AEW musical composer Mikey Ruckus was recently interviewed by Fightful as he went behind the scenes and described what it was like to compose music for the “Le Diner Debonair” segment with Chris Jericho and MJF.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
Frank uses Sinatra’s ‘Me and My Shadow’: “When you get a chance to jump in the middle of it and just step back and see how it happens, it’s pretty amazing. We actually had another one — I don’t know if I’ve shared it before. That part with Le Dinner Debonair, Jericho and MJF. We got clearance from Frank Sinatra’s estate to use their tracks. However, that track was recorded so long ago, there was no instrument. “
About the problem of using music: “The production was asking if I could break the vocals from it. I have software that can do it, however, it destroys the integrity of the recording. Especially something that was recorded then. So I went to see different karaoke tracks, We see what we can pull. It turns out that the karaoke didn’t have a bar-track license. So I opened a can of worms there. In between, I said, ‘I know we need it.’ So I was on the previous note over the weekend for a note to recreate the whole thing. Somewhere in between, when they cut the scene, the wrong track went in. For whatever reason, Jericho didn’t hear my version until an hour before Dynamite. “
About licensing issues: “So I get a call, and there are a lot of calls. I received a call from Legal that said, ‘We can’t promote this section. What can we do? ‘ I said, ‘I’ve got the track. Ask me to send a video; I’ll make sure it’s synced. I’ll send it back to Nashville. It’s loaded up, it was in the truck probably fifteen minutes before the segment aired. ‘ Much of this has to do with the licensing party, which owns and seeks permission. If remixed, we need permission in advance. If they want to bring their own music, Buck stops with Tony. Tony is the head of all creativity. So when they come up with an idea for him or me-I always tell them to talk to Tony first কারণ because before us there were situations where I had multiple wrestlers, I was working with everyone at the same time. Someone would jump in and say, ‘Hey, can we change that?’ ‘Yeah, we can change that,’ and then all of a sudden it starts to ring and I get a text from Tony saying, ‘Hey, can we change that again?’ And I was like, ‘Oh! I’m bad. ‘ Again, this is on a case-by-case basis. It comes down to ownership, who owns the publication and who controls it. If there’s a remix on the table, we go ahead and get in touch with them and see what we can do. “
