DC-Universe - Gotham Knights : let’s talk with David Russo

By Mulder, Los Angeles, 06 april 2023

Composer David Russo returns to DC’s Batman television franchise to compose the score for the newest DC Arrowverse series, CW’s Gotham Knights. Russo began in the Batman Universe as a protégé of composer Graeme Revell (Sin City, The Crow, The Chronicles of Riddick), co-composing the first season of the award-winning Gotham with Revell. Russo became the sole composer by the second season when Revell retired. He went on to compose the Gotham HBOMax spin-off, Pennyworth. He continues to foreboding and moody musical landscape of the lawless city with his Gotham Knights score.

You can now discover our great interview with the composer David Russo :

Q : When you were young, what music were you listening to before your rock band Sun 60 ? 

David Russo : the early days. I think I listened to a lot of everything. I watched a lot of TV, a lot of movies. I kind of everything.  I had a voracious appetite in pop music. I kind of I liked everything from Maynard Ferguson Jazz to Chicago rock to Rolling Stones to Funk and soul. I really loved everything

Q : What is your general process to create a score for a series or a movie ? 

David Russo : I like to sit down with the director or the show runner before the thing begins and just talk about the characters in the story arc and then I've been working with this one particular brilliant showrunner Creator Danny Cannon for 20 years. We sit down and we talk it through and then I go right for a month with no visuals at all and come up with whatever themes pop into my head that seem to resonate and I love doing that. That's my thing and then you know once you get the footage then you're off and running and it is you determine whether it's what is the foundation for the scene is it going to be rhythmic melodic ambient. What are you trying to accomplish what are you trying to support.

Q :  Did you prepare  to work on the Gotham Knights series ? Like reading back the comics ?

David Russo : No, I've I never read comic books. I'm too Restless to sit there and read a comic book but it was really conversations because the things that I'm as a composer, the things that I'm supporting are kind of timeless it has nothing to do with what world you're in like relationships to relationships you know anger Envy bitterness Revenge those themes the fundamental themes that's kind of what matters to me so it doesn't really matter in what realm you are love hate it's always the same.

Q : Do you have a specific connection as a composer with the Batman universe ?

David Russo : Well I've been working on it for a long time now. So I did five seasons of Gotham. I love that Universe. I love the darkness of it and the tragedy of it. I never get tired of it and it's such a rich world like in Gotham just the characters that they were able to pull into that show. It's really rich and as a composer it's wonderful because it's a kitchen sink you throw in everything like you it goes from operatic tragedy to the to the simplest romantic cues it's really rewarding. I love it.

Q : Did your experience on the excellent Gotham allow you to better approach your work on Gotham Knights?

David Russo : not really. I actually had to take a right turn because the show is really different in tone. It's less well like this one the Gotham Knights is really based in science. There's no extraordinary magical things that happen. So it's all people. These people become Heroes just through their own will and it's more modern. A very different take on it the aesthetic is completely different the production design is completely different. It's a much younger cast so no it was totally different. I had to kind of throw it all out well.

Q : What were the main difficulties you encountered on Gotham Knights ?

David Russo : for this particular Series, at the beginning so I didn't know very much about the story so there's a very popular Gotham Knights video game but this this TV series has very little relation to it. So it took me a while to get the characters into my blood to get to know the characters and understand where these relationships were going and understand the pain of each of these. Our Heroes.  and each of them is really interesting in their own right so that took me a while it took a couple of episodes until I saw this is how it feels and it you know. Now we're cooking right along

Q : You have create music for video games, for television serie and movies. Can you tell us the main differences between them about the process ? 

David Russo : well for me there's no difference perhaps the commercials are different because they're so concise but a movie or a TV show is the same. You're always identifying stories, supporting characters, trying to come up with a palette that is that is fresh try not to repeat yourself so the process is always exactly the same. I could never there's never any shortcut of any kind you know.

Q :  What must be for you a great collaboration between a director and composer ? 

David Russo : so you know a great collaboration is where the director can say anything he wants. I love feedback of any kind especially negative feedback. Knowing what the director doesn't like is more valuable than knowing what he likes try to try to find that that that particular feeling and taste that you're that you're going for so the best collaboration is just open communication.

Q :  What can you tell us about your collaboration with some directors as  Robert Rodriguez, Danny Cannon, David Gordon-Green, Michael Mann and Barry Levinson ? 

David Russo : well, Michael Mann was fun because when we were working on The Insider he would not communicate directly. It was really fantastic. Every day or many times,  a courier would show up with an envelope and in it was some scroll little scrolled message it was fantastic very cryptic. Robert Rodriguez was fantastic because he has this brutal quality to his style and at that time, I was working on Sin City with Graham Revell and Graham was a brutalist. So it was just to the bone that I really liked it was great I also really loved working with Michel Gondry.  We did Human nature with him. I loved his mind because his perspective was just so different so it was wonderful paying attention to him and trying to understand it really marvelous though.

