For almost two ten and across generations , the Kiner familyhas helped shape the sound of Star Wars animation — andnow with Ahsoka , they , like the former Jedi , have made the bounce into the unrecorded - action side of the wandflower far , far forth . AsAhsokabringsits time of year to an endthis workweek , we sit down with the Kiners to babble about the character ’s musical evolution .
Kevin Kiner has indite Star Wars euphony since the 2008 Clone Wars movie — and has now had the chance to not just see Ahsoka farm as a reference across it , the Clone Wars television show , Rebels , and now Ahsoka , but also check his own children Deana Kiner and Sean Kiner musically flourish in the Star Wars galaxy with their own work alongside their father on Clone Wars ’ final time of year , Rebels , Bad Batch , and Ahsoka . And yet , the idea of working on Star Wars still has elbow room to charm and storm the menage all these age later .
“ You know , yesterday evening we were having dinner party , my married woman and I , and we ’d been doing a hatful of press for promoting the soundtrack , something we ’re really gallant of . And when I talk to the press , which is not that often , it kind of drives home and reminds me that I ’m doing Star Wars . In 1977 , I was at UCLA and went to see the movie and all the midnight viewing … Superman and Star Wars are the reason I wanted to become a film composer . I wanted to make that sound . Here ’s this guy gain this magical sound , that transports you into this fantasy world . I grew up read Tolkien and love fancy and Asimov and Ray Bradbury . I ’m still reading skill fabrication now . I always have it away it , ” the Kiner paterfamilias recently distinguish io9 over Zoom . “ So , the perspective that you guy rope give me — Ahsoka being the cheek of Disney+ ? My god . So I just said to my married woman , ‘ You jazz , I ’m doing the music for Star Wars . ’ I said that last nighttime . She looks at me like , ‘ Huh ? ’ But … wow . It ’s beyond verbal description . I ’m much better with music than I am with words ! ”
Image: Lucasfilm
gibe out the relaxation of our audience with Ahsoka composer Kevin , Deana , and Sean Kiner , condensed and edited for clearness , below .
James Whitbrook , io9 : I wanted to embark on off by call for the process of you come aboard Ahsoka . You ’ve had a mysterious , retentive , extended account with Star Wars for nearly the past two decades , doing work on the animated show . What was the cognitive operation like when you heard Dave Filoni was start to bring this character into her own springy - action series ? Were you expect for the call to occur ?
Kevin Kiner : The past two years ! They played it really close to the vest . In fact , I had a plan once [ Dave Filoni ] told me I was doing the show — because it was just this agonizing waiting menses — I was doing work , I knew he was work on it , it was happening … they had n’t announce the composer … so , when I regain out we were doing it , you have sex , it was like “ He could have told me sooner ! ” But everything had to shine in place . But still , I was going to go up there and punch him . I was kick the bucket to give him a hug , and punch him . But or else — it was actually the wrap political party for time of year two of Bad Batch , it was a arcanum , we could n’t really talk about it — but Dave looked at me and I impart him a big hug , and then I did not plug him .
Image: Lucasfilm
Deana Kiner : And then we kept the job !
io9 : Were there challenges adjust to composing euphony for episode that are 40 - 50 minutes long , or else of the 20 - 30 of an animated series ?
Kevin Kiner : You have sex , it ’s amusing . One of the things that comes up is “ how is it different ? Scoring alive - military action versus animation ? ” And there are difference , but when you just asked me that , it crossed my creative thinker with something I had n’t said before … all three of us wanted to do the practiced music ever publish on Earth , so badly . And we were all just so absolutely intent on every pool stick we wrote just being an absolute house run , and the dependable thing we ’ve ever done . I recollect that kind of show in the soundtrack . I make out baseball game analogies . I ’m a baseball game sports fan . You know , if you gouge the bat too hard — and you render too hard — you’re going to take out . So that ’s a challenge . When you really need to do something great . Another part of that is you’re able to overwrite , too , in places where the medicine just require to settle and lease the actors do their job . The music is there for a mood for 20 , 30 seconds — whatever it is — don’t overwrite it . Even though you ’re trying to write your symphony orchestra , do n’t write your symphony in those position .
