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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
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20 Years Later, the Soundtrack of ‘Brokeback Mountain' Still Echoes
I was 21 when Brokeback Mountain was released. I have such fond memories of going to the gay bar in my hometown of Minneapolis and dancing to bass-driven remixes of Gustavo Santaolalla's gentle, emotive original score. Even in its house-music version, there's an inherent sadness in these songs, and sometimes that's the best to dance to. Upon its release, Brokeback Mountain felt very validating, but also very melancholic because it felt like we'd come so far and yet still had so far to go. More from Spin: B-Real Breaks Down How 'Insane in the Brain' Made Cypress Hill Superstars John Lennon, Yoko Ono's Early '70s Output Compiled For Boxed Set Radiohead Salutes 'Hail To The Thief' With Live Collection What's difficult about reflecting on the cultural remnants of 2005 is the realization of how such uncertain times suddenly seem less dire, even formidably stable, in comparison to the regressive political maelstrom which has engulfed American sensibility 20 years later. And yet, in the middle of the second presidential term of George W. Bush Jr., while the Iraq War raged and Hurricane Katrina tore through the soul of America's South, a project nearly a decade long in the making landed like a meteor, forever altering queer visibility in the cinematic landscape. On September 2, 2005 Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain premiered at the Venice Film Festival, nabbing the prestigious top honor of the Golden Lion, and launching an awards campaign which would bear significant fruit. Queer representation suddenly felt as if it had reached a pinnacle long out of reach thanks to a film headlined by rising A-list stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. They portrayed a pair of lovestruck cowboys in 1960s Wyoming, where rigid cultural dictates and virulent homophobia demanded they remain closeted for their survival, inevitably suffocating a romance doomed from its onset. Despite anticipated critiques of a narrative defined by queer tragedy and miserabilism, conversations—thus, our consciousness—about queer inclusivity suddenly began to shift. Retrospective conversations conform to a template which decries the casting of heterosexual actors inhabiting gay roles, but our ability to eventually make such demands and distinctions was certainly assisted by the success of Brokeback Mountain and the participation of its matinee stars, which assisted in broadening the horizons (and legacy) of the film. In short, like most queer films of the period, it depended on appealing to the heteronormative, which means walking a fine line between titillation and empathy. Brokeback was not alone in a burgeoning landscape of celebrated queer films from 2005, with Felicity Huffman in TransAmerica and Cillian Murphy in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto bowing to certain acclaim, while Philip Seymour Hoffman took home a Best Actor Academy Award for portraying the effete iconoclast Truman Capote. But certainly no film sent tongues wagging more than Ang Lee's overture, which was expected to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, only to be locked out by the Academy's unwillingness to bestow a queer film with top honors, instead awarding the Paul Haggis' title Crash in one of the award show's most notable upsets in its prolific history. But the film didn't go home empty handed. Of its eight nominations, screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana won Best Adapted Screenplay (based as it was on the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx), Best Director for Ang Lee, and Best Original Score for Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla (who would win a second Academy Award a year later for Babel). Following a theatrical re-release of the film for its 20th anniversary to celebrate Pride month, the soundtrack is slated to receive a vinyl release for the first time. Alongside Santaolalla's original score, the release also included performances from Willie Nelson, Rufus Wainwright, Teddy Thompson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and Linda Ronstadt. To commemorate the release, Gustavo Santaolalla shared his recollections of working with Ang Lee, how the score bolstered the film's cultural impact, and, in his own words, how 'as humankind we have evolved to some point, but suddenly it seems that we went back 50 years.' How were you first approached with ? It's funny because I have a multifaceted career. I've done lots of different things. I started as an artist and producer making records when I was 17 years old and signed with RCA in Argentina. At the time there were no producers of the music that I was doing, alternative music. I don't think even the word alternative music was coined then. Then I started really getting into production in the mid-'80s, and I had a wonderful phase in my career doing that and won a lot of Grammy Awards. I was always told that my music was very visual. As a matter of fact, I wanted to study cinema. I was always a big film buff since I was a kid. Unfortunately, when I finished high school, I was already making records. The military rulers at the time led me to leave the country and they closed the Institute of Cinematography. There was no more school for cinema so I just devoted myself to my musical career, but I always have this attraction for cinema. Really the first movie that I did was Amores Perros. When I was doing Amores Perros I'd already released this album called Ronroco, named for this