Surrogates

My pal Scott Stambler and composer Rick Marvin invited me to write some stuff for Touchtone Pictures' Surrogates, which Rick wrote an incredible score for. It was an awesome experience working with Scott, Rick, Bruce Fowler, George Doering, Tommy Vicari, and Monica Zierhut and the team at Walt Disney Studios, and I came out with many amazing friendships in the process.

There are a bunch of stories I could tell from the Surrogates project, but the biggest one for me was working on the Streisand Scoring Stage at Sony with George Doering. I had written a piece of music that was to be played by George, and I handed it to him on my fourth day at the stage, expecting him to play it as masterfully as every other Los Angeles musician I'd ever worked with in town. George studied my sketch carefully, looked it over up, down and backwards, and then asked, "Should I follow this exactly?"

Those of you who have had the honor of working with George have also shared my experience of handing him one thing, only to be blown away by a completely different something else in the final mix. What he proceeded to lay down on that particular cue made every jawbone in the room hit the floor with a resounding thud.

I would have told you that morning that you'll never be able to match the talent of real musicians in your score with samples—something I've said many times and truly believe with all my heart. But, that day I learned the stark difference between putting a sheet of music in front of your average live player and handing something over to a journeyman technician. Everything—and I mean everything—changes.