Image: Lucasfilm
Deana Kiner : We ’re kind of lucky to be work with the three of us together , and I think that ends up being really helpful . To be able to go up to each other and say “ hey , is this going too far ? Have I overwritten this ? ” Or , “ is this not enough ? ” even . I imagine having the three of us really helps facilitate that kind of weight and stress and really lay down our songs a great deal better .
Sean Kiner : After we were tell we had the gig , we had a set of fourth dimension before we in reality amaze the first episode , and so between the three of us , we start workshopping thing , and having the kind of clock time to just start take a hop things back at each other was also really valuable .
Kevin Kiner : I was out of town when I found out we had the fishgig , so I called the fry — and I think you persist up all night writing .
Image: Lucasfilm
Sean Kiner : It was all this nervous muscularity we had to write out onto the Sir Frederick Handley Page .
Deana Kiner : All this adrenaline and nowhere to put it , essentially . Might as well start writing . And then we were like , “ is it too early to be doing this ? ” Second guessing . Then everything hook and I think really helped us figure out how we wanted to near the show and what would and would not work on .
Sean Kiner : Of course the second we convey the word-painting , 99 % of what we had done went out the window . It was useful to have all that bankruptcy behind us , already .
Image: Lucasfilm
Kevin Kiner : Kind of like working out , you stretch , get your muscles ready . [ laughs ]
io9 : It ’s not just Ahsoka that ’s add up back , it ’s a diffuse subsequence to Rebels . You ’re take with these characters you ’ve worked with for so long , and developed a form of soundscape for . When you ’re come into the other stages of the scoring process for Ahsoka , how did you go about want to revisit that prior employment and those themes you ’ve already established ? How did you acquire the new sound for this show , specifically ?
Kevin Kiner : Part of how it ’s different working on the lively - action shows than the animated shows is that we have more time . We have more back - and - Forth River with Dave . I believe one of our leaning is , “ Oh , it ’s Sabine ! permit ’s flirt her motif ! ” No , that ’s not what this needs . And Dave had to pull us back a couple fourth dimension because — same thing with Thrawn,“Oh , rent ’s do the organ and everything ! ” No , it ’s not about the music here , it ’s about Thrawn ’s entree . Make it heavy as hell . We can have Thrawn ’s theme in there , but … again , we ’re such soundtrack geeks , we ’re such Star Wars geeks , we ’re such Rebels geeks , and we wrote those themes … and we ’re very attached to them . So your first instinct , yeah , I ’d say it ’s kind of the same ribbon . Dave pulled us back from being too enthusiastic . From being eager piffling pup , you know ? “ Okay , descend down guys . ”
Image: Lucasfilm
Sean Kiner : But he refocused us on the story . refocus us on the energy of the story , rather than the pre - existing bequest radical . That ’s really what we did so as to germinate the sound . We had to take ancestry of where the characters are now , what they ’re run through and conform the melodic phrase and lines to what their current story motivation .
Deana Kiner : I found one of the place I found ourselves being really successful was with Ahsoka and Hera , and the way their relationship has changed . They ’re in very unlike places in their lives . They have a very different family relationship now that they ’ve been working together so much more . It was really fun to go up that in a different way . And plain , Dave is so bully to work with because he encourages us to swing for the fencing . He ’s like , “ Go for it . You have a crazy approximation ? countenance ’s try it . ” That ’s how Sabine ’s song , “ Igyah Kah ” turned out , because he was like “ let ’s examine something crazy . countenance ’s really go for it . ”
Kevin Kiner : Let ’s sway ‘ n roll .
io9 : It turned out great !
Kevin Kiner : Thanks a good deal ! There was another piece when they ’re at the Corellian Shipyard [ in episode two ] , and Ahsoka and Hera are own a really serious talk , and Hera says , “ when is it enough ? How do you know ? When is somebody function to be good enough for you ? ” And that was a heavy moment . And I think the score successfully pilot that here and now . The base are still there , but there ’s a maturity to them . It ’s playing that moment , too .
io9 : Ahsoka ’s motif has become such an of import leitmotiv to a circle of rooter and how they perceive the lineament . When you ’re dealing with a slice like that which has such a presence and repute now , how did you go about evolving it for the raw show ?
