Despicable Me 3 score by Heitor Pereira to be released

Grammy winning musician and composer Heitor Pereira returns to the Despicable Me franchise to score Despicable Me 3. The sequel marks the third movie of the Despicable Me franchise and fourth film featuring “the minions;” all four films are scored by Pereira.

Despicable Me 3 follows the success of Minions, which surpassed $1 billion at the box office worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing animated film of all time. Featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Russell Brand and Miranda Cosgrove and directed by Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda and co-directed by Eric Guillon, Despicable Me 3 follows the story of Gru meeting his long-lost charming, cheerful, and more successful twin brother Dru who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist. Dru hails from the country “Freedonia” and as such, has an affinity for the nation’s beloved pigs and cheese; a note not lost on Pereira who utilized numerous unique instruments and objects to reflect the score including cheese graters and a choir. In addition to incorporating a full orchestra and choir, Pereira himself performed on many instruments on the score.  Pereira described this score as “his best score yet for the franchise.”  Despicable Me 3 is in theaters June 30, 2017. Score album is available same day on Back Lot Music.

Pereira played over a dozen instruments for the score including: guitar, bass, piano, drum machines, ukulele, mandolin and a “bucket base” (1 string on top of a bucket). Also, two days of the recording sessions at Warner Bros’ scoring stage were spent on percussion with drummers, Alex Acuña, Bernie Dresel, and Mike Shapiro each playing simultaneously on complete drum kits.  Pereira then had them play orchestral percussion on ethnic instruments including taiko drums, African jun juns and Brazilian Surdos.  The addition of both a “bucket bass” (1 string on top of a bucket) and 60 members of a choir singing through tin foil, created a distortion to complement Pereira’s original ‘80s sounding synth score to match a new villain, 80’s-obsessed Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker). Balthazar’s persona is displayed through ‘80s Pop hits along with the unique score. Heitor Pereira’s overall score needed to represent the theme of family to highlight the estranged brothers’ relationship, adventures, failures, successes, a new chapter and of course the beloved Minions

Heitor Pereira has a reputation for bringing a unique sensibility to his film scores built from his solid foundation of musical craftsmanship. Prior to beginning his career in film composing, Pereira was a member of the platinum selling band Simply Red. He has released three solo albums and has arranged music and performed with such artists as Elton John, Shania Twain, Willie Nelson, and Jack Johnson. He received a Grammy award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist for his collaboration with Sting and Chris Botti. Pereira’s film credits include a variety of genres for films like The Angry Birds Movie, If I Stay, as previously mentioned the Despicable Me franchise, Curious George, and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. He recently scored the Discovery Channel documentary Sonic Sea about how man-made noises in the ocean are impacting marine life. Heitor Pereira is currently scoring The Nut Job: Nutty by Nature in theaters August 11, 2017.