Composer Daniel Pemberton has detailed how he built the Masters of the Universe theme song around Queen guitarist Brian May and the homemade Red Special guitar May assembled out of household materials as a teenager. Pemberton, who says he rarely takes franchise work, told Variety he only signed on because director Travis Knight wanted a Queen and ABBA inspired sound rather than a standard blockbuster score.
The collaboration came together by chance. While recording early tracks at Abbey Road Studios in London, Pemberton ran into May, who was working on a remastered version of “Queen II.” After hearing about the project, May agreed to play on it. Pemberton said that when May pulled out the Red Special, the instrument took on a clear parallel to the film’s mythology. “This is actually the equivalent of the Sword of Power from the Master universe because it’s an instrument forged in flame,” he told Variety. “He’s the only person who can play it and has the power to play it.”
The result is a three minute theme titled “Electrica,” built from a 100 piece choir, an 80 piece orchestra, a rock band and synthesizers. Pemberton said he wanted music that paired the weight of a hard rock track with the color and slight cheese of a poppy Euro song, summing up his goal for the film as “unashamedly fun.” He scored the entire 140 minute feature with 35 tracks in what he called a maximalist style.
Pemberton also addressed the original cartoon theme that many fans hoped to hear. He said the team tried to weave Shuki Levy, Haim Saban and Lou Scheimer’s animated theme into the film but found it hard to sustain across the action, though he teased that listeners should pay attention toward the end of the song.
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