Interview with M.V. Gerhard and Matt Verboys on La La

This is Matt Verboys from La La Land Records,

and you've entered the La La Land Lounge on Geekcast

Radio. Hello and welcome to Geekcast Radio here

inside the La La Land Lounge. I'm, of course,

TF2 and Mike. And this is the second interview

that we're going to have over the last two or

three years with Lawland Records' Matt Verbois.

Hello, Matt. Hello. And MV Gerhard. Hello, MV.

How are you? Howdy. How are you doing? I'm doing

well, doing well. So the first time I talked

to you guys, we got kind of the whole history

lesson of Lawland and what you guys do and covering

all that kind of stuff and where... A little

bit late in this interview, seeing as how San

Diego Comic -Con was a couple months ago, but

New York Comic -Con is this weekend, so I figured,

oh, hey, why not go ahead and get this done now?

You guys have been firing on all cylinders pretty

much since the last time I talked to you guys.

I mean, 2014, 15, and even this year, you guys

have put out some major stuff. Thank you. You

never sleep. Sleep is overrated. You'll sleep

when you're dead. That's usually what most people

say. All right. So SDCC 2016, you guys went to

the convention. What was that experience for

each of you? Michael, you can go first. Crazy.

You know, we had a different location this time

around, and it was right across from the WB and

right behind AMC. And when they would bring out

the cast members to Walking Dead or Game of Thrones,

it would be a sea of people that would just be

crowding around our table, which was good sometimes

and not so good other times. But it was a wonderful

experience and got to meet a lot of fantastic

people. Only at Comic -Con can you see people

looking through your CDs and you start chatting

and you realize, oh, that's Peyton Reed, the

guy who directed Ant -Man. checking out our soundtracks,

you know. So it's always fun to see, you know,

fans who know of us and are excited to see us

there, fans who become fans because they didn't

know we existed and they find us there, and then

some of the, you know, industry professionals,

too, and stuff. It's just a really cool environment

where all those kind of things intermingle. Right.

It's fun. It's crazy, and it's a lot of work,

but it's fun. Now, because you guys were there

to work and to promote all of the Comic -Con

exclusives like Supergirl Season 1, Flash Season

2, The Killing Joke, The Star Trek, and Wonder

Woman Records, Justice League, BTAS Volume 4,

did you guys have any time at all to actually

just stand back and breathe and just take in

what the overall convention is? And we got there

in the morning. Yeah, that's about it. It was

like 45 minutes in the morning before everything

was crazy. And, yeah, it gets that, you know,

Michael and I, we have people that help us, but

we don't have a large staff, so it's not like,

you know, we can just leave and be around the

booth, you know. Plus, we want to be there to

talk to people and answer questions and whatnot.

You're standing around either way, right? Whether

you're a fan or working. We should strap on one

of those pedometers and see how many steps we

actually take. You do a lot of walking in a place

like that. Just as bad as Disney World or Disneyland.

The other thing, too, is we had some composer

signings, and we had to be there for those. Right.

The Dynamic Music Partners were down, and Blake

Neely came, and so it was cool. Yeah. So at San

Diego this year, you guys had Supergirl, as I

said, Flash, Killing Joke, Star Trek, Wonder

Woman, Justice League, BTAS, Volume 4. What were

your all – when bringing these to the convention,

did you guys have any – idea of which ones would

go first, like completely gone, or did you have

a set way throughout the weekend that you had

various quantities for sale? I think we knew,

you know, sales never quite reach what you project

they're going to be, but, you know, you make

sure you have enough on hand just in case, because

you are doing, you know, we do quite a bit, I

think, in comparison to maybe some of the other

indie labels. We do a little more promotion,

make a little more awareness that we're doing

these things and that we're going to be down

there. I think we thought Wonder Woman would

do really well. Of the ones we did, I think that

did the best. But it's superhero, man. It's the

place to be for that. Absolutely, absolutely.

So you had those releases at Comic -Con. What

were the fans' reactions coming up to the booth?

And seeing which ones they were going to, like,

which ones did the fans gravitate towards more

first to? Was it the CW stuff? Was it the DC

animated stuff? Or was it the records? Was it

something that, because you have various, you

know, some people are into Star Trek, some people

aren't into superheroes and that kind of thing.

