Can you tell us how this project got started? What was the inspiration behind creating this crossover album?

James:

I was doing some demos for a film pitch which was set in New Zealand – it was about European missionaries and how they interacted with the Maori population. This backdrop planted the seed of mixing ancient, tribal chants in a classical setting. At first the music was quite modal and sounded like score cues but, I realised I was onto a good idea which could stretch to a more global feel and once the film went away I decided to explore a whole set of songs.

This project can be described as a mixture of classical orchestra, ethnic and tribal rhythms and voices, and some pop elements. How did you manage to make every piece of music cohesive while maintaining the identity of each component?

James:

The wonderful thing about creating your own brief is that you can look into all your influences – perhaps normally restricted by a film’s needs. I have always loved the tribal idea – chants are so accessible and there is an ‘earthy’ quality and power to a large group of singers in unison or simple harmony. I have long been a fan of Pat Metheney, and in particular his album ‘Secret Story’ where he used Cambodian children and fused it with a kind of classical-jazz. I wanted to do something similar but with a more orthodox classical approach. As such, I retained much percussion, lots of vocals and lush strings and brass. I was also able to underpin simple folk/ethnic ideas with a richer harmonic language which I think defines my sound. Regarding other elements, I opted for guitars, ukuleles, mandolins – any sort of strung instrument that might appear on a pop or folk record to give some energy and drive so as to take the album into a crossover direction.

This is a vocal-driven album. Was there any particular language or dialect that dictated what you ultimately wrote?

James:

The language is ultimately made up. I started down the road of researching real life dialects and gravitated toward India, Sanskrit and African – it is amazing how quickly you can become engrossed in other cultures and religions via the internet. I was fascinated by the similarities across the globe and throughout history that tribes have in common. In the end, however, I decided that I didn’t want to disrespect the religious nature of the mantras and prayers I found – at the end of the day I’m a composer not a scholar and it opened me up to doing something all-encompassing without being tied to meaning or specific time or place.

Dorothee Munyaneza, who provides the lead vocals, gained worldwide notoriety after her performance in Hotel Rwanda’s score. Did you set out to find a vocalist who had some understanding of the film music world but that also had an ethnic and somewhat ‘tribal’ undertone to her voice?

James:

I actually met Dorothee through Hotel Rwanda. She had been hired for that since she was from Rwanda and her voice was fantastic. we got on very well in the initial demo stages and I discovered that not only did she have remarkable range (both musically and emotionally) she also read music. This enabled me to notate my ideas and enable us to achieve a great richness in sound by layering up lots of harmonies to create a ‘tribal’ sound.

While the more Intimate and melodic parts can be found in the prayers, you have more energetic and grand elements in tracks like Earth Chorus, Sun Dance and Sky Chorus. The chants and songs feature a bit more uplifting musical components. Was this the approach you took for the album, other than deriving the music from the four basic elements?

James:

I wanted to achieve a balance on the album between uplifting and intimate, more reflective music. I went with the idea of having anthems, prayers and chants and tried to keep this consistent. That way you are never far from some positive energy – the voices seemed to beg for big, powerful arrangements so I put in the prayers to counteract that richness.

Earth Chorus is simply a superb piece of music. Can you walk us through the process of composing this particular piece?

James:

Earth Chorus was one of the first pieces to be written, and I must say is one of my favourites too. When I wrote the chorus section, which has simple harmony, I just kept layering in vocal takes – including myself – and it just felt great. The track sums up my hopes for the music as a whole in that it is essentially a simple chant and melody but with strong orchestral backing which makes you feel the whole Earth is crying out in song.

Are there any plans to expand the album? Live concerts featuring music from The Sound of Gaya are inevitable in the near future, I would presume.

