John's Thoughts

I was in the middle of writing the score to X-Men 2, with only a couple weeks to go before the scoring session, when my friend, Yu Tsai, called me up saying they needed some rush music for a Gateway spot he directed, completed in 48 hours. Typical me, my reaction was, "Are you nuts?! I'm like a LITTLE busy!" Ungrateful bastard I am: To do the kind of music they wanted, I knew I would have to get together real musicians, get my engineer and a studio together and record it the very next day. I said no, of course, and recommended an associate of mine do it. A little while later I called Damon (friend/orchestrator/conductor) to check up on his X2 workload and joked how I had declined a spot that would have to be recorded in 48 hours. Damon went berserk. "What?! Give me some of the money, you just start writing, and I'll have the studio, musicians and Casey (my engineer) there tomorrow! Give me Daniel's (Yu Tsai) phone number now so I can STOP him from having anyone else do it. Just give me the number, shut up and start writing, now, you idiot!"

I sighed, and started whipping something up.

The next morning we were recording and mixing this little cue, I then went home and continued my work on X2. The whole thing felt like a daydream that really didn't happen.

The music was supposed to be a down home/barnyard feel with a little wild edge to it. This is what came of it.