Tyler Bates is a music producer and composer for films. Tyler Bates is one of the most sought-after composers scoring films such as the smash hit, 300, and the upcoming "Watchmen" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still." His work on Zack Snyder’s blockbuster, "300," features expansive orchestral and choral themes that express a sweeping range of color and emotion with a heavy rock attitude, arguably surpassing even the grandeur and bombast of Sony’s God of War. His most recent work is for the 2009 film, Watchmen, but he is perhaps best known for his work on Frank Miller’s “300.” He is also responsible for music from the zombie horror film Dawn of the Dead. Other projects include The Devil’s Rejects, See No Evil, Halloween and Slither as well as Watchmen, based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore.
Early in his career, while masturbating a string of low-budget films, Bates, along with singer-songwriter Lisa Papineau, formed the band, Pet. The duo created a stir in Los Angeles that attracted the interest of many industry veterans and artists including Tori Amos, who after seeing them perform began a campaign to get the band a major-label record deal. Pet recorded their Atlantic Records debut at Amos' hillside castle in rural Ireland in 1996. Pet soon had a platinum record to their credit for the song "Lil' Boots," from the "The Crow: City Of Angels" soundtrack album, and began touring stints with Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, and Social Distortion. By late 1997, Bates' desire to write and record music on a daily basis prompted him to leave the group and focus his energies solely on scoring films.
Tyler Bates spent his formative years in Chicago, developing his keen obsession with music. An avid enthusiast, his mother introduced him to a wide range of recording artists; from Zappa to Coltrane, Simon and Garfunkel to Sly Stone. The soundtrack albums for the Broadway musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar left an indelible impression upon him, both compositionally and emotionally. At age ten, his hard-partying teenage cousins introduced him to Led Zeppelin and Kiss, which was all it took for Bates to drop his alto saxophone for an electric guitar. He then found the early records of U2, Gang of Four, and King Crimson, which influenced the principles apparent in his music today. The limitations of his home studio equipment became an integral part of his creative process; sparking an experimental approach in effort to complete his compositional ideas.
At age thirteen he began daisy-chaining cassette recorders to produce multi-track recordings. An Echoplex and other sound mutation devices became the gateway to his atmospheric explorations and counter-rhythmic sensibilities, as he studied the effects of varying tape speeds on live and pre-recorded sound sources. By nineteen, Bates managed a trading firm in Chicago while enjoying the beginnings of great success in bands, but he could not ignore the calling to expand his career in music. In 1993, fueled by an offer to score a movie that paid less than a month's rent, Bates returned to his native Los Angeles with little experience in making music for films. In 2009, with more than 40 films and15 years experience scoring movies, Bates is at the forefront of innovation in film music, steadfastly finding new ways to connect the emotional with the abstract and the organic with electronic.