James:

The problem these days is getting any kind of record company to commit to projects that are a bit ‘outside’ the norm. Due to the fact TV is riddled with X-Factor style programming, it is hard to find a voice. The record labels push those artists as they have so much exposure. Imagine pitching a world-crossover-classical-vocal project without a famous name attached! Not easy. More and more artists are turning to the internet to promote and sell their music as it is the only really viable method without a major it seems to me. I was astonished to find that in just 3 or 4 weeks The Sound Of Gaya Facebook page gained over 17,000 likes. That is across the globe and with a tiny budget. I think the universal nature of the project has made it attractive – it’s not in English after all, what a shame Universal Records didn’t pick us up!!

If the profile we are gaining continues there is nothing I’d like more than to get out and do some concerts with this – I’d pick up untrained kids from around London who are looking for something to do with there musical talents and put them in a big chorus and back them with an orchestra!

Finally, it has been over eight months since we last talked (primarily regarding Batman Live). Can you quickly give us an update on the projects you have completed or are currently finishing?

James:

Since we last spoke I have scored a Stephen Frears’ film called ‘Lay The Favourite’ with a soundtrack release out shortly from Cutting Edge’s label. I have been collaborating with Disney-Pixar and John Lasseter on a really cool film called ‘Planes’ which is an extension of the ‘Cars’ franchise – out next year. I completed a lovely french movie called ‘L’histoire de nos petites morts’ (Tale of our little deaths) which is a dark drama about a husband and wife’s sexual fantasies and whether their relationship can survive – it’s also very funny! In June I was lucky enough to help mastermind as Musical Director the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. That was a fantastic change of pace for me as it involved collaborating on new arrangements of classic pop songs from the likes of Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. I’m pleased to tell you that for once I was not the last person to leave the aftershow party at the palace!

Just watching James Brett putting the brass section through its paces at Abbey Road Studios is exhausting. Juggling the roles of composer and musical director of Batman Live, Brett darts frantically between the recording studio and the control booth, sustained by an abundant passion for what he does and the encroaching deadline he knows he must meet.

Brett’s score for Batman Live, which opens at the MEN Arena, Manchester, on July 19 before embarking on a four-month UK tour, is 86 minutes of orchestral music, roughly the same length as a feature film, but much more full-on. At its most urgent and dramatic, it sounds like something Prokofiev or Shostakovich might have produced.

The son of a session musician, Brett’s hero as a boy was John Williams, whose anthemic scores for Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Superman and Jurassic Park set the bar for film composition. “I was drawn to the melodic and harmonic colours of his music,” Brett says. “His ability to conjure memorable, catchy themes while retaining an intense sophistication in his scores was remarkable. I go back to them again and again.”

On graduating from the Royal College of Music in 1997, he was lucky enough to be taken on as an assistant by the late Michael Kamen, the prolific film and TV composer best remembered for X-Men, Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves, and Die Hard. Brett worked alongside Kamen on several big projects, including the acclaimed TV series Band of Brothers.

“Michael was a charismatic New Yorker, brash at times and straight to the point,” says Brett in a snatched break from recording. “He’d tell stories and mess around, never taking it too seriously. There was a degree of chaos about him. It was an important learning curve for an English grammar schoolboy who’d been taught in fairly conventional and disciplined ways.

“When he died it was a huge loss to me. Without Michael, I might not have got a foothold on the top level of the music business, certainly not as quickly.”

Now Brett divides his time between movie work – Planet 51, Outpost, Lay The Favourite and 2012 – and scoring these big arena shows, most notably the hugely successful 2007 production, Walking With Dinosaurs, based on the TV series of the same name. Extracts from his dinosaurs score were heard in a BBC Prom marking Darwin’s centenary in 2009. It was a particular thrill for Brett because he found himself on the same bill as his childhood hero Williams, whose music from Jurassic Park was also featured.

The score for Batman Live, which shares an executive producer with Walking With Dinosaurs, has taken him six months, from a blank score sheet to nearly an hour and a half of exhilarating sound weaved in and around Allan Heinberg’s DC Comics-style narrative.

