Saturday, October 13, 2018

Meet Matt Mahaffey: The Nashville Music Genius Behind the Music of 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'

The Nashville Tennessean has unveiled a Turtley Awesome interview with Matt Mahaffey, the multi-instrumentalist, multi-platinum record producer, Emmy Award and Annie Award nominated composer who produced the musical score for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon's brand-new 2D-animated series which reimagines the iconic characters of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a fresh new way! Check out the fantastic interview below, and make sure to catch Matt's work on Rise of the TMNT, only on Nick!


Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pictured (clockwise): Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello and April O’Neil.

Matt Mahaffey: the Nashville music genius behind the new 'Ninja Turtles'

It’s tough to know where to start when you’re introducing Matt Mahaffey, a Nashville musician with at least four surprising claims to fame.


Matt Mahaffey spends time Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at his new Beastside Tracks studio in East Nashville. Mahaffey toured with Beck, created the Expedia.com jingle and is now making music for the new "Ninja Turtles" series "Rise of the TMNT." Photo credit: Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean

We’ll start with the latest: The Tennessee native has written the new theme song for the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

The bombastic tune (with lyrics by Leticia Wolf) opens up the new Nickelodeon TV series “Rise of the TMNT.” And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Mahaffey is responsible for all the music for the show — each of its 100-plus episodes requires around 11 minutes of intricate scoring. He spends a week on each episode, working day and night out of his new Beastside Tracks studio in East Nashville.

“I've fallen asleep at my desk many times, but this is like all cylinders,” he says. “You've got to go from some, like, Katy Perry pop into some Romanian death metal into some John Williams-y 'Star Wars' score into a chase scene, and you just have to have all of those instruments at the ready.”

And his job with the Turtles might not even be the most unusual gig Mahaffey’s ever had over the last two decades.

Remember that twangy three-second jingle for Expedia.com? That was Mahaffey’s creation — in fact, it was his first TV ad job.

Remember how the movie “Shrek” opens with Smash Mouth’s “All-Star”? Mahaffey actually wrote an original song for that scene, but at the eleventh hour, it was moved to the end credits instead.

Now, really think back to the mid-‘90s. Remember when Murfreesboro, not Nashville, was briefly considered one of the hippest music towns in the country? That fuse was lit by his band, Self. The genre-hopping alt-rock group was light-years ahead of its time, and it scored some radio and MTV play with its 1995 debut.

Still, a few years after that release, Mahaffey decided he preferred the recording studio over the road (though he did make an exception to see the world as part of Beck’s band in the mid-2000s).

'The only dude that would show up'

For the last 10 years, most of his work has been for children’s television and advertisements. It’s a life he says he couldn’t have imagined when he first set off on his own, enrolling in the recording industry program at Middle Tennessee State University.

“I just wanted to write songs, make beats and be an artist,” he says. “Because that's all you know. I didn't know what a film composer was. I didn't know how to do commercials or where that music came from. I was like everyone else.”


Matt Mahaffey is responsible for all the music for the Nickelodeon show "Rise of the TMNT" — each of its 100-plus episodes requires around 11 minutes of intricate scoring. He spends a week on each episode, working day and night out of his new Beastside Tracks studio in East Nashville. Photo credit: Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean.

That started to change when Self was signed to Dreamworks Records, the music division of the massive entertainment company founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. As Dreamworks started work on its first movies, it looked to its recording artists to provide songs for them. Mahaffey was one of several artists who’d be regularly invited to see rough cuts of future blockbusters.

"Oftentimes, I would be the only dude that would show up,” he says. “I’d just be like, 'I'm there, man!' The first one I ever did was ‘Shrek.’ I got the only original song in ‘Shrek.’ From there, it snowballed into lots of little things.”

Self put out only one album on Dreamworks (1999’s “Breakfast With Girls”) before it lost its deal. But by then, Mahaffey was working regularly with the company’s animation department, making music for “Shrek” animated shorts and amusement park rides. Soon, he was meeting with Nickelodeon and Disney, and scored full-time gigs as composer for several kids’ shows: “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” “Henry Hugglemonster” and “Sanjay and Craig.”

“I’ve moved from preschool (programming) all the way up to ‘Turtles,’ which is like scoring a film but with about 100 percent more music in it. It means the world to me. Because I definitely moved up that ladder step by step as hard as I could.”

'It's absolutely mental'

When Mahaffey tells people what he does for a living, he says there’s a common response.

“They say, ‘I didn't even realize cartoons had music in them.' And I always say, 'Well, then you should try watching one without it.' Because it's a totally different experience. It just doesn't work without the music. And you really have to try to step up your game these days. You have to write 11 minutes of music a week. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's daunting.”

