Prolific TV & Film Composer Kurt Oldman Takes Us Behind the Scenes of SuperMansion & More

Kurt Oldman is a Swiss born composer residing in Los Angeles. He is known for his prolific hybrid orchestral, razor sharp electronic, heart pounding industrial, provocative dark distorted and epic emotional scores for film, television and video games.

Kurt’s vast body of work has been widely acclaimed, leading to it being licensed in countless television episodes and documentaries including Storage Wars, The Dog Whisperer, Dateline NBC, The Daily Show and Inside The NFL. He has also published several albums with Universal Music’s Killer Tracks. He also contributed to the score of several feature films, most notably the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.

Recently, Kurt has lent his talents to Stoopid Buddy Stoodios’ SuperMansion, producing both score and songs for the fan-favorite series starring Bryan Cranston. Kurt’s versatility and diverse musical palette make him an integral contributor to the series’ success. Kurt’s music has been recognized for a long time, as evidenced by prestigious brands like Samsung, Taylor Made, Everlast, Konami and Beachbody entrusting him with their sonic idenitites. However, it is exciting to see him get more challenging and wide-ranging opportunities through SuperMansion, which he more than fulfills with his musical prowess and adept creative thinking. We at Kurrent Music are eagerly awaiting his next project or collaboration.

Read on below to learn more about the method behind Kurt’s success, and please share if you enjoyed the piece!

What projects are you currently working on? Which are airing or about to release?  

I’m in the middle of SuperMansion Season 3. It’s currently airing on Sony’s Crackle and will be available on Comedy Central Adult Swim after that. Season 1 & 2 are presently airing on Adult Swim. I’m also doing a project with Hasbro and have another trailer album in the works.

Who have been your favorite people to collaborate with?

Zeb Wells, the Creator of SuperMansion, is terrific to work with. He is open to creative and crazy ideas and has allowed me to push things a little further. In fact, he let’s me cross the line without being worried of going too far. That’s where it gets really fun! Since starting with Zeb in the later part of Season 1, we’ve also collaborated on several songs. He’s mentioned that he’d love to do a ‘musical’ episode. I’m completely up for it. That would be crazy. The two main Directors of Season 3, Alex Kamer and Nick Simotas, are involved in the music process as well. It’s great having them in the room when we spot the episode. So many wild directional ideas are coming from them and end up giving the episode a real edge. Nick recorded a short source cue on a Legend of Zelda Ocarina that was cut into the animatic. He wanted me to replace it but I said, “It’s perfect!” 

Director Nadeem Soumah and I have collaborated on six or seven feature and TV projects. He’s always on board with making sure that each film has its own unique musical voice, something which is very important to me. He is also very conscious of the tone of the film. It’s just one of those creative relationships that brings something new and exciting to every project we do. We have yet to repeat ourselves on a project.

Eddie Alcazar, is probably one of the most out-of-the-box filmmakers I’ve worked with. He has a very specific point of view and everything we’ve done together has ended up being something special. His approach to story-telling and compelling visuals push me into directions that take me by surprise. Some of the projects we have worked on include, HBO’s “Tapia” documentary and trailers for the experimental sci-fi films, “0000” & “Perfect”.

Who would you most like to work with? 

I’ve always been an animation and especially stop-motion geek, from Ray Harryhausen to Peter Gabriel and Pink Floyd music videos, so, for sure, I’d love to work with one of the master feature directors in this field, Henry Selick. 

Also, I’m generally drawn to shows that set the tone with utter fearlessness and confidence. A couple of recent series I’ve seen that have nailed the mood and emotional tone are “Sharp Objects”, created by Marti Noxon and “Killing Eve”, created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.  I would certainly jump at the chance to work with either of these showrunners.

When you are given a project or scene to score, what is your process like? What are the first steps you take when deciding how to score something?

