Chingon: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO

I began writing the music for ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO while writing the script. Since I was going for a more epic tale of the Mariachi in this 3rd chapter to the EL MARIACHI / DESPERADO series, I could feel that the music was going to need to be bigger and more involved that what I had done previously in those earlier films.

I had a few song selections from bands like Juno Reactor, Tito Larriva, Manu Chao, Del Castillo , Patricia Vonne and Brian Setzer that I felt fit the movie's tone. But for the rest of the movie I felt I had to go orchestral, to really embellish the iconic imagery. I needed several pieces pre-recorded before production would begin, and in preparing those pre-records I realized I wanted to tackle the composing chores for the movie, as well. I wanted a Latin orchestral sound to represent Mexico as well as the journey of the different characters, infusing it with Spanish guitar and rhythms.

One aspect of the score that I'm most excited about was the fact that I asked several of the actors (musicians in their own right) to come up with musical ideas that best represented the characters they were playing. RubÎn Blades supplied me with a bass line for his character, Antonio Banderas embellished his character's main theme, and Johnny Depp went out and wrote a whole piece for his character. I'm presenting it here in the form he sent it to me ("Sands Theme"). It also plays in the movie when Johnny steps out of the taxicab to get dressed for the "Coup de Etat." I took Johnny's theme and made orchestral versions for later in the movie ("The Man With No Eyes" and "Chicle Boy"), as well as deconstructed versions that play earlier in the movie ("Eye Patch") as a way to introduce his theme.

If this sounds like a lot of fun, it was! There was something unique to how this movie was going to come together, and I wanted the music to represent that. There aren't a lot of opportunities in movies where it's necessary for the music to drive the film, but in this series, because El Mariachi is a guitar player and music infuses his life, I could have long passages where the music playing in his head is telling the story. I listen to the score now and think that, if anything, it is definitely part of the strange, unique world that belongs to EL MARIACHI.