Interview with Composer Jake Monaco

I recently chatted with Jake Monaco, composer of three different animated series: Dinotrux, The Stinky & Dirty Show, and Be Cool, Scooby Doo! (courtesy of Netflix, Amazon Studios and Cartoon Network respectively). Prolific as he is busy, Jake shared some of his recent scoring highlights, his experience working with animation and more.

How did you get involved in TV scoring?

I’ve always loved writing music; I started writing songs when I was 13. After spending six years playing in a band, through college and couple years afterwards, I applied and was accepted into USC’s film scoring program. From there, I began working as an assistant to Christophe Beck and gained a great deal of experience over the course of 40+ films. I had the opportunity to demo for a few animated shows during the summer of 2014, two of which were Dinotrux and Be Cool, Scooby Doo. A year or so later, The Stinky & Dirty Show came along.

How does the contemporary approach to scoring animated series different from old school shows like Tom & Jerry or Loony Tunes?

Both Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes had music that followed the characters very literally, playing almost every move that was made, a musical device that has come to be known as “Mickey Mousing”. There are still quite a few animated series that follow this same formula. The Stinky & Dirty Show has a lot of this. Amazon has an educational focus with their pre-school programming working closely with members of STEM to find the best way to help the young audience make a connection with what they are watching, as opposed to being an unengaged viewer. One of the things we focused on was having ‘signature sounds’ for certain events. For example, each time one of the main characters asks the questions, “What if…?” there is a ‘rach-a-ding’ (this became the short hand for this specific signature sound).

Whereas Dinotrux, while still having some moments where the music comments more literally, takes a much different overall approach. Dreamworks wanted it to be like ‘HBO for kids’, making each episode a mini-movie and treating them much more cinematically.

What has been the proudest moment of your career?

The proudest moment of my career thus far would have to be co-scoring President Obama’s reelection documentary, “The Road We’ve Traveled” in 2012. Working along-side Oscar winning director Davis Guggenheim and composer Christophe Beck for something that could actually help our entire country was an amazing experience.

What episodes of each of your shows best showcase your music? We would love to give our readers a call to action to check them out.

Dinotrux: Season 3, Ep 3: Volcano has some great musical moments, from Ty and Revvit’s nostalgic remembrance of the crater to one of the most epic build sequences of the series

Be Cool, Scooby Doo: Season 1, Ep 16: Gremlin on a Plane is a favorite of mine. The mystery’s wrap up sequence occurs in conjunction with Daphne trying to land the biggest plane ever built.

The Stinky & Dirty Show: Season 1, Ep 10: Detour. I love the ice cream truck character, Chill. He has a reggae theme that accompanies his ice cream jingle.

What is 1 tip or trick you can offer our readers if they are trying to compose a score to their project?

Don’t get too caught up in scoring moment to moment. Remember that while you’re writing music to accompany the visual, your job is to write music. It’s sometimes helpful to start completely apart from the visual aspect and just write a piece that invokes the feeling and tone of the scene that your music will eventually wind up in, then worrying about hitting the right moments.