James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American composer, conductor,… Read Full Bio ↴James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American composer, conductor, and music producer. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and nine Academy Award nominations.

Throughout his prolific career, James Newton Howard has scored films of all scales and genres, earning multiple award nominations for his work. Howard began studying music as a young child and went on to attend the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California and then majored in piano performance at the University of Southern California. After Howard left college, he toured with Elton John and Toto as a keyboardist during the late 1970s and early 1980s before moving into film music in the mid-1980s.

By the 1990s, Howard truly hit his career stride, scoring the surprise blockbuster romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990) and receiving his first Academy Award nomination for his score for Barbra Streisand's drama The Prince of Tides (1991). Setting the musical mood for numerous films throughout the decade, Howard's skills encompassed a plethora of genres, including two more best original score Oscar nominations, the Harrison Ford actioner The Fugitive (1993) and the Julia Roberts romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. In addition, Howard scored the Western epic Wyatt Earp (1994), the legal drama Primal Fear (1996), and the blockbuster M. Night Shyamalan suspense thrillers The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), and The Village (2004). His collaborations on tunes for One Fine Day (1996) and Junior (1994) garnered Best Song nods. Along with scoring such smaller, character-driven films as Five Corners (1988), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), and American Heart (1993), Howard proved equally skilled at composing for big-budget Hollywood spectacles, including Space Jam (1996), Dante's Peak (1997), Dinosaur (2000), and Collateral (2004). Although for Dante's Peak he only composed the main theme only, the score itself was composed by John Frizzell. Though he concentrated primarily on films, Howard has also contributed music for TV series, earning an Emmy nomination in 1995 for his theme to NBC's ratings smash ER.

Howard is now one of the most recognized composers for film. His work in 2004 on The Village, with violin solos by Hilary Hahn, earned him an Oscar nomination. Since, he has composed for several major motion pictures, notably the score for Batman Begins which he co-wrote with Hans Zimmer. On October 14, 2005, it was officially announced that Howard would replace Howard Shore as composer for King Kong, due to "differing creative aspirations for the score" between Shore and director Peter Jackson. The resultant score earned Howard his first Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score.

Since then he has been nominated for Best Original Score for the legal thriller Michael Clayton in 2008 and the war film Defiance in 2009. Since then he has composed music for blockbuster franchises and solo films including I Am Legend,The Dark Knight with Hans Zimmer, all of The Hunger Games films and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He was nominated for another Academy Award nomination in 2021 for his work on News of the World

12 Years Later
James Newton Howard Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's good to see the sun
And feel this place
This place I never thought would feel like home

And I ran forever
Far away and I
I always thought I'd end up here alone

Somehow
The world has changed and
I've come home
To give you back the things they took from you

And I feel you now
I'm not allone I'll
Always know where you are
When I see myself I'll always
Know where you are
Where you are

And I found something
That was always there
Sometimes it's got to hurt before you feel

But now I'm strong and
I won't kneel
Except to thank who's watching over me

Somehow
I feel so strong and I've begun
To be the one I never thought I'd be

And I feel you now
I'm not alone

I'll always know where you are
When I see myself
I'll always know where you are
Where you are

Now, it's all so clear and
I believe
That everything's been opened up to me
And I feel you now
I'm not alone
I always know
I always know where you are

When I see myself I'll
Always know where you are
When I feel the sun I'll
Always know where you are
When I see myself I'll
Always know where you are
Where you are

Overall Meaning

The meaning behind James Newton Howard's song "12 Years Later" can be interpreted in a variety of ways. However, the overall theme seems to revolve around a sense of returning home and finding oneself. The song opens with the singer expressing their joy at seeing the sun and feeling like they have finally found a place to call home. The lyrics "This place I never thought would feel like home" suggest that the singer may have been away for a long time or was an outsider in their community.

The verse "And I ran forever, Far away and I, I always thought I'd end up here alone" hints that perhaps the singer had to leave their old life for whatever reason and thought they would never find happiness or companionship again. However, as the song progresses, it becomes clear that the singer has come back stronger and wiser. The lyrics "And I found something that was always there, Sometimes it's got to hurt before you feel" suggest that the singer had to go through trials and tribulations before finally finding what they were looking for.

The song's final verse seems to be about the singer coming to terms with themselves and their new life. The line "Now, it's all so clear and I believe, That everything's been opened up to me" suggests that the singer has finally found clarity and a sense of purpose. And throughout it all, they feel the presence of someone who has always been there for them. The repeated line "I'll always know where you are" could be referring to a loved one or a higher power.

Overall, Howard's song "12 Years Later" is a powerful and uplifting piece that speaks to the human experience of finding oneself, no matter how long it takes.

Line by Line Meaning

It's good to see the sun
I'm happy to see the sun again

And feel this place
And feel comfortable in this place

This place I never thought would feel like home
This place I never imagined feeling homely

And I ran forever
I ran for a very long time

Far away and I
Far away from everything and everyone

I always thought I'd end up here alone
I was always under the impression that I would end up alone here

Somehow
In some way

The world has changed and
The world is different now

I've come home
I'm back where I belong

To give you back the things they took from you
To restore to you what was taken from you

And I feel you now
I sense your presence now