There’s a surprising amount of consistently in the Fast & Furious franchise, considering it’s now nine movies and counting and has evolved into a global blockbuster series. Vin Diesel, of course, is in all but one of the films; Justin Lin has now directed five of them; and composer Brian Tyler’s roots go back to the very first film in the franchise, and he most recently composed the score for F9. As Tyler told me in an interview recently, some of his music was licensed for use in The Fast and the Furious, so when his friend Justin Lin was hired to direct the third movie – Tokyo Drift – Tyler was an obvious choice to compose the score. Since that time, Tyler has scored every film save for Fast & Furious 6, and for F9 he got to bring a more emotional and dramatic side to the franchise while also revisiting themes he wrote years ago.

During our discussion, Tyler not only talked about his work on F9, but we also took a stroll down memory lane as he looked back on his scores for the other previous films (and revealed why he didn’t score Fast & Furious 6). Finally, with Tyler scoring the upcoming new Scream movie, I asked him what he could say about that film and he offered a brief but tantalizing tease.

Check out the interview below.

How are you feeling? It's the biggest opening of the pandemic so far.

BRIAN TYLER: Yeah. It's incredible to see, and it's really nice to be able to see people enjoying things together. The communal experience is big. It's big for the movie industry as a whole. This was one of those movies that was really on the edge of, "Do we need to cancel the date or what are we going to do?" I was about to go to London to record the orchestra and I think it was the next morning that we were going to leave on a plane, and that's right when the shutdown happened. It was the night before.

Michelle Rodriguez in F9
Image via Universal

Oh, wow. Then did you end up recording this all remotely? What was the recording process for this one?

TYLER: So we delayed by a year. I had just finished writing the music, and so we waited an entire year to record. There were no sessions in 2020, and we recorded in 2021.

What was your first reaction when you heard that Justin was coming back to direct this one?

TYLER: Justin's a great collaborator on films and a great friend. We've known each other a long time. We go back to before Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, where I scored Annapolis that he directed. And then we started together on the third film, Tokyo Drift, and he really built the franchise into something bigger. I continued with the Fast and Furious movies. And then for him to come back has been amazing. We work very early together, from the get-go and when the script is being done and all that. I think we've been around, in terms of outside of the actors and actresses, we've been kind of the people on the project for a really long time. So we definitely have a special bond because we've been through a lot together. It's pretty great to see this happen because it's been a wild one, seeing how this went through being put on pause and all that.

What were your kind of early conversations about what the soundscape of F9 would be?

TYLER: This had a marked difference in terms of the tone of the music because of this element of the Toretto family, and discovering that Dom has a brother and how this all related to something that we've been wondering about since first Fast and Furious, about the death of their father. That was one of the things where there's this new theme, it's actually the first piece on the soundtrack of Fast 9, and then the theme is woven throughout the movie so much. And the tone of the theme is distinctly not action music. It is something that you would normally associate with a historical drama or almost a mythological, emotional kind of piece that kind of has an existential feeling. And I think that kind of unusual approach to something like this is something that Justin and I really strive for and he really encouraged. And so you hear this theme throughout the film, along with all the other themes that I've developed through the years for all the characters. You still have Brian and Mia's theme in there, you have Letty's theme that started way back when, and Dom's theme. And of course you have Cipher returns. I have her piece that I started writing for Fate of the Furious. And then you have Tej and Roman's music. And then you have characters from Tokyo Drift. You have Twinkie and all those dudes, and they come back, and then of course, Han. And I went all the way back to the music, the thematic material that has not been heard since Tokyo Drift, 15 years ago. And that's some of my favorite music. It's just so nostalgic and seeing Han back, and there's all sorts of crossover with all of these themes that I've mentioned... Especially Letty, Brian and Mia, Han, Dom, and the Toretto theme, they're all completely emotional themes. None of them would be considered action themes.

fast-and-furious-f9-universal-pictures-diesel-john-cena-brothers
Image via Universal Pictures

And then you have the team theme and stuff like that, that kind of has action elements, of course. But if you sit down and kind of listen to it, it is kind of a testament to the angle of which Justin takes and encourages me to dive into writing music that is going to set the kind of an emotional framework for it, as opposed to the action. And there's plenty of action, of course. But it's been great and also just writing this music and bringing themes and intertwining them in the way that usually you wouldn't get to on other projects. There's very few series that have this many movies with this many recurrent characters. Star Wars, Harry Potter, there's not that many. And so in terms of, I think, the number of kind of character themes and whatnot that still reoccur in each movie, I can't even think of series where there are this many. Except things like maybe Star Wars. Even Bond, it's always a new villain, and it's basically Bond. It's been really, really cool working on every one of them, but certainly coming back, it's like a homecoming.

