Across the Spider-Verse will ‘outdo’ soundtrack, bring punk to Spider-Man

Flute players look away; Daniel Pemberton says there aren’t any in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, this summer’s sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“There’s a scoop for you right now,” the composer joked, speaking via video chat. “There’s no woodwinds anywhere on Spider-Verse 2.”

Pemberton spoke with Polygon during his day off, which included both creating the score to. Across the Spider-VersePreparing for Spider-Man Live: Into The Spider-Verse New York City, March 17, 2017 —Sharing what you made Into the Spider-VerseIt is such a memorable experience, that it was essential to have a live orchestra screen of the film in Brooklyn. Across the Spider-Verse, too.

This might prove difficult for some, but it is important. Into the Spider-Verse has an Academy Award under its belt and a growing list of films inspired by its signature comics-influenced look, but there was a time when most people knew it as “that OtherSony Spider-Man animated movie. No, it’s not in the MCU.”

Even Pemberton says he struggled to get his friends to see the film — then they’d call him up a year later to tell him they finally watched it and were blown away.

“It’s been really interesting to watch how people didn’t really care about this movie,” he said. “They just thought, Ah, yes! I do know the name of this film. And that’s what’s been fun about it. I think everyone feels they discovered this movie; it’s their movie.”

Pemberton’s kinetic, inventive, energetic, and emotional score was a not-insignificant part of that love. Sequences like Miles’ leap of faith — combining the orchestra with Blackway and Black Caviar’s “What’s Up Danger” — and a chase scene in which Miles yo-yos Peter B. Parker’s unconscious body across Manhattan, scored by recording a full orchestra to vinyl and then getting a DJ to It’s all there! — have gotten a kind of public love not always pointed toward the parts of a film score that aren’t radio-ready singles.

“It’s the most complicated, out-there, crazy score I’ve probably ever written,” says Pemberton. “It’s changing every 20 seconds, going from noir music to jazz to orchestral music. It’s a good embodiment of me as a composer in that I try and take stuff from everywhere and put it into my music.”

Pemberton believes that making a score from anywhere was his way to honor the real world. Into the Spider-Verse — New York City — and paying it back for how it had inspired him.

“Brooklyn is the home of Miles, and it’s the home of such cross-pollination of music, which the film is about as well. From a musical point of view, New York is embedded in the DNA of this score.”

Pemberton remembered seeing London DJs make records. “Those DJs were inspired by the hip-hop culture of New York, they bought it over to London; I’m a kid in London, I see it. Years later, I’m in New York, with this score that has been influenced across the world with all these different ideas. New York boasts a rich and diverse culture, including classical, techno, and disco music. It is the [Into the Spider-Verse] score, for me, is also like that.”

Pemberton believes that Pemberton will succeed in his goal of bringing the Into the Spider-VerseA live broadcast can be made into a series that travels to different cities. He realized that even if he did it one time, it must happen in Brooklyn to complete the circle.

“I want people who’ve never seen an orchestra before to see an orchestra,” he told Polygon. “I want people who’ve seen an orchestra but never seen someone scratch records — I want them to see that. All these cultures should be merged. Hopefully, die-hard classical fans who have never seen someone scratch turntables, hip-hop heads who maybe haven’t seen a string section. That’s the holy trinity of this live show: orchestra, electronics, and turntables.”

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse live in concert will kick off at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre, but if you can’t make it, there’s still Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseTo look forward to.

Pemberton said that he’s been very aware that he has to “outdo” what he did in Into the Spider-VerseIt is highly anticipated for the sequel. But he’s got an ally there in Across the Spider-Verse’s expanded story.

“The first film was just Miles’ world, and in this new one we enter a lot of different universes, all of which have their own sound and their own art style. I’d say in the first one, we scratched the orchestra; in this one, we warp it. We’ve built weird technology to do certain things with sound. [Spider-Man] 2099 is a big character in this film, and his world is a lot more technological, and his sound world is a lot more electronic, so there’s a lot of electronics in the score. It’s just been trying to find, What can I do to make it feel exciting and new? If I do the same thing I did the first time, that’s not gonna be fresh and exciting.”

How difficult is it to film a movie set in multiverses? “I’ll tell you what, it does,” Pemberton shot back. “It makes recording schedules unbelievably complicated. [laughs] Because you’re trying to jump through very different styles that might only be in the film for, like, 10 seconds.”

What will the Spider-Verse be like? Pemberton says that he’s leaning more into Puerto Rican vibes this time around, as a nod to Miles’ maternal heritage, and he teased a whole list of things to expect: “Drum solos, opera vocals, punk rock, Indian percussion, techno drums, extreme time stretching, emotional orchestration, arpeggiated synths, and crazy sound design.”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-VerseThe movie screens in June 2nd