‘Masters of the Universe’ Composer Daniel Pemberton on Crafting Theme Music

The solely method Daniel Pemberton, who elects to not work on many franchise movies or sequels, was going to get on board with scoring the brand new “Masters of the Universe” movie was if he may create Queen and ABBA-inspired music.

Thankfully, not solely was that the precise sound director Travis Knight needed, however whereas recording a few of the early “Masters of the Universe” tracks at Abbey Road Studios in London, Pemberton occurred to run into Queen co-founder and guitarist Brian May, who was engaged on a newly mastered model of “Queen II.” After telling him in regards to the venture, May was enthusiastic to collaborate with the “Project Hail Mary” composer.

Musically, every thing within the studio clicked into place when May pulled out his well-known Red Special Guitar, which he constructed out of repurposed family supplies as a teen and utilized in Queen’s stay performances.

“As he was playing it, I was like, ‘This is actually the equivalent of the Sword of Power from the Master universe because it’s an instrument forged in flame,’ so to speak,” Pemberton tells Variety of the essential guitar amp featured within the movie’s triumphant theme tune. “He’s the only person who can play it and has the power to play it, and it’s a tool that has saved many people’s lives, I think. If you look at it as a weapon, it has put so much hope and love in the world.”

Based on the “Masters of the Universe” world, which was born out a 1982 toyline, Knight’s tackle the story maintains the foolish, ‘80s tone of the unique live-action movie. Set on the planet Eternia, Nicholas Galitzine performs He-Man, who begins off the movie as a younger child named Adam. After the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto) snatches his mother and father, Adam is plucked out of Eternia and returns years later from the human world to imagine his true id as He-Man and save the planet.

To match He-Man’s transformation from common younger man to omnipotent being — any individual that wields a sword no one else can — Pemberton and May collaborated on the theme tune “Electrica,” a three-minute ballad that includes a 100-piece choir, an 80-piece orchestra, rock band and loads of synthesizers. 

“I wanted a grown man to feel like a small boy again, and I wanted a small boy to feel like a grown man,” Pemberton says. “I wanted something that had the weight and seriousness of a hard-rock track mixed with the color, campiness and slight cheese of a poppy Euro song. The influences around [the ‘80s] were very pop-driven. I wanted it to have that sensibility that as soon as you start the movie, it tells you you’re in for something fun. That’s the most important thing about this film — it’s unashamedly fun.”

Dedicated followers can be conversant in the theme from the “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” animated present — and maybe anticipating, or not less than hoping, to listen to it. While Pemberton teases followers to pay attention out for it towards the top, he says incorporating Shuki Levy, Haim Saban and Lou Scheimer’s unique music into the theme tune didn’t work out: “The thing that’s interesting with He-Man is, for me, the baggage is really the aesthetic. Obviously you have the theme song, which is phenomenally catchy and such an iconic part of people’s childhoods, but we tried it elsewhere in the film and it was very difficult to make it work within the action beats of the movie. At its core, that theme is played for 10 seconds at the beginning of every cartoon, it doesn’t sustain in the same way for longer.”

To compose the whole 140-minute movie, which options 35 tracks, Pemberton leaned into making a “maximalist” rating, writing it with “more rock and pop sensibility. The big thing about this film is even though at its core it’s kind of ridiculous, it’s incredibly sincere, and so we’re writing this music that’s very flamboyant, theatrical, over the top and quite fun … It really means everything it says. It’s not ironic.”

The launch of “Masters of the Universe” comes after a very busy season for Pemberton, having scored “Project Hail Mary” and “The Drama,” two of the 12 months’s most acclaimed movies. As a composer who has dabbled in a number of totally different genres of music, together with composing the “Spider-Verse” movies, Pemberton has come to note — and deliberately transfer away from — the normal method blockbusters sound.

“Music has become less and less outwardly emotional and it’s hard. If you want to write incredibly emotional music and incredibly powerful music on a film, it can feel ridiculous in the modern idiom,” Pemberton says. “You look at something like ‘Star Wars,’ which has phenomenal scoring, but I always wonder if that happened today, would studio execs throw it out in two seconds? Would an audience throw it out in two seconds?”

Pemberton isn’t shy about his ideas on what superhero and large franchise footage get unsuitable: “When you look at the Nolan ‘Dark Knight’s, they took themselves very seriously but the films were very serious, so it worked. But I think that led onto this idea that all superhero films have to be incredibly serious. At its core, most superhero films, for me, are somewhat ridiculous. And they’re often scared of admitting that, whereas I think He-Man is aware. He’s called He-Man, one of the characters is called Fisto and Ram Man!”

Ultimately, he credit Knight for giving him a “very clear vision” of his “Masters of the Universe” movie from the beginning: “It can’t be understated how important the director is to a good score, who supports and trusts you and allows you to go crazy. Travis definitely let me go crazy!”