Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams (‘Agent Elvis’ composers) talk being zany with the show’s music [Exclusive Video Interview]
Right from the get-go, composers Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams both knew that they wanted to be a part of the Netflix show, “Agent Elvis.” In addition to the concept of the show itself, Williams found several other reasons to be involved. “The whole concept of it was really interesting. Plus the era that it’s set in is late ‘60s, early ‘70s, which is one of my favorite periods of music. Just so much incredible stuff came out of that period of time,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). Bates adds that they had a green light to basically do whatever they wanted. “Everyone involved really prompted Tim and I to enjoy being quite zany with our approach.”
“Agent Elvis,” which can currently be streamed on Netflix, is an animated show that imagines an alternate version of Elvis Presley that moonlights as a secret agent while also being one of the biggest rock stars in the world. Presley (Matthew McConaughey) is joined by an open-minded covert partner (Kaitlin Olson), his freeloading best friend Bobby Ray (Johnny Knoxville), his longtime personal assistant Bertie (Niecy Nash-Betts), a raucous chimp named Scatter (Tom Kenny) and his mysterious boss, The Commander (Don Cheadle).
In addition to having Elvis’s song catalog to draw from, Williams found that he was leaning a lot into the James Bond style of music to represent the secret agent aspect of the show. “I make no secret of the fact that John Berry is one of my favorite composers so where we needed to lean a little bit into the Bond side of things, there’s definitely those kinds of colors.” He adds that every episode allowed them to lean into different aspects of the time when it came to the score. “There were some episodes that were psychedelic, some episodes were Charlie Manson, some were Vegas. Every episode was interesting because while there were central themes and colors, we had to go in a lot of different ways.”
The pair have been working together for over 20 years and they first encountered each other in a very mundane way. “In 2001, Tim moved in next door to me and we met at the end of the driveway getting the paper in the morning back when physical papers were a thing,” Bates says. The two quickly bonded over their shared work as musicians and listening to each other’s work. It was when Bates decided to throw together a last-minute big brass session for Rob Zombie’s film, “The Devil’s Rejects,” that Williams started working with Bates in a more professional capacity.
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