beautiful instrument, which actually I don't use in Brokeback Mountain. I think it's probably the only movie that I haven't used that instrument. That album led somebody to tell Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 'You should have this guy do the music for Amores Perros.' I met Alejandro, who asked me if I knew Walter Salles, which then led me to do Motorcycle Diaries. When we were presenting Motorcycle Diaries at Sundance they signed a distribution deal with Focus Features. Of course, Focus got me in touch with the script for Brokeback Mountain, which I loved when I read it. Then, I learned that it was based on that New Yorker story by Annie Proulx. At the time I was touring with Osvaldo Golijov, a classical contemporary composer, producing one of his works and playing some of my stuff with him too. We were rehearsing at Carnegie Hall. Finished the rehearsal, and I received a phone call asking me to meet Ang Lee in Manhattan at the Focus office. I remember I took the subway, and I had my ronroco with me. I came in and we didn't talk that much, but he pointed at the instrument so I started playing. He told me about his idea of using a guitar and it was incredible because I had the same idea when I read the script, the idea of something very spare. I knew my taste in composition, my use of silence and space. I came back to Los Angeles and started writing, composing, and recording, because that's my way of notation. I don't know how to read or write music. I did my guitar pieces and the themes of the leitmotifs. I sent them what I composed three weeks after that. I got a phone call a week later from [film executive] James Schamus and he was laughing because when Ang Lee heard it, he said, 'Damn, this music would be perfect for the movie.' And James told him, 'No, this is the music for the movie.' I remember that phone call as it ended up with James telling me, 'Well, I'll see you at the Oscars.' Imagine. This was only my fourth movie, right? One of the most remarkable things, I think, is the fact that I gave him a ton of music. He used all of it. And all this music was prior to one frame being shot. Nothing was filmed. I did the music on the basis of the script and my connection to the story and the characters. It was obviously Ang's genius to say, 'We're going to put this here, we're going to repeat.' When I saw the first cut of the movie, it was spooky because you couldn't believe that [the music] was done prior. Since then, obviously in 21 Grams also, 70% of the music I've composed [was] prior to seeing anything. Then obviously, you adapt. But the themes, the sonic fabric, it's all there. I remember when James praised my use of 'negative space,' and I've never heard that phrase before. I just knew that I always loved to work with silence. I'm always talking about eloquent silences, not silences that are just empty, but silences that sometimes are louder than the loudest note. For Brokeback it was great because those characters didn't talk that much as they were surrounded by silence, outside silence, and inner silence, too. It was an incredible experience. Also, I could make use of some of the things that also became trademarks. I have an affinity for 'wrong notes.' That's why I also love mistakes. We, human beings, make mistakes all the time. I love mistakes because some mistakes are really truly hidden intentions. I have a nice story that connects with Brokeback. When I came to this country, in 1978, I was really bummed with the rock music situation here. I was coming from Argentina, where I was put in jail many times just for having long hair and playing electric guitar. Music still had that countercultural feeling. When I came here, bands like Boston, Kansas, were considered popular rock. But I preferred this new thing, which was punk. I belong to that generation and I embraced that as this movement had the energy I think this music should have. So I'm just sending my music around town and don't get an answer from anybody. Until one guy from a publishing company, an important publishing company, reached out. I met with a guy. We listened to the tape. I brought my guitar, I played some songs, and then we started talking. The guy said, 'Listen, I got to tell you. You have a beautiful voice. You have great songs, great melodies. In every song, in every musical piece, at a certain point, you seem to hit the wrong chord. You seem to hit a wrong note in every single piece.' I told him, 'Probably this means that we're not going to work together, but I have to tell you that I take this as a compliment.' I am looking for that point of inflection. I'm looking for that imbalance moment. Thirty years later I was reintroduced to him at a party for Neil Young. When this producer realized it was me, I reminded him 'You told me that my music was good. My pieces were good, but at a certain point, I hit the wrong note. I hit the wrong chord. But when I met Anne Hathaway on Brokeback Mountain, she told me, 'Man, in that intro when you hit that dissonant chord, that's genius. Some people now like that wrong note.' I also play the guitar and I leave the noises made by the instrument. Lots of people, when they play and record the guitar, they're trying to avoid any noises when you run your hand on the fretboard. Sometimes I have even pushed those because it gives a human factor to it. That's why I have gotten lots of comments that sometimes my music works as a character in the movies. Those elements and those trademarks are still present in the music of The Last of Us, or in the music of all the other works that I've done, too. Brokeback obviously was the first time that gave me the opportunity to show this thing to the world. It was