Brian Tyler - fast, furious and exciting

Brian Tyler's first film scores date from the late 90s but his career has clearly taken off since then and he is no doubt destined for A-list films in the not noo distant future. Part of that success may well be due to his retention of traditional musical values. While a lot of modern film music has become generic background wallpaper with interesting things removed (such as melody and melodic delevopment), Tyler is well-schooled in the traditional musical skills of counterpoint and harmony. The result is a score which supports the action but is also intrinsically interesting in a musical sense, so the whole experience is better rounded, the film is more memorable and an added bonus is that the isolated soundtrack is also interesting to listen too.

Brian Tyler has never been too far from the entertainment business - his grandfather Walter Tyler was an art director receiving 9 oscar nominations for his role on a number of golden age movies. He learned Piano at an early age, and has become well-versed in Guitar, Orchestral Percussion, Cello and Bass. He graduated from UCLA and Harvard and moved straight into film scoring. One of his first film scores was "Six String Samurai" which allowed Tyler a certain degree of latitude in this offbeat tale. He then has a spell scoring a series of movies in the horror or thriller genres such as "The 4th Floor", "Terror Tract" and "Frailty" with the occasion comedy thrown in for good measure and the humour of "Bubba Ho-Tep" mixing genres. Meanshile he has continued to work on a number of television productions with "Children of Dune" in particular allowing him the opportunity to paint a multi-faceted world filled with different societies and people. Musically this series has been a particularly successful canvas for Tyler, one which we hope will lead to better opportunities in the future.

The immediacy and melodic engagement of Tyler's music has meant that it is much in demand for short theatrical trailers, and it has featured on trailer for "Cinderella Man", "The Aviator" and "The Da-Vinci Code". The official Brian Tyler website is at www.BrianTyler.com.

Film Music by Brian Tyler:

• Six String Samurai - music is a key element in this early score from 1998 as the hero plays guitar as well as wielding a samurai sword, the soundtrack is a mixture of tracks by Tyler and by the "Red Elvises" a group formed by a number of Russian-born musicians from California
• The 4th Floor
• Panic
• Terror Tract
• Frailty - with several songs written by Tyler
• The Big Empty
• Bubba Ho-Tep - with Bruce Campbell as Elvis fighting an Egyptian mummy to the strains of a theme on lead guitar
• Darkness Falls
• The Big Empty
• The Hunted - Tyler's interesting take on today's style of action movie music
• Thought Crimes
• Timeline - replacing none other than Jerry Goldsmith on this Richard Donner movie
• The Final Cut - with a touch of Jazz
• Godsend
• Paparazzi
• Constantine - a great fantasy/action score, though Tyler needed some help from Klaus Badelt to meet the tight timescales

• Annapolis
• The Greatest Game ever Played
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
• Rambo - the 2008 remake
• Bangkok Dangerous
• Eagle Eye
• Dragonball: Evolution
• Fast & Furious
• Middle Men
• Law Abiding Citizen
• The Final Destination - taking over from the late Shirley Walker who scored the first 3 films, this score has some softer moments, though much of the soundtrack is suitably relentless with its dark pounding beats
• The Expendables - back in Rambo territory for more action heroics
• Battle: Los Angeles
• Fast Five - more action
• Final Destination 5
• John Dies at the End
• Columbus Circle
• Brake
• The Expendables 2 - sequel where Tyler has again cited Jerry Goldsmith as an influence
• Standing Up
• Iron Man 3 - taking over from John Debney who scored Iron Man 2

Television Music by Brian Tyler:

• Sirens
• Trapped in a Purple Haze
• The Education of Max Bickford
• Last Call - a made-for-TV drama starring Jeremy Irons, Neve Campbell and Sissy Spacek
• Children of Dune - a TV mini-series like this has a broader scope to realise these epic novels than a single film, and this has also given the composer an opportunity to explore the musical richness of the worlds described by Frank Herbert - the series has now been re-issued on DVD as "Dune: Apocalypse" and the first series "Dune" was scored by Graeme Revell
• Enterprise - at least two episodes of the latest television series: "Regeneration" and "Canamar"
• Transformers Prime - theme and score for the animated series
• Terra Nova
• Hawaii Five-0 - music for some episodes of the 2010 series, the other episodes being scored by Keith Power

Brian Tyler - Recommendations:

A number of Tyler's film scores are available from online stores including the following, and the music from the "Children of Dune" mini-series is highly recommended.

• Children of Dune - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Timeline - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• The Hunted - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Godsend - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Darkness Falls - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Terra Nova - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Fast & Furious "New Model, Original Parts" - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Battle: Los Angeles - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• The Expendables - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
• Final Destination - at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Brian Tyler - Memorabilia:

Here is a few CD covers signed by Brian Tyler. Our thanks to Petr Kocanda for permission to use his collection of autographed CDs. Click on any thumbnail below to see a full size version of the image in a separate window.