WWE composers CFO$ (Mike Lauri and John Alicastro) recently spoke with Metal Injection; you can read a few highlights below:
CFO$ comment on the writing process of a wrestling theme song:
ML: The first thing we try to do is to identify something unique that we’re going to do musically or lyrically, and then build a theme song around that. We’re aware that the worst thing that we could do as writers is to make things sound generic, because then nobody will really care about it or want to remember it, including us.
JA: We’ll get inspired by the person we’re writing for and try to set the scene in our heads of what it’s going to be like when they walk out to the ring. We don’t actually know beforehand exactly how their entrance is going to play out, so we try to keep our eye on that, but also stay focused on just writing good music that can stand on its own.
ML: Once the team at WWE hears where we’re headed with a theme, we usually go through a process of tailoring it more specifically to the actual entrance. Speed it up, slow it down, change the arrangement of parts, etc. Whatever it takes to create a real moment for the fans.
CFO$ reveal which themes they didn’t write, but wish they did:
ML: For me, it would have to be the songs I remember from when I was a kid that stuck with me over the years: Undertaker, Ultimate Warrior, Kurt Angle, and Jake the Snake, just to name a few.
JA: STONE COLD! Definitely some of the more iconic ones from my childhood like The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Mick Foley, Big Show, and obviously The King of Kings HHH.
The duo comments on coming up with Aleister Black’s NXT theme:
CFO$: Aleister’s theme might just be the heaviest we’ve written for WWE to date. In typical fashion, we experimented with a number of approaches to the music itself, initially unsure of what type of “heavy” we were really going for. What we ended up with was what felt the most brooding and imposing. Even though the guitar parts aren’t the most complex in the world, they just fit the mood perfectly. Our good friend Brendan Garrone of Incendiary came in and truly delivered on the vocal end of things, giving the song a completely new dimension.
