John Wick: Chapter 4 (soundtrack)

Chapter 4 is scored by Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, the recurring composers of the John Wick franchise films, who began working on the film's score for nearly more than a year.[5][6] Bates said that "Chad [Stahelski] has an insatiable appetite for turning stones and diving deeper into that world. It's really inspiring to see how deeply passionate to see the things that made him want to be in the movie business and to pursue martial arts, all those old kung fu movies [...] He knows how to put it on the screen to give the audience an experience where they can feel, on a granular level, what the fights are all about and the culture of it. That's really apparent in this film, and that aspect is great."[7] He called John Wick 4 as the Mount Kilimanjaro of hybrid film scores.[4][8]

Bates added that the main theme of John Wick was consistent throughout the four films, whereas he expanded the genres and cultures from the franchise film's score as it travels throughout the world, calling the score as an "infusion of cultures".[7] Bates and Richards perform the guitar portions (both electric and acoustic), along with bass and synthesizers, with Gil Sharone playing drums. The score featured a 72-piece orchestra from Nashville, Tennessee, mostly strings and woodwinds, to maintain the rock aesthetic and expand it sonically and harmonically. It was Stahelski's idea to expand the soundscape into "a huge orchestral score". In an interview to Variety, Bates said:[9]

"If you listen to the four scores, they’ve definitely grown as the scope of the films has. Not in the way that it’s now an orchestra and it’s larger; it’s just that the color palette has continued to develop throughout, still maintaining the fun, hybrid-rock foundation to the score [...] When you’re creating a score that has so many unusual synth textures and modular synth sounds, as well as varied guitar, bass and drum sounds, it’s a lot of inventory to reconcile harmonically so that it all complements one another and at the same time serves the picture."[9]

Comparing to the previous instalments, the film has nearly estimated three hours of recorded music.[7] Another challenging aspect was to create music for multiple action sequences, as "It’s looking for opportunities to hold back so that you can hit the throttle in the most important chapters of a fight. Sometimes we just ramp up, or have a lot of different beats in a sequence, so that we can slam where we really want to increase the intensity and the tempo."[9]

The soundtrack featured four songs in the album. Bates' daughter Lola Collette, performed the cover of the Martha and the Vandellas' song "Nowhere to Run" (1965), that was pitched when they were on tour with Jerry Cantrell. He was asked to cover the classical songs in the John Wick style, hence, he insisted Collette to perform the track whom she heard of it and also Cantrell suggested her to sing as she did the same for one of the songs for his solo record Brighten.[10][4] Collette did a demo version of the track, and when Chad Stahelski and Nathan Orloff supervised the final edit, assembling the collection of final versions of the songs, he showcased her version of the track "Nowhere to Run", which Stahelski liked it and recommended her to perform the final version. He said that "what you're hearing is pretty much a one-take, and it's pretty cool. It worked out well." The rhythm section is performed by Sam and Nick from the garage punk band White Reaper, along with backing vocals performed by Sophie Negrini.[7][4] All in all, this formed an homage to 1979 film The Warriors, in which a female DJ plays the song in reference to the eponymous gang as they fight for their lives in New York City. [11]

He further co-wrote and produced two songs for the soundtrack, which included "I Would Die for You" performed by Maria Brink and Chris Howorth from the American rock band In This Moment and "Eye for an Eye" sung by Japanese-British singer-songwriter Rina Sawayama.[10] Upon producing the songs, Bates said "I went a little bit more garage-punk in the production of the songs on this movie because there’s a lot more EDM-ish music incorporated into the film. I thought the punk aesthetic would be a little fresher sounding than the hard rock approach of the past films – a little more abrasive and a little more live."[9]