Leaving home at seventeen with years of musical training under his belt, composer Jonathan Wolff hit the ground running in Hollywood and never slowed down. Sometimes working on a dozen TV shows at once, he created theme songs and/or scores for dozens of classics such as "Seinfeld", "Will & Grace", and "Married... With Children." Join Nick as he and Jonathan discuss his early musical training in Kentucky, performing live on the sitcom set, and the importance of having a business plan as a working musician.
HIGHLIGHTS:
[01:55] Jonathan humbly downplays the historical importance of his numerous "Seinfeld" compositions
[03:06] Jonathan hopes that listeners have fun with his new "Seinfeld" soundtrack album, using it at their own parties
[04:22] Jonathan explains how one of Carol Liefer's original "Seinfeld" scripts called for longer John Germaine sax solos, but many of those scenes were left on the cutting room floor
[06:13] Jonathan would get the final script for each "Seinfeld" episode the night before the table read, and would begin scoring that night
[08:02] During a Hollywood strike, Jonathan met comedian George Wallace in Las Vegas, who introduced him years later to his friend Jerry Seinfeld, who needed music for his new sitcom
[11:26] Jonathan asked Jerry to come to his office, and using slap bass and cutting-edge sampling technology, composed a rough draft of the show's theme over tapes of Jerry's routines
[13:14] Amateur "wonks" on the Internet believe they've identified all the samples Jonathan used, but they were all his original Frankenstein creations
[15:04] Sitcoms had been using cues to transition between scenes since the 50s, but Jonathan's goal was to create a unique earworm that would draw people to the TV
[16:07] Jonathan's early musical training started with conservatory, learning how the masters orchestrated their compositions, and taking that knowledge with him to Hollywood
[17:12] Laboring in a career in which he had very little control, Jonathan sold everything and started a new life as an actual composer, a new career in which he could create music with bleeding-edge equipment and LA's finest musicians
[20:45] Jonathan's musical background as a teenager in Kentucky was so eclectic, he found it easy to jump between genres and styles when composing for TV shows
[22:00] Jonathan had a dedicated crew that he worked with for years, who sang and performed on songs like "Jesus Is One" from "Seinfeld"
[24:06] Longtime "Simpsons" composer Alf Clausen called Jonathan and asked him to train his son before he went off to college
[25:41] In the "Seinfeld" episode where Morty Seinfeld was impeached, Jonathan reached into his classical background to compose the serious Presidential-styled music that accompanied the scene
[26:59] Although the numerous chase scenes in "Seinfeld" were played for comedy, Jonathan scored them as if they were serious business
[28:50] When actor John O'Herlihy joined the cast on "Seinfeld", Jonathan had already worked with him on the show "Dave's World"
[30:45] Sometimes, Jonathan would record music ahead of time, so that the scene could be performed with the score on playback
[32:07] Jonathan describes Larry David as a very musical person, so well-schooled and educated about music that he attended every mixing session
[34:02] Castle Rock Productions, the company that created and produced "Seinfeld", was absorbed by Time-Warner, so now Warner Bros. owns the soundtrack
[36:21] Over the course of composing for 75 different shows, at any one time Jonathan would be writing music for ten or more different episodes at a time
[37:48] Jonathan has written theme songs for 44 different shows
[38:27] Jonathan's first assignment for "Married... With Children" was to write a song for one episode, a parody of "We Are The World" using musicians like Richie Havens and John Sebastian
[42:03] Jonathan's exodus to Hollywood at 17 was done under the ruse of "going to college", using his National Merit Scholar win to gain admission to USC for a few weeks before going to work full-time
[44:01] Jonathan's key to maintaining his level of creativity for so many years: comprehensive and eclectic training at an early age, and knowing the legal and financial tools that helped him succeed in the music business
[46:37] Jonathan stresses that having a financial and business plan is essential for a successful career in music
Thanks for listening! Tune in next week and don’t forget to take a minute to review the podcast. In this incredibly competitive podcasting world, every piece of feedback helps.
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Find out more about today’s guest, Jonathan Wolff.
Find out more about your host, Nick Terzo
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
@shepsky [Bob Shepard, sax]
@jglaser333 [Jamie Glaser, guitarist]
@OfficialKrieger [Robby Krieger, musician]
@THEspencerdavis [musician]
@AebersoldJazz [Jamey Aebersold, jazz musician]
@nationalmerit [National Merit Scholarship Corp.]
