. He asked me to write a fight track for the show as a last audition. First, I went and rented the movies I had found at the rental store, erm I think it was Dead Zone and the Tree of Might one. I wrote\recorded about 4 different tracks with different feels. He really liked the last one which I had written in an effort to copy the styles I heard on the Garlic Jr. Movie (Dead Zone). He then hired me as a music editor for the show. My first episode was in the Frieza Saga, Episode 78: Fighting Power One Million. The first show I arranged music for was when Goku first started building a Spirit Bomb for usage on Frieza.
Q. Is there any particular piece of music that was more your work than anyone elses?
Well, I did a lot of arrangements. I really can't answer the question as stated. Here are some of the arrangements I did that I am most proud of though:
Pikkon's Theme
Imperfect Cell Theme (originally used for when he was chasing a brother and sister around)
Destruction
Garlic Jr's Theme
Dead Zone Theme
Black Water Mist Theme (called Demon Mist on the CDs)
17 and 18's Theme
Dr. Gero's Theme (unreleased I think)
The sparkly Spirit Bomb theme (not the groovy one)
Droids V.S. Bikers
Grand Kai’s Theme
Caroni and Piroshki’s Music (unreleased, really pulled out the jazz writing chops for this one ^_^)
And lastly the dreaded Circus music that everyone hates so much :) Hehe, that was a specific direction from FUNimation themselves. They wanted “macabre circus music” for Gohan getting his lights punched out so we delivered! Oh and I don’t think this track was ever released as it was originally used. The “Electronic Circus” track on Vol.2 is a re-recorded\re-arranged version of it that just makes my ears bleed every time I hear it.
Q. What sagas does your work span?
That Frieza Saga episode (editing only) to the Pikkon and Grand Kai themes.
Q. What about movies how many of them have your music in them?
Err, AFAIK none of them. If Bruce did some of the scores after I left, some of my arrangements may be in there.
Q. Do you know why you guys weren’t approached to do music for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT as well?
That all took place well after I left. What I do know is that Bruce had a contract to do Dragon Ball Z...so I think he had a hold on FUNimation that way. That's probably why it didn't happen sooner. Didn't they use the Japanese music for Dragon Ball? I figured they just thought they didn't need updated music for that cause it was mode comedic in nature.
Q. Do you wish you could have worked on Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT?
Hrm...the best part about my old job was the actual work on the shows...so in that light yes. Would I go back and do it under the old circumstances? *NO*, there were definite reasons I stopped working on the show and I wouldn't go back to that situation.
Q. How do you feel about the music that was used in the English dub of Dragon Ball GT?
I really haven't heard enough of it to even comment.
Q. Was there ever any consideration for having you guys do music for any other FUNi shows?
When I was there, there weren't any other FUNi shows...other than the “Cowboy Monster Something or Others” which vanished off their site long before it got anywhere. I really don't know about the later stuff. Hehe don’t take me literally on that show title of course ;-)
Q. Do you like Dragon Ball Z, and if so, do you like it because you worked on it, or do you think you would’ve liked it regardless?
It's hard to say, I definitely got into it originally because I worked on it. My wife may have started watching it and got me into it at some point. She sucked me into InuYasha for a little while, but she was definitely way more into InuYasha than I ever was. They way it really happened though was I got Emily into Dragon Ball through my involvement. After I left the studio, it was her who watched much of the Buu Saga on TV I believe. I honestly haven’t seen the whole thing from start to finish though I did eventually see a lot of the earlier parts.
Q. Do you still work with the Falcouner crew on anything?
Nope, not since December of 2000.
Q. What have you been working on lately?
Now I’m Microsoft’s XNA Professional Gaming Platform Audio Test Lead, overseeing XACT, XAudio1&2, XMV, XHV, XMP, etc. The part I enjoy most about my job is influencing the design of features that enable all games to have better audio on Xbox 360 and PC.
Since I finished the album Shrubbery of Darkness, (http://cdbaby.com/cd/morganstudios) I’ve started and completed a second album called Z Music (http://cdbaby.com/cd/morganstudios2)
While I was writing the album I’ve been posting videos on YouTube all along of me playing music in the DBZ style: http://youtube.com/m0rganstudios the most popular of which has been the one called “Darth Vegeta” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8uasHAaJB8
I’ve also been doing a series of tutorials for people wanted to write their own music:
http://www.morganstudios.com/Tutorials/
There’s a short text MIDI tutorial, and a link to the far more extensive set of piano tutorials I’ve been doing on YouTube.
