The first episode of the new animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch is currently streaming on Disney+, and by all accounts is another success on par with The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
One of the through lines tying all three series together is Emmy-nominated composer Kevin Kiner, who recently picked up an Annie award for his terrific work on the Clone Wars episode “Victory and Death.” With Bad Batch, Kiner was able to build upon the thematic structure of both Clone Wars and Rebels for a score that is more diverse, albeit layered with that traditional Star Wars flare.
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“Bad Batch is more of an evolution of Clone Wars than Rebels was,” Kiner explained in an interview with ComingSoon.net’s Jeff Ames. “Rebels was kind of a reboot and a different way of thinking about things. Bad Batch comes directly from Clone Wars. They’re the weird clones, they’re misfit clones with special skills and special crazy personalities. So, the score definitely grows from Clone Wars, just like Clone Wars grew from or changed throughout its run.”
Kiner describes his new scores as more eclectic in nature.
“You know, this is kind of an exclusive,” the Star Wars: The Batch Batch composer said, “but I think it’s okay to say that I go a little bit in The Dirty Dozen and Guns of Navarone direction with this one. Which works because they’re a band of misfits and they’re sneaking around, which is very much like The Dirty Dozen.
“So, I definitely give it that kind of thing. The electronics are in full force at times and so is the orchestra. One of my specialties is I play a bunch of fretted instruments and I have a thing called the guitar viola, which is a bowed guitar, like a cello, but different. I play that soloistically in a very haunting way with a vocalist a few times. So, I’m definitely pushing things. I’m trying to continue to explore.”
Kiner then went on to talk about a particular piece of music he’s excited for fans to hear, though, since the series is ongoing, couldn’t reveal too much.
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“I don’t know what we’re calling that track, but it’s the one with the guitar viola and the vocalist,” he said. “But that will come out when we release the music from the first four episodes, I believe. I don’t have specific titles, but it’s a soloistic kind of cello-sounding thing. I really had fun, but it’s really different. It’s something brand new that I came up with more of my voice than other things I’ve done.”
Check out Episode 1 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+ now and be sure to look out for the soundtrack on streaming platforms.
