Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios’ brash experimental superhero series, “Spider-Noir,” is a refreshing treat that revitalizes the fading genre with a cool film noir twist.
Showcasing the “Spider-Man Noir” comics character seen in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, it stars Nicholas Cage as a 1930s New York City private detective named Ben Reilly who moonlights as the nocturnal avenger The Spider.
Juilliard-educated composers Kris Bowers (“The Wild Robot,” “Secret Invasion”) and Michael Dean Parsons (“Light & Magic,” “Bridgerton”) have created a magnificent sweeping score with roots in old-school crime thrillers, Hollywood Golden Age jazz, and a variety of intriguing electronic instruments not traditionally used in a classical score of this nature. We caught up with the musical pair to hear more about their influences for this mesmerizing Spider-Noir soundtrack.
“The first thing we talked about when we were watching the picture-locked season was how it was important that this score was rooted both in the noir and superhero space but also be wholly unique in its own thing,” Bowers tells Space.
“We created a playlist of all our favorite noir scores from ‘Chinatown’ to ‘Double Indemnity’ to ‘Vertigo’ and remind ourselves about all the things we love about that music, then pretty quickly try to forget it so we didn’t lean too much in that,” explains Bowers.
“Superhero music, I feel like, has been in our DNA for the last 20 years or so. For us, it was looking at how in the noir space, you had these iconic, memorable melodies and themes and these things that are tracking characters across the arcs of their stories. Then with the superhero side of things, it was about making it feel modern and edgy and have a lot of sounds you wouldn’t expect in your typical noir score.”
From the beginning, Bowers and Parsons instinctively knew “Spider-Noir’s” atmospheric music would be thematically driven, but they also didn’t want it to be an homage washing over the whole series.
“We wanted it to feel customized and coming out of these individual characters and the unique story that was being told,” Parsons adds. “One of the first things we asked Oren was, since the show takes place in New York, what does New York mean to you?”
“We were expecting a noir-inspired answer, like about using trumpets and saxophones,” says Parsons. “Instead, he said New York is ‘Nineties electric punk guitar.’ As we talked to him more, there was something that really fit naturally about bringing in a modern guitar sound into this palette that made us realize this is 50% superhero and 50% noir, but 100% totally new.”
One enchanting component of this score’s distinctiveness, beyond the sweeping symphonic interludes, is the inclusion of some unconventional instruments to layer into the moody tracks.
“The theremin was one of our early discoveries that was kind of a marriage between the electronic contemporary and also this noir world,” notes Parsons. “We were researching the early electronic instruments that could have plausibly been around or starting to be popularized in that era, so we gravitated towards the theremin not only for that reason, but because Ben’s theme begins with this big soaring octave leap.
“So we thought, what if we take the theremin and have it play the octave leap as a signature for Ben. Anytime he’s doing a day in the life detective work, or anytime we need to point out him doing something heroic, we’re able to use that theremin, which has been run through distortion pedals and other things, to call it out.”
Giving the composers enough confidence to be daring provided the ideal creative environment to conjure up what we believe is an instant classic that gets even better each time it’s heard.
“It’s really just a credit to how generous our collaborators were in Oren, the showrunner, and the rest of the team,” says Bowers. “It was the thing where every time we shared something, oftentimes the only notes we got back would be to make it even weirder or more different or add some other sound. That’s important, especially when you’re on a project, and you don’t have much time, and you’re dealing with one of the most important pieces of IP in the world with Spider-Man.
“Often, you can get a lot of stress and anxiety and tightness in terms of not wanting to try things out. I feel like we were encouraged to fail in the best way possible, where we never felt any idea was too crazy for this team. It was an amazing collaborative process with them.”
The show hails from executive producer Oren Uziel (‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘The Lost City’), and fans are applauding its stylish take on the multiverse, which can be enjoyed in either True-Hue Full Color or Authentic Black & White.
“Spider-Noir” is now streaming all 8 episodes on Prime Video.