NCIS has released several volumes of audio from the hit TV series' soundtracks. The most recent collection, NCIS: Benchmark, is almost entirely radio-ready music, featuring contributions from Hank Williams, The Neon Trees, Lady Antebellum and more. Perhaps most interesting are the two original tracks contributed by actors from the show, Pauley Perrette (Abby) and Michael Weatherly (Tony). The pair gave a quick rundown on what they were thinking when they recorded their tracks.
"Somebody Saved You" by Pauley Perrette
"I wrote 'Somebody Saved You' after watching so much footage on television of the Boston bombings," Perrette said. "In the midst of how terrible all these incidents could be, I just started focusing on the people that were there."
In other words, if viewers expected a goth-rock track in theme with how Perrette's character appears on the show, they're wrong. Calling the song a "love letter to first responders," Perrette opens alone with an acoustic guitar, but as hope builds up, so do the instrumentals, culminating with a warm, electric guitar solo.
The actress was formerly the vocalist in Los Angeles rock group Lo-Ball, and recorded the song "Fear" for the first NCIS music installment, appearing under the name "Stop Making Friends."
"Under The Sun" by Michael Weatherly
"'Under The Sun' is an interesting song," Weatherly began when describing his track. "It has a strange group of meanings, and a whole cluster of ideas about existential journeys and self-examination..."
His analysis might seem a little far out, but Weatherly's track turns out to be a well-written adult-alternative track describing his relationship with his son (as he later acknowledged during his track commentary), with a little extra existential self-examination thrown in. The actor started the song immediately following 9/11, he said, but the brought it back to the light to mark actress Cote de Pablo's (Ziva) leaving the show.
Weatherly released a music video for the track, which you can watch below, on October 9.