You have to run the gamut tonally because this is a film in which you need the audience to emotionally engage with the story of the brothers and the Torettos, but to also believe that these guys are flying a car into outer space.

TYLER: Yeah, you have to bridge that gap for sure. The space and the cosmos, there's a certain sound to it. There's certain kind of scales that are reminiscent of that type of music. And the first time the Fast and Furious franchise would actually go there has this very... It just sounds like space. There's a certain wonderment to the scales and harmonies of even how you use flutes, and violins when you're in space. And so the gamut from that all the way down to throwback hip hop for the crew from Tokyo Drift, there's a large range of kind of stylistically, but that's part of what makes Fast and Furious, Fast and Furious. It's really covering a wide range of the movie experience. The thing about it is that change up, I think, creates kind of, it feels like a very full experience when you go to the theater.

Since you've been involved with so many different Fast and Furious films, I was wondering if we could kind of talk about each one and you could just kind of tell me if there's a memory or something really striking about that particular film. The first, of course, would be Tokyo Drift.

TYLER: It's interesting because technically the first film I worked on was Fast and Furious 1, funny enough. There was music that uses score in Fast and Furious 1 that was my music, but it was licensed. So that was kind of my introduction to it, so I was very excited about that. Rob Cohen used it, and then I saw that and was a fan with a vested interest in the series. And then on Tokyo Drift, on the third one, the thing that I remember very well is that I was at Disney doing a film with Justin and he's like, "Oh, I'm going to be meeting on Fast and Furious, over at Universal." And we kind of talked it through, and I was the one that had at least some background or connection in the series actually. And so we talked all about it, and it was great when he got the film. And of course, his stylistic angle on the film was so distinct. You could see the DNA of what he was going for there. And we created something, in terms of the score, that was setting the table for what would become a big part of that franchise, which is that score would become the dominant form of music in the series. But with these really well-chosen songs as well.

fast-and-furious-tokyo-drift-brian-tee-lucas-black
Image via Universal

As the movie series got more kind of epic in size, you needed more of a film score sound to the film. And where the percentage of film score kept growing, and growing, and growing, in terms of the percentage of the entire music. And you can start to see that on Tokyo Drift, which is great. Also it was great I worked with some really cool artists, I had Slash over to my house and he played guitar with me on that song, Mustang Nismo, that we did for the score. That group of people that I met there, I'm friends with them to this day, Sung and the gang.

Then of course, Fast & Furious brings the original crew back to the franchise. What was that experience like?

TYLER: That was really cool. It felt big. That is where the tone really gets dramatic. They’re not transitional characters, they're now full adults. The stakes are high. And it started dealing with things that were way larger than street racing, and things like that. Now it's become a crime element and there's an international element. And so the music, that is when it really turned into dramatic film scoring, and that's where we started to even go into laying down themes for characters that were even around before, but didn't necessarily have individual themes because it wouldn't have been needed in the first film. And so that's where we first hear Letty's theme. That's the first where we hear Dom's theme. That's the first where you hear Brian and Mia's theme. That's the first where you hear a lot of these thematic elements that are around to this day. So that was amazing. And it was where the orchestral and world music element became a big part of the sound on that film.

Then it's Fast Five. That's the film that really kind of explodes this franchise in terms of it becoming a box office phenomenon. Did it feel special as you guys were working on it?