He’s discussing this in the Beastside control room, where he has his latest “Turtles” assignment up on his computer. In this scene, the four heroes are trapped in a sort of samurai fortress, with spiked-covered walls closing in on them.


Matt Mahaffey looks over his work at his recording studio Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, in East Nashville. Mahaffey toured with Beck, created the Expedia.com jingle and is now making music for the new "Ninja Turtles" series. Photo credit: Courtney Pedroza/The Tennessean

Mahaffey presses “play” on the scene with the music track removed. Even with the vibrant art and snappy dialogue, something feels very off, and incomplete.

He turns the music up and plays the scene again. Suddenly, the stakes are raised. In the span of 60 seconds, Mahaffey’s work veers from traditional Japanese music to explosive action movie fare, sappy sitcom piano and “Superfly” funk. The turtles’ frantic emotions are heightened, and their punchlines land.

Almost all of these sounds come straight from Mahaffey’s computer with an arsenal of software and samples that can reproduce any instrument you can imagine. That includes a computerized choir that sounds hauntingly real: It's used to sing words like “pizza” for dramatic effect.

This attention to detail hasn't gone unnoticed by the show's creative forces. "Rise of the TMNT" co-Executive Producer Andy Suriano says having Mahaffey onboard “lifts the show above that of any children’s program."



"Matt shares our point of view that we never want to speak down to kids," Suriano says. "And the sophisticated yet playful way Matt lays down his tracks elevates and perfectly executes that mission. Matt brings a kinetic, frenetic fun energy that isn’t too far a departure than his work in Self, which is exactly all we’d hope it to be. It’s such a perfect marriage between sound and screen.”

Mahaffey would love to use all his tricks on a feature film one day but argues that animated television is actually the tougher gig.

“I've done so many cartoons that live action would be a breeze. Like, give me a romantic comedy. I could have that to you by Thursday," he says with a laugh. "It's an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like. The amount of music that goes into these things is absolutely mental. I do it every week, and it's already been picked up for a second season, and it just started airing. That's 54 episodes a season, so I have a hundred of these things to do. ... You start seeing through time, you know what I mean?”

He’s also focused on getting Beastside — which he co-owns with Cal Ecker — fully up and running. The studio is now open to outside artists to book recording sessions, and the building also houses the rest of Mahaffey’s composition team: Marcus Meston, Keiffer Infantino and Leticia Wolf. Collectively, they’re handling music for six shows, including the E! Network’s “Total Divas” and “Total Bellas.” Mahaffey estimates that’s “easily an hour of original music a week.”

“It's absolutely mental work, and I love it. It's really challenging. It's fun and it's fresh.”

More Nick: 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Global Roll Out Premiere Dates | Nickelodeon!
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Rise of the TMNT | 'Minotaur Maze' & 'The Longest Fight' Sneak Peeks + NYCC 2018 Round-Up | Nickelodeon USA

To celebrate Nickelodeon USA premiering the brand new Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The Longest Fight"; "Minotaur Maze" on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. (ET/PT), Nick USA has unveiled a Turtley Awesome sneak peek preview from the all-new RTMNT episode, which you can watch in the fantastic video clip here on Nick.com!


In the brand-new Rise of the TMNT episode "The Longest Fight" (#108A), the Turtles have a hard time watching their idol skateboard while stopping a burglary! Then later in "Minotaur Maze" (106B), if the mutant maze can be beaten in 30 minutes or less, the pizza is free! In Nick's super sneak-peek preview from "Minotaur Maze", titled "World's Greatest Pizza" there is no point in eating mediocre pizza when you can have the world's greatest pizza!

Update - Below is a sneak-peek from "The Longest Fight", which Nickelodeon unveiled today at NYCC 2018! In the episode, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche are reunited behind the mic as Foot Lieutenant, the de-facto leader of the Foot Clan, and Foot Brute, the Foot Lieutenant’s right-hand man!:

Nickelodeon USA Acquires Rights to Australian Drama 'The Bureau of Magical Things'

Nickelodeon USA has acquired the rights to The Bureau of Magical Things, a magical brand-new tween drama series from the makers of the global smash hits H2O - Just Add Water and Mako Mermaids!

Update (10/13): Nickelodeon USA have made a last minute schedule change, and will now be airing brand-new episodes of The Bureau of Magical Things weeknights at 7:00pm ET/PT on TeenNick!

JoJo Makes BowBow’s DIY Dreams Come True! 🎀 The JoJo & BowBow Show Show Ep. 4 | Nickelodeon

JoJo is always saying, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” Well, BowBow had the craziest dream ever, and now JoJo is going to try to make that dream a reality! It’s Do-It-Yourself dream time in the fourth episode of The JoJo & BowBow Show Show! And catch a brand-new episode every Saturday on the Nickelodeon YouTube Channel and here on NickALive!



