John Wick and Guardians of the Galaxy are two of the biggest franchises of the last decade plus (the first films in both franchises released in 2014) and they share at least one common element: composer Tyler Bates, who continued his contributions with From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. Bates is a multi-instrumentalist who, as a record producer, has collaborated with bands and artists including Bush, Jerry Cantrell, and Pet. Bates is also currently a guitarist and keyboardist in the band Marilyn Manson which, as of this writing, is in the midst of a world tour.

Even aside from the worlds of Guardians and John Wick, Bates has contributed music to a number of beloved film, TV, and game projects. The composer’s past work includes ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Zack Snyder’s “Ultimate Guy Movie” 300. He’s also known for contributing songs to feature films in addition to underscore–for the John Wick series alone, Bates worked with Evanescense, Marilyn Manson, and Jerry Cantrell.

ScreenRant interviewed Tyler Bates about his work on franchises including Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick. Bates shared his experience working with James Gunn and Chad Stahelski, and explained how he worked with Amy Lee of emo band Evanescence to write “Fight Like a Girl” for the Ballerina: From the World of John Wick spinoff. Plus, Bates revealed the biggest musical “almosts” of the John Wick franchise.

How Tyler Bates Sneakily Took Over Action Film Scoring

“I Never Even Thought Of Being A Composer For Movies”

If you take a look at the movies Tyler Bates has scored, especially in the world of John Wick, you’ll often find an original song co-written and/or produced by the composer. Bates isn’t the only composer to write songs for movies, but it’s no given that someone with the skillset needed to perfectly pair onscreen drama and music also has a knack for contemporary songwriting. In Bates’ case, though, his songwriting ability is what helped his scoring work reach ubiquity. And it’s all thanks to a 1996 sequel with a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“I never even thought of being a composer for movies, ever, until people started asking me to do it,” Tyler Bates said, candidly. “I was writing songs, producing, [and] performing, and in the ‘90s, my band had a song on The Crow 2 soundtrack, which was like a who’s who of alternative rock at the time. When that happened, it definitely struck a chord with me, thinking ‘Oh, yeah. Songs in movies are a good thing.’”

“Then, I think I just kind of went from one movie to the next,” Bates continued, “[and] my 15th movie was a jazz score that was released on Blue Note. Then, I thought, ‘Music I’ve written for a movie comes out on a record. That’s cool too.’ And over time, I thought, ‘As much as possible, I’d like to combine those two ideas.’”

From there, the composer credits the hit series Californication as launching his career toward where it currently stands. “[That’s] where I really wanted to get more serious about working with artists in the capacity of writing songs for films.” It’s also where Bates met his now-longtime collaborator Marilyn Manson. “Marilyn Manson was on it. We met through doing a live show that was part of the TV show … [and] he insisted that we worked together. And when we got in the studio, we just had this extraordinary chemistry off the bat.”

That chemistry with Manson is what landed Bates his gig scoring a “tiny indie film” called John Wick as he was finishing Guardians of the Galaxy. “The directors had asked the music supervisor John Houlihan to see if he could get an original Marilyn Manson song for John Wick. John happens to live in my neighborhood, and all sources told him to contact me about an original song. So, John was over here and heard a few of the songs [we’d been working on], and he was like, ‘Oh my God, dude. “Killing Strangers”. That’s the theme to ‘John Wick.’”

Bates soon found himself in a meeting with Keanu Reeves, Marilyn Manson, John Houlihan, Chad Stahelski, and David Leitch, the latter of whom he realized he knew from his work on Zack Snyder’s 300 (Leitch and Stahelski were on the stunt team for the film). The group liked “Killing Strangers”, although Reeves was anticipating blowback: “Keanu said to Manson right away, ‘You are going to hear about it for these lyrics.’”

John Wick’s Score Nearly Had A-List Cameos

A Guitar Legend & John Wick Himself Almost Contributed

Bates would go on to score all of the John Wick films alongside Joel J. Richard, who he said was “like a brother to me” with similar musical inclinations. But just as notable are the people who didn’t end up appearing on a John Wick soundtrack, beginning with guitar legend Eddie Van Halen.

“We almost had Eddie Van Halen play on the John Wick theme [on John Wick 2 or 3],” Bates shared, “toward the end of his life. He came over to my place. It was really sweet of him to come over, and he hung out for a while, but I got the sense he was not in the mindset that he really wanted to do anything. He said he hadn’t played for quite a while.”

Bates and Van Halen stayed in touch, which led the composer to offer an easy way in–and out: “I just said, ‘Look, Ed, you live 10 minutes from me. If you want to do this, I’ll set up a guitar for you, and if you don’t like what we do, I’ll just destroy it in front of you.’ And he really, really appreciated that. From that point on, the only times we were talking were about his health battles and stuff. I’m imagining he sensed that I’d been through a few things myself, so it was relatable.”

But Van Halen wasn’t the only musician offered the chance to perform on the soundtrack. Dogstar bᴀssist and John Wick himself Keanu Reeves was also invited: “I asked Keanu, ‘Hey dude. Why don’t you just play bᴀss on the John Wick theme? No one even has to know, but it would be cool for all of us to connect that way. We would love it.’ He was like, ‘Tyler, come on, man. You’ve got to do it.’”