What was the landscape of how the booth sales

went as far, not the sales numbers specifically,

but just. How many various people came up and

grabbed either all of them, one of them, or whatever?

Quite a few came up and grabbed them all. They

were very excited. You know, my fondest memory

has to be this 10 -year -old kid with his dad,

and he was so excited that the Flash music was

available. And then he saw that we actually did

season one the year before and just was, you

know, over the moon because he loves the music

from the show so much. And then when we told

them that Blake and his crew were going to be

there signing, it was just like, it was like

Christmas in July for the kid. So it was very

cool to, you know, see, see reactions, whether

from, you know, a 10 year old boy or a, you know,

a seven year old woman who was picking up the

Star Trek vinyl for herself because she's such

a huge fan of the series. So it was, yeah, I

remember the, it's like, it's all across the

board because the superhero, uh you know display

of all the superhero covers will catch you know

comic -con fans attention but then they'll realize

that there's other stuff on the table too and

i remember like this really big guy really big

dude and like he stopped in his tracks and he

saw the commando cd and he was like does this

does this have does this have the power station

song on it and he grabbed it and turned it around

and saw that it was there and he like squealed

you know he was so happy So you never know. But

to answer what you were saying before, I did

kind of notice, like, the CW people, like if

someone was interested in a Blake score, they

were interested sort of like in all the Blake

Neely stuff. And then, you know, and then the

Batman animated, you know, your core WB animation

fans, you know, they know all about Michael and

Lolita and Chris. Yeah. They were kind of all

over that stuff. And it certainly helps when

you have the composers down there, you know,

meeting the fans and signing for them. You know,

that certainly brings out the lines, which is

nice. Yeah. And it makes it easy to say, like,

oh, hey, you know, they're going to be here tomorrow

signing it, you know. That's right. That's true.

No, you're competing with everything from Paul

H. to, like Michael said, the Walking Dead, the

cast of Walking Dead behind you. And so it's

very easy for people to go, oh, that's cool,

and then they lose their attention and you don't

see them again. So it's nice to give them a reason

maybe to come back. There's a lot of shiny things

there at Comic -Con. Oh, yeah. Whether it be,

like Matt said, the cast of Walking Dead or a

really good -looking Poison Ivy walking past

them. They definitely get distracted. So sometimes

it's hard to grab their attention. But those

that were in the know, so to speak, and saw...

you know, our advertisements and saw our ad in

the fly, you know, in the booklet. They were,

you know, they knew exactly what they wanted

and they came there like, oh, Wonder Woman, I've

been dying to get this, you know, since I was

a kid. Yeah. And, yeah, there was a lot of it.

There were a lot of excited adults there, that's

for sure. Yeah. The, when the Justice League

score came out, I was like, oh, finally, it's

about time. And then I looked at it further and

I'm like, wait, it's not all the episodes. What

did they do? It was just my initial fan reaction

because I think out of the first two seasons

of Justice League, there's like three cartoon

episodes missing off of it. I know In Blackest

Night is one of them. And I was like, wait, why

isn't that on there? That was weird. Don't even

put so much on there. I mean, why don't you stick

to a four? Does that make it a reasonable price

for the fans? The other thing, too, is when you're

pushing like, you know, is that one 50 bucks

or 60? That one's 60. Yeah, when you're pushing

60 bucks, it's like, well, you kind of run into,

it's like the more you add, the more it's going

to be, you know, for everybody, for us and for

the customer. So it's like, can't do everything.

The hope is you do it, and if it performs. like

the Batmans have or some of the other ones, then

the hope is you can keep it going. Yeah, absolutely.

You know? Speaking of Batman, I assume the plans

are to go into new adventures now that the full

first 65 are done. Or not new adventures, adventures

of Batman and Robin. Adventures of, yeah, and

then the new adventures. Yeah. Wrap it up. You

know, we're looking at probably, I think, three

discs for, adventures of, and then two just for

new adventures. I think that actually would be

everything, if I'm not mistaken, for those two

short -lived series. And then the Bat would be

done, and we would love to further our adventures

and do Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited

and possibly even Teen Titans and maybe even

Legion of Heroes, which is a short -lived cartoon

that both but all three of the Dynamic Music

Partners scored. Absolutely. Yeah, that Bat Beyond

disc really does need a redo. I mean, the original

score that they did for that way back when in

99, it's a good score, but we need a La La Land

version of Batman Beyond for the music for that

one. Something to be heard. There are very many

powers. All right, so... I think one of our first

meetings with them, I recall getting, I think

they gave both you and I, I'm sure you already

had it, but I remember it because I didn't have

it, but they gave me that, you know, Batman Beyond.

