Interview with M.V. Gerhard and Matt Verboys from La La Land Records

Hi this is Kevin Conroy and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to GeekCast Radio. I am your host TF2 and Mike

and in this latest interview I am talking to

the co -founders of La La Land Records, one of

the, one of if not the best soundtrack companies.

in the world right now. I am talking to MV Gerhard,

hello. Hi, how are you doing? And Matt Verbois,

hello. Hey, how are you? Am I saying your last

name right? It sounds good to me. Okay, I just

want to make sure. Alright, so in doing research

for this, you guys started about 12 years ago

in 2002. What was... What was the thought in

starting up a soundtrack production, album production

company? Well, I think, speaking for both of

us, we're movie music fans, and like all movie

music fans, we're always excited to get either

a release of a new score or a release of a score

that we've always loved, and they're just...

is always a holy grail out there that we want,

you know, as fans that we've been, you know,

that we were always looking for. And there was

sort of a need while it was being filled, you

know, by some of the labels, there was still

plenty left to be released. And Michael was working

for GMP Crescendo Records at the time. And well,

actually, he can fill you in a little bit about

what that experience was. Yeah, I had been working

at Crescendo Records for a few years at that

point. and started in the mail room and worked

my way up to working on the production system

on some of the projects there. I felt that a

lot of the ideas that I had for projects that

needed to be released were being shot down unfairly.

It wasn't until I approached Matt, who was working

at another company at the time, who his bosses

were big soundtrack fans, where we discussed

possibly starting up a label of our own and releasing

some of these gems that GMP had passed on at

the time. Yeah, I had been working for a couple

of writer -producers who were not soundtrack

producers at all, but they were fans and they

wanted to sort of expand their business into

doing some soundtracks, and they asked me how

to maybe go about doing that, and of course,

I knew Michael was actually working in the field.

So we, with them, did three releases of People

Remember Our Catalog when it first started before

our catalog. We worked on The Dark Crystal, the

1990 version of Night of the Living Dead, and

Day of the Dead were three original records that

we produced for them. And in the course of doing

that, we learned that we'd probably be able to

make a go of it. if we formed our own label,

and that's what we did. Absolutely, absolutely.

Alright, so what was, for Michael, what was,

as a child, what was your number one favorite

film that you wanted the music from? Well, are

we talking about something that was readily available

or something that was... Something that you heard

in a movie that you said to yourself, I need

that music outside of the movie. Well, Ray of

the Lost Ark is the one that really got me into

not only film, but also film music. But it was

in 1989 with Danny Elston's Batman that made

me just fall head over heels in love with film

music. and I had to have that soundtrack and

I remember going to the store being so disappointed

that the Prince album was out but there was nothing

about Danny Elfman's amazing score not until

later that summer if I remember correctly and

then when it finally came out I bought that on

cassette at the time I didn't have a CD player

and I just played it over and over and over and

over and over again. Absolutely. What about you

Matt? Oh, Jesus, you know, as a child coming

of age from the late 70s or mid to late 70s into

the 80s, it was really all about John Williams.

And as a kid, I couldn't, I think like a lot

of us, I just couldn't separate the emotional

experience of the movie from the music. So to

me, they were always kind of one and the same.

It was like, you know, as soon as I thought of

the movie, I thought of those great film scores.

And my taste ran all over the place. You know,

one of the things that I liked as a kid, which

is kind of a little off the radar, was the score

to the 1979 comedy The Inlaws with Alan Arkin

and Peter Falk. And I can remember as like a

10 -year -old kid holding my cassette recorder

up to the TV to tape, you know, the opening and

titles. So it only took, I don't know, about

40 years or so. But we finally put it out. So

that's certainly part of the fun for us. And

I know with the Batman stuff with Michael, especially

all this great animated series stuff we've been

doing, it's really satisfying a lot of those

early wants and desires for having that music

become available. One of the main reasons we

started the label is to release a lot of these

holy grails that we never would. that have never

seen the light of day. And that many animated

series, being one in particular, has been a dream

come true. And now we've just released our third

volume, which would be what, 10 discs worth now

of Shirley Walker and company's magnificent music

from that groundbreaking television series. Yeah,

it's so amazing. I remember when I first... knew

because obviously I follow you guys on Facebook

Twitter all that stuff so I had seen the announcement

that volume 3 was coming for Batman the animated

series and then I saw that the world's finest

had the press release with the track listing

and I'm going through the track listing and go

I'm like wait okay now I need to wait till volume

4 damn it because the two episodes the two episodes

I really want you guys to get to is over the

edge and old wounds and it hasn't happened yet

No, those were the new Batman Adventures. As

I was going to say, we're not quite there yet.

