Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: disney plus, Marvel Studios, preview, x-men, X-Men '97

X-Men '97 Theme Composers Didn't Want to "Ruin the Nostalgic Vibes"

The Newton Brothers (Andy Grush & Taylor Stewart) break down how they honored Ron Wasserman's original TAS theme while composing X-Men '97.

Anytime you're dealing with a beloved and established franchise, the next generation will sometimes have a bit of a creative chip on their shoulder regarding the inevitable comparisons to the original, which is the case of the Disney+ sequel series X-Men '97. It's something the duo of Andy Grush and Taylor Stewart, known as The Newton Brothers, is all too familiar with when composing their take on the original Ron Wasserman theme of X-Men: The Animated Series.

How the Newton Brothers Developed X-Men '97 Theme While Honoring X-Men: The Animated Series' Legacy

The first bullet point the duo didn't want was to make the X-Men '97 too modern because "That would ruin the nostalgic vibes," Stewart told Variety. "The original is sincere, perfect, and does everything it should do. We wanted to ensure that we were not involved in staining the track but bolstering it," Grush added. What the two decided on featured orchestral music, modern synths, and a choir, interwoven subtly, whereas the original was more reliant on synths.

"We ended up with eight different versions, and Andy and I gave one another notes, we went back and forth, and then we presented it to the team," Stewart said. "We had an all-orchestra version, an all-analog synth. And it came down to two versions. Those versions meandered down the paths they went down, and we landed where we did," Grush added. "But there's a lot of trial and error in that because a lot of the stuff that we were doing in the version that now exists obliterated some of the sonic landscapes that are in there."

When it came to what was decided, what became the final theme, "A few things are happening that are important. We had a theme being played with synth, playing the lead melody," Grush said. "Once that was in place, Nili Brosh came in, and she's a rad guitar player. You can hear that; she's playing along with the synths we're playing, and there are rhythm guitars under that." After breaking down the "motor-like sound" that starts the theme, "It's very specific. If you start too big in the beginning, it makes the track feel small. And it's five tracks of synths happening in rhythm with synth arpeggiators happening all at the same time." He adds, "That plays throughout the piece and was the backbone of the theme." New episodes of X-Men '97 stream Wednesdays on Disney+.

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