MRH : In many ways it kind of echoes what the Twilight Zone was doing, because you'd literally have any kind of story in a different time period, and the show's producers also drew from the resources of various composers and different styles, so what you end up with, when you examine the music that was written for that one series, if not just one season, is this incredible diversity from using all kinds of instruments – chamber, primal electronics, or a modest orchestra – and I get the impression that Supernatural is similarly unique because you're actually able to go out and get ethnic instruments and write distinct material just for one episode.

CL : It's funny you mention Twilight Zone, because I think the only other thing that could really expand our show is the idea of different time periods. There are flashbacks, but it's all sort of present day. We definitely pulled from locale, we pulled form characters that have new entrances, new nemeses, arrivals, and things like that, and we do get to do something a little different. I would absolutely say that I don't think there's any TV show that has been more amazing, as far as showcasing different composers, than Twilight Zone was. I certainly hope that any comparison like that continues, because it's really been great.

MRH : Will there be a Supernatural CD coming out?

CL : The plan is to definitely get out a CD. I know I've been approached... and a medium-sized label has already expressed an interest. I think if the fans want it, the label will be willing to do it. It probably will have something to do with the DVD that's coming out in September. If a lot of people pick up the first season and it's a really big audience, I think they might put out the CD this year. [Note: a compilation CD was eventually released in September of 2010 - Ed.]

MRH : In many ways the DVD market sort of helps that, because it adds extra awareness to a TV series, and people get a second chance to catch up on a show that everybody has been talking about but is now halfway through its repeat run, or is entirely absent from the small screen until the new season begins.

CL : Absolutely, and as a composer, we have a very self-serving view of DVD releases [for TV shows]. If you've got a really great home theatre system, you pop in the DVD, and it's going to shake the room with this great surround sound mix... It's very different from watching it on a little TV and mono speakers, so I would say for the musicians, composer, and the cinematographer, we love it when the DVD comes out because people will really feel and hear and see the project the way we were intending it to come out. I try not to actually watch it on TV; I usually wait until I get a DVD copy, and then I can watch it and feel really great about it.

MRH : My last question is if you could give a few details about a pair of upcoming projects – Tortilla Heaven, and Shark Bait.

CL : I am actually done with both scores. I've been done with Tortilla Heaven for a quite a while, and it's been one of those movies that was an indie film, so it's been having a little trouble for a while getting completely finished. They did a lot of work on part of the film because I think at one point there was a problem where some chemicals got involved, and they had to do a process to get some of the film re-transferred, but that one is supposedly coming out right at the beginning of 2007.

It's really a great movie, and is about what happens to a little town when the face of Jesus appears on a tortilla in a restaurant, and everyone gets greedy. It's really a sort of poignant, funny skewering of religious greed, and very clever. George Lopez is in it, and Miguel Sandoval plays the Devil in the movie and he's just spectacular. The other great thing about that film is that we got such amazing players. We got Alex Acuña on percussion and other phenomenal players [and the score has a] fantastic sort of Latino/Southwest Ennio Morricone kind of vibe to it, to skewer the comedy.

MRH : There have been many instances where people see a religious figure on, for example, a donut shop window, a potato chip, or other weird objects and surfaces, and the film sounds like someone's had a little bit of fun, but in a good-natured way, since these things pop up in the news every few years.

CL : And the great thing about it is it's completely good-natured. It's absolutely irreverent in how it skewers some of the silliness of the way people react and the way people deal with organized religion, but at the same time, it's such an uplifting feel-good movie at the end, and it shows good things happening to good people, and somebody doing the right thing. It's very much a fable, and it's one of those movies where I think it could be a hit in theatres; if people start talking about it, it could end up being one of those movies that just gets bigger and bigger.

Shark Bait is supposed to be coming out also this fall; it's already been released in the far East [as Pi's Story] because it was co-produced by a Korean company who did the animation, but it's really funny. It's got Rob Schneider and Andy Dick and Fran Drescher, and it's very much along the lines of A Shark's Tale and Finding Nemo, but it's a little bit different story-wise... It's really clever, and because it was a lower-budgeted film, we did a mixture of Calypso, some acoustic guitars, and unusual percussion. There's one point where the main character was born in Boston Harbor, and it's dirty with all kind of junkyard under the sea, so we actually got to record junk percussion and sampled old rusty pieces of metal and things like that to put into the score and create some of the rhythmic textures.