MRH: My last question is what was it like working for Michael Mann on Miami Vice?

My impressions from interviews with composers is that he’s a very demanding director but he also has this penchant for shaping his scores to resemble work by Tangerine Dream (with Thief being the archetypal Mann score).

I always wonder if that’s something that materializes when composers work with him, or is it something that they recognize is a music style that he likes, and they try and meet those requirements but try bring their own ideas to the table?

JM:  God, you could write a book about working with Michael. I mean, first off, he’s one of the best directors in the world. He operates on an incredible level, and he operates at a million miles an hour so it’s really hard to keep up with the guy.

He’s the most demanding director I’ve ever worked with, but at the same time he’s so on top of what he thinks is best for his movie. Whatever you do, it’s got to meet a requirement that’s already in place, if that makes sense. [That’s] why I think, no matter who came in to do one of Michael’s scores, at the end of the day it will always be a Michael Mann score, so you’re right about there being that signature through his scores, whether it be me or Elliot Goldenthal or whoever has ever worked with Michael.

[Michael’s] kind of got it worked out before you start, so if you can bring your own personality to that, then you’ve succeeded in some way, but you never work with Michael and turn up and have the whole idea in your head; that’s never going to happen with any composer. He knows what his movie needs before you even come on, so I think there’ll always be that signature to his scores that is purely him, because he’s on top of it so much.

Even big directors like Danny Boyle will sort of have a couple of ideas, or he’ll play a couple of songs, but then he’ll try and talk about how the film should feel; he’ll kind of lead you to it.

The same with Guy Ritchie as well, and even Stephen Frears. Those kind of directors will talk and talk and give you beautiful in-depth back-stories what the movie’s about and what the music has to achieve, but none of those guys would say ‘This has to be a piano, or this has to be this, or this has to stop here, or this has to start there.’ You’ve got a helluva lot of leeway with those directors and they’ll kind of keep you on track with it, but with Michael you’re walking into a kind of ready-made template, I think, because he’s already worked all of these things out before you’re even on board, and then he will adjust and tweak accordingly as you go through it.

It’s a very different process and it is very demanding, but I actually learned a lot working with him, the whole way he scores on film. He sees the score not in terms of three acts; he sees it as these overlapping tectonic movements and arcs that continue throughout the film, and it’s fantastic, really.

When I got what he was talking about, it’s actually an amazing strategy with music, and you see it in his other movies as well… For all of the fearful stories about him, he’s actually incredibly supportive, and he’s a pretty nice guy… He’s there when there’s a problem and he’ll talk you through it, and I really enjoyed working with him.

Learned a lot. Learned a helluva lot from him.