Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: X-Men '97

X-Men '97: The Newton Brothers on Gambit-Rogue, X-Force/X-Factor, More

The Newton Brothers discussed composing some of X-Men '97 Season 2's more memorable moments, the Gambit-Rogue dynamic, Cable, and more.

Andy Grush and Taylor Newton Stewart, known professionally as The Newton Brothers, emerged as such a force in the composing world, especially through their work in horror as frequent collaborators of creator/director Mike Flanagan on his various projects, like Doctor Sleep, The Midnight Club, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. They've also lent their talents to other franchises like The Forever Purge, The Grudge, and Five Nights at Freddy's. Over the past few years, Disney has tapped its talent for a couple of its biggest Marvel TV shows on its streaming platform, Disney+, including Daredevil: Born Again and X-Men '97, both of which recently wrapped their second seasons. In part one of our interview, the duo spoke to Bleeding Cool about how they went about their creative process to pitched Disney before starting, how their previous evocation made them ideal for both shows, honoring the original Ron Wasserman theme for X-Men: The Animated Series and building off of it, facing new challenges for X-Men '97 season two like forging the themes for X-Force and X-Factor, and guiding the Cable/Apocalypse and Gambit/Rogue arcs through their score.

X-Men '97 Composers The Newton Brothers on Honoring the Past with an Eye to the Future with Cable, X-Force, and X-Factor

Bleeding Cool: Since joining the Marvel family for both 'X-Men '97' and 'Daredevil: Born Again,' was there any adjusting you had to do as far as stylistically? Or did the creatives allow you full autonomy on your approach?

Grush: It starts off with whole autonomy, and then from there, we narrow it down. Usually, Taylor and I will have a process internally; we'll share things with each other, talk about it, and decide what we're going to present. We'll usually present some pretty wild ideas, then some pretty conservative ideas as well, just to see, test the temperature, and see how much salt and pepper we want to have in the mix, but that's usually where it starts.

Has any of your previous experience in your other work perhaps guided you on what you wanted to do for X-Men '97?

Stewart: That's a great question. When we did 'Doctor Sleep', having to bring in elements of 'The Shining' (1980), I think was a very good lesson for us. As a fan, I think you expect and want to hear something, a certain thing, so it's nice to know what came before, and what gets people excited. I think it definitely influences that.

How did you want to balance your approach as far as evoking what Ron Wasserman, Shuki Levy, and Haim Saban did before you on 'X-Men: The Animated Series' versus infusing your own personal touches for the new series?

Grush: In the original theme…I mean, Ron did such a great job of crafting that with the original team. It's such a great melody and it's just rips, and I think on our end, it was about crafting versions of that, learning it, becoming familiar with it, and then crafting versions of that felt like they could be something associated to the original show, but also a step in the direction of where the show is moving now with the stories of now in 'X-Men '97.'

[The series] was very influenced by the sound in the sense and obviously, straight up melody in certain places, but then also an evolution of that, like where can this go? In a lot of cases, we use a lot of the exact same instruments. When we first met Ron Wasserman, we asked him, "Dude, were you using this? Were you using that?" In some of the cases, we got things, right; we had to kind of guess. Other times, we got it wrong, but it was fun to connect the dots when we finally got to meet him.

In season 2, you had some new characters in the form of new groups in X-Force and X-Factor. What inspiration did you get for creating their themes?

Stewart: We had early discussions with creatives about distinguishing it, so that way a regular viewer who's not necessarily familiar with the history or the background can come in and know, "Oh, these are these guys. These are those guys," and it makes it really clear. That was one aspect of it, so we really wanted the instrumentation to be different enough, and the melodies to be difficult enough. As soon as you hear it, you will know what's happening, or at least it would help with that. For those who are very familiar with the characters, I feel like they just go, "Oh, we know what's happening, and it gets them excited," and that was the impetus of what choices to make with those two characters or two groups, teams.

Was there a particular sequence that you may have had difficulty with or stood out that you're proud that you were able to work out?

Grush: There are always challenging scenes, and they're challenging for different reasons, usually. We had a couple this season. One of them was the arc of Nathan and the destiny of Nathan/Cable, and that whole storyline that takes place this season. We put a lot of time into that music that pays off in a variety of places throughout the season, the beginning, the middle, and the end.

We really wanted to craft something that accentuated the dynamism of his story and everything that's going on. Adding to that, we're across timelines throughout the season, so we wanted the scope to feel massive, and we wanted to feel the 'X-Men '97' of it, but we also wanted it to feel emotional and heartfelt as well. That was one that took a lot of hours, days, and weeks to put into that specific piece of music that plays in many places throughout the season. What about you, Taylor? I think you had some stuff too, yeah?

Stewart: I think that was the hardest one, actually, what you just said. Episode eight ("The Dead Man's Hand"), there was so much romance and things happening that everything was so specific. It took a little bit more time to craft than I would say in some of the other episodes. Overall, I think you nailed it. I think it was the Remy (A.J. LoCascio) and the Rogue (Lenore Zann) of it all.

X-Men '97, which also features the voices of Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, George Buza, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Ross Marquand, Adrian Hough, Chris Potter, Gui Agustini, Naoko Mori, Christopher Barger, Gil Birmingham, and Carolina Ravassa, is available on Disney+.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!