Who needs Christmas music when you can listen to a westernized cover of "Paint it Black" on repeat?
Looking for the perfect soundtrack for your holiday existential crisis? Well, look no further! HBO has gifted us all with the release of the entire soundtrack for Westworld season one. The 34-track set includes covers of Radiohead's "No Surprises," Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," and the Rolling Stones'"Paint it Black," as well as the show's more traditional scores.
Composer Ramin Djawadi, who also does the music for Game of Thrones, spoke to Pitchfork about the process of developing the Westworld soundtrack over the last few years.
Djawadi was working on Person of Interest with Jonah Nolan when Nolan pulled him aside and asked if he would be interested in doing the music for a project he was developing: Westworld. Djawadi was immediately interested as the Westworld movie had been one of his favorites growing up, and didn't wait to get started on crafting a sound for the science fiction western...
I started writing music for it very, very early on, which most of the time I don’t do. Usually I come in towards the end during post-production when the episodes or the movie are already shot, and I get to see visuals. But this one I started writing just based on the conversations with Jonah. Then he started giving me scripts, and from that I started writing more. It was great just having that back and forth with him before there were even any visuals.
The Westworld soundtrack quickly became partially defined by its minimalist piano covers of modern pop songs. For Djawadi, those moments are a "subtle reminder that, ‘Wait, there is something not right. This is not real.' It’s just such a powerful tool that only music can do."
As is frequently being discussed across the internet, this is a time of great growth and evolution in the TV industry. The result has been a broadening and deepening of what the medium is possible of doing. It's interesting to hear that commented on from a composer's perspectiove... Speaking more generally about his work for Game of Thrones,Westworld, and across the television medium, Djawadi noted the difference in what is capable across a 10-hour TV season versus a two-hour movie, saying:
With shows like Game of Thrones and now Westworld, what’s so fantastic are the character arcs that you can’t do in two hours with a movie. With these shows, you have 10 hours just to set up the arc, so therefore with the music you can really follow that and expand upon it. It’s a great time in television and television scores.
We agree, and are especially thankful to have this weird, wonderful Westworld score for the holiday season. And here's Westworld: Season 1 (Music From the HBO Series)...
