Interviews – Dynamic Music Partners – 25th Anniversary of Batman Beyond!

This is Christopher Carter. My name is Lolita

Ritmanis. And this is Michael McQuistion. And

we are the Dynamic Music Partners. And you are

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. Petmobile!

Ignition! Sorry, pal, but you're history. Hello

and welcome to the Geekastria Network's interview

of three very awesome composers. I am, of course,

TF2 and Mike, and after ten long years, I get

to have a new conversation with the Dynamic Music

Partners. We have Christopher Carter. Hello,

sir. Hello, Mike. Elena Romanes. Hello. Hey.

great to be here again absolutely absolutely

and michael mcquistion hello sir how are you

i'm good from one michael to another that's right

yeah between us we have like seven mics in this

interview that's good yeah exactly today we will

be talking about all of the works that they've

done since the last time they were on the podcast

but our focus mainly will be The 25th anniversary

of Batman Beyond and the release of the Volume

1 score. And technically I interviewed Michael

seven years ago, but that's a whole other story.

So starting off, I forgot that Shirley Walker

did some stuff on this. I forgot that she did

the closing theme and I forgot that she scored

three episodes. So let's talk about Shirley just

for a couple of minutes. She worked on the Willy

Watt episode, the Card Gang episode, and the

Curare episodes of season one. What are your

all's memories of those sessions, if you remember

that far back? Gosh, well, Shirley, I mean, she

was the supervising composer on this. And just

the whole process of us even getting the series

is completely due to her genius of how she went

about it. about us actually securing this series

um but um the sessions were produced very much

like record dates i mean we had we had full full

recording sessions two days of mixing I mean,

it was so elaborate. And at the time, I don't

even know if I even appreciated the level of

production and how she managed to carve out enough

funds for this type of thing with Warner Brothers.

And it was amazing that Warner Brothers supported

this level of production. So each track really

does have a certain polish that I think. Sometimes

TV music doesn't have an opportunity to get to

because there's not enough time to to polish

it on that level. So that's that's my main recollection

is that just the hours and hours and hours spent

on the production after after the music had been

written. Absolutely. Yeah. OK. Oh, no. I mean,

absolutely. We were still very much on Shirley's

team for this. And so, you know, Shirley was

was driving the ship at this point. Yeah, just

in terms of that level of production is what

made it really special. And yeah, much as she

did in Batman the Animated Series and Superman

the Animated Series, she would sometimes come

up with character themes that we would use. I

know she came up with a really cool Middle Eastern

theme for Kurare. And we would all support those

themes. Like if we had a character show up in

one of the other episodes, then we would always

follow up. you know so that there was this this

continuity of the themes yeah i just it was such

an interesting process that was so different

from scoring any of the orchestral shows that

we had done with her and now that i look back

on that process that that what was it like a

four or five day production process of submixing

and and refining and recording and i mean it

was really like making an album i kind of wish

i would have been there during her recording

sessions because we were each working on our

own episodes at that time she assigned the episodes

to us and we would work on our episode and there

wasn't a lot of cross traffic between us um i

i I didn't go to her sessions and she didn't

go to my sessions. And so now I kind of wish,

oh, gosh, I know I would. I would want to go

to every one of her sessions and every one of

Lola's and every one of Chris's. And I would

want to be there for the whole thing, you know?

Yeah, absolutely. See, I always thought it was

like I know it's not the same, but I always thought

the music stuff was done the same way they did

the voice actor stuff. If you can be in the room,

you're in the room. Kind of thing, like a whole

collaboration. I didn't know all the sessions

were separate. Yeah, no, they were. We each because

sometimes the. episodes would come in and they

would overlap and so we would be working at the

same time but not on the same episode and so

each of us was would kind of go our separate

ways and do what had been assigned to us and

then we would all come to her location where

she had a master mixing room and we would do

all the mixing there and that's what created

the continuity of sound between all the different

episodes they were all mixed by the same engineer

in the same mix room supervised by shirley And

that's how everything came together. That's amazing.

That's so cool. The other thing I want to bring

up before we get into the 25th anniversary is

as I was listening to the volume one score on

her tracks, I keep thinking, how did she come

up with that? So there's in the in the really

defeated track at the end of that episode's cue,

there's a cue at the 32 second mark where it's

more of. the robotic golem sound part of the

theme than it is for the music for willie and

i'm thinking it's like this weird vocal under

i'm like how did she do that you guys know chris

do you know you know the story Well, I just know

that Shirley had actually been in electronic

music even from way before there were computers

being used to create it. She worked on the original

Apocalypse Now score. Right. And I think that

there was this – kind of unbridled exploration

that all of us dove into coming from working

just purely with the orchestra on Batman the

animated series and then adding a keyboardist

synthesis on Superman the animated series to

have more of a modern slash futuristic kind of

sound we added to the orchestra when we did Batman

Beyond produced in our studios it was like just

diving in and and Using the computer to create

new sounds, and that's what I think she did was

just one of her amazing explorations because

she was able to take the simplest sound and then

manipulate it digitally to come up with these

things you've never heard before. Yeah, because

as I'm listening to a lot of her tracks and a

lot of your all's tracks too, there are certain

sounds where I'm like... That doesn't sound like

an instrument. It doesn't sound like a synthesized

instrument. It doesn't sound like a regular instrument.