We need to finish up Batman the Animated first,

and then Adventures of Batman and Robin, and

then new Batman Adventures. So we'll get there

eventually. We will satisfy you. The other satisfaction,

since we're talking about Batman, is we need

a new redone score for Batman Beyond. Oh, yeah.

The first soundtrack I think was 10, I think

it's 10 tracks. And then they did the Return

of the Joker score. But that series has so many

awesome music scores in it. I remember when my

son was three years old and he was sort of on

a Batman kick and he really liked Batman Beyond.

And every time that that theme would play, he'd

get up and just start dancing. And it's the funniest

thing because it's such a club remix, kind of

the complete opposite of what Shirley did and

Danny did for the Batman the Animated series.

And it's certainly a piece of music you can shake

your ass to, especially for three years old.

Yeah. All land records, music you can shake your

ass to. Ladies and gentlemen, that is something

that was actually just said. Uh, yeah. I mean,

the coolest thing for me with Batman Beyond was

when they would break the New Age, the kind of

rock stuff, like in Rebirth, the end of Rebirth

Part II. Very well, Mr. McGinnis. Welcome to

my world. And the original theme just swells,

and it's like, oh, this is so awesome. I mean,

that whole time period is the... truly was the

second golden age of animation over at Warner

Brothers. Those shows and Animaniacs and Tiny

Toons and Freakazoid, I mean they were doing

some incredible stuff over there and we were

fortunate enough that we got to actually grow

up with that stuff and have these incredible

composers work on all these shows, whether it

was Richard Stone or Bruce Rotten with the Tiny

Toons and Animaniacs stuff. or Shirley and Melita

and Michael and Chris and everyone else with

all the DC animated projects. It really was an

incredible time and a great workshop to help

usher in some wonderful, wonderful composers.

Absolutely. I mean, you know, Shirley Walker,

she... was the cutting edge of composing and

getting composers work and her whole workshop.

That was such an amazing time and even now we

have a bunch of new composers that are approaching

projects. I looked back in our archives and I

think the very first written review I did for

you guys was Green Lantern the Animated Series

Volume 1. by Frederick Weidman. I had heard the

music in the show and that was one of the things

that I said, wow, I would love to hear this outside

of the show. Both of those soundtracks, volume

one and volume two, now that I have both of them,

if I need to leave my dog home alone, that's

what I put on for her. It's so weird because

that music is so, some of those tracks are eerie

and haunting and it's just so awesome. The animated,

the superhero animated series Age is just so,

so interesting. I cannot wait till you guys get

to Justice League. Oh man. I have been, I have

been emailing Matt like over and over every now

and then like when's Justice League? When's Justice

League? Come on. I'll tell you this, they will

be separated from Justice League and Justice

League Unlimited. Those will be two separate

kind of releases. So rest assured, we're not

going to just lump all the Justice League together.

We're going to do it in its proper context. And

who knows? Maybe we'll get some super friends

in there at some point. You're not a fan of that,

huh, Matt? No, I'm just laughing at the thought

of it. sort of stirs something in the inner kid

in you, even to think of that. Yeah, that Hoyt

curtain. It wasn't a mocking laugh. It was like,

yeah, that'd be so cool. And so much of that

Hoyt curtain stuff just across the board would

be great. Yeah, I mean, one of our dream projects

now over at Warner Brothers is to try to get

out a lot of the 60s Hanna -Barbera stuff, stuff

like stuff from the Flintstones and Scooby -Doo

and Johnny Quest. you know, Jetsons, anything

we can get our hands on. I mean, you know, through

private collectors, we've managed to get stuff

for Johnny Quest, the school we do, and now we

just need to, you know, get it out there officially,

because there's some amazing music in there.

It's so great. It's just so part of, you know,

so many generations now of children growing up

on that stuff, and that music is just ingrained

in your head. Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's

Scooby -Doo chase music. Everybody knows the

Scooby -Doo chase music. Creeping around music.

We just think it's all over and over again. And

so much of that, like particularly the Johnny

Quest that was used in so many other Anna Barbera

stuff. It would all get so recycled, you know.

