Star Trek: Starfleet Academy packs more than a few surprises for longtime Trekkies celebrating the franchise’s 60th anniversary this year. Not only does the Gaia Violo-created series pull back the cloaking device on how Starfleet officers are trained before they take their Wagon Train to the stars, not only does it bring us further into the future than ever before, but we finally get to hear what a half-Klingon, half-Jem’Hadar warrior sounds like (surprisingly British).
Another curiosity involving the new Star Trek series is nestled away in the end credits to the show’s remarkably timely, exhilarating and well-executed pilot. Dan the Automator—a legend in underground hip-hop production since the mid ‘90s—was involved in making additional music for Paramount+’s Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, alongside primary composer Jeff Russo (a ’90s musical veteran himself, having co-founded the alt-rock band Tonic of “If You Could Only See” fame).
To figure out how the behind-the-boards wizard (who has worked with everyone from Kool Keith to Del the Funky Homosapien to Gorillaz before entering into the world of film/TV scoring) ended up in the enduring sci-fi universe dreamed up by Gene Roddenberry back in the ‘60s, Billboard hopped on a Zoom with Dan the Automator and Russo to talk about crafting a “fresher” musical approach to the world of Starfleet, how they collaborate (very well, it seems: as Billboard signed off the call, the two stayed on to discuss musical cues for the series) and which iteration of Trek has the all-time best music.
Jeff, you’ve been working in the Trek universe for a decade now. Are you the one who got Dan involved?
Jeff Russo: Alex Kurtzman [Starfleet Academy showrunner alongside Noga Landau] and I started talking about what music was going to be like for this iteration of Trek. We talked about wanting a fresher flavor to some of the some of the music, the storylines and the overall of the show. We talked about the idea of bringing on someone who has a more of a groovy, electronic sound: “Who could we get that could do some remixes of some score ideas and maybe write a couple cues for some storylines that require a fresher sound, a fresher look?” Both of us had seen some film work Dan had done in the past.
Dan the Automator: Yeah, that was how it started out. They had talked about doing a few things to mix and brighten up (the music). I think a lot of the references originally were from the Booksmart score that I had done for Olivia [Wilde]. I’ve been scoring little bits for years and then around 2018 I started doing more movies and Netflix shows. Booksmart seems to have resonated with a certain way of punching it up without taking over the thing. Jeff comes from the rock background first. He can pick up what I’m trying to do maybe a little bit faster than someone who’s just classical or score. It seems to work well.
Russo: We both have a record-making background: Dan as a producer and as a member of bands, and me as a member of a band and producing. We’ve produced ourselves. Having that as an underpinning of communication made it work in a great way.
Dan the Automator: Conceptually, at least, we don’t disagree. If something doesn’t work, we can switch it around, because we speak the language—it’s not that complicated. I have some score background: I understand emotions, I understand turns and timing. If he says something to me, I speak the language. It gets more complicated when they go to the full orchestra sessions. I’m not as well versed in that, but luckily I got the safety net of Jeff there. I don’t know how to do all the grand orchestrations but I’m able to give them what’s needed to push the part forward.
Russo: One of the one of the most typical ways it worked in the bits that we were working on together is sometimes there was something that I had done and Alex was like, “Well, maybe Dan can punch this up with some beats, or some of this and that,” and he would do that. And then also vice versa. Dan had sent a number of tracks in for score that he had written that we needed to add additional orchestral elements. It became a hand-into-hand way of doing things.
Dan the Automator: It’s awesome for me personally—hopefully for the show as well. I come from a classical background. I was raised on violin and stuff, so I understand what’s going on, I just don’t necessarily know how to execute all of that. But the underpinnings that I would do, I know they’re going to work, like, “let’s put the cello section in there.”
Is there a particular moment you’d point to as emblematic of your musical collaboration in the show?
Dan the Automator: The first big one is when they start going to the school, a lot of that bounce. A lot of the stuff in the first episode is a little more in the Star Trek universe where Jeff has a heavier hand.