I'm like, how did that happen? And I say that

lovingly because I love how, like, when you all

released this last year, I've had it on repeat

the whole time. That's awesome. I can't stop

listening to the Batman Beyond Volume 1 score

out now and all the digital platforms and everywhere

else. Like, I just can't stop because we only

ever had before you guys released this and we'll

get into that whole story and everything else.

But before you released this, the only thing

that was ever released was the original soundtrack

for the show and the original soundtrack for

Return of the Joker. Because I have I've got

a picture of those CDs because I remember having

them like a decade or so ago. But I remember

that was the only thing we had. And I kept thinking,

oh. Wildland Records is going to get it because

they're going to do this and they're going to

do that because they've done everything else

with the DCAU. But we'll get into all that in

a bit. Batman Beyond, 25 years. Jeez, how has

it been 25 years? You each have your own musical

styles. How do they all come together in your

musical partnership? Well, I think it's... It's

a constant work in progress. It's important to

retain your own musical voice, but we're always

serving whatever the project is. And that's,

you know, whether it would be the three of us

working together or, you know, for any other

composers that might be working for a composer,

usually a TV show or film, there's some sort

of a common denominator of what the basic kind

of sound or the sound palette will be. And how

that especially how that affects the story. So

this whole this show is so incredibly the series

is so incredibly, wonderfully stylized and has

such a unique look and feel across the board.

I mean, the dialogue, the artwork, just the whole

thing. I mean, I think for me, it's it's it definitely

is, you know, if not my favorite, you know, definitely

among the top, top favorite things that that

we've had an opportunity to work with, work for.

Bruce Timm, the show's producer, he definitely

had an idea of what kind of style of music he

wanted. And so that's where we definitely did

a deep dive into all the various examples that

were set forth as far as what kind of music he

was listening to. And I mean, for me personally,

it wasn't music that I was... even that familiar

with i think chris may be being having so much

background as a rock and roll guy and play and

having the long hair and all that during that

era it it certainly uh chris knew a lot about

it but you you do your homework and then you

really and then you hire the right people i mean

that's we certainly should talk about that as

well at some point the incredible musicians that

played on it so yeah absolutely i i think as

as composers it was just kind of expected in

the in the world that we started our careers

in to be very flexible, to be able to write comedy

or drama or horror or action or rock or jazz.

Any of that kind of stuff has to be in our toolbox

somewhere. So I think for us, the three of us

in particular, it wasn't as much of a stretch

to work together and just figure out, oh, well,

if we need to do this kind of music, we already

know how to do that. And so I think that just

being flexible and doing, as Lolita said, doing

a lot of listening and a lot of research. And

yes, I did my research in the heavy metal clubs

in the Dallas scene with my long hair and my

rock band. But yeah, just in terms of listening

to the music, it helped us direct how we were

going to choose to write something that all sounded

homogenous and works together. Absolutely. Yeah,

I remember making the transition from... Doing

first Batman the Animated Series and then Superman

with orchestra. And this show came on it along

just the right time. I mean, we had done I don't

know how many hundreds of episodes with orchestra.

And it was now time to do something completely

different. And, you know, as creative professionals,

that is a gift. I mean, having the ability to

do something that you had like you have never

done before. And it was at the advent of sampling

technology. So I think as Chris was talking about

Shirley being one of the electronic music pioneers

and everything, we all kind of fed off of that

energy of hers when sampling technology was being

created. And we were mixing audio samples with

triggered samples, with synthesis, with algorithmic

synthesis, with all these different types of

synthesis that had happened in that particular

era. And it was just this explosion of expression

and creativity in a way that I had never known

that I was even capable of doing. But gosh, was

it fun to dig in and go for it. Absolutely. And

I think this is where we can talk about all of

the awesome musicians, because these instruments

that they're playing and these notes that you

guys have given them to play, it's like, holy...

I'm going to get into this later, but at the

end of the questions, I have a whole thing where

I'm going to take you guys through my favorite

tracks, like my favorite moments, because there

are just certain things where these musicians

really got it. Because the point of Batman Beyond,

as Bruce Timmons said, then, now, and forever,

is it's Teenage Batman. It's Batman of the future.

It's not Bruce Wayne. It's Terry McGinnis. It's

a different Batman, so you need to have a different

sound. And going from orchestra to what you guys

did on this, it's like, oh, wow. It's just so,

so fun. And I don't even know how we can tell.

