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by Scott Perham

As Crossing Jordan begins its third season on NBC, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman are once again in charge of composing the original score for the entire series. Though the pair have recently received critical acclaim for their work on the show, they are hardly newcomers to matching music to drama and dialogue.

Wendy & Lisa have been writing songs since they were kids. Playing in bands together throughout their adolescent years, the two shared the same childhood dream of becoming a professional musician. Their dreams became reality in the early Eighties when an emerging artist named Prince brought them on as musicians and co-songwriters in his band, the Revolution. Wendy & Lisa proved to be integral parts of Prince’s project during the heyday of his career, until the pair parted ways with the purple one in 1987 to start a musical revolution of their own.

Wendy & Lisa immediately began producing other artists and lending their instrumental and songwriting talent to top acts like Seal, k.d. lang, Sheryl Crow and Tricky. They also recorded five of their own studio albums and toured tirelessly to promote the independent releases. Then in 1994 the longtime collaborators shifted gears toward the world of motion picture when they were asked to write some music for the Barry Levinson film, Toys. Toys was soon followed by the opportunity to compose the original score for a list of feature films including Dangerous Minds, Soul Food and The Third Wheel.

As a result of their success in scoring films, Wendy & Lisa were soon involved in scoring television, as well. They composed material for shows like ABC’s Snoops and the HBO series Carnivale, as well as the title sequence and original score for every episode of Crossing Jordan. With a new season of the hit series currently underway and another studio recording currently in the works, Wendy & Lisa continue to showcase their skills as a successful songwriting team.



Music Connection:How did you two initially start making music together?

Lisa Coleman: Our parents are friends. Both of our fathers are musicians and they worked together on a lot of things in L.A. in the Sixties and Seventies. So we met each other when we were kids and we had bands growing up.

Wendy Melvoin: We call ourselves the second generation of L.A. musicians. We started with Prince in 1980 and that’s when we started doing it professionally. And prior to that, we were writing songs. But we didn’t actually start paying the rent by writing songs until we started with Prince.

MC:What was the next step after leaving Prince?

Lisa: The first couple years after leaving Prince we worked with Seal on a couple records, doing co-production and co-writing. And we also did some writing for Meshell N’degeocello. We produced my brother in-law, Doyle Bramhall, on Geffen Records. And we produced this woman named Madeline Peru, a very avant-garde jazz artist who signed to Atlantic. So we’ve done a lot of different things.

Wendy: We were doing a lot of co-production with Prince & the Revolution, so [producing] was a natural progression for the two of us. And we also spent the first 10 years, after Prince, writing our own records and touring with our own band. We made five Wendy & Lisa records. Then we got a break in 1994 when we did some work on Toys for Barry Levinson. After scoring some music for that, we went right into scoring the film Dangerous Minds, which was a Jerry Bruckheimer / Don Simpson film. We always knew we were gonna get into composition for film work. But we knew that it was gonna be a tough road and a thick door to break open. And we’re very lucky that we were able to get our foot in that door.

MC: Dangerous Minds was your first experience writing the entire score for a movie. How did you actually go about landing that deal?

Wendy: We were doing a record with (producer) Trevor Horn. Then the music supervisor for Dangerous Minds, Kathy Nelson, who is the biggest in the business, came to Trevor for a song in the film. And he picked one of our songs, which was a really quiet ballad called, “This is the Life.” … So we did that song for them and they were having Mark Isham score the movie at the time. But it didn’t work out with Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Mark’s score wasn’t quite as contemporary as they wanted it, which was strange for the two of us because we are huge Mark Isham fans. So they hired me and Lisa to work with Mark on that score. Then they ended up asking Mark if he wanted to step aside and just let us do it, because the sound that they were looking for seemed to come more easily from the two of us.

MC: So what made you two decide to transition over to scoring television?

Wendy: Allan Arkush searched me and Lisa out. We were in New Zealand working with Neil Finn on his record and we got a phone call saying Allan Arkush, the guy who wrote and directed Rock and Roll High School, is interested in you guys doing a new show for him. And at the time it was for David E. Kelley. It was a show called Snoops on ABC. He was the producer and sometimes director of that program. So he called us and said, “Would you guys be interested in scoring the season?” And we said, “Sure.” Then Allan moved over to NBC with Crossing Jordan and asked us to come with him, and we did.

