Tyler Bates

Tyler Bates (born June 5, 1965) is an American musician, music producer, and composer for film, television, and video game scores. Much of his work is in the action and horror film genres, with films like '' Dawn of the Dead'', ''300'', ''Sucker Punch'', ''Halloween'' and '' Halloween II'' and the ''John Wick'' franchise. He has collaborated with directors like Zack Snyder, Rob Zombie, Gennady Tartakovsky, Neil Marshall, William Friedkin, Scott Derrickson, James Gunn, Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, and Ti West. In addition, he is the lead guitarist of the American rock band Marilyn Manson, and produced its albums '' The Pale Emperor'' , '' Heaven Upside Down'' and '' One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1''. He is Jerry Cantrell's touring/studio member.

Biography

Early life and film scoring

Bates was born on June 5, 1965, in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in Chicago he played in a hair metal band by the name of Smash Alley, he returned to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career in music. He began his career in the 1990s scoring low-budget films like '' The Last Time I Committed Suicide'', and ''Denial''. In the meantime, he was a member of the alternative rock Pet alongside Lisa Papineau; the band released their eponymous debut in 1996. His breakthrough into the mainstream came in the early 2000s, when he worked on higher-profile projects like ''Get Carter'', '' Half Past Dead'', and '' Baadasssss!'' The 2004 remake of ''Dawn of the Dead'' was significant, as he would maintain long-term collaborations with its director Zack Snyder, and writer James Gunn.

Bates scored four of director Rob Zombie's films, beginning with 2005's '' The Devil's Rejects''. For Zombie's remake of ''Halloween'' and its sequel '' Halloween II'', Bates adapted John Carpenter's original themes and motifs in order to fit the darker, grittier, and more contemporary atmosphere of the films. It was around 2007 that Bates began working regularly on big-budget, blockbuster films; including ''300'', '' Doomsday'', ''The Day the Earth Stood Still'', ''Sucker Punch'', and ''Conan the Barbarian''. He also composed scores for smaller, independent films like '' The Way'', '' Killer Joe'', '' The Sacrament'', and '' Flight 7500''.

The soundtrack for ''300'' was controversial due to its heavy borrowing of themes from film scores by Elliot Goldenthal, amongst others. On August 3, 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures acknowledged this in a statement. The matter was settled amicably with the soundtrack credits being subsequently described as adapted from material by Elliot Goldenthal.

Bates composed the score for ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' in 2014. Having worked with James Gunn in the past, Bates had a good idea on how Gunn wanted things done. Before any of the cinematography started, Gunn had Bates write several themes prior to shooting so the scene could be matched to the music instead of the score being created to fit the scene. This required cooperation between Bates and Gunn in advance since these scores would be in the final piece, instead of a temporary filler acting as a placeholder. They influenced the performance on set, which required an undertaking by both Bates and his team. For 4 months, they clocked upwards of 100-hour work weeks to produce this finished product. After all the work, they had a total of 29 different soundtracks giving a combined total of 64:34 of music. "At least half the cues in the movie have more than 500 tracks of audio," Bates was quoted in an interview with Melinda Newman on ''HitFix''. This was a result of there being orchestral passages that were doubled or tripled, choirs, overdubs, and other instrumentals.

That same year, Bates composed the score to the action film ''John Wick'', collaborating with Joel J. Richard and Marilyn Manson. The film proved a surprise critical and financial success, and Bates returned to score its sequel '' John Wick: Chapter 2'', and also its third and fourth installments. He and Richard also scored its 2025 spin-off ''Ballerina'', replacing Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich. He would later collaborate again with co-director David Leitch to score a spiritual successor, the Cold War-era spy thriller '' Atomic Blonde''.

Video game scoring

Bates composed the soundtrack for the PlayStation 3 games '' God of War: Ascension'' and '' Army of Two: The 40th Day'', as well as the PlayStation 4 game '' Killzone: Shadow Fall''. Most recently he composed for ''Crossfire''.

Other projects

In 2014, Bates co-wrote and produced Marilyn Manson's record '' The Pale Emperor''. The album debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200, while the single " Deep Six" went on to chart higher than any other single by Marilyn Manson on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart. Bates joined the band in 2015 as the lead guitarist for The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour. The album's song "Cupid Carries a Gun" was used as the opening title music of the TV show ''Salem'', and Bates composed the show's score. In April 2015 he left Marilyn Manson to resume film work.

In October 2015, during a Q&A with Marilyn Manson at the Grammy Museum, Manson announced that he and Tyler were working on new music together again. In 2015 ''Loudwire'' listed "The Mephistopheles Of Los Angeles" No. 1 best rock track and Rolling Stone included ''The Pale Emperor'' in its Top 50 list of the best albums of 2015. He returned as the lead guitarist during the tour with Slipknot in July 2016. In 2017, they worked for the follow-up '' Heaven Upside Down'' with a world tour, starting July 20, in Budapest, playing more than 100 shows around the world. In January 2018, Bates announced via Twitter that he left the band and returned to his studio to work exclusively on film and television.

Tyler composed the song, "Monsters After Dark" for the night Halloween mode of the ride '' Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!''

In 2021, Bates co-produced and played strings, percussion and guitar on Jerry Cantrell's album ''Brighten''.

Discography

Film scores

Television scores

Video game soundtracks

Own work

* Roseland with Azam Ali

With Marilyn Manson

*'' The Pale Emperor'' (2015)
*'' Heaven Upside Down'' (2017)
*'' One Assassination Under God – Chapter 1'' (2024)

With Pet

* ''Pet'' (1996) (guitar, bass, backing vocals, production)

With Bush

* '' The Kingdom'' (2020) (songwriting, production)

With Jerry Cantrell

* ''Brighten'' (2021) (strings, percussion, guitar, production)

References

External links

Official website
*
Tyler Bates being interviewed at the Grammy Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Tyler
1965 births
Living people
American film score composers
American male film score composers
Marilyn Manson (band) members
Musicians from Los Angeles
Film people from Los Angeles
American video game composers
Animated film score composers
Varèse Sarabande Records artists
La-La Land Records artists
American rock guitarists
American alternative rock guitarists
Guitarists from California