incredible at that point in my life when that happened. I've already done so many other things, but the Oscars really, it's another kind of beast. It's a totally different thing. Imagine what it was like for me. Unbelievable. Since I was a kid, I always felt that I had something that could connect with people, with my music. But I never imagined something like that would happen to me. Looking back, I don't think you can recall without the score. It's synonymous with the characters. It's interesting listening to you mention silence and dissonance. To quote you from a past interview, 'We search for identity through music.' Your score is the audio identity of these characters. That's the best compliment that you can get. When somehow you feel that the music is an extension or another part of the character, it completes the character. Even speaking about melody, it's rare that it crystallizes in such a beautiful way. Reading about your life, it struck me that you have a lot of interesting parallels with gay men in the U.S., pertaining to your youth, fleeing the dictatorship in Argentina. I don't know if this was true, but I read that the church suggested you undergo an exorcism as a youth. Is that true? Yes, because I was raised Catholic, and I wanted to be a priest when I was very young. I was an altar boy. I had my first spiritual crisis when I was 11 years old. It wasn't because a priest did anything to me. Unfortunately, one has to make that clear. In the Catholic church, they've covered awful abuses for years. No, it was truly a philosophical questioning about some of the principles of the church. I went every Sunday to church, I had communion, and as I said, I was an altar boy. My thought, which I went and talked to the priest about was, I said, 'If God is almighty and all kindness, how can eternal punishment exist? If you violated one of those 10 commandments, you will be in mortal sin, and then you'll be eternally punished.' I could barely understand if you kill someone, but even stealing? I was thinking some people steal to give their kids food. Sometimes they steal from a huge supermarket. Still, as a kid, I had that idea that it wasn't going to do any harm if somebody stole a loaf of bread. And yet, eternal punishment, this was the maxim. I asked the priest 'How is it possible the devil exists? Could it be that the devil actually is on God's payroll?' Imagine asking this of a priest as an 11-year-old kid. They called my parents and my dad, who was an incredible man and lost when I was very young, accepted my beliefs. They kept going every Sunday to church, but the subject of my leaving the church was never brought up in my family again. My spiritual search continues until today. I led a monastic life between 18 and 24. I lived like a monk. I had a group. A band. I lived in a commune, but it was a Yogi commune. We fasted every Monday. We didn't do any drugs or drink any alcohol. We actually were celibate. I was at the peak of my rock success with my band and I led this life for almost seven years. In many ways, it feels imperative to take some time to revisit this film from the perspective of today's regressive climate. At the time it was already ridiculous the movie didn't win Best Picture. We won the Golden Globe with 'A Love That Will Never Grow Old,' [a song from Brokeback Mountain] but the Academy didn't allow it to be nominated because it didn't meet a time requirement for the amount of seconds it had to be in the film. I remember watching the Oscar ceremony and being crushed about the message that was being sent. As you said, the Oscars are another beast, and I don't think at the time they felt they could give a gay film the top prize. Correct. Also, it won Best Director and several other Academy Awards, but that was definitely their prejudice. Remember, this was a movie that they were trying to do for more than 10 years, and nobody wanted to do it. It's so funny many of the main people involved in the movie were not from the United States. Ang Lee is Chinese, the director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto, Mexican. Composer, Argentinean. I think that says something about how in the United States we're not able to really look at ourselves. We need outsiders to reflect on our experiences. I feel this is apparent based on how this film even got made. As a final question, how long was it before you realized the significant cultural impact of this film? Because, as you said, you have a very private way of working. You sent Focus Features this score, this film got made, and then it landed. How long did it take before you realized how big this was? To be honest, in a way, I always felt the weight of the project, the weight of the story. When I read the script, I remember thinking it really was an incredible love story about human beings in which the sexual part of it was anecdotic. It was a story about these people and how broken they were inside. Their story as human beings was transcendental. I thought that this, with the combination that they were gay, was an explosive combination because of the weight of the story, because of the weight of the characters, because the human factor of it was so true. I always felt that something big was going to happen. The controversy became senseless. The message about love and about desolation and longing went beyond any criticism. I'm really, really happy that they're re-releasing the movie, that we're going to have the possibility to see the movie again in cinemas. Remembering the film, especially in the days that we're living. They're going to release the soundtrack on vinyl for the first time. There is a possibility that they will also release the score. Just the score on the vinyl. I'm very happy about all this. Thank you for a really iconic film score. It meant a lot to me personally, and I think to a lot of others. Thank you so much. It is what really makes my life worthwhile. When I see that something that I do can affect people in such a positive way, and that can touch people's hearts, it gives sense to everything that I do. To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here. Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘The Last Of Us' Composer Gustavo Santaolalla Talks Scoring The Hit Franchise Across Gaming & Television: ‘A Very, Very Special Thing In My Life'