TYLER: Yeah, it did. Right from the get-go, even seeing the director's cut, we knew, I felt at least, I was like, "Wow, this is incredible." It's an exciting movie. It's got the drama. It has a heist. And now we're dealing with kind of a different gear, so to speak, no pun intended. And this is the film where kind of The Fast and Furious, the team element, became the thing that's most associated with Fast and Furious. And of course, writing a new theme for Hobbs, him coming on board. It became kind of just a bigger, more epic, and really interesting interplay and kind of hitting its stride in terms of how the characters work together, and the story, and the action, and everything.

You didn't score Fast and Furious 6, but you did come back for Furious 7.

furious-7-gibson-rodriguez-walker-bridges
Image via Universal Pictures

TYLER: Yeah, it was interesting. Fast and Furious 6, that one had my music in it. So it was kind of one of those things... I think the one movie that had the contractual stipulation on it for international [for the composer]. And I really enjoyed that movie. I thought it was real cool. It was interesting because I heard my music in the movie in the scenes, but they had to be re-recorded. It’s almost like hearing covers of your own songs.

And I thought it was really cool. Furious 7, it was James Wan. And we worked together as well on other things. He came in, and that was very interesting from the perspective of starting the film. And we were really trying to do something that had a great kind of, again, an epic feel, but doing things that were new, yet related to the franchise. But then the tragedy happened, and Paul passed away unexpectedly. And I was just on set in Atlanta like two days before, or something like that. And I knew Paul from when we'd done quite a few other films. That was an awful time period, and so crushing. We didn't know if we were going to give up doing the movie, or stop it, or what. And we took a pause, and then kind of the whole thing became a tribute to Paul, which is something in real life that changed the entire direction of what the movie was about.

This, of course for me musically, tied into of course, having the Brian Mia theme be so prominent and connect with “See You Again,” and conducting all that. Just all of that entire emotional arc, it became such a touching and moving tribute to Paul. And that was really what we cared about, making something that he'd be proud of. That was a tough one, but I thought it turned out beautifully.

What do you remember from Fate of The Furious, which you're bringing Charlize Theron into the action there?

TYLER: Yeah. It was cool because again, I keep on finding that I work with people that I previously know and worked with. I’ve known F. Gary Gray for years, and scored Law Abiding Citizen that he directed. It was great having him come on board. I was rooting for him. When he got the gig I was like, he's perfect for it. And this dark angle of having a villain be Charlize was really cool. I knew her from before too. She was great, and she really brought that side out. It was a wild one. And also, the idea of the music really having, not only that really big orchestral angle, but I went deep into doing production, and I'd always been doing a lot of production on tracks and things like that, but this was kind of a new level of it. It was really cool. There was definitely a darker under pinning with the idea of vengeance.

And the stakes were high, and I loved working with F. Gary Gray on that. He's awesome, he's a friend as well. With Justin, and James, and F. Gary Gray, it's nice to have this kind of outside relationship with these people, both professionally and personally, because you can really kind of level with each other too about what you think is right for the franchise. And in a sense on those films, I was the guy that had been around kind of the longest in the creative team. So I was like, "Well, what do we do?" I remember things about even story-wise, like, "Do you remember this was going on there?" And you connect things like, "Oh, yeah!"

And then, of course you come back for 9, and I know Justin is ready to do Fast 10 and 11, back to back as the finale of this franchise. Have you talked to him about coming back? Have you guys had discussions about what those films will look like?

TYLER: Yeah. From the very beginning of Fast 9, Justin really likes to plan and think ahead. Kind of with these ideas and where it's all going, we've been talking about that for I guess years now. I'm usually pretty far ahead in terms of the storyline. I mean, he was doing this back on Tokyo Drift, where he would think out the background on characters, and where they come from, and all these things that you, as the audience, don't necessarily find out about right away. I mean, sometimes it takes 15 years like in this case, where there's things in Fast 9 that he was thinking about on Tokyo Drift. The things that weren't revealed until now. It's really long game kind of stuff. That's going to be exciting, and there's definitely more to come.

And what can you tell me about Scream? I’m really excited for that one.

TYLER: Scream is amazing. For anyone that is a fan of Scream... I absolutely love this series and I have loved scoring it. We're right now kind of really putting finishing touches on it. And I could not be happier with it. Definitely is one to go to the theater and see for sure.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. F9 is now playing in theaters worldwide.