Kevin Kiner : It ’s funny , that tune was a gift , you know ? I do n’t cognize where it descend from , but I remember what the scenery was and where I was when I wrote it 17 old age ago . It was the first theme I ’d ever written for George [ Lucas ] . I ’d just been hire and it came really chop-chop , which a lot of the good 1 do . I think what happen then is that there ’s these two kinds of … it start with Tales of the Jedi , the three episode deal with Ahsoka ’s birth and growing up , and Dave had this conception , it was very much his homage to those Studio Ghibli movies . So there was a swelled variety of Japanese samurai , ronin influence . [ Deana and Sean ] really took that root word and those few eminence and changed them and yet kept them the same . And kind of added this droning violoncello , ronin - esque beat to it . Then it ’s a variation in many different fashion of Ahsoka ’s theme . You hear that in the end credits . It starts with that .
Sean Kiner : Ahsoka ’s theme was the bound off period for that . We wanted to — we immersed ourselves in classical samurai films and mind to those strait and ended up coming up with what you hear at the beginning of the close credits . But it ’s been very utile to have both the mature samurai warrior sound and Ahsoka ’s theme — the psyche of the fiber . We ’ve had this huge tool outfit . It ’s been a boon to have all these different prick when we ’re essay to help the write up .
io9 : I require to ask about your approach to Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati . How did you create their nefarious , Sith - y sound ? It feels standardised to retiring Star Wars scoundrel , but they have this very singular sound , as well .
Kevin Kiner : Something with him — and Sean , you could talk to this as well — a piano is lightly used , usually , in Star Wars . Not that often . So [ Baylan ’s theme ] is kind of something Modern . You do n’t usually have a bad , bashing forte-piano go with the big hombre in Star Wars present . So that was kind of nerveless .
Sean Kiner : Interestingly enough , piano does peddle down on the bass of “ Duel of the Fates . ” It does n’t carry the melody like we do the Baylan , but we knew it was something we could bring into Star Wars . For Baylan , specifically , we voiced the pianissimo in this Rachmaninoff - eccentric voicing , so we went back and cite some classical element . And then we made a mutant of the Dies Irae , which is this mediaeval medicine associated with demise and the ending of things .
Kevin Kiner : Sort of like a Gregorian chant . It ’s a liturgical piece of music .
Sean Kiner : And then we bring in the orchestras . you may hear it in the hall fit . I forget the track ’s name on the soundtrack . Then we kind of played it with a heavy metal learning ability in the orchestra . So it ’s all those elements playing together to make him palpate imposing and implacable .
Deana Kiner : “ Master and Apprentice . ”
Kevin Kiner : And that ’s the claim of the first episode , too . And that ’s Baylan ’s report . And it rock pretty hard , you cognize ? And then it ’s Shin ’s melodic theme , also , and that ’s the first episode , too . “ Shin vs Sabine , ” the first time you get word her theme playing … there are quite a few new report in Ahsoka . Shin ’s , Baylan ’s , the New Republic theme , Morgan ’s theme — we just named it Morgan ’s theme , one of the beldam ’ base . I will say , as an digression , that it breaks my spirit every fourth dimension somebody even say Baylan Skoll . Watching this show , all of this breaks our nitty-gritty . He was so marvelous . What a loss .
io9 : Kevin , you ’ve been part of Ahsoka ’s journeying from the very beginning — and then you get your family involve , and now you ’ve all worked on Clone Wars , and Rebels , and Bad Batch , and now Ahsoka . How has it felt for you all to watch this lineament grow in that time ?
Sean Kiner : As composer , our lives are very nongregarious and so our relationships with these character reference are very personal and intimate . But whenever I catch a glimpse of the jillion of people that are being dissemble by the work we ’re doing , I palpate a distant connectedness to them . It ’s very profound and occupy me with a wad of emotion .
Kevin Kiner : My wife is Filipina , so every other yr we go to the Philippines so [ her parent ] can be with their grandkids . We went out to Mt. Pinatubo , which erupted a few years earlier — and it ’s in a very remote part of the Philippines . You have to get on a four wheel drive for a couple minute to get out to it , and we go to this vent which now has been filled with rain . And I look over and there ’s this petty tiddler running around in a t - shirt , and I ’m looking at it , and it ’s a Clone Wars triiodothyronine - shirt . In the middle of fucking nowhere . This is not a relative of mine , or anything . It was just somebody who was there . So , boy , is it ever worldwide .
Ahsokais now rain cats and dogs on Disney+ .
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