The Film Scorer

Hard to believe that we're already about a quarter of the way through season 6 - feels like we've only just started. To commemorate this occasion, I'm joined by Kara Talve. Kara has been the principal composer of The Simpsons for the last few years, serves as the principal composer at Bleeding Fingers Music (the Hans Zimmer-founded composer collective), and has scored projects like Prehistoric Planet. In fact, we spend much of our conversation talking about Prehistoric Planet, for which she received her fifth Emmy nomination just a few hours before we conducted this interview.



Prehistoric Planet gave us plenty to cover: the constantly changing styles and genres (in part due to the ever-changing locations and "characters" of the show), building unique instruments, driving the story due to minimal character or narrative, and more. The instrument side of things was particularly interesting to me. A lot of the time it feels like a gimmick that perhaps has a connection with the film but doesn't actually noticeable change the sound of the score. But then you get something like the terror tone, an instrument based off of the fossilized larynx and trachea of Llallawavis scagliai, creating an otherworldly evil sound. To make this and other instruments, they consulted with paleontologists to get measurements, frequencies, and other aspects related to these creatures. Kara even mentions that using bone in percussion gives a resonance you don't normally find, which reminded me of the use of a deer skull as percussion in Agalloch's seminal album The Mantle.

Kara's score for the first two seasons of Prehistoric Planet, and much of her other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Apple TV. However, for unknown reasons the score for season 3 remains unreleased (and Kara makes a call for its release during the interview). You can find out more about Kara on her website.

Gavin Brivik is the latest guest on The Film Scorer! I've been familiar with Gavin's work for quite a while, probably dating back to his score for the 2021 film Wild Indian, which was one of those situations where I hear someone making great music on under the radar indie films and wonder when they're going to break out. How to Blow Up a Pipeline helped put Gavin on the map while scoring seasons one and two of The Pitt has really changed things, earning him an Emmy nomination in the process. One of the driving keys to Gavin's success, in my opinion, is that he's a longtime listener to the show, which is actually how we start the conversation and why it has an in media res beginning - it was too good for me to keep out.



All this is just window dressing, however. While we touch on The Pitt, Pipeline, and my own Film Scorer project, we really planned to dig into his latest score: Faces of Death, which is sort of a legacy sequel to the 1978 film of the same name. As a result, we end up going down perhaps the most philosophical conversation that's ever been had on the show, largely stemming from the question of "What makes a piece of art evil?" and going from there. But don't despair, there's still plenty of film music conversation, and we even break the news that Gavin is scoring the Rainbow Six Siege games series, which includes a collaboration with Metal Gear Solid.

Gavin's score for Faces of Death, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the film itself is now available on Shudder. You can find out more about Gavin on his website.

One of the great pleasures of this show is talking to people whose work I really enjoy. Although I'd known Keegan Dewitt's music for a number of years (probably first taking notice with 2018's Gemini), his score for last year's The Chair Company really floored me, with the distinct and ever-changing palette and approaches intriguing me almost as much as the show's labyrinthine plot. So with all that said, it's great to have Keegan on the show. However, we really focus on Keegan's latest project - scoring the hit romance series Off Campus.

As such, we spend much of the conversation talking about his score for Off Campus, including collaborating with the show's time (particularly the music supervisor's and series creator Louisa Levy) and a little snafu where he accidentally disclosed some confidential behind-the-scenes info early on in the show. Along the way, we cover a number of his other projects, discuss how to score comedy and romance in new ways, and the three reasons to take on a project.

Keegan's score for Off Campus, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Amazon Prime. You can find out more about Keegan on his website.

On the latest episode of The Film Scorer podcast, I'm joined by John Paesano (Daredevil, Marvel's Spider-Man)! I've been a fan of John's for a while, with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes being a recent favorite, so it was an extra pleasure chatting with him. His latest score is for the Netflix series The Boroughs, in which he channels an 80s/early-90s big, symphonic, melodic adventure style of scoring. Given that the show itself is designed to be very score-heavy, with music going right in the forefront, it takes full advantage of John's score, a welcome refresher given how much less-common the style of scoring has become. While he talk a fair bit about The Boroughs, it's only one of many topics, which include Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the hesitancy of using symphonic scoring, and (my favorite) a chance "encounter" we had more than fifteen years ago.

John's score for The Boroughs, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix. You can find out more about John on his website.

Here we are, season 6, episode 2, things are in motion, momentum is building, and I'm joined by one of my favorite composers: Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Smile)! Cristo's latest project is the 2026 BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies, featuring some incredible child actor performances and an increasingly psychedelic and psychotic score. We focus our conversation around that score, but inevitably veer off into different directions, also covering some of his past works with Lord of the Flies director and his longtime collaborator Marc Munden as well as Smile director Parker Finn, our shared interest in metal, the inspiration and magic of the unknown, and plenty more. I even ask point-blank about what happened in The White Lotus. How does he answer?

Cristo's score for Lord of the Flies, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix.