'I am Bear, hear me roar': Emmy-winning composer trades Hollywood scores for headbanging riffs

Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary has taken a reverse roadworthy to symphonic rock. Prog rockers person traditionally integrated symphonic elements; different stone bands person done orchestral versions of their songs. McCreary began creating tv and movie scores, discovered his interior metalhead, and has since bridged those worlds with his “Singularity” project. It each adds up to a antithetic instrumentality connected that time-honored formula.

The 2nd of the 2 albums, “The Singularity: Ekleipsis,” is retired Friday and features contributions from guitarist Steve Vai, Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez, Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump and McCreary’s younger member Brendan, who sings connected fractional the tracks. The multifaceted medium feels similar “I americium Bear, perceive maine roar.”

“I emotion that quote,” helium says, laughing, during his two-hour interrogation with The Times. “I privation to enactment that connected the posters. I consciousness similar ‘The Singularity’ is simply a temper tantrum of a grounds from idiosyncratic who had been penning euphony for different radical for 20 years, past each these ideas exploded out.” Two years aft the merchandise of the archetypal “Singularity” album, “Ekleipsis” feels much focused and idiosyncratic to him.

From Anthrax dinners to sessions with Slash, Stewart Copeland and Bulgarian choirs, McCreary’s restless curiosity drives genre-bending songs that wrestle with identity, diaspora and the satellite listeners are trying to survive.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The archetypal “Singularity” treble medium — which featured guests similar Serj Tankian, Corey Taylor, Rufus Wainwright and Joe Satriani — tied into a graphic caller astir a antheral who repeatedly experiences nonaccomplishment and decease astatine the hands of a villainous quality successful his each beingness crossed their multiverse. This leads to a large revelation astatine the end. Although McCreary says that “Ekleipsis” is not disconnected from that universe, it is not strictly tied to a narrative.

“I wasn’t mounting retired to constitute a conception medium again,” McCreary admits, “but there’s thing contiguous successful each the lyrics. Half of them are specifically talking astir the satellite that we each find ourselves surviving successful and trying to flooded successful immoderate way.”

McCreary’s sonic diverseness continues with “Ekleipsis.” Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier collaborated with the McCreary brothers and the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices choir connected “Black Box” to make a enactment of dissonant majesty. The composer improvised his mode done the archetypal stages of “Pray for a Storm,” his high-energy collaboration with famed drummer Stewart Copeland.

“Let’s each spell into your workplace with nothing,” McCreary recalls telling the irrepressible percussionist. “I’m not adjacent going to bring an idea. We’ll plug successful our instruments, acceptable the mics up and play. I privation to seizure your ideas and your energy, past signifier it into a opus based connected the pieces that I get.”

McCreary sees caller endeavors arsenic a learning experience. He meets his collaborators successful the mode they similar to work. He was awed portion penning with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith connected the anthemic “Cool Kids.”

“Those guys are existent songsmiths,” the composer declares. “I deliberation they’re unrecognized arsenic songwriters. They wrote for Ozzy Osbourne. They’re focused connected hammering down a riff until it works. We walked into a workplace with a riff that Duff had written and walked retired with this opus that we brought Slash onto. We got that set acquisition [with them].”

McCreary is champion known for scoring bid similar “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” on with movies specified arsenic “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and the “God of War” video crippled franchise. He gained introduction into metallic done a meal with Anthrax guitarist and “Battlestar” instrumentality Scott Ian 2 decades ago.

“‘I cognize you. You’re a feline who loves Sepultura,’” Ian told him, invoking a philharmonic nexus for the composer. Intrigued, McCreary listened to Sepultura’s folk-infused Brazilian decease metallic and loved it. His metallic travel began.

Ever since, McCreary has been itching to dive into that arena. He has an important collaborator successful that quest.

“My brother’s my concealed limb erstwhile it comes to rock,” McCreary says. “His assemblage of [rock] cognition makes up for mine. Our accent is successful a antithetic place. He is simply a fantastic shaper due to the fact that he’s got a truly bully radar for erstwhile things are useless, erstwhile a portion of a opus isn’t pulling its weight. It’s a precise bully power to person idiosyncratic similar that. He’s got a large lyrical consciousness and an unthinkable voice.”

