Summary
The 3 incredible composers behind the soundtrack forAhsokaon Disney Plus have become a staple in theStar Warsuniverse, and it’s not difficult to see why. But one of the 3 had a bit of a jarring introduction to the franchise, and it was at the hands ofStar Warscreator George Lucas.
Many fans may not know their names, but they’ve most likely heard the work of Kevin Kiner along with his son and daughter, Sean and Deana. Kevin has composed forStar Warssince the days of theoft-referencedThe Clone Wars, earning plenty of clout from fans for his scores in that series andStar Wars Rebels(and bringing in Sean and Deana to collaborate on more recent projects). But despite his well-established place in the series, things started hilariously. When Lucas was still more involved with the franchise, his eccentricity was on full display for his first meeting with Kevin.
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In an interview withScreen Rant, the 3 Kiners spoke about their work onAhsoka, which notably included a catchy punk track in the first episode. When asked whether that could have been done in the Lucas days, Sean said, “George Lucas is the consummate experimenter, so I’m sure he would have been open to it.” But then Kevin saw an opportunity to tell the story of his first meeting with Lucas. “I mean, he threw a CD of hip-hop stuff at me in my first meeting with him,” Kevin said. “Maybe it was the second meeting with him, I don’t know; it was 2006 or 2007. I’ve told the story a number of times: he wanted to get that intoClone Wars. There were, like, eight people in the room, and they’re like, ‘This is a terrible idea. Don’t—’ George walks into the room, and everybody’s dead silent, so it was on me to tell George this is a bad idea. But that’s just how he was.”
“I had to do what he said, so I did it,” Kevin continued, detailing thatearly time onThe Clone Wars. “But I also had something in my hip pocket that kind of had a combination of some of those hip-hop sounds and rhythms but had the orchestra in it. I had to play him, first, the one that he asked for. It was a weird situation [because you don’t want to] do something that’s a bad idea and get yourself fired, but the boss asked you to do this bad idea. I say bad idea, but he just loved to experiment.”
Star Warsis no stranger to pushing the envelope and going for what feels right. The franchise evenintroduced a transgender clone trooper(despite few people knowing about her). So it’s possible pretty much any musical genre could be made to work in a galaxy far, far away. After all, music is music. Deana, who performed many flute parts inAhsoka’s soundtrack, explained coming up with the punk track “Igyah Kuh.” “Initially, with that piece, we approached it with a very like, ‘This needs to sound alien. This needs to sound unusual and different,’ [mentality],” she explained. “Then we realized, ‘Oh, we just need to kind of make this a banger.'”
That song–played during a scene featuringthe disaster-prone Sabine Wren–is just one example of the brilliant work the Kiners have put intoAhsoka. But think, if things had gone slightly off in that first meeting, this show and its several predecessors could have ended up sounding wildly different. Whatever it was like, it seems the awkwardness was worth it.