Sometimes I get to read the script, but usually every project starts with the spotting session. This is where we go through the reels with the filmmaker and talk about starts and stops, the emotional beats, clarify the intent of a particular scene, talk about point of view, and a lot of times some of the deeper underlying themes of the story. After that, if time allows, I write a ten to fifteen minute suite before scoring to picture with ideas and initial reactions away from the picture. Most of the time, I start at the piano, which I find more organic than sitting at my sequencer, and figure out ideas, themes or just simple moods. I know some guys shy away from writing suites separated from picture, but for me it has really worked well on many projects. It’s sort of liberating too and you don’t deal with the limitations the picture may present. And of course, it’s also a way to experiment and really dig deep on the tonal aspect of the show. Once the musical vocabulary is established, everything else falls into place much easier when scoring to picture.

Sometimes, though, the schedule is so tight you just have to dive in immediately and don’t really have time to think about it. 

In animation, I’m scoring a lot of music to animatics, as in pre-visualization animated storyboards. On SuperMansion I do have the luxury of getting locked reels with final animation, which is so rare and a real treat for me.

What do you wish you knew in the beginning of your career about the entertainment industry or being a professional composer, that you know now?

It’s so important to know the business aspects of music. I certainly wish I had understood more about Performing Rights Organizations and the royalty side. When I first started out, I had a bunch of music playing on some major programs. Many years later, I realized I could’ve received substantial residual income from those gigs.

What is the best thing about your job?

Doing what I love. Being able to get up early in the morning and write music all day. Working as hard as I can to find the right score for the project is really part of the adventure for me. I have the opportunity to work with a lot of talented filmmakers. Contributing to the storytelling musically is very satisfying. 

What is the hardest thing about your job?

I think finding the right score for the film IS without a doubt the most difficult aspect at times. It’s coming up with those initial ideas and musical vocabulary to serve the picture just right that can be a struggle. I believe initially you have to go into it with the mindset “I’m scoring a Film – Not a scene”. A mentor of mine told me once: “You don’t have to have a great idea to get started, but you have to have an idea”. That’s a simple reminder that has saved me many times over. I need the challenge! Its what drives me. 

What is your favorite part of working on SuperMansion?  

I really love that I can go all the way on this show. I don’t have to tip-toe around. It’s not terribly subtle music of course. I’m always amazed as to how much material the writers can jam into twenties minutes. On each episode, I’m usually running the gamut of emotions from action, to horror, romance and comedy. That keeps me on my toes. 

Also, I love writing the songs. With some of the lyrics that the writers come up with, I find myself having a double-take and going, “Are they really saying that?” The idea of taking goofy and playing it straight can be pretty hilarious. So, to be at work and finding myself laughing out loud is certainly a plus.

Which talent, voice actor or celebrity guest voice most excites you to work with? 

Bryan Cranston for sure. Many of the actors on the show are not trained singers, so I can only imagine how hard it must be for them to come in and be confronted with my song demos. I’ve written some challenging stuff for Bryan from Rap to really expressive Ballads. I think, maybe, I’ve frustrated him at times, but the end result has always been fantastic. 

Chris Pine blew my mind. He is one hell of a singer and puts his own twist on everything. He also has about 250 characters floating around in his head. Scary really how many voices he’s done on this show. Yes, I’d definitely love to do more songs with Chris. We were talking about Dr. Devizo having a song in the last session. Now that would be wild. 

Keegan-Michael Key has a super-fun energy. There are definitely some people who surprise you and Keegan is one of those guys. I just remember when I first heard his voice thinking, “Wow, this dude can really sing.”

I’ve given these guys some challenging material that’s for sure, without any time to prep really. They’ve all been troopers and have done a wonderful job

What is a highlight song or cue from this season of SuperMansion?

The first song I wrote was for the Christmas Special with Jim Parsons voicing Mr. Skibumpers. It was a crazy Big Band musical number, beautifully animated and Jim killed it. It was a tricky song to pull of and he was a trooper. 

In the upcoming Sumer Special airing in August, we did a 60’s Beach song with the whole cast, and Obama. I was barely able to track the demo vocals without cracking up.

The score of this episode is actually a bit retro influenced. We wanted to make it like our favorite shows we grew up with: Hawaii Five-0, The A-Team. I absolutely love TV scores from the 70’s and 80’s. Lots of bowed Vibraphone, Percussion and a smaller String Section than we usually use. We also recorded a Drum Kit in mono with a single microphone to get the right sound.

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Kurt's website:  www.kurtoldman.com

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