MRH: Because the film is basically a satire and tribute to the crazy seventies bodycount films, I guess one of your roles is to add some dramatic support and subtext to the characters, some of whom will be underwritten or disposable?

MW: Definitely. The music is very much centered around the fish. There are other themes and ideas that tie in to some of the other characters, specifically the kid; Steven R. McQueen’s character’s little brother and sister have their own kind of musical identity.

They always seem to be getting caught in situations that they don’t try to get caught in, but do, but the themes and the real motive in the film are all centered towards the fish. Most of the score grows out of that because they’re the stars of the film, but it was very important to give them a personality all of their own.

I remember the thing that really solidified getting the job for me was the first idea I came up with, which was taking a scene that was written with actually col legno strings which is where the string instruments are played with the wood side of the bow instead of with the bow hair, actually knocking the instruments, so you get the clacking sound along with the pitch. I recorded a melody that way, and then modified it with some filters and some distortion and got this very brittle, biting, toothy sound, and that became the cornerstone of the score. It’s cool because the sound is evil and funny at the same time, and Alex really liked that… It a sense of ominous and evil but also there’s a sense of humour about it.

MRH: The fish also look humorous because they’re like piranhas on steroids.

MW: At the beginning of the film there’s an earthquake and these fish are released from an underground lake that’s been in stasis for millions of years, so the fish look like they came from millions of years ago. The most interesting part is that they have personalities, and beyond the pack mentality that piranha normally operate with - the swarming, feeding frenzy mentality - they all have their own little moments on screen; they’re very funny, but they’re also very precarious, and that was intentional and makes them more interesting, and plays into the whole B-movie pathos that the film is tipping its hat to.

MRH: This is your second 3D film, but because you’ve started work on your third 3D film, Drive Angry, is there anything that you’ve learned during the process so that when scoring a 3D film, there certain steps that you need t follow, either when you’re spotting the film, or scoring it?

MW: It’s pretty straightforward in terms of how the music serves the film, either in a context sense or pacing or in a emotional sense.

The only difference – and we found this to really be the case on My Bloody Valentine (2009) – was when you go for something big, make it really big because the film can carry it. It’s as if there’s this whole extra set of square footage added to the house that is the film that you need to fill up, and it didn’t exist before when the film was in 2D. Suddenly it’s there, and when you want to go make something louder or aggressive or a chase scene really needs to have some weight, you can really go there. You can add layers, you can add a lot of thump just make the piece overall more dense and textured, and have more gravity; something that might feel over the top in a 2D arena won’t feel that way in 3D.

It’s just a perceptual thing, but it’s real, and it’s there, so you have to take that into consideration.

MRH: And your next 3D film, Drive Angry, reunites you with My Bloody Valentine director Patrick Lussier. Is it basically a revenge film or more of a horror film?

MW: It’s definitely a revenge film. It’s a very interesting movie because it defies a lot of categorization, in terms of ‘What kind of movie is this?’ It covers a lot of ground.

I can’t say a lot about it because Patrick wants me to keep it close to the vest, but it’s first a road revenge movie, and there are some huge car chases that are definitely done in the old school, late sixties style; everything is in-camera, there are real cars blowing up for real, it’s shot in similar ways that films like Vanishing Point (1971) was shot.

There’s also an element of a strong anti-hero, which was popular in the late sixties/early seventies, say with film like High Plains Drifter (1973), where the guy you were rooting for wasn’t actually a very good guy, and that’s the type of character that Nicolas Cage plays.

As much as I can say, there’s also a supernatural element involved, there’s moments of great horror, there’s gore, there’s sex – everything is completely in your face. It’s like a pulp novel come to life. That’s the best way to describe it.