Richard Band(I)

Richard Howard Band is an American composer of film and television music. He has scored more than 100 films, including From Beyond which won the award for Best Original Soundtrack at the Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival. His score for Re-Animator was lauded by the magazine Music From the Movies, which said, "Band's music is dark and direct, creating an intense and eerie atmosphere, but always with a humorous touch... Surely, Richard Band is one of the most underrated composers in the film business."

By the mid-80's Band was renowned for scoring horror and Sci-Fi films by employing strong, memorable and most often very melodic themes all recorded with orchestra. Films like 'Mutant (1984)', 'The Alchemist (1983)', 'The House on Sorority Row (1983)', 'Troll (1986)' and 'The Day Time Ended (1979)' all feature beautiful and lyrical themes that seem to operate as the antithesis of the genre for which the films were produced. As Band explains in liner notes in some of his soundtrack releases, he believes that "film scores exist to add a third dimension to a two-dimensional medium".

As the son of independent film producer, director and writer Albert Band, Richard and his brother Charles Band pursued their father's ambitions in film. Where Charles became a prolific producer, director and distributor, Richard's music and cinematic talent led him into the realm of film composing. Becoming interested in music while living in Europe, Richard toured with various rock groups between 1965 and 1971 before returning to the US. After studying music formally for several years Richard made his scoring debut, alongside Jerry Goldsmith's son Joel Goldsmith, on Compass Films production of 'Laserblast (1978)'. Richard rapidly moved from electronic to orchestral music, resulting in a number of full-bodied, orchestral thematic soundtracks that gave melodic power to a number of movies several of which Charles produced for Empire Pictures, among them The Day Time Ended (1979), Troll (1986), Zone Troopers (1985), ReAnimator (1985), Prison (1987), Ghoulies (1985) and From Beyond (1986).

He also brought on famed composer Shirley Walker as conductor and co-orchestrator on his score for Ghost Warrior (performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1984) as well as Ghoulies (1985). It was for the Universal 3D release of Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983), that Richard composed one of his most epic, and adventurous scores.

Beyond Charles' productions, Richard Band showed his diversity with the comedies Lunch Wagon (1981) and Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980), while writing the chillingly melodic score for the slasher favorite The House on Sorority Row (1983). Richard found new acclaim when he teamed with filmmaker Stuart Gordon for the blackly comic Re-Animator (1985), a soundtrack famed for its tribute to the work of Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann. Band's H.P. Lovecraft-themed collaborations with Gordon include the otherworldly tonalities of From Beyond (1986) and the terrifying vengeance of Castle Freak (1995).

The director and composer also adapted the work of Edgar Allen Poe with darkly religious inquisition for their adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), with Band exploring one of Lovecraft's most terrifying works for director Dan O'Bannon on The Resurrected (1991).

When the direct-to-video label Full Moon Entertainment was launched, Richard would score some of the label's more ambitious productions, including numerous entries in the continuing PuppetMaster franchise, the twisted terror of Demonic Toys (1992) and Shrunken Heads (1994) with Danny Elfman. The children's' comedies Remote (1993), Prehysteria (1993) and the fantasy Dragonworld (1994) were films released through Paramount Pictures.

In the mid 1990's, Richard branched more into television co-scoring the A & E network's documentaries Weapons at War, Most Decorated as well as numerous episodes of Biography and The Civil War Journals. Later in the 90s Band scored multiple episodes of Stargate SG-1 (1997) and Walker, Texas Ranger (1997) His genre notoriety also saw him score three episodes of Masters of Horror, earning him his first Emmy nomination for the Stuart Gordon-directed episode of Dreams in The Witch House (2005).

Richard went on to work with the WB network creating promotional music for most of their prime-time shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek and Smallville amongst others. Band also scored over 200 animated vignettes for Orchestra for the WB's Kids Network.

During the mid 2000, Richard was one among some of the first Hollywood composers to delve into scoring Video Games some of which included Stonekeep, Casper, Waterworld, Star Trek:Judgment Rights, Descent under Mountain, Invictus: In the Shadow of Olympus and Clayfighter.

During this period Band continued to score various TV family films and comedies for Paramount such as In the Dog House (2001) My Horrible Year (2002) and Robo-Warriors while still scoring eccentric thrillers for his brother, including Head of the Family (1996), Unlucky Charms (2013), Trophy Heads (2015) and more recently Ravenwolf Towers (2016), a web series for Amazon.

More recently Richard scored the horror/comedy Exorcism@60,000 Feet (2019), Necropolis: Legend and The Deep ones (2020) for director Chad Ferrin.

Now with over 50 soundtracks to his credit, Richard Band's prolific and stylistic work has made him not only one of the most distinctive composers in the realms of horror and science fiction but arguably include comedy, family films and animation. Band's full-blooded talent remains vibrant to this day.