What kind of DIY crafts do YOU like to make?! 🎀

Missed any episodes? Catch up here: http://bit.ly/JoJoBowBowShowShow

Watch JoJo's new music video for her latest hit, "Only Getting Better" here!: http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2018/09/only-getting-better-official-music.html

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA to Debut 'Lip Sync Battle Shorties' Season 2 on Oct. 19!

Originally published: Saturday, October 13, 2018.
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Rise of the TMNT Toys | Official Commercials | Playmates Toys

COWABUNGA! A TMNT Universe would not be complete without a awesome range of toys! Check out Playmates Toys brand-new Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy line inspired by the hit Nickelodeon show, in stores today, and make sure to watch more Rise of the TMNT on Nick everywhere!

Twister Sings in Spanish | Rocket Power | Nickelodeon Animation

Remember when Maurice "Twister" Rodriguez sang in Spanish for Cinco de Mayo on Rocket Power? Here's a throwback featuring voice actor Ulysses Cuadra from the 1999 Nicktoon classic!



More Nick: Nickelodeon Launches Year-Round 'That's Me' Campaign!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest National Hispanic Heritage Month on Nickelodeon and Rocket Power News and Highlights!

NICKTOONS UNITE! Let's Play as DANNY PHANTOM | Butch Hartman

Playing Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island as Danny Phantom! What's your favorite Nickelodeon video game? Comment down below...



More Nick: GameMill Entertainment Announces 'Nickelodeon Kart Racers' | First Look!

Yes, he's the real guy. Butch Hartman created your childhood AKA Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, TUFF Puppy, and now...the NOOG NETWORK and Bunsen Is a Beast!

Butch Hartman Sketchbook #1: https://www.amazon.com/Butch-Hartman-Sketchbook-Stuff-drawn/dp/1975613392

Check out Butch's brand-new comic The 3 O'Clock Club from Lion Forge Comics, and be sure to like, subscribe, and follow everything of Butch's below:

Butch Hartman - Facebook | Instagram | Butch's Sketchpad On Instagram | Twitter | Snapchat: @realhartman | YouTube | Speech Bubble | Tumblr | Pinterest

The Noog Network - www.noognetwork.com | Instagram | Twitter | Snapchat: @noognetwork | Tumblr | Pinterest

More Nick: Nickelodeon Reveals First-Look Footage of All-New 'INVADER ZIM: Enter the Florpus' TV Movie at San Diego Comic-Con 2018!
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Nickelodeon USA to Host 'Henry Danger' 'Danger-er Things' Interactive Encore on Saturday, October 13

If the brand-new Henry Danger Halloween Special "Danger Things" wasn't awesome enough, Nickelodeon will be taking the special to a whole new level with the interactive "Danger-er Things" encore, airing Saturday, October 13 at 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT), only on Nickelodeon USA!


During the "Danger-er Things" encore, fans can play-along using Nickelodeon's brand-new FREE Screens Up augmented-reality (AR) app, where they'll be able to take part in spooktacular quizzes, take fangtastic polls, and watch as Stranger Things literally pop out of their TV screens!

To take part, simply tune into Nickelodeon's "Danger-er Things" encore on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and open the app to play-along!

In the all-new Henry Danger Halloween special "Danger Things", when Piper (Ella Anderson) is taken by a creature from another dimension, Kid Danger (Jace Norman) & Captain Man (Cooper Barnes) must rescue her from the evil science corporation that opened the portal!

The Nickelodeon Screens Up app is available to download free for iOS and Android devices today! Visit henrydangerplay.com for more information.




More Nick: Nickelodeon Announces Teen Sleuthing TV Movie ‘Bixler High Private Eye’; To Star Jace Norman and Ariel Martin!

Originally published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018.
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SpongeBob’s Most Creeptacular Moments EVER! 👻 | Nickelodeon

Just in time for Halloween, Nickelodeon has packed all the spookiest moments from SpongeBob SquarePants into one creeptacular video! 👻 Are you brave enough to watch the entire thing⁉️



❗ EMOJI POLL ❗ Which is the BEST part about Halloween parties: YUMMY TREATS🍫FUN GAMES 👻COOL COSTUMES 🎃 HALLOWEEN MUSIC 🎶?

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA to Premiere New 'SpongeBob SquarePants' Halloween Special “The Night Patty” on Friday 26th October 2018!
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Carson Lueders Pranks BFF Hayden Summerall | #FunniestFridayEver | Nickelodeon

The Pop & Shock prank is still the best when it comes to pure jump scares, and Carson Leuders has a couple tips to share to make it even more surprising!