How do you guys want to talk about the musicians?

Because they're just amazing to me. Well, I mean,

I need to kind of start with Gabriel Moses. I

mean, we had several guitar players that worked

on this series. Gabe was kind of like the first

first and kind of the pivotal guitar. I think

he kind of said this, the sound along with with

the guidance he got from from all of us. But

here's somebody who has every guitar under the

sun and has, you know, huge amps and they're,

you know, and just the way that the way the amp

has to get mic'd and just the style of playing.

I mean, we you. It's not like it's being improvised.

I mean, the music is written and then it's actually

music that is, you know, we have sampled, you

know, synthesized guitar that's being an example

of what it will be like. But then you get somebody

for whom this this instrument is their part of

it, like it's an appendage to their body. It's

just part of their body and they get it. And

so it's just it's just so thrilling. And that,

you know, that's true for any any musician that

if you have if you write something and you then

actually have a world class expert in that with

that instrument, perform your music. It's just,

you know, it gives me goosebumps just remembering.

So Gabe was just one of many. You know, let the

guys list some more people and we can just keep

throwing names out. But I mean, unbelievable

work. Absolutely. The guitar work is amazing

on this score. Yeah, I do agree that Gabe kind

of put his initial stamp on the sound, but we

did work with several other guitar players. We

worked with Greg Herzenach, who actually has

continued to work with us all these years, and

he's also been our main guitarist on just about

anything else that we've done more recently.

He has a whole different style. And like a casting

director chooses the right actor for a role,

we will cast our musicians that have the right

sound that we're looking for. I was roommates

in college with a bassist named John Button.

And he has actually just totally taken off as

a bass player. He's currently the bassist for

The Who. So his life is going from stadium to

stadium. not just rock playing but but slap playing

and the the whole uh the whole episode about

the slappers the winning edge has some uh really

fun um uh you know really fun chances for him

to do some slapping in addition to the regular

electric bass playing and you know but we also

brought on specialist instrumentalists you know

that weren't you wouldn't even think of in terms

of more of a rock sound like that's to be in

the winning edge john clark was a fabulous woodwind

player who played oboe and saxophone and all

the other ethnic winds um the last cue on the

on the winning edge is actually a a duel of distorted

tenor a distorted alto sax and um and guitar

so you know we were just having fun playing the

sonic playgrounds yeah michael anything to add

oh just making sure everybody to have their voice

on it oh no i i know i think that was a great

answer i'll get the next one I would like to

add just that the meticulous, you know, very

time consuming work that Mako Tsujishi and Mark

Mattson did with the recording and then the submixing

and then eventually mixing, Mako would do the

final mix. I mean, that's a lot of it, too, how

you track all this music. And hey, guys, help

me remember, wasn't Mike Elizondo also on on

this or did that come? Was it on the first first

release of this or did he come later? I you know,

I don't remember. That's the thing. When Chris,

you started mentioning some of the other musicians,

I remember for myself, I think that came later.

But I remember Mike Elizondo was a presence on

this show for for sure. Bass wise. And he's gone

on. I mean, he's like a Grammy winning producer.

I mean, an unbelievable, you know, you know,

protege of Dr. Dre and and he worked with 50

Cent and Carrie Underwood and Ry Cooter. And

I mean, just so you know, these these musicians

are just just star power all the way around.

But and but the interesting, interesting thing

is all the all the drum programming and all that.

I mean, that is also something. I mean, we, it,

most of it is programmed drums, but made to sound,

made to sound as like the best, you know, best,

uh, heavy, heavy, hard driving drummer that could,

that could play, you know, with, uh, with Rob

Zombie or somebody. So it's, but that, that took

a lot of work too. Well, and Mike, also, just

so you know, just to make this even more special,

I know that on at least one of my Batman Beyond

episodes, Ian Walker, Shirley's son, was playing

bass. That's amazing. So, I mean, it was a pretty

special experience all the way around with these

musicians. And I second what Louis just says

about... the engineering which was such a critical

part of the sound um getting it recorded properly

with the proper amps and whether to mic the amp

or whether to go to direct and having all of

the i think we had a it was a 24 track mix for

each cue and so we had 24 24 different individual

just like you would make a record album it was

exactly the same process and that level of of

production uh, and time that was required to,

to make all that come together. I'm so glad that

you feel Mike, that it's translated into something

that's still special after 25 years. Cause I

think it's pretty, I think it has a pretty timeless

sound. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you know,

the funny thing is I've been podcasting for 15,

16 years now and I use multi -track to do like

when I go to edit this, I'm going to have various

track is I'm probably going to, I'll have to

ask this off air or something, but at some point

I'm probably going to quote fair use and use

like a half a second or so of some of these tracks

I'm going to talk about here in a few minutes.