That's why it's so, it's almost in the DNA. I

think we pass it down to other people at this

point. Yeah. And what's so great is now that

we're multiple generations, from, you know, stuff

like that. You can see how it's affected composers

10, 20 years ago and how their music is now affecting

composers now. It's, you know, it's sort of like,

you know, Shirley would listen to something that

Hoyt did and now guys like Chris Drake and Freddie

Weidman are listening to stuff that Shirley did.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's so obvious that, you know,

Shirley Walker, what she did and then, you know,

when she brought in Melita and Michael and then

you know Christopher under her wing and then

you can hear just like Michael saying that influence

and respect for all of that work in what you

know Freddy's doing what Chris Drake is doing

what Robert Crowell is doing you know it's just

sort of is this great tradition yeah and then

you just go back even further you can even go

back to the master himself Carl Farley sure and

and and uh and uh uh who did the tech savory

stuff um Oh, and the Tom and Jerry stuff? Yeah,

Bradley? Yeah, Scott Bradley. It's like a book

in itself, you know, animation music and how

to do it right. And speaking of which, we're

actually working on a very exciting project right

now that is not PC related but animated related

that we can't go into great detail but I think

it's gonna make people of 80s animated shows

are very very happy sometime in the spring of

2015. And it was only like a three -year search

for the material. We have it, it's a mono, it

sounds fantastic and I mean it's like it really

made my childhood listening to this music. It

almost brings tears to my eyes much like when

we started working on Star Trek the original

series. And there's product producers, Jeff Bond

and Neal Ball and Lucas Kendall. I mean, they

were balling like babies, pretty much, listening

to these original tracks. That's kind of how

I feel right now, listening to some of the stuff

that we've got coming out for next year. Yeah,

awesome, awesome. So where did the company name

come from? If you want the other bridge story,

originally going to be Hollywood land records

because that's the way the original Hollywood

sign read until Rock Slide knocked out the land

apart in the late 40s. And at the time it looked

like Universal Studios was going to expand, maybe,

I don't know, they were going to expand their

theme park and include sort of a Hollywood land

part of that. We just thought we'd shy away from

that, and we came up with Lava Land. Interesting.

That's perfect, right? Because people always

refer to Los Angeles as Lava Land. We're talking

about metal music, and it's got kind of a musical

connotation. What goes into the release calendar

for you guys? You guys, in December of, say,

this year, are you going to say, OK, well, for

the next two years, we'd like to get these...

these certain releases done, or do you guys go

by months? We try very hard to have a schedule,

but every one of these 350 -some -odd soundtracks

that we've done have their own trajectory and

their own story behind it. We tend to run about...

If we're thinking of something now and putting

it together now, there's a good chance... it'll

be a year and a half to two years before it actually

comes out. Depending. If it's a new, current

release project, something like Expendables 3,

which we did, or some of the television series

that we're doing, Transformers, you know, perfect

example, you know, the studios are sort of, you

know, they're under the gun themselves to get

that material out timed to the movie. So that

process usually goes a lot quicker, understandably.

