John Debney - Next Generation composer

John Debney is certainly part of the younger generation of film composers having pursued a career in films for little more than a decade. But he has served a full apprenticeship in television music gathering a wealth of experience in the process, working with composers such as Mike Post and Hoyt Curtain. Although his film career has been relatively short so far, he has staked out a place on several high profile film projects and is already beginning to appear as prolific and versatile as say Jerry Goldsmith. Much of his most recent work for cinema has been blockbuster family movies and comedies, including "Inspector Gadget", "Spy Kids", "Cats & Dogs", "Bruce Almighty" and the 2003 Christmas release "Elf". He has also produced some good TV work, including Seaquest DSV, the Doctor Who Movie starring Paul McGann, and (appropriately enough) Star Trek: The Next Generation. Between his film scoring, Debney finds time to conduct various orchestras, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, for recordings of film music.

Debney's latest challenge is quite surprising in some respects given his previous portfolio. He was asked by Mel Gibson to score his controversial film The Passion of the Christ and has risen to the challenge. For this score Debney has used ethnic instruments including the "Oud" and "Duduk" plus a range of vocals. He has blended this in a contemporary way with percussion, synth sounds and effects. The emotional aspects of the film have certainly not been neglected, and the overall impression is moving and powerful. "The Passion of the Christ" soundtrack is available from www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk, and there is a web-site dedicated to John Debney at www.johndebney.com. John Debney has now adapted his music for this film into a Symphony which was given its premiere in Rome on 6th July 2005.

Films by John Debney:

• Jetsons: The Movie
• Hocus Pocus
• Cutthroat Island - a modern swashbuckler and musically too
• Liar, Liar
• The Relic - dark and Alien like
• I Know What You Did Last Summer - among the pop music, some standard horror fare plus a little music-box innocence
• Sudden Death
• My Favourite Martian
• The Emperor's New Groove
• Inspector Gadget
• End of Days - not many films can claim to have both Rod Steiger and Miriam Margoyles, the music has touches of traditional horror and religious apocalypse, with a modern Matrix-like style in places
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• The Princess Diaries 1 and 2
• Spy Kids 1 and 2
• The Scorpion King
• Heartbreakers - the musical material works very well in this comedy, seemingly drawing inspiration from the Russian Group on screen with their balalaikas and the main theme provided by Danny Elfman
• Cats & Dogs
• Swimfan
• Bruce Almighty
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action - additional music to assist Jerry Goldsmith
• Elf
• Welcome to Mooseport
• The Passion of the Christ - combining ethnic instruments and the film's ancient languages with a contemporary synth and percussion sound
• Sin City
• Chicken Little
• Zathura - also known as "Zathura: A Space Adventure"
• Idlewild - Debney worked with the band "OutKast" whose members star in the film (no connection with the rock band called Idlewild)

TV work by John Debney:

• Seaquest DSV
• Doctor Who: The Movie - with Paul McGann in the lead role, and including a pounding version of the Ron Grainer theme
• Star Trek: The Next Generation - some work on this
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - and also this Star Trek series