Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: spider-man, your friendly neighborhood spider-man

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Composer on Anime Influences

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Composer Zach Robinson spoke with us about his and Leo Birenberg's influences and much more.

When Marvel Animation hired composers Zach Robinson and Leo Birenberg to work on the animated Disney+ original series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, they wanted to integrate not only what they love about the beloved franchise, but also infuse what they loved growing up, which includes anime from epic action to "slice of life" genres. With Hudson Thames reprising his role from Marvel's What If…?, the opportunity came from Mel Zwyer and Jeff Trammell to create an alternate MCU timeline and a clean slate with a modernized adaptation. Robinson spoke to Bleeding Cool about the anime he and Birenberg grew up with, how the shows play to scenes, navigating through the more emotional scenes, serving the director's vision, and their most satisfying moments of season one.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Composer Zach Robinson on Infusing Love for Anime into the Animated Series' Score

Bleeding Cool: What are some of the anime you grew up with, and which ones influenced 'Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?'

I'll tell you the music that we love. [Leo and I] love 'Food Wars!: [Shokugeki no Soma]', particularly the music. We love the slice-of-life stuff in that too. We both grew up on 'Dragon Ball Z' and 'Pokemon.' I recently watched 'Jujitsu Kaisen,' and I'm watching 'Dandadan' now, and Leo just finished 'Attack on Titan,' or he's working through it. We're inspired just by the music in those shows. It always feels like there's something, sometimes the anime doesn't always play it to picture, and when I say that they're not necessarily scoring every single hit that happens. Sometimes, they have an awesome piece of music; they put it on a scene, and that doesn't happen that often. It's inspiring to us and we take some elements from that. How do we inject that into 'Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?'

Was there a particular scene or aspect of production that was difficult to get through the show?

We were talking about this a little earlier, but some of the emotional stuff was a little challenging in episode eight ('Tangled Web'). We felt like it was a different side of the show; in episode seven ('Scorpion Rising') and episode eight, there's a little bit of a darker turn, and channeling that was difficult. Coming up with different vibes and pallets for the villains and making sure that they feel unique, like what concept are we going to roll with for Doc Ock (Hugh Dancy) versus Unicorn versus the symbiote thing that comes out of the portals? What are all the different characteristics of those? That's something we did well in 'Cobra Kai' because we learned that every karate fight is unique in how we are going to score each one differently. In 'Spider-Man,' it's like each villain has their characteristic, but it's hard to keep thinking of things and vibes.

Did you absorb any of the other existing stuff from the previous films and other animated shows, or was it hard not to be self-conscious about what you're working with?

We do a lot of writing based on what we feel, and if we feel like the first and foremost thing we do as composers is we have to service the show, movie, and the director's vision. Our first job is the music we are writing that contributes positively to the director's vision. When we get that first, then that's awesome, and then the second thing would be, how do we get our own creative voice installed in that vision? Can we? You don't always get to do that. You can in 'Spider-Man.' We got to have fun being ourselves, and there wasn't any second-guessing about it, so it paid off.

What was the most standout proud scene in this season of 'Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?'

There's plenty. I love the scenes of Lonnie at school, like Lonnie (Eugene Byrd) talking to Pearl (Cathy Ang), like super simple scenes, them walking down the hallway, like Peter with Harry (Zeno Robinson) and Nico (Grace Song) hanging out in their apartment, playing board games. The music there is fun, and that's what makes the show special. Like Peter interning at Oscorp, all the music happening there is the most fun to me. That's the biggest connection I have with the show. The other most fun thing I love is the montage at the end of episode 10 ('If This Be My Destiny') that shows every single character, what they're up to, what we can look forward to in the next season, and hitting every single theme. That was a fun five-minute chunk film scoring that was challenging, but it was fun to see that come together.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which also stars Colman Domingo and Charlie Cox, is available to stream on Disney+. You can check out our previous interview with Robinson.

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