Tyler Bates

Tyler Bates is a music producer and composer for films, TV and video games. His most known work includes Rob Zombie's Halloween, Halloween II, The Devil's Rejects, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch; Neil Marshall's Doomsday, See No Evil and James Gunn's Slither.. In 2011 he scored Emilio Estevez's The Way, William Friedkin's Killer Joe, Marcus Nispel's Conan The Barbarian, Chris Gorak's The Darkest Hour, and James Gunn's Super.

Biography

TYLER BATES

From the spirituality of Emilio Estevez’s “The Way” to the blazing orchestra of Zack Snyder’s “300” to terrified audiences of Rob Zombie’s “Halloweens” these are but some of the diverse subjects and stylistic approaches that make up the repertoire of Tyler Bates, a composer who’s sought to innovate with his numerous works for film, television and video games. For over a decade, Bates’ work has stood out in the ever-evolving world of soundtracks.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Chicago, Bates was first enthused by a breadth of musical impressions that ranged from John Coltrane to Frank Zappa, as well as the rock operas “Hair” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” An electric guitar joined his ability on the alto sax through teen years where Bates formed a hard rocking, alternative aesthetic with U2 and Gang of Four. By 19, Bates was managing a trading firm while building his own musical equipment and playing with various bands. Deciding to fully take the Hollywood leap, Bates found steady work in the early 90’s creating energetic scores for such independent films as “Tammy and the T-Rex,” “Alien Avengers” and “Ballistic.” As his work received increasing notice, Bates founded the band Pet with singer-songwriter Lisa Papineau. Becoming one of LA’s most popular bands and getting a contract with Atlantic Records, Pet’s song “L’il Boots” hit platinum as part of the soundtrack for “Crow: City of Angels.” Bates then toured with such groups as Blink 182, Limp Bizkit and Social Distortion before deciding to solely focus on soundtracks.

Tyler Bates’ first critical breakthrough came with 1997’s “The Last Time I Committed Suicide,” a film for which he convincingly emulated the jazz world of Jack Kerouac and The Beat Generation. Other early important scores included his impressionistic portrayal of the Mitchell Brothers sleazy downfall for Emilio Estevez’s “Rated X,” a seething underworld beat that drove Sylvester Stallone’s “Get Carter,’ the dark dealings which occur through a “Night At the Golden Eagle,” a mysterious Asian atmosphere for Matt Dillon’s “City of Ghosts,” “You Got Served”’s hip-hop comedy and the retro-funk of Melvin Van Peebles’ “Baadasssss!”

The zombie-infested shopping mall for Zack Snyder’s hit 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead” gave Bates more Hollywood recognition- not only with a horror score that declared this “Dawn” as its own beast, but with the beginning of Bates’ work for Snyder that led to the smash “300,” a score for which Bates invigorated the orchestral epic with rock chords, ancient instruments and elegiac vocals for its fallen Trojan heroes. Bates then followed up with Snyder for the equally striking graphic novel adaptation “Watchmen,” another impressively diverse score that drew on the film’s surreal synth setting of the 1980’s as well as symphonic super powers.

Bates’ offbeat approach would also draw the attention of other notable filmmaking collaborators. He’d explore the depths of horror music for Rob Zombie through two “Halloween” films and “The Devil’s Rejects,” as well as hearing a far zanier approach for Zombie’s slapstick cartoon “The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.” Terror and costumed antics would take equally oddball shape with James Gunn on “Slither, ”Super” the TV skit series “PG Porn,” while Emilio Estevez drew on Bates once again for a dramatically moving journey towards “The Way.”

Bates’ electrifying rhythms and thematic sensibility quickly made him a genre favorite, from the high-impact apocalypse of “Doomsday” to the metal energy for the transforming robot of acclaimed animator Genndy Tartakovsky’s Cartoon Network series “Sym-Bionic Titan.” Bates’ more laid-back grooves accompanied two seasons of Showtime’s sexy “Californication,” with video games also inspired Bates’ creativity with the mythic “Rise of the Argonauts” and furious groove action for the popular anti-heroes “Army of Two.”

2011 unleashed more epic quality music from the composer as he tackled the bold return of “Conan the Barbarian” then defended Moscow with an electrifying, experimental score for the alien invasion of “The Darkest Hour.” With over forty soundtracks to his growing credits, Tyler Bates’ distinctive symphonic scoring, tailor-made sound design and ethereal alt. rock melody continues to leave every storytelling style open to his musical imagination.

Discography

Film soundtracks

• The Way
• Super
• The Darkest Hour
• Conan the Barbarian
• Sucker Punch
• The Crow: City of Angels
• Slither
• The Day The Earth Stood Still
• Dawn of the Dead
  • "The Hangman's Song"
  • "How Will Your God Judge You?"
  • "America Always Sorts Out Its Shit"
  • "That Dog's Just Fucked Up"
  • "Subterannean Sewer Attack"
• The Stand
  • "300" (promo short)
• The Devil's Rejects
  • "Shootout"
  • "Staples"
  • "Another Failed Escape"
  • "Mama Pulls the Trigger"
• The Last Time I Committed Suicide
• City of Ghosts
• Goodnight
• BAADASSSSS!
  • "Angel Muse"
  • "Bills' L.A. River Stunt"
• Get Carter
  • "Main Titles"
  • "House Of Cards"
  • World Upside Down
• The Dead Will Tell
  • "Emily Investigates"
  • "I Had A Breakdown"
• Night at the Golden Eagle
  • "Gabriel"
  • Closet Voyeur"
• Wasted
  • "Back On Junk"
• See No Evil
  • "Making a Monster"
• Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth
• Halloween
• 300
• Doomsday
• Watchmen
• The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (along with comedy duo Hard n' Phirm)
• Halloween II

TV Show soundtracks

• Californication
  • "Hank's Theme"
  • "Dale's Energy"
  • "Title Theme"
• PG Porn

Video games soundtracks

• Rise of the Argonauts
• Watchmen: The End Is Nigh
• Army of Two: The 40th Day
• Transformers: War For Cybertron
• God of War IV

Own work

• Roseland with Azam Ali

External links

• Tyler Bates' Website (includes samples of music and many video clips from movies worked on)
• Tyler Bates at the Internet Movie Database
• Music Composer Blog regarding Bates' The Way soundtrack
• Tyler Bates Interview on KCRW featuring Watchmen Soundtrack
• Tyler Bates being interviewed at the Grammy Museum
• Shock Till you Drop Exclusive Interview