But any time we're dealing with something that's

archival, that involves researching old contracts

and finding elements, and you've got some of

these projects have approvals from multiple studios,

not just one studio, and it can take, you know,

it can take months and months and months. I mean,

just as of today, we got a little monkey wrench

thrown into a project we had planned on coming

out December 2nd. It's part of our big Black

Friday releases. And now I don't know if it's

going to make it or not, because now we have

to clear it with yet another production company

that was involved in the film. So it's sort of

like, wow, just when we thought we were safe,

we're clear to go, something happens, and now

we've got to clear it with somebody else. How

often do you, because what I notice with you

guys is the majority of your releases are limited

edition scores, whether it be a single -disc

a two -disc or whatever else what i've noticed

recently with some of them like i have here arrow

complete television series soundtrack season

two this looks like it's just you guys putting

it out for the company it's not something that

you've actually Well, I'm not saying you guys

don't do the work. I'm just saying that it doesn't

have the usual stamp that I see on most of the

discs I get from you guys, which is limited edition

scores. So what's the difference? You have to

understand, most of the time, with the newer

stuff, we want to give it out to as many people

as we possibly can. So we do them as a retail

release. So something like Aero Season 2 as a

retail release. that we're able to sell to Amazons,

Best Buy, Fry's, whoever wants to carry it. And

those aren't limited. The historical ones, as

I've referred to as, those tend to be limited

because we have to deal with the union and their

rules as to what we can... what we can release

and how many units we can re -release. And then

sometimes it's just what you arrive at when you

make the deal with the studio. In the case of

Transformers, Age of Extinction, that's a new

movie but it's a limited release. You're coming

at us a little bit more recently for people that

were sort of buying our product back when we

were doing the Battlestar Galactica albums. The

marketplace is a little bit different. The marketplace

was much broader. and there was much more, you

know, hard retail sales back when you had, you

know, Tower Records, and Virgin Megastore, and

Morehouse, and Sam Moody. Yeah, I mean, looking

at our early releases right here on our wall

right now, I mean, most of our stuff that came

out for the first few years was actually geared

toward the retail marketplace. Everything from,

you know, Cabin Fever, Insectis Chainsaw Massacre,

to Battlestar Galactica, and the Punisher, Cellular.

Hitman the video game series, Devil's Rejects,

Kits Kits Bang Bang, even some older titles like

The Howling and Extreme Prejudice and Creepshow,

those weren't limited either. We sold them through

our distributor and those went out into the retail

marketplace. But so much has changed in the last

decade that all stores, brick and mortar, mom

and pops, they're all gone. And there's just

really no market for CDs anymore, unless they're

something special for the collectors. Right.

So that's why we've seen a big influx in the

limited editions we do, because the marketplace

has shifted a little bit. But we've always catered

to the collectors as well. So we're a very flexible

label. We've even done a soap opera CD. We'll

hop into genres, we'll do animation, we'll do

video games, we'll do television, we'll do film.

And we kind of pride ourselves for sort of being

adaptable and trying to take into account as

many tastes along with our own too. Absolutely.

For each of you, Michael, you can go first. What

was your most favorite out of the 300 and something

releases that you get? Like, what was the one

you were most looking forward to being able to

listen to, produce, or, you know, get out there

to the public? My two babies, I would have to

say, have to be volume one of Batman the Animated

Series, just simply because I've been wanting

that episode to show air, and the X -Files volume

one. To be able to work with, you know, Mark

Snow on X -Files is a dream come true. I mean,

that's the music that I spent every Friday night

with. And I had always wanted it out, and they

released something, you know? The show was out,

which had some stuff on it, but it wasn't what

I wanted. It had dialogue in it. Yeah, and it

was experimental, and it was kind of odd. So...

When we sat down and wanted to form this company,

we came up with titles that we wanted to do at

all these studios and those are the two of the

top ones that I've been wanting my entire life.

The fact that we got them out there and we got

to work on them and do them the way that we wanted

to do them and the fans liked it. It was a dream

come true for those two particular projects for

me. What about you, Matt? I think, yeah, I'm

so proud of sort of all that we've done. But

I think the things that strike me the most, the

ones that stick with me the most, if I'm holding

it in my hand when it comes in from the manufacturer,

and I sort of can't believe it's actually in

my hand. I kind of felt that way, I feel that

way with quite a few of them, but like 1941 especially.

I just have such affection, and I love the movie,

but I love the score even more. And just to be

able to have that out, and we sort of did our

first, we've done sort of a number of screening

events, all of them which have been really special

for us, but that was the first one. And that

release in particular just really, I couldn't

believe I had it in my hands. And the same thing

with Police Academy. And it was just a lot of

fun to work with Robert Folk on that. and get

that another score like for 30 some odd years

it's like where is that score you know and finally

here it is and something like die hard commando

I mean these are just they come in the door and

we're just like we're so proud of them and we

can't believe they're actually here one of the

most satisfying things that goes on here is the

fact that we've been fans all our lives and we've

been able to work with some of our heroes You

know, guys like John Williams and Danny Elsman

and Harold Faltemeier. I mean, who thought we'd

ever get to meet Harold Faltemeier and work with

him on a project? You know? And then to also

follow the careers of upstart composers that

are, you know, into the world right now. Guys

like Brian Tyler and Bear McCreary. We did with

one of Michael Giacchino's early video games.