Oh, yeah. And the whole thing was, hey, when

are we going to do this? When are we going to

do this? That was about a decade ago. A long

time ago. Yeah, because the original TV soundtrack

only has 20 tracks on it, and then they released

the Return of the Joker film stuff. And those

are pretty much the only two. Both of which are

long out of print, so. Yes, they are. They're

certainly time to revisit. I think it's been

about, yeah, it's been about 10 years since I

found those on eBay. I actually found those on

eBay in 2006, but, yeah, it's been a while. All

right, so the other big, one of the other big

things you guys had this year to celebrate its

30th anniversary almost, Laos Day Off. We finally

have saved Ferris. My only... We haven't had

a day off since. Well, you guys don't take days

off. I mean, you know. Well, especially after

this release. I mean, it's been very well for

us and has continued to keep the likes on, so

to speak. Absolutely. Well, again, it's another

one of those scores that... Kind of like way

back when, I think it was 2013 that you guys

put out. Yeah, yeah, it was 2013, Days of Thunder.

I mean, Days of Thunder had never had a score

for 23 years. You know, it's one of the main

reasons why, you know, people ask me about soundtracks

or whatever else. I'm like, look, go to lowlandrecords

.com because they're just simply the premier.

Police Academy didn't have a score for 30 years.

Yeah, yeah. That's part of our... Part of our

legacy is releasing things that we've been wanting

for 30 years. Absolutely. If it doesn't get done,

what's going to happen? You worry, are they still

going to have the music elements? They're records.

These are fine composers that generated fine

work. work that we grew up with but also stands

the test of time and you know as such as the

other labels doing it too you know so Michael

described it as kind of a golden age of you know

it's like this is it if you're a score fan this

is the time to be collecting because there's

so much good stuff coming out I mean you know

whether it's Ferris Bueller or Ten Commandments

or Or Jaws or whatever. A complete RoboCop 3,

for God's sake. So there you go. Yeah, with Ferris,

I saw after a while about people online saying,

oh, but what happened here? What happened there?

And I remember Matt told me off air that it's

basically a licensing thing. This is what I don't

get about certain people that were in the movie

or whatever for music is. If it's a 30th anniversary

release. you'd think that they'd want to get

more exposure for what they had in that. I just

don't. Specifically the English beat song, the

one where Ferris is running home and it's not

there. And I'm like, I just don't get licensors.

Well, here's the issue. This was not a reissue.

So when you do a reissue, like if you did, I

don't know, what's an example of one that we

did that had. Caddyshack, perfect example. If

you're doing something that already had an existing

soundtrack that you have to make a deal with

the original music company that did that soundtrack,

a record label, part of the deal is that usually,

sometimes it's different, you have to make outside

arrangements, but usually you're carrying over

those songs because you're still sort of just

doing the original soundtrack, even though we're

adding score elements. It's considered a reissue

of an existing soundtrack. from the label that

has the rights to do that soundtrack. So the

songs that, like Lethal Weapon, we were able

to carry over a lot of the, you know, some of

them, other ones that weren't there, we had to

license. In the case of Ferris, every song had

to be individually licensed. So it's a big project.

And you walk into something like that knowing

you probably aren't going to get everything.