This £12 million spectacular is a drama with music, rather than a musical – nobody bursts into song. No doubt the producers are keen to distance themselves from that other comic book reinvention, Spider-Man.

At the launch event in April, director Anthony Van Laast said, “What it is really is rock and roll”, pointing out that nearly everyone in the production team has a background in rock concerts. “We always knew we could fill an arena,” he added, “all we needed was a really good yarn, and we’ve got that.”

The show combines acrobatics, stunt work, outlandish costumes and spectacular special effects, as well as a specially-commissioned Batmobile from former Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray.

Each of the main characters – Batman, Robin, Catwoman and The Joker – will have their own theme music, specially composed by Brett.

Was he influenced by previous Batman scores?

“I listened to all the Batman scores that are available in order, so that I could bring a fresh voice to it,” he says. “Obviously there are certain things you need to do to make it Batman-esque – big, bold, brassy stuff. It bears no resemblance to any West End musical you’ve ever seen. It is much more symphonic. I’m filling big arenas with sound, courtesy of a 90-piece orchestra.”

Where do you start with such a complex and protracted musical tapestry?

“I’ve got a fabulous computer programme that breaks it all up into smaller segments,” explains Brett. “It even tells me how many minutes of music I should be writing each day.

“I worked predominantly from the script, aided by stills from the comic books and some video content. I had a lot of discussion beforehand with Anthony about how the show was going to be done. He wanted something that sounded grand and gothic – big orchestra, choir, big-band, the full works. But he has been great about giving me a free rein stylistically.”

Many film and theatre composers find writing the music stressful enough, but Brett piles on the pressure by doubling up as MD. “I know many composers hire a conductor to do all that, but I just love going out there on the podium. You can mould it and shape it, and I love working with musicians. It does make things very intense, doing both jobs, but it is the biggest buzz for me.”

As with his music for Walking With Dinosaurs, Brett hopes to produce what he calls a performance suite from his Batman score that can be played as a stand-alone orchestral piece.

A devoted family man, he is keen to encourage young people to participate in music and, to this end, he has produced a children’s work, The Book of Dreams, in collaboration with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and a 60-strong children’s choir. The aim is to challenge schools to broaden their musical horizons and experience the thrill of participating in collaborative musical events.

Just over a year ago I was lucky enough to be asked to write the music to accompany a live arena show charting the rise and fall of one of the most fascinating periods in our natural history. The subject matter was both daunting and inspiring and I have absolutely relished the chance to immerse myself in this most dramatic of stories; that of the dinosaurs.

The score needed to be epic to match both the scale of the individual dinosaurs and to convey the almost unimaginable lengths of time involved. However, the music couldn’t always just be “big”. There were various strands that made up the story and I wanted to approach each of these differently, particularly the characters of the dinosaurs but also the nature of an ever changing landscape and a huge land mass, Pangaea, constantly shifting over vast passages of time.

The show itself needed an identifiable and, hopefully, memorable Main Theme which is used primarily to punctuate the show with a unifying musical idea and, in its fullest version, to announce the sheer size of the story. After the introduction and grand opening of the show we are transported back in time, through our imaginations, to the early Triassic period 220 million years ago. We have been looking at modern day fossils but suddenly these Eggs Come Alive. We are in a harsh, hot and dry world but, even so, life can be sustained. Our first dinosaur is a small, agile predator with grasping hands and sharp teeth. This Liliensternus scavenges and darts across the landscape and musically he is represented by spiky double reeds spitting out angular melodies and motifs. He takes one of our newly born hatchlings.

We learn that each of the dinosaurs developed its own survival characteristics in what was an unforgiving world and, as a 9 metre, 4 tonne Plateosaurus Enters we see that size was a useful advantage. She enters accompanied by a slightly melancholic but melodic tuba. Threatened by a marauding Liliensternus and desperate to defend her young, the Plateosaurus chases away the threat in a dissonant and rhythmic Triassic Encounter. The gentle nature of the mother is revisited as her surviving hatchlings scurry about the hot landscape before the main theme signifies the inevitable passage of time and The Plateosaursus Exits.