Michael Giacchino and Chris Leonard. It's so

fun and exciting. And now we're working with

guys like Freddie Liebman and Rob Prowl. And

it's really great because we get to see where

they were, where they're going, and hopefully

where they're going to be several years from

now. It's really kind of cool to be part of all

that. Those DC animation composers are really

something, and I'm hoping that their music, either

through our CDs or through their representation,

is getting into the right hands of the right

people. Film scoring in particular has become

a little monotonous in its sound and style recently,

at least on a lot of the big films. And some

of these guys, I think, could really shake things

up in a really great way. Absolutely. I'd love

to see one of these guys like Freddie or Chris

Drake, you know, or any of the Batman composers

like Michael and Melita and Chris. Oh, my God.

I'd love to see them do one of these big DC animated

films that are coming up. Oh, absolutely. To

this day, as much as I love and respect everything

that Hans has done and what Danny did, But man,

to this day, the music that Shirley and her crew

did for Batman and Superman and Justice League

really set the standard. Every single one of

those scores, particularly for the Batman stuff,

were scored individually. They didn't use any

library stuff. And it's just pure magic. And

that stuff just belongs on the big screen as

well as the small screen. absolutely yeah you

know I'd say for me the one score that I literally

jumped out of my chair when I saw it was announced

because it's 23 at the time it was 23 years in

the making those days of thunder when you guys

announced that I was like finally cuz that was

that was one of the movies that I remember watching

you know 9 10 11 years old that it was like Okay,

this movie is awesome. I need this music and

There had been multiple bootlegs over the last

28 some odd years and then all of a sudden BAM

you guys came to the rescue and here you go and

just hearing the the rental car race Oh God just

hearing that music outside the movie is so good

Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise's approval were

like, oh, man, are they going to understand what

this is all about? And they were more than happy

to talk about it. And they loved the artwork.

They loved the sound. They loved everything about

it. It was so satisfying that we can make them

be part of the fandom as much as we are and as

much as our customers are. Yeah, it sometimes

forces these guys, and they're the ones that

made the thing. to sort of step back and actually

think about the music sort of as a separate entity.

And it's really cool when it happens and they

get sort of excited about it, too. Absolutely,

absolutely. So roughly, I guess I'll ask this

about a current release that just came out. Roughly,

from the time you got the approval to do Batman

the animated series volume 3 from the time it

released how long did that process actually take

well that was a little bit different because

we've been kind of working on the Batman animated

stuff for several years and having everything

transferred over yeah when Michael made that

deal it wasn't just like oh we're gonna do one

now if people hadn't bought it that would have

been where it would have ended but the approach

was to like Michael saying just Transfer all

that stuff from there. I mean a more a better

one would be something like I don't know like

maybe the naked gun trilogy. Yeah. Yeah, the

naked gun trilogy I mean, I would say probably

about a year or a year and a half. That's fair.

About a year. Yeah, for when we basically, you

know said the Paramount really want to do the

naked gun trilogy as opposed to a best of compilation

and do it right at the set. And yeah, because

we have to get the contract. We got to get the

elements, make sure the elements are OK. As difficult

as it can be sometimes, but we really like working

with composers on all this stuff, depending on

their schedule. And luckily, Mr. Newborn was

great to work with. And he was very much into

the project and all the way through the mastering

and the lighter notes and all that. But yeah,

I would say about a year, a year and a half on

that particular project. And most of them usually

go about that long, let's say at least 11. Yeah.

Or a newer project could take like one month.

I mean, heck, I think we did Expendables 3 within

a month. And that's when Brian Tyler was finishing

up Ninja Turtles. And was it Into the Storm?

Is that the other one? He had three movies come

out in August, including Expendables 3. And still,

he found the time to work with us on this. And

I think he also started to score a little bit

of Avengers, not recording it, but actually writing

it. So the man was super busy, but took the time

to sit down and work with us on this project.

And that got done, I'd say, within four weeks,

I think. So from the time when they said, hey,

do you want to do it? To the time we actually

had the CD in our hand. It was about four weeks.

Transformer digital distinction was pretty fast

as well. Yeah, because hadn't that already been

released digitally at the time? Had been released

digitally, yes. But we had worked with Steve,

as a matter of fact, to release his very first

soundtrack. We did a solo soundtrack, which was

Texas Chainsaw Massacre about 10 years ago. So

yeah, there's a prime example of somebody that

we can say, hey, we knew you when. And he had

really wanted to get a soundtrack CD out. He

wanted something tangible, something that he

could hold in his hand, something he could actually

give people. And he and Michael Bay convinced

Paramount to get a soundtrack CD out. And we

have a wonderful working relationship with Paramount.