Gustavo Santaolalla, composer and laureate of two Oscars, attends a press conference at the 18th ... More Film Music Festival in Destilo in Krakow, Poland, on May 28, 2025. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Most composers would never consider going into video games after a pair of back-to-back Oscar wins, but Gustavo Santaolalla isn't most composers. For the 73-year-old musician/producer, the medium is utterly irrelevant, so long as the story contains a wealth of emotional resonance. Following a pair of Academy Awards for his work on Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Babel (2006), the Argentine native was 'approached by several companies' with tantalizing job offers that he turned down, the composer tells me over Zoom. 'I knew what I wanted to do. I think that whatever success I have achieved has to do not only with the things that I've done, but [also] the things that I've said no to. So at the time, there was the possibility of these big projects, but I knew what I wanted to do wasn't in the market yet." One thing he really wanted to see, for example, was a new breed of video game after years of watching his son and Bajofondo bandmates play games like FIFA. 'I always thought, 'Man, if somebody, someday connects in an emotional way with a gamer, aside [from] His prayers were ultimately answered by Neil Druckmann, a creative executive and director at video game developer Naughty Dog, who pitched a title that would connect 'with the player on an emotional level,' Santaolalla remembers. That's how he came to score The Last of Us (2013), its 2020 sequel, and the current HBO series adaptation. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Set in a post-apocalyptic reality ravaged by a mutated strain of the zombifying Cordyceps fungus, The Last of Us quickly gained the status of a modern classic, with plenty of widespread critical acclaim aimed at its character development, weighty themes, palpable emotion, player mechanics, and music, of course. 'When we found out that some people were crying while playing the game, we thought, 'This absolutely works,'' says the composer who never really viewed the project as a mere video game. 'I've never felt that I was composing for a game,' emphasizes Santaolalla. 'You can tell a great story in any medium. That's why I think it works great in a [TV] series [format]. It would have worked as a puppet theater show because it's a great story … It really talks about human relationships; parent-child relationships, father-daughter relationships — all that stuff.' Santaolalla, who likes to work on a project from the script stage, began scoring the original Last of Us about three years before the public officially stepped into the shoes of grizzled smuggler Joel and Cordyceps-resistance Ellie. 'In almost all the projects that I've worked on, I would say 80% of the music has been composed prior to anything,' he explains. 'I relate [to material] The resultant soundtrack — which utilized everything from acoustic and electric guitars to more obscure instruments like the Bolivian ronroco, vintage Fender Bass VI, and common PVC pipe — was achieved by an almost paradoxical approach. 'I work a lot with silence,' Santaolalla continues. 'I'm talking about an eloquent silence. Not silence as in the absence of sound, but a contrary silence that can sometimes sound louder than the loudest note you can have with an instrument. The use of space, the use of imperfection, which is a something that I love.' MADRID, SPAIN - JUNE 29: Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla attends "Inteligencia Musical" ... More workshop at TAI University on June 29, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by) When the long-awaited screen adaptation finally got rolling at HBO under the eye of Emmy Award-winning writer Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), Santaolalla and series collaborator David Fleming knew they'd have to walk a narrow tightrope in order to please die-hard fans and newcomers alike. 'When things connect so deeply with people and you change it, they go, 'I liked the [original] much better!' notes the former. 'I think it was important to keep the themes [from the game], keep the sonic fabric. It didn't turn into an orchestral score … I think that was very important and and helped not to alienate the people who love the game and who have now embraced the series, too." He continues: 'I'm always thinking about supporting and pushing, not overstating or manipulating. You are manipulating in a way because you are trying to make the audience feel things, but in a subtle way. You want to make sure you are doing things dramatically and not melodramatically. That's a big challenge when you go into live-action, especially in stories that have such heavy dramatic content. I've composed music for films [before], but I particularly like to be very cautious with the use of music.' In terms of his working dynamic with Fleming, Santaolalla says the collaborative process was 'organic and natural" from the start, but even more so in the second season. 