But just to give people an example, but as a

podcast editor. Never again. There are times

where I end up using 40 or 50 tracks for one

podcast episode, depending on how many people,

depending on the topic, depending on the time

length and everything else. So, yeah, whatever

it takes to get it done and whatever it takes

to get it done to the point where it's going

to sound amazing. That's the way I've always

felt about it. And with music. music just feeds

my soul. It always has. It doesn't matter what

kind of music it is. As long as I like it, it's

like, you know, Oh my God, I, this is the best

thing ever. And again, like I've said, and I'm

going to be a broken record saying this number

one, thank you. Number two, before volume one,

all we had was the original 20 track soundtrack

release in 99. So it's like 20 tracks versus

95. I'll take the 95. Thank you very much. That

first soundtrack was actually put together before

we had even finished the first season. And Rhino

Records had set kind of a cutoff that we could

only choose certain tracks to be on that album.

We've been fortunate that Warner Brothers has

supported much more comprehensive releases, so

we're just thrilled that this first album has

that many tracks. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking

of which, like I've said, last year, December

8th, Volume 1 released with 95 tracks. Is that

every single music cue from Season 1, or is it

only half of it? It's nearly everything. It honestly

is nearly everything. It was hard even to have

to cut down what we did. But yeah, it's just

about every piece of music from season one. There's

something missing from one of my episodes that

a fan pointed out. It's like, how did that happen?

Yeah, so anything missing, you know, maybe stay

tuned without saying anything for sure. Maybe

something missing will at some point appear someplace.

Oh, there's a question about that later. So hopefully,

you know. We depend on you guys to tell us because,

I mean, sometimes things just slip by and we

don't know when we're wrangling, you know, hundreds

of tracks of music. You know, some some things

can slip through the cracks and, you know, thank

goodness for people that are paying that close

attention. We just we appreciate it. And then

we can go on a treasure hunt and and find those

Easter eggs and make sure that, you know, everybody

gets gets what they what they need to have. Absolutely.

So what went into the decision to do this release

digital only? And will there ever be a physical

media release? Michael, you want to take that

one? Sure. I will say to you that this was not

our decision necessarily. We would always love

to do a physical release. The way for us to get

this music released was for us to agree to do

it digitally. Okay. And so that is what... That

is how this happened. We were not able to forge

an agreement that would give us the rights to

do a physical release, but we were able to forge

an agreement that could give us the digital rights

to do a release. And so we thought, well, let's

take advantage of this digital platform and do

what we could never do with a CD release, which

is 95 tracks. Exactly. Right? It's funny because

the platform actually thought we were nuts. And

we had to search for a specific platform to release

this on a distributor that would allow us to

use 95 tracks for one album. And we were strongly

advised against it. We were told that that was

unheard of and that people wouldn't listen to

it. you know, be unwieldy. And, you know, we

were given all sorts of reasons why we should

not do it this way. And we just fought back and

just said, this is what we want to do. This is

how we want to do it. We feel like if we're going

to do it, we're going to do it right. And we're

going to do it once and make it as great as we

can make it. And this is how we want to do that.

So we just kind of, and we figured that. Rather

than us be the curators, we would let the fans

be the curators of the music and build their

playlists and create their ultimate album of

whatever they wanted from whatever we could give

them. Because everybody's going to like different

things. And we didn't want to be the ones to

say, well, we're not going to release this or

we're not going to release that. We would have

had to make those decisions if it was a physical

release. And with a digital release, we didn't

have to make as many of those decisions and maybe

disappoint somebody. Instead, we were able to

release more music and then we give you guys

the opportunity to go through and make your ultimate

order and your ultimate album any way you want

to make it. And we were just trying to plus the

idea of that platform because, you know, heck,

who wouldn't love to have a collector item on

the shelf? We would all love to do that. But

not being able to do that, we still felt like

there were some advantages and we could do something

cool for you. Yeah, absolutely. And it's just

one of those things, and I'm sorry, any of those

people that have said that this wouldn't work,

they're wrong. Because, like, this worked. Like,

I'm going to get into it here in a few minutes,

but trust me, this worked. Great. That's so great

to hear. Batman Beyond is in my blood. It has

been in my blood for 25 years. Even the bad episodes,

and every show is going to have bad episodes,

and I'm not trying to sit here and crap on the

show, but Rats wasn't good. Sorry. Rats was not

a good episode as far as the story in the episode.

The music was great. The story, not so much.

But no, I've loved this show for 25 years, and

for me, as someone who... has my ear tuned to

hearing music in movies and television. I'm always

like, okay, I love hearing that, but I want to

hear it outside of the show. I want to hear the

actual, and that's why I love soundtracks. And

that's why I love scores. That's why I always

have. And I always will. Yeah. And I'll get into

more of that in a moment here, but do each of

you have a favorite track from volume one? I

think, well, I, I don't know. There's something

for me about, You know, the Joker chase, because

that was that was something that was that I that

I wrote for the demo that we wanted to, you know,

that we tried to get the show with. So it was

it was also for me just like super, super produced.