And they know that we're big fans of a genre

of music, particularly stuff like the Transformers.

And Steve remembered working with us way back

when and said, hey, let's allow that guy to do

that. And we're so glad we did. It was great

to work with him again. And here we are 10 years

later. And we got to release the soundtrack to

the biggest film in the world this year. And

it's some great stuff. I mean, he really outdid

himself. I'm a little biased, but I think it's

certainly the best of the four. Yeah, absolutely.

I can't wait to listen to that. I'm just kind

of looking at the ones that you guys, because

I'm on the website now, I'm looking at the ones

that you guys are pretty much sold out of. And

the sold out of ones are just amazing. I had

no idea you guys put up the original 87 Masters

of the Universe. I had no clue. I was not on

that train at the time. We did that. That was

usually done after. Yeah, and Toronto released

it after us. And they sold out of theirs as well

after a few years. That was one of the ones early

on where it sold out, what, within two weeks,

three weeks? It was a very quick sell -off for

us, and we had not experienced anything like

that at the time. So it's frustrating for the

fans, and it's satisfying for us, but a little

frustrating as well. We just never know how things

are going to sell. I mean, we come up with a

number, 3 ,000 units, 2 ,000 units, whatever

it might be, and thinking, OK, well, if it can

stay. You know, for a couple weeks, that'd be

great. I could sell that quickly, that's even

better. You know, I mean, we spend all this money,

we gotta make it back. Well, yeah. That's what

we want, is just to have boxes and boxes of CDs

sitting here. You know, unfortunately, a lot

of stuff doesn't sell, so we do have boxes and

boxes of stuff. You'll see, if you're on the

website, the... The out -of -print section is

a lot smaller than the other section. Yeah, but

the out -of -print section has a lot of the ones

I've been dying to get. That's the problem. So

those are the ones that pay for all the other

ones that are still in print. And a lot of those

in the out -of -print section, too, didn't just

sell out. They're just out of print because the

contract's ended, and we didn't re -up print.

That's true. Occasionally, a contract will run

out, and then that's that. Most contracts are

three to five years. Some of them are ten for

us on the newer stuff. But for the limited edition

stuff, usually three to five years. Once that

contract's out, you have the right to revert

back to the studio or the production company

or the composer. We just have to sell off whatever

we have. One of the ones I was most looking forward

to was Innerspace. I love that movie. Fantastic.

Well, we'll take a round here and see if we got

a promo here for you. I'm trying to think how

to word this. Has there been anything that you

guys, like has anyone approached you and said,

hey, I'd like you guys to do this, but you just

didn't really, like it wasn't cost effective

for the company? quite a bit. I mean, in my heart,

and I think Michael would too, we would love

to do really anybody's soundtrack. We believe

in film music getting out there. The problem

is, especially with a lot of smaller, independent

things, and those are the things that need the

most help, unfortunately, as far as getting exposure.

If you're only going to sell 500 units of something,

it just doesn't, especially when you're talking

physical dips. it doesn't justify, you know,

manufacturing CDs and going through the whole

process. So we've got to be careful on a lot

of the smaller indie titles. Although we've experimented

a little bit. Joe Kramer's score to Favour is

something that we did digitally, and that was

a web series score. But it also depends on the

composer, too, you know. We were a fan of Joe's

work. We released his Jack Reacher score. and

he had come to us to ask us to release the music

for that web series. Absolutely. I have to say

the one that really intrigued me the most was,

I think it was last year, Bonnie and Clyde. Like

I was not expecting to, like I remember watching

that TV series event and... I was like, I watched

the movie, and I was like, oh, that's pretty

awesome. I would love to hear that music. And

that next day, literally the next day, you guys

put out the announcement, hey, guess what? Bonnie

and Clyde coming. I was like, oh. Oh, that's

a perfect example of what you just said. That

was something John and me wanted to happen. Yeah,

absolutely. More than that, we love working with

John, and we actually just, we're wrapping up

Pastor the Christ right now. with him. It's the

10th anniversary edition and John just made the

announcement and that's going to be a two CD

set. It's going to be coming out sometime this

year. That's got a ton of unreleased music. It's

really pretty great. It's an amazing project

that I never thought we'd be part of and I'm

so happy that we are. Some incredible beautiful

music and we just love working with John. He's

so talented. and such a nice guy too. Absolutely.

