Getting Smart With Trevor Rabin
Hollywood composer and rock musician discusses his latest project: Get Smart.

by Spence D.

June 19, 2008 - To the world at large Trevor Rabin may best be known as the man who helped resurrect the career of British prog rockers Yes back in the early '80s. Yes had all but disbanded when a chance meeting between the members and Rabin resulted in their collaboration. Rabin wrote much of the band's unquestionable comeback album, 90125, and was an integral part of their success throughout the '80s, especially with the follow-up album Big Generator. However, at the height of the band's resurgence, Rabin politely exited and, of all things, embarked on a new career path: that of Hollywood composer.

Since leaving Yes and focusing on the world of cinema, Rabin has fused his trademark guitar licks with orchestral music in a variety of big budget productions ranging from Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Deep Blue Sea, Snakes on a Plane, and National Treasure, just to name a few of the high profile films his music has graced.Rabin's latest musical endeavor was crafting the music for the re-envisioning of the classic '60s spy comedy television series Get Smart. Incidentally, Rabin scored the gig in a rather aggressive manner. "I really wanted to do that film," he freely admits. "I give credit to my agent and me working quite hard at wanting to do it. The great thing was Peter Segal (the director) was very pro me doing it. We got on like a house on fire. From start to finish it was just a lot of fun to do."

As with other projects of this nature—films based on previous television series or older films already possessing an iconic musical score—Rabin used the original source music composed by Irving Szathmary as a starting point, keeping the recognizable theme song at the core while augmenting it with his own signature sound. "The first thing I did was that I took the theme from the original and I tried to present it in different ways," explains Rabin. "I played Peter four or five different versions. A kind of Jazz version, a kind of almost Metal version, and then a more contemporary version. He liked two of them very much and we ended up using them all over the film and in the trailers. The other two, which we didn't use, I just stuck on the album!"

Approaching something as iconic and recognizable as the "Get Smart Theme," obviously Rabin had to incorporate it into his score, but the trick is not only retaining the feel of the original, but also putting his own unique stamp on it. "Yeah, that was clearly the tough thing: to find a new way of presenting it so that it's basically the theme, but fresh," he says. "I think that probably took the longest time to come to terms with and to feel comfortable with."

Does it feel at all weird for a musician such as Rabin to take somebody else's previously composed piece of music and quite literally deconstructing it and rearranging it? "Well, you know, I've never done it before," he admits. "I've always been intrigued by things like the "Mission: Impossible Theme" and stuff, thinking 'That's interesting, but I would have gone another way.' So when Get Smart came up and being aware of the TV series, I thought 'Oh God, I'd love to get in there and pull that apart.' It was one of the intriguing things about doing the film."

Speaking of which, since Rabin actively pursued the Get Smart gig and was given the blessing from Segal, he had ample time to spend crafting the score. "You know what I really liked about it? When I first met with Peter he said 'We're shooting right now. What would be great is to get some stuff to work into the temp," says Rabin. "There were rough versions and a lot of music—not all of it—was used really early on. So when it came to scoring it, that stuff was roughly done and it was just a matter of finessing it and making it solid and professional."

Rabin estimates that he spent two months writing and scoring, with an overall grand total involvement of about four months. "That's very unusual," he laughs in regards to the more lax working arrangement. "I've done the three/four week stuff and that's always a little difficult. With that you have no choice but to fall out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, get in there and just work until you're dead and come to bed. Then three/four weeks later you're done."

Coming from the world of arena rock where performing live, in front of a large audience, is the rule of the day, to composing music for film, whereupon one spends far more time in the studio, away from the crowds, is a whole other ballgame. "Obviously there is the immediacy of an audience, which is great. You never get that doing film. But there's also the aspect of when the record company says to you 'We need a copy of the record for promotion. Get it to us in the next couple of days' you kind of have the luxury to say 'Well, it's not ready. I'll call you in a couple of weeks' Or in a month or in a year," Rabin laughs. "With film you don't have that luxury. You have to be ready and the schedule is much more deliberate."

Surprisingly Rabin feeds off the immediacy that composing a film score generates. "I've actually found it quite useful because I'm a terrible procrastinator. With Yes, Big Generator took us close to two years to finish the album. Doing film you really don't have a choice. You've got to get down in there and write. I think it leads to a different frame of mind and allows you to...you have no choice. You have to get down, look at the blank piece of paper and fill it."

"One of the great things with film, which I really love, is that each film, from one to the next, is a completely different genre. A lot of the time. Obviously there are those movies where you do a movie, it does well, and then you get called in to do the same thing again. But quite often it's a different genre and it's a whole different set of tools even. That I really like. With a band you're working with people and it's a collaborative thing. With film it's a different kind of collaboration."

Being in a band as well as composing is indeed collaborative efforts. With one you're working with your band mates and a producer. With the other you're writing by yourself with feedback from the director and then working with an orchestra on the finished project. "What I always try and do with a film is write what I call an 'Underture,' which is kind of a number of themes all strung together to show that they can work together and interact together. If they like the themes, then doing the film is a lot easier."

As for whether or not Rabin misses his past life as an arena rock star (prior to being in Yes, Rabin was in Rabbit, one of South Africa's most popular rock acts of the '70s), he says "Yeah, I do miss it sometimes. Last year I went and did The Prince's Trust with Yes in London, which was fun. So every now-and-then I try and get out and do something [of that nature]."