And it's like, I mean, one of the best demos

I think that I've ever been involved in. And

so the idea that that went from demo to to Bruce

Tim wanting to actually. you know, use, use it

in, in the, you know, in the first, uh, was it

first episode or second episode? See, I can't

even remember. Joker chase was, I think it was

rebirth part one. Yeah. So anyway, I mean, it's

just, it's just a rocking thing. And I just,

you know, that's, it's kind of out of, it was

a little out of my comfort zone, but then just

to, you know, the musicians and the, you know,

just getting, you know, I, I just had a ball

on that. So that, that's for me, probably my,

my favorite for me of my, of that. So yeah, it's

track five. It's on rebirth. Part one, Joker

chases, Joker's chase, Terry and Bruce fights

jokers. Yeah. Mine would definitely – I mean

I've already mentioned it, but the Batman Defeats

Chapel, which is the last half of track 37, just

because it – the whole idea of slappers being

kind of the super caffeinated version of making

you super strong. I started the track at some

ridiculous tempo, and it gets faster and faster,

and then after the point at which – spoiler.

chapel falls into the the whole box of them it's

even faster i mean the whole thing is just like

this nuts you know super amazing caffeinated

track and i just had a lot of fun doing that

it's like you were on coffee just like the chip

the the the chipmunk and hoodwinked coffee coffee

coffee coffee coffee which actually is very much

like real life so yeah i'm drinking coffee right

now Well, it is still the morning over there,

so that's okay. What about you, Michael? That's

funny. I have a couple of favorites. I think

probably one of my very favorites, just because

of my background as a composer, it's more like

classical and everything. And so one of my favorite

tracks is the track called Wedding Bugs and Oasis.

That was a scene that required something that

was very high energy. it was also kind of hallucinatory

and so i had a chance to put a lot of stuff in

there that didn't kind of hide it behind the

groove of the electric guitars and everything

so there's people screaming there's women giving

birth there's like all sorts of stuff going on

in the background and then there's this incredible

groove which i did i didn't really know how to

make that happen and you know i was i wrote the

music and then i i was working with gabe moses

um at the session and he was sort of showing

me oh this is why this works and this is how

this happens and this is how you make this really

rock and i was just like you know god bless you

thank you for this insight now i understand what

makes this music work and so it was kind of an

education um so that was really fun and then

the other one i kind of really like is this last

cue in the in rebirth part two called bruce hires

gopher i'm gonna talk about that in a minute

but go ahead okay yeah no well you know for me

it was a really great scene it was a scene where

it all sort of becomes very real for terry yep

and it was a way for me to take the show musically

from kind of in a sort of a wistful kind of I

don't know, like acoustic place and then move

it into Batman of the future. And having that

that one cue doing that kind of coming from this

really comfortable place of home and family and

then realizing, you know what, if you're going

to say yes to this, your life is going to change

big time forever. And that there was something

very powerful about that. And maybe I kind of

related to that. In kind of a musical way, because

it's like once I said yes to the show, I was

like, well, I got to learn some stuff about heavy

metal, you know. And my life changed forever.

So it was kind of personal, I guess. Yeah, absolutely.

And that scene, which I will probably put in

right here. Would you be interested? Well, of

course he would. Wouldn't you, honey? I mean,

to work with someone as famous as Mr. Wayne.

Sure. I warn you, I can be a difficult taskmaster.

I accept nothing short of excellence from all

who work for me. I think I can handle it. Very

good then, Mr. McGinnis. Welcome to my world.

And the way you did it, you took whatever the

sound of Batman Beyond is, and then at the very

end, it was a version of bta i'm like oh my god

it's just amazing absolutely love that track

oh i'm glad that's great mission accomplished

yep absolutely so after 25 years what are your

opinions on the legacy of batman beyond that

you all had a part in creating for it oh the

legacy question is such you blink You start out

as one of the youngest composers, you blink and

all of a sudden something's 25 years ago and

it's a legacy. I know that for me that level

of having any kind of ego attachment to that

is just not real at all. It's more just like

how lucky was I to share the same oxygen with

people that were creating this. this um show

at that moment and to be you know working alongside

my incredibly talented colleagues and friends

and just be able to do this um it's just i think

most of my career has felt that way it's just

You know, I don't stop and, you know, oh, I'm

fantastic. And I'm part of this big legacy. It's

just like you do the work. You hope that nobody

finds out that you're you know, you have a little

bit of imposter syndrome for a lot of your career.

And you realize, oh, my gosh, I've actually done

some pretty, pretty amazing stuff. So it's it's

just it's just a blast. I'm so proud of Batman

Beyond. I mean, it's just such a great show.