Q : Do you like to experiment new instruments when you work on a score for a series as this one ? 

David Russo : you know I used to do a lot more of it than I do now because these days there's been an exponential growth in libraries of really well recorded strange sounds I used to be um when I started this I mean it was microphones and I'm pounding on pieces of metal but much less these days I can't every time I say hmm I need this kind of sound if I go looking for it in variably, I find what I'm looking for.

Q : Where is for you the best place to work  a score ? 

David Russo: to work on a score well it's my studio it's like these days. I'm like a monk I get up at five o'clock in the morning walk my dog make the coffee and sit down it's just and once I enter the music then it doesn't matter then I'm like your background right no that's where I am you know it doesn't matter where I am it really doesn't matter it's the music so I'm gone .

Q : Any advice to young film composers, especially one who want to compose for series ? 

David Russo : well I would say even if you don't have a job make music every day. Every day you got to be writing music because the just the crap like the ability to come up with ideas on the fly to do a quick that skill set you have to have a really broad skill set to be a film composer. You've got to be able to work the technology and be an instrumentalist if you can both all of it at the same time so write music every day. I also like to say that it's really good I've met a lot of young people that have never recorded anything with a microphone they've all done it virtually and I think there's a lot of benefit to actually getting a microphone and recording stuff but you know especially you know television stuff the budgets are tight the time is tight. You don't have a lot of opportunity to work with Orchestra but if you can get soloists in there or just work that skill set of recording with a microphone it's good to do. 

Q : What must be for you a great DC series or movie ?

David Russo : You know what the newest Justice League the reissue of that thing that was magnificent I really loved it it's just the score is so has so much emotion it's so rich it's everything but just the way they get that the grip and the meat of that score is beautiful. I love it

Q : What can you tell us about your upcoming projects ?

David Russo : well actually I'm doing something really quite interesting. So I worked with composer Graham Revell for quite a few years and Graham has moved down to New Zealand so we're going to be working on a collaboration that I'm quite excited about I can't say what it is but it's a purely orchestral performance piece that we're going to be working on that is that's going to be fantastic later on this yearI It's gonna be great I'm looking forward to that a lot.

David Russo is an award-winning composer, songwriter, and music producer. The self-taught musical prodigy was offered a prestigious scholarship at the renowned Sorbonne University in Paris while still in high school. He rejected this scholarship to take advantage of the Los Angeles music scene. The Los Angeles native studied Communications at UCLA, scoring student films and joining his first bands. David Russo has contributed to over 150 films, TV shows, and projects for directors including Robert Rodriguez, Adam McKay, Danny Cannon, David Gordon-Green, Michael Mann and Barry Levinson. Russo has also worked in the studio or toured with some of music’s biggest artists, including Rage Against the Machine, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Sheryl Crowe, 50-Cent, Paul Weller, Crowded House, Dave Navarro, and super-producer Rick Rubin.  Prior to composing for film and television, Russo saw success in L.A.’s indie-rock scene as a founding member of alt-rock band Sun-60 and chief architect of their soaring soundscapes. Sony’s Epic Records signed the band and released three critically acclaimed albums along with a worldwide tour.

Synopsis Gotham Knights :
In the wake of Bruce Wayne's murder, his wayward adopted son decides to form an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman's enemies, all of whom are suspected of the Dark Knight's murder. As they become the city's most wanted criminals, the members of this gang will have to fight to clear their names. But in a Gotham without the Batman to protect it, the city is now more dangerous than it has ever been. But this team of fugitives may well become the next generation of saviors, known as the Gotham Knights...

Gotham Knights
Based on Characters by Bob Kane, Bill Finger
Developed by Natalie Abrams, Chad Fiveash, James Stoteraux
Starring  Oscar Morgan, Olivia Rose Keegan, Navia Robinson, Fallon Smythe, Tyler DiChiara, Anna Lore, Rahart Adams, Misha Collins
Music by David Russo
Executive producers : David Madden, Danny Cannon, Sarah Schechter, Chad Fiveash & James Stoteraux, Greg Berlanti, Leigh London-Redman
Producers : Carl Ogawa, Jennifer Lence, Melissa Girotti, Elle Lipson Suzanne C. Geiger
Cinematography : James Hawkinson, Roger Chingirian, Rob C. Givens
Editors : Mark C. Baldwin, Andrew Kasch, Leland Sexton, Monica Daniel
Production companies : Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television
Original network : The CW
Original release March 14, 2023 – present

We would like to thanks David Russo for answering to our questions