Composer Daniel Pemberton Shares Insight On Scoring ‘Across The Spider-Verse’

Oftentimes, a composer scoring a film can find as much trouble in landing the right sound, as a screenwriter would do landing the right moment. For the newly released Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, this was no different for returning composer Daniel Pemberton.

After scoring the original 2018 film, Pemberton returned to score its sequel and will be back to score its third part as well. As the film has been totally dominating the box office, Pemberton shared some insight into the process of scoring the highly anticipated film.

“You’re trying not to make a score that sounds like other film scores. You’re trying to invent your own language,” Pemberton said. He added that he spent 2 years working on and fine-tuning the score, going through numerous revisions to land the right sound. Pemberton then went on to break down the sound for the main spider-people we see in the film, saying that he was “making a score that jumps around different worlds and characters, and everyone has got to have a theme and melody and sound, and yet, they’ve all got to interact with each other.”

For the most part, Pemberton discussed the scores for Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man 2099, starting with Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen. He took the major cues from her characters in the film, such as the watercolor aesthetic of her universe, her overall grace when web-slinging, and her background as a member of a rock band. Going for a 90’s pop band style, he said that, “her sound is a floaty synth sound, and that’s her melody. For Spider-Man 2099, he made his theme “very electronic, techno and synthesized.” In the film itself, Gwen and 2099 act very differently in terms of physical fighting. Gwen is light on her feet, using her size and stamina, whereas 2099 throws himself, so to speak, at his adversaries. “If you look at Gwen, she moves very gracefully and very lightly compared to Miguel, who’s very heavy. So, you’re trying to reflect that.”

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is playing in cinemas now, and gives plenty of moviegoers a chance to appreciate Pemberton’s pseudo-language on display with his newest score.