In my opinion, one of the greatest things about parenting introducing you children to something you loved as a child. When I was younger I watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my little brother on Saturday mornings. We sat with our bowls of sugared cereal and watched cartoons with my dad. I loved introducing my Monster to the original Ninja Turtles and watching him fall in love with the characters the way I did. We found the new TMNT on Nickelodeon and I have to say, it was fantastically redone. The sights and sounds have been updated for this generation and I was really impressed.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to Sebastian Evans, the composer of the new Ninja Turtles series. His unique score offers creates a distinct sound for this Emmy award winning series. Sebastian has also created scores for other hugely popular shows including Cartoon Network’s Ben 10: Omniverse, Transformers: Animated well as Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, starring Greg Cipes and Mark Hamill for Disney. He has also worked on various projects for Warner Brothers and Adult Swim.

First of all thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I grew up with the classic TMNT in the 80’s and was a huge fan. Were you a fan of the original series?
Yes! A huge fan. My parents use to buy episodes of the original series and my brother and I would watch them over and over again.

We are huge fans of the new TMNT series and your distinct sound definitely brings something new to the show. What was your inspiration in creating this unique score?
Well, I suppose my main influence for this project were earlier musical interpretations of the franchise. Since I grew up watching different iterations I really wanted to create a score that not only defined this one but was ambiguous enough to pay homage to other versions that came before it. I also wanted to use this opportunity to inject some traditional Japanese instrumentation into the project. That’s something I felt had been lacking in previous versions… the ninja sound. There’s a lot of taiko drums doing hip hop like rhythms as well as koto riffs that would feel more appropriate in American pop music. The score is very groove driven at its core, with some traditional Japanese instruments doing untraditional things accompanied by a full orchestra sound.

Do you have a favorite composer or artist? Favorite music genre?
I have many favorite composers as well as artists. Some of my favorites are Raymond Scott, Edvard Grieg, Bjork, George Gershwin, Nobuo Uematsu, Tool, Thomas Newman, Radiohead, John Williams (of course). Too many to name really. As for a favorite genre, I don’t think I really have a favorite. I’m a huge fan of music in general and my tastes have never been genre specific.

I’ve seen some of the other shows you’ve worked on and enjoyed the sound of each of them. As a huge fan of animation from childhood through adulthood working on these series would be a dream come true. Was this something you had always wanted to do or something that evolved as your career took off?
I’ve actually wanted to do this job since my father took me to see “Return of the Jedi” when I was 7. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I was completely captivated by John William’s score. That experience pretty much set in motion my obsession with creating music.

What would be your dream series or film to work on? Or is there a series or film that you would have loved to work on?
I’d love to do something set in the Star Wars or Star Trek universe in any form. Whether it be movie, TV show, or animation. I’m also aware that these properties are on every other composers dream list so it really would be a dream come true in every sense of the phrase. I wish I was old enough and established enough to have worked on Star Trek the Next Generation. Unfortunately, I was only 9 when that began airing. When I was a kid, I’d record episodes and make my own scores on piano.

My son loves music more than almost anything else. What would your advice be to any young person looking to get into this industry?
First and foremost, I would recommend learning the fundamentals of music theory and instrumentation. It also wouldn’t hurt to become fairly proficient in an instrument or two.Becoming familiar with creating in different genres is also an invaluable skill that will take an aspiring composer far.

You can connect with Sebastian Evans on Facebook and Twitter. Check out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon! The fun theme for this show is below!

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