Phil Roberts 
The Kiner family talks about scoring Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord with sweeping themes for Maul, Devon, and Lawson in the latest animated series.
Of all the triumphs in the series, one of the most memorable aspects of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is the sensational score by Kevin Kiner, Sean Kiner, and Deana Kiner. With its dark intensity and callbacks to The Phantom Menace, the score is an absolute triumph. This, coupled with the intensity of Dave Filoni’s masterful storytelling, has made the season a true gem of Star Wars brilliance. And now, the Kiner family has opened up about scoring the series. In a wonderful interview on the official Star Wars website, the family discusses crafting the series’s soundscape and the sweeping new themes for Maul, Devon, and Lawson.
THE FORCE IN HEAVY METAL
Head Writer Matt Michnovetz wrote many of Maul – Shadow Lord’s episodes while listening to metal music from bands like Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche, Tool, and Ratt, an influence Michnovetz and Supervising Director Brad Rau suggested to the Kiners as a good jumping-off point. “They wanted to push it in a new direction,” Deana tells StarWars.com. “They described Maul – Shadow Lord as a Star Wars version of heavy metal.”
“At first I got out all my guitars and started thrashing things around,” remembers Kevin, “and totally failed.” In the end, the Kiners leaned on a variety of distorted sounds in the score to help bring Maul’s tortured life to the screen.
“I think what we distilled was that Maul feels like he’s constantly tearing things,” says Deana. “He’s tearing with anger. His screams are very visceral, back of the throat. They feel like soul ripping. And I think that’s how we finally found what feels like Maul.”
DISTORTED SYNTHS
Distorted synths were used throughout the series score, especially beneath the title card and end credits for each episode. “Sometimes it’s as simple as taking a synthesizer and running it through some guitar pedals or guitar amps,” says Sean, “distorting it that way.”
The team had around 100 different distortion tools they could choose from at different times, including both physical pedals and digital recreations of physical pedals.
“Star Wars music is really hard. It’s extremely dense,” notes Kevin. “That’s owing to the master who set this all up, John Williams.”
Sean adds that Williams’ original Star Wars film scores were not just dense in terms of orchestration, but dense in terms of themes. “He’s going through musical ideas and shifts constantly. In other styles you have one musical thought and you can stretch that out for a pretty long time. Here, you have to be coming up with something new and something good and interesting pretty fast.”
THE SCORE
Kevin Kiner started scoring Star Wars animation almost two decades ago with the feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. His children, Sean and Deana Kiner, began working with their father in 2014 on Star Wars Rebels and have continued with Star Wars: The Bad Batch and the live-action series Ahsoka.
Be sure to head over to the official website for the full interview. In the meantime, the composers shared the score on their official YouTube channels, and you can listen to its brilliance right here. Aside from dropping a playlist on YouTube, the entire score is now available on Spotify, AMAZON, and other platforms.
COVERAGE
Future of the Force has been covering this series from every angle. Our in-depth reviews have been online within hours of each episode’s release. If that isn’t enough, we’ve shared every single character poster to date. So, rest assured, with Future of the Force, you’ll never miss a moment. Be sure to hit the subscribe button at the top of the homepage to have the latest posts delivered straight to your inbox!
The Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord official soundtrack is available to buy everywhere now.
Will you be adding Kevin Kiner, Sean Kiner, and Deana Kiner’s sensational score from Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord to your collection? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Meet Phil Roberts! He’s the dedicated owner, daily content manager, and editor-in-chief of The Future of the Force. Phil is a budding novelist who turned his passion toward writing about the franchises he loves back in 2016. He’s a huge fan of all things Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Phil is a BFI-accredited journalist and a distinguished member of the Film Critics Association UK.
If he’s not catching a movie at the cinema, you can bet he’s streaming something just as awesome!
