Downstait guitarist comments on what it was like to collaborate with former WWE music composer Jim Johnston

While speaking to the Ropes N Riffs podcast, Downstait guitarist Justin Call discussed the production of Cody Rhodes’ Kingdom theme song. During the discussion, Call talked about the band’s past collaborations with former WWE music composer Jim Johnston…

“I didn’t see it [Kingdom] going as far as it’s gone. I’ve always believed in Cody, but this is just nuts to see how far that song has spread because of him. This was the first time that we got to, like, not have our hand held, because everything with WWE before then was Jim Johnston’s baby… He’ll send you a skeleton with just some quick program drums and his one-take vocals, with all the lyrics written out and everything. Then you take that and turn it into something all your own.”

“It was work for hire, but it didn’t seem like he pulled the reins too tight on the music. The lyrics needed to stay where they were at because that was part of his contribution to the character. But yeah, with music, it was kind of like Jim would help us get into his headspace too — like, ‘Oh, this is a real cerebral character,’ or ‘This guy’s a psycho.’ Things like that. We’d try to reflect that with the music. Yeah, that was his process, and the reins were not pulled too tight when we were doing music.”