| Michael Kamen |
| Lead singer and oboist with the famed 1960s chamber music group the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble turned successful, prolific film and TV composer. Kamen began his solo career composing music for the Joffrey Ballet and the La Scala Opera Company. He subsequently wrote for David Bowie, worked with Eric Clapton, Kate Bush and the Eurythmics, wrote his first film score for "The Next Man" (1970) and did the musical arrangements for "Pink Floyd, The Wall" (1982). He has worked with directors David Cronenberg ("The Dead Zone" 1983), Neil Jordan ("Mona Lisa" 1986) and Terry Gilliam ("Brazil" 1985, "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" 1988) and composed the scores for such boxoffice champions as "Lethal Weapon" (1987; and its 1989 sequel), "Die Hard" (1988; and its 1990 sequel), "Licence to Kill" (1989), "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991) and "Don Juan DeMarco" (1995). |
| Brazil (1985) Die Hard (1988) Lethal Weapon (1987) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) 101 Dalmations (1996) X-Men (2000) Band Of Brothers (TV-2001) Excerpts from Interviews You have had some very successful songs written for films, most notably "Everything I Do, I Do For You" from ROBIN HOOD. What's the genesis of something like that? How do you approach doing a song for a film? Kamen: I don't. I approach doing a film. The melody has to help sell the story, because, as a composer, that's what I'm doing. I happen to love melody and I have a background in song, so I tend to think in big, melodic ideas, and I try to tell the story with the melody. You're a rare breed. You know, the most glaring example of it is very recent, with James Horner, who sold squillions of records on a pop scale, which is something I'm familiar with. I don't have the same notches on my bedpost as he does, you know, fifty million sales is a lot. I think the Bryan Adams record must have done twenty million, or something like that. It was number one over here for months, wasn't it? Yeah. But I know what that feels like. On the other hand, people will come to see Bryan Adams, but if Michael Kamen says he's playing a concert at such and such, they go "Who?" You know, they'd rather see Pearl Jam. |
| Select Filmography |
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| Left: a copy of the Robin Hood score signed by Michael Kamen. Below: Michael Kamen composing at his piano. |
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