So I'm happy to be a part of it. And the thing

is, before Christopher goes, the thing is, is

that 25 years ago, the internet was just becoming

a thing. So, you know, when Kevin Conroy and

all of them were doing the voices for Batman,

no one knew. Like, nobody knew voice actors in

the 80s and early 90s. They knew that that was

a person's name and that was the character that

they voiced. Or they knew that this, like, yourself,

Alita, or Michael, or Christopher, like, They

saw the names on the things, but they didn't

know exactly, exactly. And after the Internet,

it's like, oh, we can find out who these people

are. We can look at their body of work and look

at what they've done and appreciate it and just

absolutely love it. And that's just the way I've

always approached it was, you know, Kevin Conroy

in the interview that we did with him back in

2012. He said that he loved he used to love the

anonymity of people not knowing that he was Batman.

Well, it's interesting because, you know, we

when we went to his memorial and there were like,

you know, there was like there's videos of his

of him telling, you know, story of him like dressing

up as Batman. Yeah. And, you know, driving to

some party or something for a friend of it. I

don't remember the details of it, but it's just

it's. I mean, for us, when we've we've had the

opportunity to go to a voice recording, I turn

into just like this little like a little fangirl.

And I'm just, you know, my jaws at the bottom

of my feet. It's like, oh, my God, I'm in the

room with these incredible actors. And and what

am I supposed to be doing? I'm supposed to be

helping with producing one of the songs or something.

And I'm a fan. Yes, man. So anyway. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, Kevin was an amazing person, and the best...

He told this story multiple times, and it's not

just that I'm biased because I got this version,

but the way in our 2012 interview that he told

his September 11th story is my favorite way he

tells it. And I will send you guys that clip,

because I have that clip cut out of that interview

somewhere, but it was just so much fun. I miss

that man so much. We all do. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, as far as the legacy goes, I don't think

– well, having worked on Batman the Animated

Series and then Superman and then Batman Beyond,

I think we had a sense that Bruce Timm and all

the animators and all the voice actors were going

to create something really incredible. But you

don't go into any project expecting it to become

– as iconic as batman beyond has so yeah like

lolita said i'm just i'm a fan of their work

and grateful to have been a part of it and it's

amazing to see that the show is is so beloved

and and um and i i'm glad for that because of

the fact that i think there was a lot of uncertainty

from the fans about what this was going to be

so the fact that that people have grown to embrace

it has been really gratifying to say you know

you know there is room to reimagine the general

you know the story of somebody you think you

know so well um and i think that that was it

was really great to see that it's found it's

found its audience and it's become so beloved

yeah the funny thing and i tell this story all

the time is that at the time in 93 or 94 they

were into season two or three of batman the other

man series and at the time my then stepmother

I was watching the show. I was 13 or 14 years

old. It wasn't like I was six or anything, but

I was 13 or 14, and I don't know. I think it

was the Forgotten episode, and she saw Boss Biggest

hit somebody or Batman hits. She's like, that's

too violent. You can't watch that. So I didn't

end up watching the rest of BTS until way later,

and then I remember the very first promo. I was

19 years old 25 years ago. I remember the very

first promo. promo for batman beyond that i'm

like old bruce wayne teenage batman what is this

and what what what have i missed what has happened

from 1999 from 92 to 99 that i missed so much

that bruce wayne is now old what's going on and

kevin you know the man is and was amazing and

just ah so good In a future without heroes. You're

Batman. I was Batman and without hope. You gotta

do something. Never again. One young man will

step forward. To become the Dark Knight for a

new era, Warner Brothers presents a brand new

hero. Stop where you are! No thanks. Having too

much fun? Batman Beyond. Own it on video. And

look for these classic Batman animated features,

Mask of the Phantasm and Sub -Zero, wherever

videos are sold. Michael, thoughts on Legacy?

I will second everything that Lolita and Chris

have said. And especially the part about when

you're involved in something and you're doing

something, there's no way to ever know what kind

of an impact it's going to have. I mean, you

just do your best job. You want to make something

great. You want to plus the things that everybody

else has done before you. And certainly when

we saw the first footage and we talked with Bruce

and with Shirley about what the show was going

to be, it just seemed like, wow, this is... This

is it looks incredible. It looks incredible.

We were hopeful that everybody would like it.