What was the process in getting the giant Star

Trek set done? Org is a house. But literally

it was a monumentally expensive project. It was

first trying to put together the actual capital

and the means of that to get that going. The

reason why that never existed before was it's

not cost effective to do it and it's just a major

undertaking. But Michael and I knew that we had,

if you're talking Trek music, then Jeff Bond,

Lucas Kendall, Bulk, we were working with people

that we knew really honestly were the authority

on Trek music. Jeff literally wrote the book.

on the music of Star Trek. You don't get any

more of an expert there. So we figured if we

were gonna do it, it made sense to do it because

we were working with the people that would make

us look great. And we did. It's pop culture history.

I'm a casual Trek fan and I know the the monumental

impact that that series has had on our culture.

And I know just in my year when you heard the

music, it was like such dramatic, exciting score

music. We figured when we looked at the cost

of it, if you're going to go all in, if you're

going to bet the farm, Star Trek is as safe of

a bet as probably any property in the history

of Hollywood. And it paid off for us. And what's

so great about it is that the set turned out

to be pure perfection. And a fan's dream come

true. And we were so delighted that the response

was to the moon. Now, I know you guys also have

Star Trek The Next Generation and that kind of

stuff. Are there any other plans to do more?

Right now I see on here Next Generation and then

the Motion Picture Limited Edition is a separate

release. Do you guys have plans to do like Deep

Space? Oh wait, no, Deep Space Nine is on here.

Oh wow. Yeah, awesome. We're certainly very happy

working within the Star Trek universe. And we'll

have many more albums to come, that's for sure.

We've got a really nice relationship with CBS.

They have been wonderful. They sort of stand

out as one of those entities that understand

sort of the history and the work of this material

and really want respect to be made to it. They've

been great to work with. Right, right. I know

the core of the company is film and television,

but you guys have also done six video game scores.

Is there any plans to do any more video game

scores as time goes on? Yes, always. As a matter

of fact, we've got a couple we're working on

right now, and we hope to do more in the future.

I mean, what's so satisfying about the video

game score world is, as we're told through a

lot of composers, They really get the opportunity

to just let loose. And they don't have the confines

and restraints that they have on films and TV.

And I think it really shows with some of the

compositions they come up with. Some incredible

music has come out in the last decade or so.

And a lot of it is from the video game world.

you know, guys like Michael Giacchino, I mean,

that's where he pretty much started. And that's

Enan Zur, and you got Jack Wall, and a bunch

of, you know, fantastic composers coming out

of this world. And then you have, you know, big

composers, you know, working on it. Daphne's

layer score. Yeah, John Daphne's layer score

was incredible. And Hans Zimmer did some of the

themes for Crisis, too. And Chris Tilton, who

worked with Michael G. Heen on a number of scores.

He's done a number of video game scores and has

gone on to do a bunch of TV. And Bear McCreary.

Yeah, of course, Bear McCreary. Yeah, there's

another one. Bear's done some great stuff. So

yeah, I mean, we're always looking forward to

the next great video game score. And I was excited

to release stuff from composers we know. Like

Chris Leonard, he did one that we released. And

Mark Mancina, he did another one. So, yeah, it's

definitely a world that we're big fans of and

look forward to working in. Absolutely. Yeah,

I would have to say the one video game score

I'm interested in is not really current, but

the Metal Gear Solid games, oh man, if you guys

could get those, that would be amazing. Yeah,

there's some great stuff there. Right now we

have a very good work relationship with Sony

PlayStation. We haven't really branched out to

any other companies. We worked with EAA on a

few things, particularly the Metal Honor Box

set. That was a big video game package that we

put together and it was fantastic. Other companies

we certainly want to branch out in the future.

Yeah, you never know. You never know what 2015

holds. Oh, I'm sure you guys know. You just don't

want to tell anybody yet. No, we actually don't

know. We just don't know. You know, everything

is in such flux that deals sort of move at their

own pace. And, you know, stuff we thought, oh,

that'll be in production next week, all of a

sudden isn't. And stuff we thought would take

forever, all of a sudden something happened.

So. As much as we'd like to say, we got it all

figured out. Suffice to say, we know what's out

there to fall into place out of this hiding stuff.

