Chad VanGaalen Trashes 'Tron: Legacy,' Takes On Sci-Fi Score

Chad VanGaalen may still be getting a handle on scoring films, but the beloved Calgary musician already knows what doesn't float his boat when it comes to soundtracks. At the top of his diss list: Daft Punk's handiwork on 'Tron: Legacy.'

"The soundtrack, uh, I don't know ..." VanGaalen tells Spinner. "There were a few things that were going on with 'Tron,' and I didn't really expect too much from it to begin with. Jeff Bridges is in it, and I totally love Jeff Bridges, but I had problems with CGI Jeff Bridges -- that was totally creeping me out. And the music, I don't know ... I love that music just for the sake of it being what it is, but, yeah, I don't know," he adds, with a few comparisons and insults we can't repeat here.

When it comes to sci-fi flicks and their soundtracks, the singer-songwriter admits he's more impressed with the classics.

"I really like 'Forbidden Planet,' obviously; it's totally amazing. And 'Fantastic Planet' -- again, another analog modular soundtrack -- is awesome. That was a pretty big influence musically for me."

"Any planet film, I guess," he laughs.

One would wager we might see elements of these legendary movies reinterpreted by VanGaalen in his new project, should it receive funding.

"I've done two five-minute pieces for it so they can get grant approval, and I'm super excited about it," he says. "This is what my dream come true is -- to work on a full-length sci-fi film would be totally awesome!"

"I would go and find sounds and tinker around and then record everything so I have a bulk library of found sounds to work from," he adds. "Then I'll go from there, patching everything together. It would probably take a few months at least."

That's not to say the father of two can't deliver on a tight timeline. His recent gig scoring a cinematic advert for Lifetime Collective's Fall/Winter 2011 apparel collection called for rather feverish pace.

Watch the Chad VanGaalen-Scored Lifetime Collective Advert
"There were certain time restraints so I think it was quite daunting for everyone involved," says VanGaalen of the short film helmed by Vancouver-based motion picture collective Salazar, who have previously shot music videos for synth-pop darlings Fan Death and are currently working on a DVD project with Tegan and Sara. "My main focus was just trying to get enough string parts so it would sound more like a score and less like a music video. But it was hard because A: I'm not a really good cello player, and B: I'm recording everything on tape so it's hard for me to do stuff really fast because I have to dub it down from my tape machine onto my computer and then to send by email."

"It's probably not a good example as far as how I would work on something for film, but it turned out."