And I mean, I'm a super fan of all things vintage

that have stood the test of time. And just the

idea that we're here talking to you 25 years

later and that the show has accomplished that

is very meaningful to me. I think the idea that

it will have a legacy, that it will move forward

and that people will still be watching it and

still loving how unique and artistic and brilliant

creatively the show is. I'm very honored to be

a part of it. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So

my favorite tracks from each of you, I've picked

one track per person. Uh, we kind of already

talked about your track, Michael, which is Bruce

hires gopher. Like I've said very well, Mr. McGinnis,

welcome to, and just the way it swells at the

end is like, okay, that's Batman. Yay. We have

the same favorite track. Yep. Yep. Uh, for Lolita,

it's gotta be who really is Batman. Cause I,

I have that scene in my head all the time in

the streak episode at the end where Bruce is

like, The voice kept calling me Bruce. In my

mind, that's not what I call myself. What do

you call yourself? Oh, yeah. I suppose you would.

Will Friedle. Amazing, amazing, amazing as the

Batman Beyond and Jeremy in his voice. But that's

my name now. Tell that to my subconscious. Okay,

great. And hearing this outside of the voices,

it's like... I know where every beat in that

conversation is listening to this track. Wow.

That's really, that's very cool. I mean, that,

that episode was kind of a wild episode because

of all the sound stuff. Yes. Just like, you know,

a little bit of a minefield, like how is this

going to work with this sound and this like weird

sounds and no sounds and then turning off and

on the volume. And so I was happy that that,

that whole episode really came together and.

Just on a different note, just the idea that

these shows are being watched for all these years.

Now you can stream it on HBO. People are still

watching this stuff. I think the biggest rock

star moments... Chris gets a ton of rock star

moments because of his... you know theme which

is just like i mean right one of the best all

-time themes period yeah but when we we give

our seminars or when we have you know international

kind of guest appearances at events i mean batman

beyond and teen titans those two are like you

know you get you get these people that are just

like oh my god you scored our childhood and it's

just you know people turn into just jello and

it's like oh my gosh how you know this is just

so weird you know so yeah but thanks for that

thanks for i'm gonna have to listen to who's

really batman again now i'm like remember like

okay well mike likes it okay cool yeah it's it's

one of those things where i've seen this show

so many i've seen these episodes so many times

that i have almost almost all the dialogue just

memorized when it comes to moments that are between

Bruce and Terry. And that was one of those moments

where that's one of those famous moments from

the show where you have the history of Bruce

Wayne. You have the history of Kevin Conroy doing

the voice of Bruce Wayne. And now he's doing

an old Bruce Wayne voice. And he's basically

essentially telling the audience, hey, look.

I'm Batman. That's who I see myself as. Bruce

Wayne is the mask. It always has been when it

comes to the DC animated universe. And that's

what Bruce Tim always said. Batman is the man.

Bruce Wayne is the cover story. Oh, yeah, that's

true. That's true. That's amazing. And then for

you, Christopher, any time I'll say ink in the

Batcave, but any time because for me, everyone's

like, oh, Blight is Terry's number one villain.

No, he's not. Blight is Bruce's business villain,

is what Blight is. Ink really is Terry's nemesis.

It's not in a Catwoman way or anything like that,

but she is his nemesis because she's gotten one

up on him, he's gotten one up on her. She's the

only villain in the entire series, outside of

the Joker in the film, that has gotten into the

Batcave. You don't see Blight in the Batcave,

you don't see... You don't see Mad Stan in the

Batcave. You don't see anybody else that has

gotten that deep into Wayne Manor. So, yeah,

any time that the ink themes are going, I'm like,

this is awesome. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I

enjoyed a lot of – I enjoyed kind of exploring

sounds for her. In the episode where she meets

Aaron. Yep. I actually was using a vocoder, which

is a synthesized – a synth that uses your voice

to make almost like a robot kind of sound. And

there's actually a word saying Aaron. You can

hear that. He's seducing her. But yeah, Ink inspired

a lot of fun exploration in the sound design.

Yeah. Yeah, the sound design on this, the music,

the sound design, just everything. It just works.

It really, really just works. And then I can't

go without mentioning Shirley and that end theme.

I mean, your original theme for the intro and

then hers for the closing, it's like, wow. Because

the main theme, the opening theme, is like, this

is a whole new world. Yes, you have Bruce Wayne,

you have everything else, but this is a whole

new thing. This is a whole whatever. And then

at the end, it's like, But don't forget, this

is where it came from kind of thing. Oh, I agree.

I think that that, you know, the opening theme

kind of says this is a whole new world, like

you're saying. But I think Shirley's ending theme

like puts the exclamation point on the end. You

know, it's like the final punctuation is definitely

her her saying her statement. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. I mentioned it earlier and we mentioned

it a little bit. But when are we getting volume

two? at this point we need more i'm thrilled

to hear that you want more you know we gauge

a lot of what we're doing on the response that

we get when we do a release and i think the response

has been very strong to this release and so we're

really gratified by that you know the more you

guys are able to listen and enjoy the music,

the more we learn about what you like and what

you want more of. And it's always our goal to

give you as much as we possibly can. It needs

to be something that needs to be feasible for

us. But if the interest is there, that says a

lot. And we're going to do our best to keep releasing

what we can when we can. Now, I assume the music

is, you guys still all have it. It's just not

released yet. Like I, I'm assuming like the way

I, again, and I could be wrong. This is, it's,

you're all stuff. I don't want to, you know,

whatever, but the way I'm seeing this is okay.

