The Music of Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge
In early 2019, a dream of mine came true when I got to team up with legendary studio pianist Randy Kerber to write some fantastic new music for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disney Theme Parks. It was a crazy turn of events in my life that somehow aligned perfectly so that I got to compose music on a mind blowing project and forever become a part of the Disney and Star Wars universe. This one is a story It was also how I met one of my all time heroes and gained some of my closest music friends that I still work with to this day.
Before I get into the process of how we made the music and how it all went down… I want to talk a little bit about I met Randy.
I had no idea who Randy Kerber was until the Summer of 2018. I was at the Hollywood Bowl watching “La La Land Live” with my wife. We were just close enough to be in the action, but not so close that we were missing the spectacle of film, music, and fireworks. It was a killer show, but of all the things that were competing for our attention one thing stood out to me like a siren blaring in my face. This guy on piano was stealing the show! Not only was he playing his ass off, improvising, leading, following, cueing the orchestra on where to come in and exit, but he was doing it like he was reciting the ABC’s! He was absolutely blowing my mind with the ultimate style and finesse, and I was annoying the hell out of my wife every thirty seconds jabbing her with my elbow. “Look at this guy!”… “I can’t believe he can do that!” “What the!?”. I remember it like it was yesterday. I thought “this guy is doing what I wanna do someday.” I looked in the program and there was the name: Randy Kerber - Piano. That was honestly the first time his name consciously crossed my path even though I subconsciously had alredy known him and his work deeply. Randy had played and recorded most of my favorite themes on the piano for most of the great Hollywood composers from James Horner, to Alan Silvestri, and John Williams and it was through a lot of these films that I developed my love for music. From the themes he played on countless hit films, to the music he had written and orchestrated. I knew WHAT, I just never knew WHO until that moment.
Fast forward to the Fall of that year I’m in the studio recording my score for a film called “The Legend Of Grayson Crockett”. It was my first big Los Angeles session… I remember I was so nervous I was sick. Only days before we had made a last minute change to the personnel because my score producer Brad Cobb had a family emergency and had brought in a veteran studio musician named Helen Nightengale to replace him. I did'n’t know anyone there except for the director and a few friends I had invited, but the sessions were spectacular! Helen produced from the booth and made some tasty orchestration suggestions and I just hung on for dear life. After the string tracking, I recorded all the piano parts, and we wrapped up. Helen walked up with a smile said to me “You remind me of my friend Randy Kerber, you two should meet.” I had a hard time thinking it was real because granted this was only a couple months after seeing him from a half a mile away at the Bowl. A week later I’m standing in his studio.
Randy was testing out the new Spirio system for Steinway and he had 2 Steinway grands in his place facing out another.
In early 2019 legendary studio pianist Randy Kerber and Harlan Hodges teamed up to write some fantastic new music for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disney Theme Parks.
