Anthony Marinelli (Soundtrack composer)

Anthony Marinelli (born March 19, 1959) is an American musician, composer, synth programmer, record producer and conductor. In his early career, he composed and performed synthesizer programming for albums including Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982). Marinelli has also recorded with Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Herb Alpert, Supertramp, The Crystal Method, Billy Childs and James Brown. Marinelli was a contributor in the production of Quincy Jones' soundtrack for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985) and composed for Young Guns (1988), Graveyard Shift (1990), Leaving Las Vegas (1996), and Internal Affairs (1990). Excluding episodic-television and commercials, Marinelli's filmography contains over one hundred feature film credits with an AACTA award nomination for the Australian film My Forgotten Man (1993). For television, he won a Daytime Emmy Honors Award for his work on the TV series Santa Barbara (1986–87). Marinelli has also won four Clio Awards, two AICP Awards, two ADDY Awards, three Indian Telly Awards and a Cannes Silver Lion Award for his musical contributions on television commercials. He composed the music for the infamous "Fried Egg" version of This Is Your Brain on Drugs television commercial. Marinelli co-founded, incubated and hosted Levels Audio Post, a post production service; the venture serviced the television shows: American Idol (Fox), The Bachelor (ABC), the Teen Choice Awards (Fox) and the MTV Award Shows. In musical theatre, Marinelli completed BollyDoll, a Bollywood genre extravaganza with visual artist and vocalist, Amrita Sen, directed by Shekhar Kapur in 2013. In December 2022, Marinelli became the co-host and producer of the podcast series Stories in the Room: Michael Jackson's Thriller Album Podcast, which has gone viral on social media. Anthony Marinelli is the son of Carmine Marinelli (born in Vinchiaturo, Molise), the former Master of Properties at the Dorothy Chandler performing arts center. Marinelli took an interest in his father's work and was exposed to operas, ballet, musicals and symphonies during his childhood. Marinelli was personally introduced to Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Zubin Mehta and Katharine Hepburn. He attended the annual Academy Award ceremonies with his family, beginning at age nine. Marinelli decided on a career in music after hearing Switched-On Bach (1968) by Wendy Carlos. In addition to classical composers, other early influences were Keith Emerson, Keith Jarrett, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, and Jerry Goldsmith. Marinelli credits Arthur B. Rubinstein, Jack Nitzsche, Quincy Jones and Giorgio Moroder as his mentors. Marinelli's piano lessons began at age six and he was performing with Lamont Dozier and other Motown artists professionally by age sixteen. He studied piano and music theory under Lowndes Maury from 1967 to 1975. He studied synthesizer under Clark Spangler (1975–80), and continued piano under Terry Trotter (1976–80), Spud Murphy (music composition from 1978–85) and Hans Beer (conducting from 1993–99). Marinelli studied jazz improvisation under Charlie Shoemake from 1978 to 1982. In 1977, Marinelli graduated with the first coed class at Providence High School in Burbank, California. He studied piano and music composition at the University of Southern California School of Music and played the Los Angeles jazz circuit with the band Night Flight, featuring Billy Childs and vocalist Dianne Reeves. Marinelli attended USC from 1977 to 1982, but withdrew with film and recording project offers pending. Marinelli was one of ten conductors selected to attend the fourth annual BMI Film Conducting Workshop in 2001. Marinelli and his wife Cynthia Gomes live with their children (Cora and Gretel) in the Los Angeles area. Marinelli has two children (Dante and Zachariah) from his previous marriage to Jill Schoelen. Marinelli holds dual-citizenship (United States and Italy); his Italian citizenship is inherited through his father's lineage. He is a licensed soccer coach and has been an LA Galaxy season ticket holder since the team's move to Carson, California in 2003. He has been a patron of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1980 and is a founding member of the Electronic Music Alliance (EMA). Marinelli became interested in analog synthesizers in his teenage years. His piano instructor knew of another student with these interests and introduced Marinelli to Brian Banks. Marinelli and Banks became known for performances as a synthesizer duo, including as an opener for the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1980. KFAC live simulcasts from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Live KFAC radio broadcast classical works such as Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Fugue in G minor, "Little", BWV 578, Beethoven Symphony No 8 in F Major, Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture and other performances as Marinelli's synthesizer group The Synners expanded their reach. Marinelli and Banks then teamed with Emmy Award-winning composer Arthur B. Rubinstein, creating one of the first known digitally synthesized musical scores, Blue Thunder, released in 1983. The trio joined with Cynthia Morrow as The Beepers, and their songs, "Video Fever" and "Long Line Leading To Men", made the soundtrack for the 1983 film, WarGames. The Beepers song "Theme from Blue Thunder (Murphy's Law)" was used in Blue Thunder with an instrumental version closing the film. The film industry expressed interest in synthesizer technology while Banks and Marinelli simultaneously emerged as experts in the practical application of the new technology. Banks and Marinelli made a "polaroid" of the Quincy Jones soundtrack for The Color Purple (1985) available to director Steven Spielberg during filming and editing. This process allowed the score to be completely written before orchestral musicians were hired. "...Anthony got very involved with consulting for the development of the Synclavier. A lot of things that are on the instrument are our fault! It's a nice feeling to be involved in the development of a musical instrument". —Brian Banks, "Synthesizer Upstarts Conquer Hollywood", Keyboard, Sept. 1987, by Jeff Burger In 2015, Marinelli sat for an interview with the BBC, reflecting on his memories and contributions to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Tom Bahler had introduced Marinelli to music producer Quincy Jones. Jones hired Marinelli and business partner, Brian Banks, as session musicians at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood for the creation of Thriller. In addition to bringing in three truckloads of synthesizer gear, preliminary duties consisted of briefing Michael Jackson on the capabilities of the emerging technologies, sound creation and programming. The BBC "Witness" radio podcast was followed by three How We Created It pilot vlog series. In the first episode, Marinelli demonstrates how to recreate the "falling star" sound that opens the "Thriller" song. The following two-part series is called "Studio Stories". Quincy Jones' production assistant, Steven Ray, joined Marinelli to reminisce in 2020. Marinelli and Ray continued recording episodes and were approached by Audivita Studios for the creation of Stories In The Room: "Michael Jackson's Thriller Album", with 72 episodes, posted as of February 2024. Stories in The Room guest appearances include: Matt Forger (sound engineer) Lorraine Fields ("Thriller" zombie dancer) Larry Williams (keyboards and reeds) Greg Phillinganes (keyboards) Steve Porcaro (keyboards, composer on "Human Nature") Paul Jackson Jr. (guitar, no relation to Michael Jackson) The Waters Family (vocal ensemble, Julia Waters Tillman. Oren Waters, and Maxine Willard Waters) With Stories in The Room largely completed, Marinelli continues to discuss music topics like sound creation, musical gear and composing on his own Youtube channel. Episodes that have gained media attention include: "How I Programmed The Bass On Michael Jackson's PYT", "MJ's Billie Jean Bass - It's 4 Instruments!" featuring Ernest