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Antonio Sanchez<\/strong> knows how Hollywood sees him. In an industry that can focus too much on replicating the successes of the past, he \u2014 thanks to his improvisation-heavy work on Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu<\/strong>‘s Best Picture winner Birdman<\/em> \u2014 is “the drum guy.”<\/p>\n “I think that has been a little bit of my crux since I did Birdman<\/em>,” Sanchez tells Gold Derby. “That if you want drums, I’m the drum guy.”<\/p>\n More from Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n That kind of association has its pros and cons. What may sound pigeon-holing can also lead directly to jobs.<\/p>\n Such was the case with Sanchez landing the job on The Studio<\/em>, Seth Rogen<\/strong> and Seth Goldberg<\/strong>‘s industry send-up, that landed the drummer his first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series.<\/p>\n Word had reached Sanchez through his agent that Rogen and Goldberg had been using his score from Birdman<\/em> as temp music for The Studio<\/em>. And when the two camps eventually met, Sanchez saw an opportunity to expand on the percussion-heavy sound that inspired the TV creators.<\/p>\n The next step was for Sanchez to see the version of the pilot that used the Birdman<\/em> score, and once he did, he knew that he could tailor the series’ new score to it, making for a more complex sound all its own.<\/p>\n “With The Studio<\/em>, the main difference is that I know how to get in there, how to make the drums \u2014 and the music in general \u2014 have a conversation with the dialog and the movement,” Sanchez says. “If there’s a dialog between two, three, four people, I like to punctuate things that they say, which is hard to do with another instrument. Drums are perfect for that, because it doesn’t really get in the way, and I can leave space. As a jazz drummer, I learned that space is one of the best things, best resources you can use to highlight something.”<\/p>\n In addition to a different approach to the drums, Sanchez brought in a wider variety of instrumentation, including bass, keyboard, and \u2014 in the case of his Emmy submission episode, the noir-tinged “The Missing Reel” \u2014 a full orchestra.<\/p>\n And the sound evolved throughout the season, hitting on a music theme in the last two episodes of the season that Sanchez believes could carry into a second season. “I think we found something really cool there,” he says. “I would see if I could build from those, because I feel like it’s very important for a series to have a theme, like a sound. It could be really cool if it was permeated by this theme that could come and go throughout the whole thing.”<\/p>\n But anyone familiar with Continental Studios knows that plans can go awry. “I’m really excited about the second season, but I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” Sanchez says. “So we’ll have to improvise, like we always do.”<\/p>\n Best of Gold Derby<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n