I mean, we would have loved to have had March

of the Swivelheads, but it's like, on the same

token, if we didn't have... the Dream Academy

instrumental piece when they're in the museum,

then we'd be getting people saying, oh, how come

you don't have the instrumental piece in the

museum? Basically, it's like this, Mike. Forget

it, Mike. It's Hollywood. Yeah, that's... But

again, it's one of those things where you guys

go to the licensors or whoever has the rights

to whatever it is, and you say, okay, we're going

to do this because... we're wanting to celebrate

30 years since it happened and this is the first

time it's ever happened you would think that

that person would be like yes i would love to

let you do that and that's what i don't understand

is regardless if it's all or not it gets so complicated

that let's reverse it and let's say that the

artist didn't have a problem with it but maybe

their label would or did or who knows so there's

any kind of problem that can stand in the way

of getting the track. I think the good news is,

at the very least, the ones that we didn't get,

you can get elsewhere. The ones that were rare

and are still sort of difficult to get or you

couldn't get before, we were lucky enough to

get those. And then Irish 4, which nobody, I

mean, it's been bootlegged, but nobody's had

a great sounding... Actually, I don't think it

scores even in bootleg, really. A bunch of it

is. A bunch of it's on the one CD I have. Not

as much as we have, but there's a bunch of it

on there. But it doesn't sound good at all, and

it uses wrong takes. For instance, Star Wars

on the bootlegs is like John Williams' Star Wars

ripped from the soundtrack of Star Wars and not

the recording they actually did for the movie.

which is what we have. We have Ira Newborn's

orchestration that they recorded for the movie.

So a lot of stuff on the bootlegs weren't a true

representation of what was in the movie, but

that's because everybody was scrambling to do

their own Ferris soundtrack. There was none.

Yeah, that's true. All right, we talked about

him before. We've got to talk about him again,

the legend that is Blake Neely. this guy has

been doing amazing things with the CWTV stuff.

He started out with Arrow, and currently, you

guys can tell me the actual date, but I saw the

image the other day that season four's score

is coming out later this month. It's about Tuesday,

October 11th, Tuesday. There you go. But, you

know, he had Arrows season one through three,

Flash season one and two, Supergirl, Legends.

And again, I'd like to get your all's feelings

on this. When I got the copies of Flash and Supergirl,

one of the things you guys do more than most

other music companies in general these days is

you will put a lot into the liner notes, depending

on the release, obviously. And in most, if not

all, of the Blake Neely scores, he has a little

else saying thank you or giving some sort of

behind the scenes of how they assembled it or

whatever else. In Flash, he says something along

the lines of, we did... 14 different hours of,

or 23 different hours of flash and basically

telling the fans that, Hey, this, this is what

I think you guys are going to want to hear the

most instead of putting out, you know, that those

23 hours of music on a one or two disc set. And

I remember seeing on a lot of your all's, uh,

on one of the Facebook things on your all's page

was like, Oh my God, you mean it's not the whole

thing? Why are we even? And I'm just like, It's

a best of. It's just one of those things where

some fans I just don't get. Also, if they're

young, they have no reference to what soundtrack

albums usually are. Maybe in some way we've ruined

that. In a way, some of our historical releases,

we do try to do the complete scores, but when

you're dealing with a television show, particularly

one that has a score written for every single

episode, you can't put out 23 hours worth of

material. You don't even want to listen to 23

hours worth of material. Certainly physically

it's a challenge. I mean, I guess if somebody

wanted to put up everything they could. But even

when we were working with Bear McCreary when

we were doing the Battlestar Galactica stuff

way back in the day, I mean, the idea was to

assemble the best album that you can possibly

assemble. with the best cues and the most requested

cues from that season. That's right. You're talking

about successful albums. Those were huge records

for us back in the day. But, you know, I mean,

Blake really, you know, put a lot of thought

into, you know, this batch of albums and created

a truly fantastic listen from beginning to end.

You know, in particular, my favorite this year

would have been Supergirl. Just what a great

listen. I have to say, too, you know, I'm a casual

fan of these things, but Envy, you know, really

knows these shows. I'm the kind of person, like,

there's something playing in the office, and

I'm like, man, this is really good. What is this?

So it's like, you know, just sight unseen. You

know, Blake really brings, and Supergirl's the

one that, you know, pops in my head, too, is

playing here in the office when we first got,

you know, the music from him. It's like, man,

this, you know, you could score anything with

this. This is really, you know, really heartfelt.

You know, it's not the orchestration and the

assembly of the music is not, you know, pedestrian

really in any way. Really good music. He's a

really, he's a real talent. He is. It's obvious.

And a great guy too, so. The one question I had

about the Supergirl release was, and I actually

asked him this on Twitter. I asked Blake Neely

this on Twitter. I'm like, on the release, it

has the main theme as the last track. And I'm

like, can I put it as the first track in my playlist?