Russo: Alex directed us in that way, where the opening episode was definitely more of a traditional approach. As we got into the second episode, we took a fresher approach, a slightly different style of an approach. I think that was the whole point of having Dan work on what he what he ended up working on.
When did you start working on the music? From the script, or early cuts?
Russo: Typically with Star Trek, I don’t really get started until I start seeing picture. Occasionally, Alex might ask me, “Do we have a theme?” I wrote a theme for Caleb [Sandro Rosta] and Tarima [Zoë Steiner] early on. But we didn’t really start to get working until we spotted that first episode. We’d look at the episode and Alex would be like, “Oh, maybe that’s something that Dan should work on,” or “maybe this is something that we should incorporate, something that Dan is going to add.” There were episodes that had more of that and episodes that had less of that. It really depended on what the narrative was for that particular episode.
Were you working separately via Zoom? Were you ever in the same room together?
Dan the Automator: We would consult with each other sometimes over Zoom. A few times we’d go the studio and hang out. It’s more of a feel thing in terms of the back and forth. A lot happened on the phone and on Zoom, but in production, for me personally—with record production I’m talking about, but it’s still the same—there’s a thing where you have to feel comfortable handing something off and knowing they’re going to take it not in the direction you want, but in the right direction. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had partnerships with Prince Paul and other people, where I can just go, “I brought this here, I’m giving this.” And I know they’re not going to take it somewhere that is super….
Cringe?
Dan the Automator: Yeah.
Russo: We did have to start with a blind trust. That starting point was just, “I know you do what you do well.” And Dan knew that I knew what I was doing. So there wasn’t really a moment where we were like, “Well, okay, we got to wait to see what happens here.”
Dan the Automator: Any collaborative endeavor takes a few minutes to figure out what you’re doing, but it really was a few minutes.
Dan, I imagine you must be a Star Trek fan—you’ve sampled the original series on songs by your group Deltron 3030 and for Dr. Octagon.
Dan the Automator: Yeah, absolutely, Deltron, Dr. Octagon, all that stuff. It’s not science fiction itself, it’s not Star Trek itself, but I do believe in looking at the future to look at the present. I look at Star Trek the same way: a message or observation for now coming from there. This is not my musical approach, by the way, this is mental. It helps me figure out what I think is trying to be expressed.
As you were watching the first episode before scoring it, what struck you about this show? How did it seem different?
Russo: I think the idea for this particular iteration of it was, “How do we tell these stories from a different perspective?” We’ve never really looked at what it means or takes to become a Starfleet officer. We’ve always landed with the officers on the ships. That’s the way the stories were. This is really a way to tell the story from a much more immature point of view. And I don’t mean that the storytelling is immature; I mean the cadets are not fully baked yet, so we needed to look at the music in the same way. We also want to put Star Trek music where Star Trek fans will expect that type of music—it’s part of the universe. But then to look at it and have this deconstructed look, or a different sound altogether, to give it that—for lack of a better way to say it—more youthful way of looking at the score.
Dan the Automator: If you look at a ship going through the sky and there’s this orchestration to it, it makes sense—whether it’s real or it’s because we’re trained on this for all the years of watching various science fiction movies and space movies. But that is so pro: 10,000 people built the ship, they designed all this warp speed stuff, it’s a culmination of years, and strings feel like that maturity and richness. Then we have these guys who are basically teenagers, young adults, and they’re figuring out who they are and how they interact with the world, and how they deal with authority. They’re not that self-assured. I think anything can be anything, but I think the strings represent maturity more than it represents youth. They’re bouncing into this thing (with that attitude) “I know what I’m doing, but I don’t actually know what I’m doing.” It’s not the same kind of confidence (in most Star Trek), it’s more of a bouncy thing. The idea for me, at least, was to figure find that cadence, that bounce, that makes them feel like, “Hey, we’re special, we know what we’re doing!” But at the same time, do they know what they’re doing? Do they need to be brought back to be brought forward, like any inspired student in the world?
I know what you mean—that youthful swagger.