As time passes the great continent Pangaea shifts and the hot and arid world of the Triassic gives way to the much more fertile and abundant land that is The Jurassic Age. This piece takes us from a dissonant and angular musical world into a more romantic and lush tonality. The first dinosaur we encounter here is the mighty and regal Stegosaurus measuring a full 13 metres from nose to tail and played-on by magisterial French horns. No sooner has the Stegosaurus settled to graze than the largest and most fearsome carnivore of the Jurassic appears. This beast is swift and cunning and when the Allosaurus Attacks a mighty battle ensues. Forced to flee, the Stegosaurus eventually succumbs to the long, grappling-hook-like claws of its merciless attacker but just at the final moment the two creatures are interrupted by an even more powerful force; a devastating Forest Fire rips through the terrain destroying everything in its path until finally engulfing the Stegosaurus and forcing the Allosaurus to seek refuge. After the fire there is Rebirth. Out of the ashes new vegetation grows and we are presented with huge trees that form a flourishing and verdant forest canopy which totally dominates the area. Slowly from within this sea of green we hear the footsteps of perhaps the greatest beasts ever to have roamed the planet. Musically accompanied by full and lush strings the graceful Brachiosaurs enter the arena measuring a staggering 13 metres in height and 23 metres in length. Again, the Allosaurus attacks but this time, during the Brachiosaur Battle, loses out to a larger and more intimidating adversary. The Brachiosaurs parade around the forest in a victory lap and are played out by a galaxy of stars in a Moonlit Jurassic, ultimately leaving us to take their place in time.

The second act starts in the Early Cretaceous, 127 million years ago marked by an ever changing planet represented here by a Pangaea Storm. We are greeted by a soaring, winged pterosaur, this Ornithicheirus Flight occurs over stormy seas as it looks for food and tries to find landfall. Unfortunately, the only land that he finds is populated by a pack of Raptors, which promptly force him off. The group squabbles over a carcass before an unseen member calls them from offstage. We learn that with their superior intelligence, agility and ability to communicate these are indeed daunting predators. They stealthily set off on a Raptor hunt.

Once again, Pangaea shifts and we move through time to the Mid-Cretaceous. Here there are many species of broad leaf trees, exotic Flowers And Insects as well as the awesome and gladiatorial Duelling Torosuars. Two horned males come on accompanied by brassy trombones and ferocious percussion. After a grand mating display and tense standoff, they engage in a “duel” which incorporates fast, rhythmic tribal drums and metal beating out their struggle for dominance.

Time has again passed and we are now in a Fading Paradise, a more sulphurous world heralding a decline in some species. However, life continues and an old and peculiar looking Ankylosaurus shuffles on stage. This dinosaur was so heavily armoured that its skull was reinforced to the extent that there was only room for the smallest of brains. A high solo bassoon matched with curious orchestrations attempt to evoke this strange beast. The Ankylosaurus accidentally strays into the path of a Gawky Bird – in actual fact a baby Tyrannosaurus and a melee follows. Just when the young and inexperienced creature is in trouble a large and imposing female Tyrannosaurus Rex appears in defence of her young. She attacks through sharp and savage, dissonant orchestra and drives off the armoured veteran before nursing her child in a tender moment.

It is the Last Night On Earth and the two Tyrannosaurs are unaware that in the peaceful night sky a mighty comet is hurtling towards them. Impacting in the Gulf of Mexico the comet was 10 kilometres wide and would have caused severe acid rain and global wildfires as well as blocking out the sun for a prolonged period. However, out of this devastation and the extinction of many of these successful species new life emerged and, just as new forests had risen from ashes previously, so new species continued to evolve on a global scale. The piece therefore concludes positively and with hope for the future that followed and for the future that will follow us.