Since Swamp Thing was a DC Comics property and Superman had just taken off, and the Batman cartoon was very popular, did you feel some sense of urgency or extreme importance with the Swamp Thing project?
I didn’t feel the urgency at all. I thought it was a cool idea, and relished the idea of scoring it. Was the prospect of working with Wes Craven what drew you to Swamp Thing? Well, actually, Wes contacted me and asked me to do the project. But when he did, I was excited about working with him. Swamp Thing was also among the first movies to blend the horror, action, and sci-fi genres. How did you cope with the different sensations and elements of the film? The genres were not much a thought for me. I took it for what it was, and really did not consider the music to be genre based. What I did was combine a couple of elements that spoke to me concerning the film – one being the comic book origins which spoke to the “cue-based” type of scoring. What I mean is that there were many “on the nose” hits, and stings that were very specific to the picture. The second aspect of the score was an almost “operatic” approach. The story has a very serious and heavy element to it. It is bigger than life