That has happened before, Bates said. “Slash took total credit for my score for Rated X,” he revealed, adding, “Rolling Stone did an article about how he came in and scored the movie. I had him in the studio and he played one riff that made it into the movie–he just looped the riff for 50 seconds–and he probably didn’t even realize what was going on when it came to the publicity side of it. Somebody just ran with it. That was my biggest credit to date, and it was taken by him.”

How “Fight Like A Girl” Was Written For Ballerina

“That’s What I Live For”

Bates has contributed music to every John Wick film, and his biggest contribution to the spinoff movie From the World of John Wick: Ballerina was very much in keeping with what has become a franchise trademark. Bates co-wrote and produced the new Evanescence song “Fight Like A Girl (feat. K.Flay)” that plays through the film’s credits.

“Amy Lee and I have been friends for a number of years,” Bates said, “and we did jam at her house seven years ago or something … that was a fun afternoon, just the two of us, [and] me [with] like a million pedals and loop stations, delays, and stuff. We played music for three hours, and that was a lot of fun.” That session didn’t result in any songs, but Ballerina gave the pair a chance to try again.

“We were all really thrilled with the process of working together, and the results, musically,” the composer shared. “Anytime you can engage creatively with somebody who is immensely talented, inspiring, and a cool person, and you make something together that you love… that’s what I live for.”

Don’t Expect Tyler Bates To Re-Team With James Gunn For A DC Studios Film

“Everybody’s Got To Move On”

Tyler Bates scored what will likely endure as one of the most beloved superhero films ever in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and while he’s far from finished being a film composer, he cited changing industry standards and the treatment of score in big-budget action films as reasons he has, of late, devoted more time to performing live on stage. “In the 2000s,” Bates shared, “I was much more [able] to control the flow of things. I still was working 17 hour days every freaking day–it’s no exaggeration.”

Bates began scoring films when “the editors were cutting [film],” he said, which meant that producers and others who might give feedback on a project “didn’t have the time to sit there and wait for half a day to see their note.” Now, digital filmmaking allows for instant cuts–which is kind to editors and directors, but not composers who are expected to rework meticulously-timed music to rapidly-changing cuts: “Sometimes it takes more time to conform an existing piece of music than it did to write it.”

On top of that, Bates said, “there [have] been some real superhero-type movies I’ve worked on and killed myself to deliver what I think are very recognizable and emotional themes and a lot of layers of depth … only to have it lose out to 60-cycle hums and explosions … it’s soul-crushing, honestly, when I’ll literally bleed out for a movie and know that the soundtrack album is the only proof that music existed in the film.”

All of those might be considered as reasons why the collaboration between Bates and James Gunn ended after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but the real answer is something much simpler. “There was a point [in] 2019 [where] James had taken a break for a little while, and therefore, I needed to find other work,” Bates shared. “I was expecting to do Guardians three [and] everything went on pause for a minute. So, that’s up to me to figure my stuff out.”

Bates picked up projects including “a couple movies, a couple TV shows, and a Cirque du Soleil show,” the latter of which he said was “a ginormous amount of work.” Roughly two months before Bates’ Cirque show opened, he said, “James came back, and instead of doing Guardians 3, [he] was doing Suicide Squad 2.”

Bates signed on to the film, “wrote some music that they sH๏τ to,” but ultimately couldn’t match their pace given his workload: “They started asking for a lot of music, and I just couldn’t do it at the time. I said, ‘Look, man, I just can’t.’ They weren’t even shooting yet, really; they were asking me to write vignettes for them to shoot different sequences too … I was too busy. I’m [working] 85 hours a week. I’m not joking at all.”

Ultimately, Bates said, “I just said, ‘Look, I can’t do it,’” to which Gunn replied, “‘Well, then I’ll have to work with someone else.’” Gunn would go on to hire John Murphy, about whom Bates said “I love John. He’s a friend, and I think he’s a very talented guy.”

The composer also has plenty of praise for James Gunn. “James is a very, very brilliant guy,” he said, “very talented. [He] writes dialogue in a very interesting cadence … [It’s] distinct … kind of angular and uncomfortable, and I really do like that about him. If you watch Dawn of the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, which James wrote, and then watch a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, you’ll totally see the correlation in the dialogue cadence and style. I think that’s really cool, when you can be known for a style of dialogue. I think that’s impressive and that’s genius.”

But when asked if audiences may expect Bates to score one of Gunn’s upcoming DC projects, he replied with an easy “No.” “Everybody’s got to move on with their life,” he said, adding, “[A] director’s got a movie to make, and that’s the business. I have stuff to do as well, and I need to honor the sancтιтy of the agreements I make. But I wish everybody well. My life is really good, so I’m grateful.”

Tyler Bates Appreciates One Specific John Wick Trend

“It’s Not Like No One Making The Film Is Aware”

Corners of the internet have lit up with appreciation for one apparent John Wick universe rule: if you’re at a club and a gunfight breaks out, just keep dancing. One Redditor wrote that by John Wick: Chapter 4, “All the background dancers no longer care about gun fights. As if they have adjusted to this new lifestyle of dance clubs being raided by Mr. Wick.” When asked about this, Bates replied, “What you’re talking about there is part of the fun of John Wick,” and said “It’s not like no one making the film is aware of this.”

Bates credited that music to Dylan Eiland, aka Le Castle Vania, a DJ and electronic musician, and shared his appreciation for the scenes themselves. “In every one of ‘em, you do see this. You see people who are just nonplussed by someone stabbing the hell out of somebody right next to them … it’s more like, ‘We’re on date night, and I’m not about to let anyone spoil this.’”