'We started to really exchange and infect each other's work. It's a great partnership," he adds, voicing excitement for what they'll come up with for Season 3. While not always the case, Fleming often gravitates towards action-oriented scenes, whereas Santaolalla prefers emotional and tension-filled moments. Prior to boarding The Last of Us franchise, Santaolalla thought he'd pretty much seen it all in a professional music career that began when he was 17 over half a century ago. However, the video game truly marked the beginning of a fresh and "totally unexpected" chapter for him after decades of scoring many lauded titles. 'The way that people have connected with the music through the game is different. It has such an intensity … That I could suddenly be involved in a project that connected me with a totally new audience that is now opening its ears to other stuff that I've done? It's a fantastic present that life has given me,' he concludes, recalling a particularly memorable fan interaction during a meet and greet in Helsinki last year. 'This girl comes up to me and says, 'I'm 21 years old and I've been a fan of yours since I was 10. Now I play the guitar because my dad played the game all the time.' It's a very, very rewarding project, and a very, very special thing in my life." Bella Ramsey, Gustavo Santaolalla, Alejandra Palacios at HBO's "The Last of Us" Season 2 Premiere ... More held at TCL Chinese Theatre on March 24, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)
The Verge
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
The soul of The Last of Us is in Gustavo Santaolalla's music
When fans nervously tuned in to watch HBO's adaptation of one of their favorite video games, there was one familiar presence that immediately calmed their nerves: the mournful guitar of Gustavo Santaolalla. As certain story beats changed and beloved polygonal faces were replaced with new actors, the beating heart of The Last of Us — its mesmerizing, tension-ridden score — survived the transition to TV intact. '[Series creator] Neil Druckmann has said that my music is part of the DNA of The Last of Us,' Santaolalla says. 'I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn't do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.' Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Santaolalla first started releasing music when he was 17. Loving both English rock bands and the traditional Argentine folk music that he was raised on, Santaolalla melded both into his own unique sound, part of a genre called rock nacional. Before he could fully make his mark, Santaolalla's family fled the Argentine junta dictatorship in 1978, moving to Los Angeles, where his unique sound soon caught the attention of filmmakers. Snapped up to score the 2000 film Amores Perros and 2003's 21 Grams, their success led to Santaolalla composing the soundtracks for Brokeback Mountain and Babe l, both of which won him Oscars. Santaolla's sonic secret? Embracing the eloquence of silence. 'I work so much with silence and space, because silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing,' says Santaolalla. 'I remember on Brokeback Mountain when I first sent them the music, the producer said 'I thought you were pulling my leg at first, because you wait so long to play the next note!'' 'Silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you're playing.' After winning two Oscars back to back, Santaolalla carefully considered his next career move. Despite being a self-professed 'terrible gamer' Santaolalla tells me he always loved watching his son play, mesmerized by the on-screen kineticism. 'I always thought that if somebody connects this at an emotional level with a player, it's going to be a revolution.' It turns out, the universe had picked up on Santaolalla's newest interest. Post-Oscars, he was approached by several game companies to do music, but turned them down because 'I'm very picky about the work that I do.' That includes a lucrative gaming project that he is careful not to name. 'Everyone thought I was crazy!' he chuckles. Still, Santaolalla quietly hoped that a more emotionally-resonant project would materialize. 'So, I waited… and then Neil appeared,' Santaolalla says. 'When Neil told his colleagues that he wanted me to do this, [his colleagues ] said, No, Gustavo is not going to be interested — he won two Oscars! But when Neil [told me] the story, and that he wanted to do a game that connects with people on an emotional level… I was sold. What even Neil Druckmann wasn't prepared for, however, was that Gustavo's music would become just as crucial a presence as Ellie and Joel. In a post apocalyptic world where life is scarce and danger lurks around every corner, silence hangs in the air like a threat. Santaolalla's scuffed notes, discordant melodies and screeching fret slides reverberate across the dilapidated city streets, feeling as unpredictable as the world Ellie and Joel inhabit. 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes.' 'I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes,' Santaolalla explains. 'Any professional guitar player when they're recording tend to avoid all kinds of noises; when you run your hand on the fretboard or little glitches in your playing. But sometimes, I'll push those in my mix, and I think that humanizes it. That's why many people have said that my music becomes like a character — a presence. It's why I play things myself.' In the second game, Gustavo's music becomes a physical part of the fiction, with Ellie carrying a guitar throughout her quest for vengeance. She takes out the instrument during welcome moments of downtime, offering cathartic respite. And just like Gustavo's score, these beautiful vignettes break up the harrowing silence, which carries through in the second season of the show. 