Russo: You just hit it: youthful swagger. That’s a great way to describe it.
Jeff, can you talk to the negotiation between giving Trek viewers the music they know and love as well as new compositions?
Russo: For the last 10 years, I’ve been writing original music for (Trek), and at the same time also always tipping my hat (to what came before), because what are we if we’re not paying attention to where we’ve been in the past. Especially with an iconic theme like the Star Trek theme; all we need to do is play three notes and all of a sudden the viewer is transported to exactly where we want them to be. We do that a little bit with lots of things: I’ll tip my hat to Voyager, tip my hat to DS9, or tip my hat to The Next Generation. We talk about that in the spotting sessions: Alex will be like, “maybe we should use the Voyager theme here” when we’re talking about something that might have something with that. In the case of our show, we have the Doctor [from Voyager], so I did have an opportunity to continually give a little nod. On one of the later episodes, we talk about a character that appeared in many episodes of a previous show, and there’s a nod to that there. So yes, we do a lot of that. It’s really more about what the sound is like: as soon as you hear big French horns playing a melody, it feels like, “Oh, we’re in the world of Star Trek.”
Dan the Automator: The other side is we develop themes for all the characters: how they’re different, different ages, different planets and different temperaments. We create palettes that go around them that would be thrown into the mix of all things Star Trek.
Jeff has been doing Star Trek now since Discovery, but Dan, this is your first foray. How does Trek compare to working on other movie or TV projects?
Dan the Automator: I think it’s all very different, and all very the same. And what I mean by that is everything—whether it’s Star Trek or whatever—you’re trying to emotionally guide the audience through the thing and there’s different ways of doing it. As far as the music goes, you’re making stuff to fit the character. In that respect, it’s all different because you’re making it to fit the characters. But whether it’s taking place in a high school in the Valley, or something taking place on a (space) ship, emotions are emotions, feelings are feelings. And it depends on what the what the showrunner wants: Do you want to push this up front? You want to pull it back? You want to make this subtle and make it forward? I think in that respect, it’s all the same. With respect to what music takes place, sure, it could be all over the place.
Does Alex ever send you back to the drawing board? “This isn’t quite what I wanted,” for example.
Russo: Alex doesn’t really treat notes in that way. He doesn’t really treat notes like “this isn’t what we’re looking for.” It’s never black and white. There’s always a set of notes. There’s always like, “Can we do a little bit of a little bit more of something here, a little bit less of something here”; “this isn’t really feeling warm enough for me”; “I need this to feel more tense here.” He’s very good with giving notes about how something is making him feel. We have changed out cues where something might work better in another place or change what theme we’re using. I might have chosen to nod to Voyager, and he’s like, “This might be a little on the nose, why don’t we just do the [Alexander] Courage fanfare?” Or “why don’t we not do any of that and just have something original?”
That brings me to an important question I wanted to ask both of you. What’s your favorite Star Trek, musically speaking? Whether a film or a TV show.
Russo: My favorite Trek in general is The Wrath of Khan, which is the second movie that came out. And that’s something that’s just close to my heart and the first one I saw in the theaters.
James Horner, yes. An incredible score.
Russo: I was a huge fan of James Horner for a long time. It’s actually quite funny, because James has this knack for following (Jerry) Goldsmith on many things, and then somehow I end up following them. I’d done Trek and that happened in Trek and I’ve done Alien: Earth, which Goldsmith did the first Alien and then Horner did the second one. So it’s very interesting to see the way things change over time. But I would say that score is also my favorite.
Dan the Automator: Well, my favorite, for numerous reasons, is the very first TV series. Because when it comes to my experience with music, not just Star Trek, I started with a lot of rap stuff. Making rap, especially with sampling and listening to records from the early ‘70s and late ‘60s, Star Trek falls right into that area. The production style of the first one speaks to me personally. Even the way they spoke, the music and everything. I’m a big aficionado of Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, all that. To me, it’s not the same, but it’s the same bucket of years. It’s something familiar and it goes right up the path of how I learned a lot about other kinds of music.
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