How the ‘John Wick 4’ Composer Added a ‘Huge Orchestral Score’ to the Franchise’s Headbanging Rock Sound

variety.com:

Jon Burlingame editor Faced with the biggest, craziest Keanu Reeves kill-fest yet in “John Wick 4,” composer Tyler Bates upped the musical ante the only way possible: He added an orchestra to the essential “John Wick” palette of raw, headbanging guitars, drums and synths.

Bates – also known for his “Guardian of the Galaxy” scores – has collaborated with fellow composer Joel J. Richard on all of the “John Wick” music since the first film opened in 2014. “We share some very similar taste, and as friends, we’re just already on a subconscious wavelength,” says Bates. “If you listen to the four scores, they’ve definitely grown as the scope of the films has.

Not in the way that it’s now an orchestra and it’s larger; it’s just that the color palette has continued to develop throughout, still maintaining the fun, hybrid-rock foundation to the score.” Director Chad Stahelski is “a rocker,” Bates reports, but it was also Stahelski’s idea to expand the Wick soundscape into “a huge orchestral score.” The problem, Bates says, was “how do we maintain the power, the edge and the aesthetic of the John Wick score while embracing an orchestra?

It just doesn’t work as a straight orchestral action score.” Bates and Richards play all the guitars (both electric and acoustic), bass and synthesizers, with Gil Sharone on drums.