Which one comes first is a bit of a mystery at

the moment. I remember when I did the interview

with Neil S. Bulk and we talked about the lethal

set. Oh my god, that was an amazing set. What

surprised me about that was that it wasn't just

the score, that it was also the sung songs from

the films as well. That separates us, I think,

from sort of the other score -focused labels,

as we also understand two things. If a song contributes

sort of an emotional component to whatever the

movie is, and it was important in the story,

like it wasn't just background music, but it

really added something, If we can, and a lot

of times these licensing deals are not, they

don't come together, but when they can and when

we can do it, we always try and add those. And

the other thing we look forward to sometimes

is when the composer himself or herself actually

produced and or wrote the songs. So that's another

factor. But if the song for us makes the cut,

then we try and get it on there. Not always successful,

but we're happy when we are. We were delighted

to include the song in Commando. One of the things

that surprised us about that release is, prior

to our release, another company, Verose Air Band,

had released Commando. They had released 3 ,000

units, and while it sold out, it took quite some

time. But when we did our version, we rematched

the soundtrack, And we threw on the song by Power

Station. And it was the fastest song in our company's

history. We sold 3 ,000 units in less than 24

hours. Wow. Yeah. And we don't know if it was

a song or not, but damn it. You know, I'm just

going to have a little bit to do with it. Because

it's just such an iconic piece of music from

the 80s and that particular soundtrack and something

that just really ended the album perfectly. I

tried like heck to get, we tried like heck to

get the end credits sort of 80's anthem song,

I'm Gonna Be Somebody to the end of Police Academy.

But that's an example where the licensing just

couldn't be worked out. So sometimes the songs

aren't there but it's not because we didn't try,

it's just because it didn't work out. And then

you can go overboard like we did with Die Hard.

We got everything on there except for Vicious

Countdown from Aliens. But we got everything

else. We tracked down the actual piece of the

actual recording they used for the base of the

knife. We're geeks ourselves, and you know we

sit down and we do a soundtrack release We want

to make damn sure that it actually is you know

how we would want it to be Mm -hmm. Oh absolutely

speaking of Soundtrack releases this coming Tuesday

You guys are going to be releasing Titan ae now

is that going to be a limited edition or is that

a regular? That one is limited Okay, what is

going to be on it just the score or is the the

songs from the movie gonna be on it as well It's

just the score. Yeah. Yeah, the song out was

already released License but we knew that the

fans been wanting to score for quite some time.

So that is That's what's coming out on Tuesday

and that's that's the only releases coming out

on Tuesday We thought we would have another one

for Tuesday, but unfortunately just didn't get

approved in time See, we don't always have it.

All right. Since it didn't get approved in time,

would you guys get in trouble if you revealed

what it might have been? Well, we would if we

knew what it was going to be. Oh. We had a couple

of different things that we were looking to fill

that slot with. But as it turned out, they need

a little more time in the oven. But they'll be

done real soon. Awesome. Is there anything else

you guys want to explain to the listeners about

the process of getting soundtrack albums done

and out to everybody? I think I would just like

to say that, you know, just express our gratitude

to the fans because there is no process if nobody's

buying the output and it really is the support

and it's a small community out there so we really

depend on them. And I know the other labels do

too, you know. So the process keeps moving if

the folks, you know, still buy. And what's even

more exciting for us is it's allowed us to, you

know, start looking to the future and branching

out and creating our own production company as

well. And La La Land Entertainment, which is

La La Land Records is under the umbrella of...

We have our first film hopefully coming out next

year the documentary On the life and times of

filmmaker Larry Cohen. Yeah, which Matt is an

active producer on So, you know, that's just

we'd like to take the company in all kinds of

new and exciting directions But you know film

music is kind of the linking Sort of the the

heartbeat of all of it Mm -hmm. Absolutely. Absolutely

All right. Well, I'd like to thank you guys for

hanging out with me here in this latest geek

cast radio network interview Coming up next time

on geek cast radio. It is episode 75 I have no

idea what we're gonna be doing what we're gonna

be talking about Yeah, well normally I'm not

normally I'm one of these people people will

will tell you that when Steve and C. Phillips

and I started the network back in 2009, I had

100 episodes of a cartoon review podcast planned

out before the show even started production.

So yeah, I am one of those planners. Technical

difficulties. Let's move on, shall we? Just listen

to. Geekcast Radio. On the Geekcast Radio network,

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