Paesano was born in Birmingham, Michigan. He first studied classical music at
Conservatoire de Paris located in
Parc de la Villette, France before continuing his studies at
Berklee College of Music pursuing a major in musical composition and film scoring. John knew from the age of nine years old, he wanted to become a music composer. He then worked under composers
Jerry Goldsmith and
John Williams providing additional music for the former, and orchestrating for the latter. Paesano cites
Steven Spielberg's 1987 film
Empire of the Sun as his motivation for getting into film scoring. In 2014, Paesano was hired to compose the music for
The Maze Runner. Speaking of the job, he recalled seeing
Wes Ball's 2011 short film,
Ruin and was intrigued by it, composing a short demo (which eventually would become the "Maze Runner" theme) for Ball. He visited the sets in
New Orleans, observing the "environmental soundscape" and tried to incorporate the natural sounds into his score. He recorded the score with an orchestra at the Newman Scoring Stage with sessions running for 2 weeks. Paesano would later return to score the 2nd and 3rd film of the series,
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and
Maze Runner: The Death Cure. Paesano was later tasked with composing the score to
Spider-Man developed by
Insomniac Games, joining the game's development in the early stages. He worked with game director Bryan Intihar and brought about creating several character themes, emphasising the need for the music to be its "own character" in the game. Paesano ensured that his music struck a balance between the cinematics and the gameplay as he wanted the player to be fully immersed. He looked at distinguishing his music from past
Spider-Man films and games and decided to focus on creating a musical identity for
Peter Parker. In 2021, he composed the music for the
Avengers Campus themed area at
Disney California Adventure, combining themes from the MCU's
Avengers,
Spider-Man,
Doctor Strange,
Guardians of the Galaxy,
Ant-Man,
Captain Marvel, and
Black Panther films; a single entitled "Welcome Recruits" was released in April 2022. == Filmography ==