I worship the rap and hip-hop that came from the city in the 80’s and 90’s, so I tend to write a lot of urban cues in that vein if things are going smoothly for the turtles. Like the original, the story is based in New York, which is my musical church. The show is full of discovery so each episode is different and introduces new villains, adventures, and opportunities to get experimental!

It’s such a fun new twist meeting the turtles when they are a little younger. The score for Rise Of The TMNT incorporates all of my musical sensibilities-I’m basically utilizing every single tool in my creative arsenal. I certainly want to show respect to what they’ve created while also adding my own flair. They HAVE been around forever….35 years, in fact! So many talented composers have touched the show. How did you meet the challenge of adapting their score to make it modern and keep it fresh? The Ninja Turtles have been around for decades but have certainly kept up with the times. Of course, he’s still making more of his original scores too, like the rocking tunes on animated hits like Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Nella The Princess Knight, in addition to scores for reality and scripted fare.īMI talked the multi-faceted phenom into talking about traversing worlds, the enduring appeal of the Ninja Turtles and what it all means. After years in Los Angeles doing commissioned music for TV shows ( CSI Miami, Entourage, Weeds), working with A-listers like P!nk, Beyonce and Keith Urban, as well as touring with Beck domestically and abroad, Mahaffey returned to Tennessee – Nashville, to be exact-where he set up a studio, continues to perform and make sElf music. And that wasn’t Mahaffey’s only full-circle turn. So, when DreamWorks, the label to which he’d been signed, offered him work in its burgeoning film and animation divisions, Mahaffey found himself working on an adult-friendly kids’ movie about a green monster, which led to work with Disney ( Henry Hugglemonster), Nickelodeon ( Sanjay and Craig), and more.Īs it turned out, being a kid musician and playing with kids’ instruments had been prescient training. Later, after he’d strayed from the bluegrass and country he was raised on growing up in East Tennessee, he formed the spunky, funky alternative pop rock band sElf, and in 2000, released its fifth album, Gizmodgery, recorded almost entirely with children’s toys. Mahaffey was just four years old when he started writing songs and playing drums, and soon honed his craft performing at Dollywood. When songwriter, composer and producer Matt Mahaffey started scoring for animated projects with the game-changing Shrek, the transition was not only serendipitous, but also a kind of full-circle turn.

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