Matt Bowen
Composer of The Boys, Gen V
Matt Bowen has built a music career bridging worlds: from concert halls to dive bars,
sheet music to set lists, green rooms to control rooms. As a classically trained violinist,
a veteran of rock stages and recording studios, and now a Los Angeles–based
composer for film and television, Bowen builds scores that are raw, rich, and
unmistakably handmade.
Most recently, he co-scored Amazon’s dark superhero juggernaut The Boys, as well as
its critically acclaimed spinoff Gen V, alongside Christopher Lennertz. Contrasting the
twisted world of The Boys are Bowen’s eccentric scores to Hulu’s gloriously R-rated
comedies The Binge, its sequel It’s a Wonderful Binge, and Summer of 69.
Some of Bowen’s other varied score credits include his work on the gritty Emmy
Award-winning documentary Blood Road, the raucous Netflix TV series
Best.Worst.Weekend.Ever., and episodes of the animated anthology series The Boys
Presents: Diabolical.
Bowen grew up bow-in-hand. As a young violinist, a seat in the San Diego Youth
Symphony took him around the world. As a multi-instrumentalist, high school and
college bands immersed him in punk, electronica, and acoustic rock. He went into
recording studios as a band member, and came out obsessed with what happens on the
other side of the glass. That obsession led him to Los Angeles, where he linked up with
record producer Matt Wallace (Maroon 5, Faith No More) and engineered a string of
major-label albums, earning multiple RIAA-certified platinum singles along the way.
The leap from record production to scoring was more of a convergence than a pivot.
Every tool he’d picked up along the way — arranging, orchestrating, engineering,
performing, collaborating — fed directly into composing. He cut his teeth producing and
writing additional music on Christopher Lennertz’s slate, contributing as score producer,
arranger, orchestrator, and additional music composer across Bad Moms, Ride Along,
and The Wedding Ringer, among others.
Whether it’s coaxing new sounds out of old instruments, scoring a superhero slugfest,
or sneaking warmth into a punchline, Bowen is happiest when the music serves
something bigger than itself. “My move to Los Angeles as a record producer was driven
by my love of helping to bring someone’s vision to life with music, something I get to do
every day as a composer,” says Bowen. “I loved playing in orchestras and bands and
everything in between, but being the composer on a production really feels like being in
the ultimate band.”