Because it makes, I'm like, wait, why is it the

final track? What happened with the arrangement

on the disc for that? Because the main theme

is the last track on there. Yeah, that's something

we wanted to do, and I think it's because it's

mostly, a lot of it's for Hyland, right? It really

brings the whole album together at the end, and

it's a great way to actually end the album. Oftentimes,

a composer will design an album in a way that

maybe the first four or five tracks, really grab

you in the grate, and then it kind of, like,

peters out as it goes along. And then by the

time you have to get on track, you're just like,

oh, it's over. But, like, at least now you've

got something to look forward to, and it really,

you know, kind of sums up her journey as well

as Blake's journey, you know, for that entire

season. And if you look at it that way, it's

sort of like, you know, once it's over, it kind

of leaves a smile on your face. And with that

fantastic tune. That's true. I guess I'm just

so used to hearing the main theme and then the

end theme to kind of like encapsulate the whole

thing. Yeah, and I mean, if you listen to season

two of Flash, he doesn't start the album with

the theme at all. So it's, you know, like I said,

he was kind of, his goal was to deliver a musical

journey of that season. You know, whether it

be Flash or Arrow, which really is some fantastic

work he's in for. And then, you know, Legend

of Tomorrow I thought was just a lot of fun.

Certainly my favorite was the Western episode,

how he incorporated the theme into a Western

motif. And then you throw on Blindspot, and it's

like it couldn't be more different, but on its

own terms, in its own electronic genre. really

good, you know? Yeah. I, I haven't gotten the

blind spot score yet, but when I do, what I'm

going to have to do is I'm going to have to go

on Hulu and read and watch because I heard of

blind spot. I saw the pilot, but I never actually

kept up with it. And now that it's kind of over

the first season, I guess it's kind of over Hulu

got the rights from NBC to put the whole season

on. So once I get the score, how, and I've, I

think I've told you guys this before is. I have

to see the music in context. When I talked to

Joe Kramer, when we talked about Rogue Nation,

I actually saw the movie twice, and then I listened

to the score outside of it so I can kind of get

my mind into the music itself. So yeah, with

Blindspot, that was something that was on my

radar, but I just never kept up with it. Now

I can go back and kind of approach it with fresh

eyes. So we're coming up to the end of the year.

You guys have had a lot of stuff come out this

year. Usually every year, you guys almost one

-up the year before with releases. So can you

tease anything that's coming out this Christmas

season? Well, some people sort of already are,

like, aware of, in particular. Yeah, we've given

hints. I mean, we've said that we have a three

-disc set of the original Wonder Woman TV series

coming out, hopefully going to get out by Christmas.

Yeah. I mean, we're always afraid to say, yes,

this is what's happening, because we're never

100 % sure. There's some Star Trek 50th anniversary

-related material that we've been speaking about.

And we have, you know, I'll say this. For the

end of the year, we have, I guess you can say,

a bad case of sequel -itis that, you know, are

going to make a lot of fans very, very happy.

And we'll just leave it at that. Was it just

a joke to me? I wanted to hear specifics. Well,

you know, like you said, you can't give specifics,

but as far as whether they're... We enjoy kind

of announcing those things, you know, right after

Thanksgiving, and I think people get excited

about it, too. Oh, yeah, absolutely. To pay attention

throughout the year, we'll, you know, gather

sort of clues, and... But we're excited about

what's coming up. Yeah, so are you guys, I saw

several teases on Facebook of potentially La

La Land being upside down next to a MiG. Is that

possible? I hope so. It would be great. You know,

I mean, it would be, you know, we've loved working

with Harold in the past, like when we did Tango

and Cash. And Mr. Cruz has been wonderful to

work with. We've worked with him on several projects.

Days of Thunder, Mission Impossible, Firm to

Firm, and he's been fantastic to work with. So

we certainly have that relationship well intact,

and of course with Paramount and Sony Music,

who have soundtrack rights. So I certainly wouldn't

rule it out. It's definitely on our wish list,

but we can neither confirm nor deny. We're not

going to write checks our bodies can't catch.

