Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: daredevil, Doug Petrie, elektra, john paesano, Marco Ramirez, marvel, Marvel's Daredevil, netflix, punisher, Steve DeKnight

Making The Sound Of Netflix's Daredevil

By Joe Glass

So now many of you are probably binge-watching Daredevil season 2 on Netflix – I can tell because the GIFs spoiling it all are already invading tumblr. But what about the sound of a man without fear?

I spoke with John Paesano, the composer of the score of Marvel's Daredevil, about what it's like making the soundscapes of Hell's Kitchen and it's heroic and villainous denizens, and what can we expect in this second season.

Joe Glass: You did the score for the first series of Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix. Was it a relief to see the series hit so well when it released?

John Paesano: Absolutely! It's really satisfying to see such a great response, mostly because you know how hard everyone had to work to get a project like this out the door.  Felt like a lot of pressure to make sure Daredevil was presented right.  He is such an iconic character in the Marvel Universe, and you really want to make sure the super-fans are happy, but it's equally important to make the character accessible to a whole new generation of fans as well.  Steven (Deknight) and company, as well as Marvel/Netflix did such an amazing job balancing all the departments! They really hit a home run.  I was really happy for all involved.

JG: In terms of moving things on for the new season, what kind of big changes were needed from the original score? How has the story of season 2 affected it?

JP: Whereas season 1 was more of an origin story, season 2 furiously launches us into Hells Kitchen's criminal underbelly.

Two major characters (Punisher and Elektra) are introduced, each having their own past and present stories to tell.  There is constant interplay with most of our characters from season one and now season two.  From a writing standpoint the show is absolutely incredible!  All of this material really opens up the score, I still felt it was really important to keep alive what Steven and I set out to do in season one, keep the music grounded, minimal, raw, and make sure it was a score you felt and didn't necessarily hear, but at the same time we need to push a little further into new waters.  Without giving away anything we are dealing with new story concepts that we didn't have in season one. Season 2 covers so much ground, it's a super fun ride!

JG: Can you give us some brief descriptions you'd use for the themes for the major characters, and what informed your choices?

JP: That's tough to answer without giving away too much.  I can tell you that we do have new themes, and they are representative and inspired by our new characters' stories and personalities.  All of our new characters are so integral to the plot — you could spinoff whole series solely based on their own stories.  It's not like they just make cameos here and there.  They are constantly involved with season 2, so the score has to acknowledge their presence, and help bring them into Daredevil's world, but at the same time, allow for their own story to be told.

JG: Was there anything about handling these characters and world that was particularly challenging? Anything in season 2 that brought new challenges?

JP: From a score perspective, one of the toughest challenges was to make sure there was a balance between all of the new characters.  We have a lot of superheroes starting to show up, and it would be really easy to overdue it with the score.  Again, myself, Doug and Marco felt it was so important to maintain the feel of season 1, while still acknowledging the new characters.  "Restraint" was a word I would always remind myself of as I was tackling season 2.  Our show runners (Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez) did such an amazing job preserving what we did in season one, while at the same time bringing everything up a notch to balance out the growth from our new storyline.

JG: What are you most looking forward to the viewers hearing when Daredevil season 2 is released?

JP: I think the fact that we have some new content that we didn't necessarily have in season one will be exciting…There is a subtle growth to the score that i think will reveal itself……!!

JG: What's next for you?

JP: I start Maze Runner:The Death Cure  for Fox, love working with Wes, he always pushes me to the edge.  Just finishing up another film, Brain On Fire for a relatively new, but very well respected studio here in LA, Broadgreen Pictures, super excited to be working with them and a super talented young director, Gerard Barrett.  I am in my 4th Season of Dreamworks' Dragons.  I have a couple projects coming up with EA and Marvel, that unfortunately I am not able to say anything about, but I promise they will be incredible…!

You can watch the second season of Marvel's Daredevil, and check out John's score for yourself, on Netflix now!

Joe Glass is a Bleeding Cool contributor and comics creator, writer of LGBTQ+ comic series, The Pride. He's just launched his Kickstarter for a collection of the series. He is also a co-writer of Welsh horror comedy, Stiffs. 

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