Vince DiCola Interview At 'Music4Games.Net'

'Music4Games.Net' interviews fan-favorite Transformers music composer Vince DiCola because he is recording a new song called "Moon Over The Castle" for 'Gran Turismo 5's Prologue:

Vince DiCola is best known as the composer for Transformers: The Movie (original animated version) and Rocky IV. Among his scoring accolades, he was a co-nominee for the "Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special" Grammy Award for co-writing the soundtrack to the movie Staying Alive and the song "The Touch" from Transformers: The Movie soundtrack won DiCola an Apex award for Best Original Song - Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror. Having spent the last decade or so producing music with numerous artists and working as a session musician for various recording projects, DiCola recently collaborated with the Japanese band T-Square for the new arrangement of the main theme music "Moon Over The Castle" for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. M4G caught up with the composer to find out how he got involved with the soundtrack and why he became inspired by the modern age of video game music...

About Transformers music...

M4G: I have to ask a question regarding the many Transformers-based video games that have been released over the years. Was there ever any interest from game developers to have you compose new music for any of these titles? It would have seemed to be the perfect choice for the games.
Vince DiCola: At a Transformers convention years ago a gentleman who claimed to be developing a Transformers-based video game at the time approached me. Nothing ever came of that, however. I would certainly welcome an opportunity to contribute music to any project related to Transformers, considering my history with the franchise.

M4G: Similarly, were you ever considered for the latest Transformers (2007) film?
Vince DiCola: With the help of my long-time friend and manager Robin Garb, my composing partner Kenny Meriedeth and I did submit some material for the 2007 live-action film. We were aware from the beginning that director Michael Bay was specifically looking to distance the new movie from the original animated version as much as possible. As much as I’d like to believe our package at least made it into Bay’s hands based on my history with the Transformers franchise, I have a strong suspicion we were ruled out before he even listened to any of the music we submitted (if he ever even listened at all!). That having been said, many are certainly aware by now that yet another sequel is in the works, and let’s just say I can be persistent!

M4G: To delve back in time for a moment, how did you come to be involved with scoring "Rocky IV" and the original "Transformers: The Movie"?
Vince DiCola: I mentioned my work on the movie “Staying Alive” earlier. That movie was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, and I had been working with his brother Frank for some time when the “Staying Alive” opportunity came about. As everyone knows, getting ahead in the music business (as with any other business) relies heavily on personal relationships, and I was very fortunate to have had these particular relationships in place when the opportunity for “Rocky IV” came along. (My manager Robin Garb was also the music supervisor for both “Staying Alive” and “Rocky IV”, so that certainly didn’t hurt.)

Read the rest of the interview of the composer of the original Transformers Movie Soundtrack here.


Nice to hear about what Vince is up to lately! 'Dare' and the rest of the original movie soundtrack really scored with Transformers fans, and helped to make that movie what it is to us all. Thanks Vince!

*Thanks to Hans, and others for reminding me that Vince and Stan are indeed separate entities. Apologies to all.