That's right. That's right. That's right. What

was the other one? There was, yeah, man. That

would be awesome if we could get that and if

we could get Axel. Oh, that would be a dream.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. That would certainly, you

know, fit right in with what we do. Yep. And,

you know, you just – you never know what's going

to happen. Yep, that's true. All right, why don't

you give the listeners what's coming up in October.

We mentioned that Arrow Season 4 is coming out

on the 11th. What else do you guys got going

on for October? Well, on the 11th we have Arrow

4 from Blake Neely, as you're saying. We have

– Mike, I don't know how you pronounce his name,

Higham or Higgum? I think it's Higgum. Higgum.

And Matthew Margeson's wonderful Miss Peregrine's

Home for Peculiar Children score, which is the

number one that's out right now. And, geez, what's

her other author? Oh, for crying out loud. Johnny

Quest. Johnny Quest, two discs set, over two

and a half hours of music to the end. Classic

Hanna -Barbera TV show is finally making its

world premiere debut on October 11th, so we're

really excited by that. And then later in the

month, we release Volume 3 of Mark Snow's Immortal

X -Files music. Yeah, that's a big one. Which

incorporates a lot of requests that fans have

been wanting throughout the years with our series

of X -Files music. And that'll be out on the

25th, and that's a four -disc set. Awesome, awesome.

A little something for everybody. Oh, yeah. I'm

surprised there wasn't any Halloween -themed

releases this month. Well, you know, we try to

work it within our schedule to do stuff like

that, and then, you know, and then stuff happens,

you know. So it just doesn't seem to work out,

and then, you know, January will roll around,

and boom, we'll have out the... you know, something

that should have come out in October. But, hey,

you know, it's great music, and, you know, folks,

you know, will buy it anyways. I mean, when we

did Friday the 13th, we unleashed that in January

of that year, and that sold out within, what,

10 hours, something like that? So it's a good

October, though. It's like, you know, we got

some fresh new TV with Blake's stuff. We got

classic TV with Mark Snow's stuff. We got, you

know, a really wonderful score to a... you know,

really cool Tim Burton movie. And, you know,

and then we go all the way back to the early

sixties for, uh, you know, some TV animation

music. That's like, you listen to that stuff.

Anybody that does jazz, it's like, man, just

like actual, like great music. It's just a great

list. So, yeah. At this point, I'm just waiting

for Shira. The only reason why I even say that

is because the last year or so, my buddy Optimus

Soul and I, actually over the last, next year

will be five years, we've got a podcast called

the Powers of Greyskull series. And we've spent

the last five years going through every single

episode of all four of the Masters cartoons.

So Filmation, He -Man, and She -Ra. Next year

we'll get to New Adventures. And then the 2000X

cartoon. So when the He -Man series came, when

the He -Man score came, I'm like, okay, great.

This is awesome. Yes, I love listening to this

music. Now, when are we getting She -Ra? Because

we need that, too. Well, we'll do what we can.

We're, you know, we're trying. That's hard stuff

to make happen because of the existence of the

material and everything else. So it's difficult,

but we appreciate it. All right, I'd like to

thank Matt and Michael for taking the time to

chat with me in this La La Land Lounge interview.

You can check out lalalandrecords .com. They're

on Twitter, Facebook, all that stuff. Later this

month, you can catch their Arrow Season 4. You

can catch the Johnny Quest release, the X -Files,

right? X -Files, yep. And Peregrine's Home for

Peculiar Children. Absolutely. Coming up next

on La La Lounge, I'm actually going to be taking

a look at Flash Season 2 and Supergirl Season

1. So that'll be an episode next year. I decided

to do these next year because I want to go back

and re -listen to them all. But you guys mentioned

no one can really undertake... Multiple hours

of music. Well, we're going to be tackling the

25th anniversary of Batman the Animated Series.

I'm going to tackle all four volumes in one year.

Nice. So that's what's going on with Matt and

Michael. I'd like to thank you guys for taking

the time to chat with me. And head on over to

lowlandrecords .com, folks. That's where soundtracks

live. Hey, we appreciate it, Mike. Thank you.

Thank you. You and I join forces. Literally.

We combine your speed with my speed. If you throw

me forward at your fastest, then I might just

break the dimensional barrier and get back home.

What do you mean? Like a race? Yeah, I guess.

Think you can keep up, Girl of Steel? Oh, just

you watch Scarlet Speedster. All right.