MC: What is your daily routine at Crossing Jordan?

Wendy: We score each show. And we wrote the title sequence. We average about 12 minutes per show. There are five reels to a show and each reel has a certain amount of cues in it. And we go to spotting sessions every week. There are 23 episodes. We start in the beginning of August and it takes us through the middle of May. We work four days a week and we get paid episode by episode.

MC: How does the process of scoring television compare to scoring film?

Wendy: In film, you can go in and see the process as they’re editing, before there’s even been any test music put in. You can watch the film and watch the tone of the edits and watch the tone of what the director has going and the tone of the acting and the story. In TV it’s different. You have turnovers that are very quick. It’s usually a week long. They edit it in two days most of the time. And you’re seeing it with a bit of a test score, which is our music. They go through a library of our material from past seasons and put plugs in that they think would be good places for cues. And we go in and have a meeting with them about it. Then we either ask to not hear anything there and to judge for ourselves what would be the best in and outs. Or we go ahead and say, “That sounds great, what you guys just did. Let’s leave it at that.” Then we take the tapes, we load them into our computers at our studio in Hollywood, turn on our ProTools and rock & roll.

MC: Do you always write new material for your cues in Crossing Jordan or do you recycle some of your previous material?

Wendy: Sometimes we recycle stuff, because maybe there’ll be a scene that’s really reminiscent of season three in episode two. So then we’ll go ahead and recycle. There is a lot of stuff that we do from scratch because the storyline calls for it. But we’re not afraid to recycle stuff, and I don’t think that there’s a composer on the planet that would say otherwise.

MC: Do characters get assigned certain instruments or a particular musical theme that follows them throughout the show?

Lisa: Oh yes, totally. Especially in a television show like this one, which is very character driven and the characters are very strong. When the show first started, it had sort of a Boston Irish feel. So we used some Irish instruments. We had Eric Rigler come in and play bagpipes and flutes. So you’ll hear that a lot to represent Jordan, Jill Hennessy’s character –– the star of the show. Other than that we have certain other instruments for other characters.

MC: Does the show’s producer or director come to you with suggestions, or do you have the final say in all of the creative decisions involved in the score?

Wendy: The executive producer of the show, Allan Arkush, is a music historian and knows more about music than most musicians. He is in this process with us daily. And he has a lot of great ideas. So we look forward to his input. But NBC has the final say. In film, the film companies and the directors of films always have the final say. And in TV it’s always the network and the executive producer.

MC: How do you go about finding the right musical mood to complement what’s going on in the show? For example, does a sad scene necessarily call for a sad piece of music?

Lisa: No. It’s really subtle. There is a lot of under-text in film and television. In fact, scores seem to work better if they’re not direct hits. Sometimes we’ll play a sad song over a fight scene or something like that because that’s more of a commentary. And our show deals a lot with things like death and weird feelings. So we like to take a more subtle approach and mix it up a little. It makes it more satisfying to watch and more effective overall.

MC: Do you plan to make any more Wendy & Lisa albums?

Wendy: We’re starting a new record next Wednesday.

MC: What can fans expect from it?

Lisa: Ten songs. (laughs)

Wendy: You know what? I don’t think Lisa and I are going to be competing with Ashlee Simpson or Britney Spears. But we’re gonna put out a really good record for people. And we’ll probably put it out on our own label. There’s no point in artists like us going to the majors anymore.

MC: What advice would you give to artists looking to break into the world of scoring film and television?

Lisa: You do have to be really aware that if someone hires you to do music in their film or TV show, you’re doing their work. If they could do it themselves, they would. Always keep that in mind. And it’s really hard because every creative person wants to put their idea out there. The challenge sometimes is just to be creative with what’s given to you. If the director wants a sad scene to be right on target and have a sad score, then you write a sad score and hope that you have enough personality that it’ll be your take on the sad score and be a little bit different. And take opportunities when they come. That’s why we’ve worked with so many different people.

Wendy: Someone once said, “Success is just saying yes.”