❗ EMOJI POLL ❗ Which is your Halloween favorite: GHOSTS 👻 WITCHES 🔮 WEREWOLVES 🐺 ZOMBIES💀 VAMPIRES ⚰?

Visit nick.com/halloween for more spooktacular fun!

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA Treats Viewers to Chills and Thrills with Spooktacular Halloween-Themed Premieres!
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THEY SURPRISED ME WITH MY NEW KIDS' CHOICE AWARD!!! | Its JoJo Siwa



Congrats JoJo! :)

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA's October 2018 Premiere Highlights | Halloween | Nick Or Treat!
Follow NickALive! on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, via RSS, on Instagram, and/or Facebook for the latest Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards 2019 News and Highlights!

Halloween Hide N’ Seek 👻 w/ PAW Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machine, and Bubble Guppies | Nick Jr.

Trick or treat! 🍬 Howl and get ready to play a game of Halloween hide n’ seek with Nick Jr. Take on a fun challenge of finding Stripes from Blaze and the Monster Machines, Molly from Bubble Guppies, and Marshall from PAW Patrol. Pirate Stripes is hiding in a scene full of fun treasures; super hero Molly’s scene is super spooktacular; and Marshall, the pup-kin’s scene is all fired up! The timer is ticking! Once time is up the positioning of the hidden Nick Jr. friend will be revealed. Can your super seeker find them all? 👀 To find full episodes from your child’s favorite animated TV shows, visit the FREE Nick Jr. App.



You can find more of your favorite shows, weekday mornings on Nickelodeon, and everywhere you find Nick Jr.: http://nickjr.com/tvschedule/

Visit nickjr.com/halloween for more spooktacular Halloween fun!

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA to Premiere New Preschool Series 'Butterbean's Café' on Monday 12th November 2018!

Preschoolers can watch full episodes online, play games, and discover silly surprises in the free Nick Jr. App and at NickJr.com. Stream Nick Jr. for free in the Nick Jr. App on Roku and Apple TV or download full episodes for offline viewing on iTunes or Google Play.

You can also download premium apps featuring your child's favorite Nick Jr. shows on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon, including Nick Jr. Draw and Play and Nick Jr. Let’s Learn!

More Nick: 'Blue's Clues' Reboot Finds New Host in Broadway Actor Joshua Dela Cruz!
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TASTE TEST WITH TOMASO: RUFFINS | STAR FALLS | YTV

As seen on Star Falls! Actor Tomaso (Nate) teaches us how to bake our very own "Ruffins". Watch the video below for the FULL RECIPE!



Visit ytv.com, nick.com and nick.tv, as well as the YTV GO, Nick App and Nick Play apps for more Star Falls!

More YTV: YTV Canada Premieres 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'!
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The Dude Perfect Show 💪 Epic Music Video | Nickelodeon

The Dudes of Dude Perfect (and Panda) are rocking out with all of the their most epic moments from The Dude Perfect Show! Featuring unreal shots, Jack Griffo and even… THEIR MOMS! Which shot do you think is the most amazing? Let me know in the comments below! Catch more of The Dude Perfect Show on Nickelodeon!



What is YOUR favorite sport to play or watch?! 💪

Make sure to tune into the brand-new The Dude Perfect Show Halloween special "Trick Shots and Treats", premiering Saturday 27th October 2018 at 8:30pm ET/PT, only on Nickelodeon USA!

More Nick: Nickelodeon USA's October 2018 Premiere Highlights | Halloween | Nick Or Treat!

Originally published: Wednesday, October 10, 2018.
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Noobees | ¿Ya sigues a Matt?! | Rutizados - Cómo ser un Ruti Gamer | Nickelodeon Latinoamérica

Noobees | ¿Ya sigues a Matt?! | Latinoamérica | Nickelodeon en Español



¿Ya sigues a Matt? ¡Los personajes de Noobees tienen mucho para sorprenderte!
Sigue el primer show gamer de Nickelodeon de lunes a viernes 6pm COL-ARG / 8PM MEX.

Rutizados | Cómo ser un Ruti Gamer | Latinoamérica | Nickelodeon en Español



¡Conviértete en el mejor gamer con estos tips de Ruth para ser un RUTI-GAMER!
Sigue los videos con Majo Vargas cada miércoles y viernes, al término del episodio de Noobees, en exclusivo en nuestro Youtube.

NOOBINFLUENCER - http://www.mundonick.com/noobinfluencer

Mystery Man - http://www.mundonick.com/programas/mystery-man/teiwri

Más: http://www.mundonick.com/programas/noobees/7smix8

Más Nick: Nickelodeon Latin America Kicks Off Co-Production ‘Club 57’ with Italy’s Rainbow Group | MIPJunior | MIPCOM 2018!
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