'I love the TV series too,' says Santaolalla. ' For the show, Neil associated himself with another incredible talent, Craig Mazin — the guy that did Chernobyl — who knows that media and that language. I think it was a big, big challenge, because when you go from one media to another one, people say no, I like the original better! So, I think, once again, that the way we have used the music has been instrumental to keep that fan base attached.' He adds that 'I think that when a story is really great, like a theatrical piece — like Shakespeare — it doesn't matter who plays the character. Obviously Pedro Pascal's Joel is different than the Joel from the game, but the substance of the character is so powerful that those things are just superficial. They could have done this as a series, as a feature film, as a puppet theatre piece, or an animation and it will still land regardless — because it's just great writing.' Now as Santaolalla finds himself releasing his very own instrument — the Guitarocko — it feels like the culmination of the musical journey he started as a teen. Melding the traditional Bolivian 10 stringed ronroco with the form factor of a Fender Stratocaster, Gustavo feels a father-like pride for his musical creation: the 73-year-old is invigorated by what The Last Of Us has given him at this stage in his career. 'I've been blessed with the fact that I have connected with an audience since I was very young,' he says. 'But the way I connect with the fans of The Last of Us and the way they connect with the music… here's a special devotion that is really beautiful. I have this new audience which is fantastic, and I love that they didn't know me as an artist or as a film composer! Now they look for my music, and they discover these things. It's been a gift for me, at this point — after everything that I've been through — to be involved with a project like this.'
Cosmopolitan
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Cosmopolitan
The Last of Us composer narrowly avoided a 'terrible' mistake
The Last of Us composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, has shared that the show could have made a "terrible mistake" - but it was narrowly avoided. For those yet to see the HBO drama series, it follows smuggler Joel and teenager Ellie as they travel across a post-apocalyptic world in search of a cure to an infection that caused the collapse of society. It's based on the popular video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog. Avid gamers who have both played the game and watched the series will also know that the show remained loyal to the original source material. This was done through the game's director Neil Druckmann working closely with writers Craig Mazin and Halley Gross. Not to mention also using Santaolalla, who composed the music for the game and its TV adaptation. In a new interview with Screen Rant, Santaolalla revealed that it was important for them to keep the main themes of the game, as well as transition the original "sonic fabric" into the show. He said: "I think it was a great help to bridge this transition from one thing to the other. I think it would have been a terrible mistake to change that. The fact that we kept [the music] was a very good decision." The composer then delved into the difference between writing for video games and television. He explained that he separates his work into two categories: art and craft. While the art "involves the creation of the themes, melodies, harmony" (aka the sonic fabric), the craft deals with making it all fit together. Santaolalla also added that even though there is a lot of new music in the series, it doesn't feel like a leap away from the game. "We have lots of new music too, but that music, in a way, is siblings with what I created before," he concluded.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Deadline Launches Streaming Site For Sound & Screen Television
Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for 2025's Sound & Screen Television, its annual TV music showcase that took place May 7 at UCLA's Royce Hall. The event featured the composers from 11 buzzy awards-season series discussing their music and then playing it with the help of a 60-piece orchestra. This year's participants ran the gamut with shows based on video games, graphic novels, comics and iconic novels, as well as genres ranging from thrillers and mysteries to sci-fi, comedies and dramas. The list of composer panelists is equally diverse, with Oscar winners including Gustavo Santaolalla and Volker Bertelmann and Emmy winners like Bear McCreary and Siddhartha Khosla the mix. More from Deadline Deadline's Contenders Television Streaming Site Launches Deadline Launches Contenders Television: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety Streaming Site Emmy Winner Siddhartha Khosla On The Creation Of The 'Paradise' Theme: "A Lot Of The Loops Are Sounds Taken From My Voice" - Sound & Screen TV The complete lineup featured music from Apple TV+'s Severance and Shrinking, HBO | Max's The Last of Us and The Penguin, Hulu's Paradise, Netflix's Squid Game, Peacock's The Day of the Jackal, Prime Video's The Boys and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Riot Games and Netflix's Arcane, and Sony Pictures Television and Peacock's Long Bright River. Sound & Screen Television is the latest Deadline event to turn the spotlight on the TV awards season, following the two-day Contenders Television and the virtual Contenders Television: Documentary, Unscripted & Variety. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
