The Music Man

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I've got a huge treat for y'all today - I recently had the golden opportunity to chat with James "Jim" Dooley, the super talented composer who won an Emmy for a little something called Pushing Daisies! He's done all sorts of cool stuff through his career, not the least of which is his latest project, Neighbors From Hell, which starts airing tonight at 10 on TBS. Let's get to it...

MNPP: Hello Mr. James Dooley! It’s an honor, truly. Let’s dive right in – what was it like working on Pushing Daisies?

Jim Dooley: Creatively it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I came away from Pushing Daisies with a lot of great experiences and friends including Bryan Fuller and Ellen Greene.

MNPP: Miss Kristin Chenoweth: the tiniest brightest bundle of sunlight on all of planet Earth?

Jim Dooley: She is great, very talented woman- one of my favorite people to work with so far!

MNPP: I know that she made a CD of songs she wanted to sing on the show that she then gave to creator Bryan Fuller – how involved were you with song choice? Was that something the writers came up with which you then worked your estimable magic with, or did you ever get to say, Hey I wanna hear Ellen Greene sing this song, let’s do it?

Jim Dooley: No, I knew that but I didn’t really have anything to do with those song choices. It’s true that Kristin gave Bryan a CD of all the songs she wanted to do, but nobody ever heard that CD besides Bryan—I think he wanted to keep it a secret!


MNPP: Will the second season of Daisies music ever be released? Who do we have to send pies soaked with antidepressants to to make it happen?

Jim Dooley: Ha! I have been trying to figure that out myself for the last year. Someone started a petition not long ago, which Bryan signed and Hans Zimmer even posted on his site. We are in talks now so it should hopefully happen… keep the signatures coming!

(Sign it here!)

MNPP: How awesome is it, winning an Emmy? (Congratulations, and much deserved!) Where’d you put it?

Jim Dooley: It was great winning. If anything it was a great relief. My family and friends came in town so instead of them all saying “nice try” it was a “congratulations.” I imagined the next month of running into people saying the “nice trys”, but it was great because I didn’t have to face that. I just moved, so in my last house the Emmy was on my piano, but right now it is on a table in my living room looking toward the ocean. She faces south toward the sea.

MNPP: You’ve scored everything from movies to TV shows to theme park rides to video games… wait, let’s step back: theme park rides?

Jim Dooley: Yes, I did the Simpsons ride. It’s one of my personal favorite shows, so it was cool contributing bringing it to a new medium. It was weird to first go to the attraction at Universal and hear my own music playing as I rode around!

MNPP: And how’s it work scoring a video game? You’re currently working on the score for Epic Mickey, Disney’s much-anticipated sorta reboot of the Mickey Mouse character where he’s being returned to his anarchic roots – out this Fall! – how much do you get to see of the game as you work on the score? Do they let you play it? What I’m getting it is, do you have a copy of the game and can you make me a copy?

Jim Dooley: I actually went to Austin and played the game first, its an AMAZING game. They send me the Quicktime movies for everything else. I’m going to be at the E3 Convention next week in Los Angeles where they’re also doing a big presentation. Game lovers and Disney lovers alike are going to be all over this one.


MNPP: Neighbors From Hell starts airing on TBS tonight at 10pm (9 Central!). What drew you to it? And I hear you’ve got a good old-fashioned main title score for us to look forward to?

Jim Dooley: There is definitely a main title, but I wouldn’t call it old fashioned! Inspiration-wise, yes because I made it ‘Sherwood Schwartz’-style, which are those classic catchy titles from the 70s that told you in 30 seconds EXACTLY what the show was about. I’m proud of this one because it quickly gives a great sense of the overall story and characters, in a really fun comedic way. Sound wise it is not old fashioned at all, it’s country meets heavy metal.

MNPP: Finally, I haven’t seen Obsessed yet - shame on me - but please tell me there’s a recurrent motif in the film’s score devoted to the yanking of wigs.

Jim Dooley: I hope that no matter what happens in my career, I’ll always be known as scoring one of the best cat-fights on the big screen ;)

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