I’ve also scored several short films, but I go over those in a later question.
Q. With the new Season Sets coming out, that means that your music will be heard once again by DBZ fans around the world. Do you receive residual payments for your work when it is re-released like this, and if not, do you feel that you should?
Nope and wouldn't that be nice. Unfortunately DBZ was my first contract ever... I kind of held my breath, closed my eyes, and put pen to paper...
Q. Have you ever worked on any other anime or cartoon series?
Nope
Q. What about movies? Are there any films we can hear your work in?
Since I’ve started the whole Z Music thing I’ve scored a few things on the web, two of them are short films from some up and coming friends of mine, TricoFilms.
MC The Merciful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBXlZyXW6n4
Master Chief: Episode Two (Trailer w/original music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9K9uU0mvE&feature=related
Plan To Eradicate the Saiyans fan dub from xthayetx:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osLrMl9GLY4
Trico Films is basically a set of triplet brothers who live in my area (Seattle,WA) I met the Jesse(aka Arcwave), Miles (aka Jaxar1 on youtube), and Dylan on the Funimation forums, which was where I first started opening up about my DBZ experiences, and is also where I first met you! I wrote “The Fallen Prince” at their request one night before I was even done with Shrubbery of Darkness. Since then I’ve been in constant contact with them. Their support and encouragement has been great!
I met xthateyx on Youtube when she found my Faulconer style improvisations. She asked me for a few specific tracks and I was like, “wow your fandub is amazing, why don’t I just score it?” She didn’t have any problems with that ;)
Q. As a musician yourself, you have a much broader insight into what makes good music. With that in mind, what kind of music do you like? Do you have a particular band that you like better than any other?
I really don't think my status as a musician makes me a better judge of what is good. I think it does help me quantify what I like better though. It also makes me able to appreciate some music that normal listeners wouldn't like...same in reverse too. Maybe something in the song I recognize as waaaay over-used but a normal listener would probably never know (ie the chord progression bVII bVI I\i).
Ok, so now to the actually question :)
Here's some of my influences and favorites:
Sevendust, John Williams, old Joe Satriani, old Metallica, Linkin Park, Puya, Bleed the Sky, old Queensryche,
Q. Looking back, do you have any regrets about working on DBZ? Would you do it again if you could, and if so, would you change anything?
Tough question cause there were a lot of things that sucked...unfortunately I can't go into those. Anyway as a career starter it was extremely cool so I probably wouldn't give it up in-spite of the fatal flaws the job had. I don't know what I would change either, there were definitely things I did musically that I would go back and fix but hey...that's where I was at that point in my development. I don't sit here and cry over my past mistakes anymore than I cry over questions I missed on an important test back in high school. OK maybe it's a little more relevant than that :)
Q: If you had been approached for it, would you have been willing to score the upcoming live-action film adaption of Dragon Ball?
HELL YES!!!! Though if hired, I probably wouldn't stick so true to the "Faulconer Sound". I'd use real orchestra and more modern sounding synth sounds. Cause I'd actually have some decent budget :) And of course guitars would be real...me being a guitarist and all.
Q: Did you ever do anything at FUNi besides working on the score? For example, were you ever used as a background voice in any episodes?
Not really. My coworker Mike used to mix the show for the Ginyu and early Frieza Saga. I think Funimation (Evan Jones) started mixing the show themselves around Garlic Jr timeframe? Mike used to add SFX here and there when stuff was obviously missing from the Japanese SFX track.
Q: What was the atmosphere like at FUNi back then? How did you get along with the other employees besides the Falcouner crew, such as the actors and directors?
Well I worked at Bruce's studio (basically in Plano but officially Dallas) which was in a completely different city as Funimation itself (Ft. Worth). So I really only saw the cast at parties and such. They were a friendly energetic bunch, like most Thespian types I've ever known ^^. Most were pretty excited to work on the show but avoided the internet because back then most internet DBZ fans were used to the old Ocean or Japanese versions and didn't speak too kindly of the new versions. Things sure have changed over the years!!!
Q. Finally, do you have anything else you’d like to say to your fans?
So this question is so open ended that I wrote like a full page of stuff…but I think I need to restrain myself for my own good ^_^
I think I’ll just say this: for those of you who really dig the music AWESOME THANK YOU!!!! For those of you who hate it, that’s fine too. Believe me, I’ve read a lot of what you guys have said and actually agree on probably way more points than most would suspect.