Recently, I got the opportunity to speak with the composer of the Marvel Studios Disney+ series, “Moon Knight”, Hesham Nazih, about what inspired the unique sound of the show, if he would like to return for another Marvel project and much more.

Could you explain what your role was on Marvel’s Moon Knight?

What was my role? I did this… I mean, I wrote the soundtrack. That’s basically… That’s one thing I’m sure you already know, is just… I kind of get what your point… What would I do with… The storyline of Moon Knight, and it’s the story of Moon Knight, it’s just a massive story. It’s a story full of everything, full of emotions and romance and vengeance and anger and fights and adventures and it’s full of everything, in full, in excess. So I actually, what I was trying to do most of the time is to encompass all of that in a… United on single musical compass or sort of.

How did you kind of get involved in scoring Moon Knight? How did that all come about?

Oh, Mohamed Diab, the show director, suggested me to Marvel and then they contacted me afterwards. And then yeah, so basically this is how it happened. Although Mohamed and I never met before, never worked before, this was the first time I worked with him or even meet him in person, so that this was lovely.

How did the pandemic impact on creating the Moon Knight score?

Oh, I think we got used to it one way or another. We kind of… It became the new normal, became the out of the ordinary normal, it’s becoming… Once of your daily routine is to have one or two Zoom meeting per day, so this is also how it worked, basically. It was very effective, I must say. It was very time effective and very effective in all senses, I mean. And us composers, we are so used to be confined in our rooms and not to move a lot or not to travel a lot. And so yes, it was… I mean, technology was great in every sense, and during the recordings, monitoring the recordings online, and… Because some of the recordings, the [inaudible 00:03:40] part of the recording was two place, in Vienna, Austria and some of them were here in Cairo, Egypt, and the mix of the music was in Los Angeles. And by no means, I would have traveled all these places chasing the music. So yeah, it was all right. It was great, really.

What were some of the influences for creating the sound for Moon Knight?

I mean, everything. I’m influenced, of course, by all the great scores and great composers I grew up loving, like of course, the great John Williams, Bernard Herrmann and, of course, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, all those iconic composers. And I think it’s, in the back of my mind, it’s part of my musical culture, all the films and the scores I’ve ever watched in my life, throughout my life. And great aspect of the score had to be Egyptian, so… I think this was, I wouldn’t say easy, but this was the most clear part to me because it’s appearing just in my nature or talking or acting or behaving just to my nature, because… It had so many aspects, the score, really. The adventures, the romance, the Egyptian part, and then the… And I think I was influenced by… I cannot pinpoint one thing, but I think I was influenced by all of that. My background, by Egyptian background, the kind of music that I loved, the kind of score, all of that.

How important was it to an Egyptian sound into the score of Moon Knight?

I usually do not pay attention to where the situation happens or the place of the… That occurs or that have occurred or happened, but in Moon Knight, I always kept saying to myself, “Okay, there are some things that, if it wasn’t in Egypt, it wouldn’t have happened.” Like chasing the [inaudible 00:06:11], the tombs, and trying to figure out where is Ammit’s tomb and all of that kind of thing. So, yes, Egypt was… And the aspect of Egypt in everybody’s mindsets. And because everybody has a… We are all influenced by especially the Egyptian civilization. We all have a kind of imagination towards it, so it was important. It was important. I would say it was a big part of the musical lines and the musical composition.  I wanted it to sound different. We all want to sound different. We all want to sound different and unique in every way. But yeah, I think it was a great chance to bring new color to the MCU.

What was your biggest challenge with creating the score for Moon Knight?

It’s creating the score for Moon Knight. It’s a challenge. It’s a great challenge. Because Moon Knight is big in the comic books, and this is the first time he’s on the screen, and the first time for me to write score for a superhero. And the anticipation, the expectations, and… That’s for one thing, and for another thing, when I saw the first couple episodes, I realized that this is an unusual show. This is great on so many levels, so… And like I was saying in the beginning, the show is full of everything at once, at full and at once, so… And it’s very dynamically well-balanced, and in the sense that there’s no one aspect overrides or overflows the others. So it was challenging, in the best way, really.

And how does it compare to working on the previous series that you’ve worked on?

It’s so different because I have never composed the music for a superhero, because superheroes, stories of superheroes aren’t everywhere. They are special for… And it’s very different in everything, in every sense, and the workflow and the system, everything was different, really. But I must say, I was given all the assistance and the help and the guidance I needed from the amazing people, Marvel. And in the end, I kept reminding myself, we are all up to the same thing, we are all chasing this incredible and unforgettable moment we always try to create on screen, even for a couple of seconds, a fraction of a second, maybe, or for two minutes or whatever.  Doesn’t matter, really, is it done in Egypt or in Los Angeles or in London, it’s just the same. We are all… No matter the system is different, the means and the tools are different, but we are all chasing these unforgettable moments we tried to create.

What was your personal highlight? What was your favorite track from the soundtrack?

Oh, that’s kind of hard to pick because… Well, the thing is the main Moon Knight theme was the portal, my portal to rest of the score, so I hold so much appreciation to it. I’m so appreciative to it, because it came to me and it helped me evolving and developing the rest of the score. So I’m building it, the whole thing, on that theme, so wherever it is and whenever it comes, I’m appreciative. And I like it.

How does it feel seeing everybody’s reactions to Moon Knight now that the series is out?

It’s crazy. Marvel fans are all over the globe, I mean, I’m getting email for in your retweets and comments from India, from Japan, from China, from Brazil, from Costa Rica, and from Egypt and from London, of course from the US. It’s amazing. It’s amazing. And when I get to realize that I was talking to actually the whole world through this Moon Knight, it’s just amazing.

And I’ve got to ask, should they do another Moon Knight series or perhaps Moon Knight appears in a movie, would you also like to return and to carry on your adventure with the MCU?Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah.

Did you have any involvement also in picking some of the other songs like Wham! for the series?

No, I… No, no. They were there, actually most of it, most of them were there in place before I arrived, before I was onboarded the project, so it was the directors, absolutely.

And finally excluding Moon Knight, what has been your favorite Disney+ original so far?

Actually, Disney+ platform is not operating in Egypt up until now, so I didn’t get the chance to see. But I’m a huge fan of Marvel and I love, of course, all the Avengers and Tony Stark is a great character, of course, Ironman and Spiderman… And I’m a big Marvel fan, and of course Disney fan, who isn’t? But I can’t wait for the Disney+ platform to be operating, it should be operating in a month or two, maybe, in the region, I think.

You can watch the entire series of “Moon Knight” on Disney+ and find the soundtrack available on all music platforms now.

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Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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1 Comments

  1. Christian Markl May 19, 2022

    When will The Lion King Broadway Musical becoming to Disney +