Volume one is episode one to episode 13 of the

first season. It's not, may not be everything,

but it's most everything from the entire first

season. Then you get volumes two and three. So

volume two could be season two. Volume three

could be season three. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong,

but. Well, you'll just have. As far as having

the music of, you know, I I definitely for me

personally, the longer I was in the business,

the more organized I was with making sure to

keep absolutely everything. I mean, I yes, I

mean, but sometimes we have to go hunting for

stuff. And in in this case, you know, the fact

that this all started after, you know, Shirley

passed. I mean, we were very fortunate that that

Ian Walker. was you know this shirley's estate

was was willing to you know be a part of this

also and that you know we were able to get that

that music um but you'd be surprised it's at

how much music from you know 20 30 40 years ago

oftentimes people don't know where it is you

know it can because employee you know employees

are fired and and go to other places and and

you know i've had people try to contact me about

projects that i was an orchestrator on it's like

do you have the original scores for such and

such it's like why would i have it you know and

it's like people so we we have most of it but

it's but still occasionally we have to go hunting

for stuff or the media itself is deteriorated

you know yeah you know something something has

a glitch in it and you got to find that you know

another copy or something so Anyway, it's important

to keep everything, and this is another reason

for this legacy to get it out there, so hopefully

it stays out there. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

All right, we're going to go to a quick ad break

because I know we're going to have to do that

because of time length and everything else, but

that's just the way it is. And we're going to

come back with Christopher, Lolita, and Michael

right after this. Hello, geeks and geekettes!

Looking for a podcast that covers a vast array

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where we discuss our thoughts on this week's

geeky news, tech, gaming, television shows, movies,

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.com. Hi, everyone. I'm here to tell you about

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Here are a couple of our sponsors. Listen to

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No, no, no. It's audio chaos. These wackos are

crazier than I am. Well, maybe you're both right.

Regardless, you can catch us on every kind of

podcast platform. Apple Podcasts. Google Play.

Spotify. Stitcher. and everywhere you find great

podcasts. So, um, can I go now? Let him go. He

did everything you asked. No. Hi, I'm Terry Smith,

the host of Music Talks, the podcast where I

ask guests a simple but beguiling question. Choose

a song from each decade of your life and tell

me why these songs mean so much to you. Guests

and listeners love this format. And if you want

to find out why, then take a listen at musictalkspod

.buzzsprout .com or use your favorite podcast

app. Just search on Music Talks, Terry Smith.

If you'd like to be a guest on the show and...

Then send me a tweet at musictalkspod. I look

forward to doing some music talking soon. Who

do you think you're talking to, old man? We're

the Jokers. Sure you are. All right, folks, we

are back here on this. Geekcast Radio Network

interview of the Dynamic Music Partners, Christopher

Carter, Lita Romanis, and Michael McQuistion.

Before we get out of here, where can the fans

interact with each of you online? We have a website,

www .dynamicmusicpartners .com. Collectively,

we are on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.

Individually, we do have our own Facebook profiles.

But generally, we would want to... steer people

towards the dynamic music partners one so right

yeah facebook .com slash dynamic music partners

instagram is also dynamic music partners and

twitter is actually dynmusepar d -y -n -m -u

-s partners and we'd love to connect you know

send us send us a message or come come join us

yes and we have a vip list too if you guys are

interested in these releases that we're doing

you can sign up i think is there a place on their

website to sign up or you can just email us and

we'll put you on that on that VIP list. And we

usually try to announce things and give little

bonuses and things like that to people that are

on our list. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very cool.

All right. Before I let you go, remind everybody

what you guys have coming up. What's, what are

the dynamic music partners working on that you

can actually tell us you're working on it? We

can't say. We are very excited that we are nominated

for an Emmy Award and the awards are coming up

on February 17th. We worked on a wonderful long

form project, Babylon 5, The Road Home, J. Michael

Straczynski and Rick Morales, producer. And so

we're going to be, you know, dressed to the nines

and attending the Emmy Awards coming up in February

17th. Very cool, very cool. All right, I would

like to thank Mr. Romanes, Mr. McQuistion, Mr.

Carter for joining me in this latest GCR interview.

Go forth, folks. Watch Batman Beyond. Listen

to the Volume 1 score. You're going to love it

if you've loved that show or if you've ever seen

it. Or if you haven't seen it, learn something

new. And we will catch you next time here only

on the Geekcast Radio Network. This is Kevin

Conway, and I am the goddamn Batman. Mr. Wayne?

Mr. Wayne! Terry, you're hurt. Just groggy. Who

did this? It was me.