John Paesano
American composer (born 1977)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Paesano (born July 2, 1977) is an American composer working primarily in film, television, and video games. He is known for collaborating with director Wes Ball on the Maze Runner film trilogy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, as well as composing for the Marvel Television series Daredevil and The Defenders. As a video game composer, he has contributed music to the acclaimed titles Detroit: Become Human and the three installments in the Marvel's Spider-Man series. Paesano won the BAFTA Games Award for Music (Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales), as well as the D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition (Marvel's Spider-Man 2).
John Paesano | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 2, 1977 |
| Genres | Film and television scores, video game scores, classical rock, ambient rock, electronic rock |
| Occupations | Composer, conductor, arranger, musician |
| Instruments | Piano, keyboards, synthesizer |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Website | johnpaesano |
Biography
Paesano was born in Birmingham, Michigan. He first studied classical music at Conservatoire de Paris located in Parc de la Villette, France before continuing his studies at Berklee College of Music pursuing a major in musical composition and film scoring. John knew from the age of nine years old, he wanted to become a music composer.[1] He then worked under composers Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams providing additional music for the former, and orchestrating for the latter.[2] Paesano cites Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun as his motivation for getting into film scoring.[3]
In 2014, Paesano was hired to compose the music for The Maze Runner. Speaking of the job, he recalled seeing Wes Ball's 2011 short film, Ruin and was intrigued by it, composing a short demo (which eventually would become the "Maze Runner" theme) for Ball. He visited the sets in New Orleans, observing the "environmental soundscape" and tried to incorporate the natural sounds into his score. He recorded the score with an orchestra at the Newman Scoring Stage with sessions running for 2 weeks. Paesano would later return to score the 2nd and 3rd film of the series, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure.[2][4]
Paesano was later tasked with composing the score to Spider-Man developed by Insomniac Games, joining the game's development in the early stages. He worked with game director Bryan Intihar and brought about creating several character themes, emphasising the need for the music to be its "own character" in the game.[5] Paesano ensured that his music struck a balance between the cinematics and the gameplay as he wanted the player to be fully immersed. He looked at distinguishing his music from past Spider-Man films and games and decided to focus on creating a musical identity for Peter Parker.[6]
In 2021, he composed the music for the Avengers Campus themed area at Disney California Adventure, combining themes from the MCU's Avengers, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther films; a single entitled "Welcome Recruits" was released in April 2022.[7]
Filmography
Film
Television
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas |
| 2012–2018 | DreamWorks Dragons |
| 2014 | Crisis |
| 2015–2018 | Daredevil |
| 2017 | The Defenders |
| 2017–2018 | Salvation |
| 2019–2023 | Truth Be Told |
| 2019–2022 | Devils |
| 2019 | Charmed |
| 2020 | Penny Dreadful: City of Angels |
| 2021 | The Hot Zone: Anthrax |
| Leonardo | |
| 2021–present | Invincible |
| 2026 | The Boroughs |
Video games
| Year | Title | Director(s) | Studio(s) | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Mass Effect: Andromeda | Mac Walters | BioWare / Electronic Arts | Debut work as video game composer | |
| Gran Turismo Sport | Kazunori Yamauchi | Polyphony Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment | Also used in Gran Turismo 7 | ||
| 2018 | Detroit: Become Human | David Cage Gregory Diaconu | Quantic Dream | Composed the soundtrack for Markus, one of the main protagonists | |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | Bryan Intihar Ryan Smith | Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment / Marvel Games | Also composed for the game's downloadable content Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps | ||
| 2020 | Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales | Brian Horton Cameron Christian | |||
| 2022 | Gran Turismo 7 | Kazunori Yamauchi | Polyphony Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment | [10] | |
| 2023 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Bryan Intihar Ryan Smith | |||
| 2025 | Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (From the Ashes expansion) | Omar Bouali | Massive Entertainment |
Theme park attractions
| Year | Attraction | Location(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Avengers Campus | Disney California Adventure | [7] |