McCreary says Brendan is often the driving unit of their lyrical efforts, and “sometimes we co-write with different people. Claudio Sanchez wrote each the lyrics connected ‘Sweet Misery.’ It conscionable depends.”

The younger McCreary was the propelling wordsmith connected “One Fine Day.” “It’s astir our acquisition arsenic being successful the Armenian diaspora and exploring what that means to us,” McCreary elaborates. “All the songs are precise personal, which is different happening that sets this grounds isolated from the past record. Many of them were personal, but I besides had a weird opus astir an automaton that fell successful love.”

Mentored astatine USC by Elmer Bernstein, McCreary present leaps from “God of War” themes to a Higgs boson stone philharmonic and a roaring Singularity circuit that hits L.A. connected Sept. 17.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Before helium jammed with stone icons, McCreary was mentored by the late, iconic Elmer Bernstein for astir the past decennary of his life. The burgeoning young composer organized Bernstein’s euphony archives, sat successful connected signaling sessions and audited his senior-level classes for 3 years portion studying astatine the Thornton School of Music astatine USC. McCreary says that Bernstein “really acceptable maine connected the way that I americium present on, not due to the fact that I learned however to orchestrate oregon however to constitute euphony from him. But helium showed maine the beingness that I could envision myself having erstwhile I was 15 oregon 16, that important clip erstwhile you’re truly mounting the rudder for wherever you’re going to spell successful life.”

That rudder has steered him to galore shores. McCreary has been co-writing the philharmonic “Particle Fever” with Zoe Sarnak (“Galileo).” Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony victor David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly)” wrote the book, and Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (“Suffs”) is its director. It is based connected the documentary of the aforesaid sanction astir the find of the Higgs boson — the “God particle” — astatine the Large Hadron Collider successful CERN. It volition debut astatine the La Jolla Playhouse successful February 2027.

“It is simply a truly kick-ass, earnest stone philharmonic astir a truly ambitious discovery,” McCreary says. “My anticipation is that it really has immoderate of the swagger and amusive that radical recovered successful ‘Hamilton,’ which besides was a precise adust taxable that you learned astir successful eighth grade.”

The 47-year-old composer exudes an infectiously upbeat energy. He loves challenges and says helium learned that charisma and charm are invaluable assets to get successful the doorway to beryllium one’s talents.

“I’m wired to beryllium precise affirmative and collaborative,” helium concedes. “But I got truthful oppressively excited successful my 20s that I started annoying people. My acquisition was locomotion it back.”

His originative vigor continues unabated. He’s adjacent scored shorts for filmmakers helium met done Twitter. (“I’m down to work.”) He has been blogging astir his philharmonic beingness for 20 years for a halfway radical of followers. (“In hindsight, if Jerry Goldsmith had done that successful the ‘80s, my God, my beingness would beryllium different.”)

McCreary started arsenic a precocious schoolhouse keyboardist, past recovered the accordion successful college, an instrumentality that gave him greater signifier question and which helium aboriginal utilized to large effect successful his euphony for the “Outlander” series. He loves to headbang portion playing the hurdy-gurdy, an instrumentality helium picked up successful 2010 and aboriginal employed successful the “Black Sails” amusement and “God of War: Ragnarok” video game. He learned guitar to play bushed during his 2025 shows.

Those riffs volition beryllium connected show astatine the Wacken Open Air festival connected Friday and during McCreary’s eight-date September “Singularity” circuit of the West Coast that hits L.A. connected Sept. 17. McCreary has performed his symphonic scores successful Europe and America with orchestras, but present helium besides loves to stone retired (loud).

A large concealed of the ambitious McCreary’s occurrence harks backmost to lessons of simplicity that Bernstein taught him.

“The elephantine taxable that I wrote for ‘God of War’ tin beryllium played with 1 digit connected a piano,” McCreary reveals. “That is the happening that it boils down to, and that is what I perceive for successful music. Most of the clip it means there’s a melody successful determination that sticks with you, and it doesn’t substance however good it is produced oregon however epic it is oregon however large it is. A bully opus is simply a bully opus is simply a bully song, and it truly doesn’t substance however bully a set performs. If the opus is good, it volition link with people.”