Composer Daniel Hart (photograph by Emily Ulmer)
From sheeted specters to a big green dragon and even Peter Pan and Captain Hook, Daniel Hart has had many unique musical conversations with supernatural characters young and old when not applying his innovative touch to scoring the real world. Now the TV tapestry of AMC’s adaptation of author Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” offers Hart his most striking musical expanse yet. First answering questions in literary form in 1976 before taking on cinematic flesh and blood in 1994 (with a score by Elliot Goldenthal), these sexually fluid creatures of the night have arguably never stalked with more unholy passion or opinion than in this shockingly excellent series translation. Premiering in 2022, this “Interview” spun Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) into a black New Orleans family scion with the distinct pleasure-unpleasure to be taken under the wing of vicious, yet likeable international dandy Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). With their adventures told to a distinctly older, and way more sarcastic Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian), the first season of “Vampire” charted the creation of child vampire Claudia (Bailey Bass) and a turbulent relationship that results in the seeming destruction of their sadistic overlord.
Beginning as they see their kind’s post WW2 ruination in Romania at the start of Season 2, Louis and Claudia (now played by Delainey Hayles) find seemingly more hospitable undead company in postwar Paris, where a “Théâtre des Vampires” is under the stewardship of the beautifully androgynous Armand (Assad Zaman). Claudio becomes at first delighted, and then an exasperated star to the applause of unwitting humans, all while keeping the mortal secret of what she and Louis did to Lestat a secret. The stage is set for Hart’s gorgeously passionate and wildly stylistic scoring. Possessed of overall orchestral romantic splendor that hides a vein of foreboding comeuppance, Hart puts on a Broadway-worthy show from Claudia’s saccharine show-stopping number “I Don’t Like Windows” when he’s not doing unholy spins on Gershwin, hard-boiled film noir and classical elegance as the series completes its different, yet still faithful rendition of Rice’s first classic. While vampires of both small and big screen have had no end of eroticism and darkness in their scores, leave it to Daniel Hart to stake even more interesting, empathetic approaches for a seemingly untouchable race, one whose hearts are more poignantly raw than ever as his scoring resonates from a blood drinking stage unlike any other.
What were the initial discussions about what “Vampire’s” musical style should be like?
I’m not sure if I ever sat down with the show runner Rolin Jones and laid things out. I looked at what he’d made and tried to write music that was true to the storytelling of his re-interpretation of Anne Rice. It was helpful to me as a composer not to compare it to the books, or the film that had come before it, but to just focus on these TV episodes.
What struck you about this “Interview” being different from previous vampire shows, or films?
I hadn’t watched enough of “True Love,” or “Buffy” or those shows to know how this was different. But the parts of them that I have watched all feel to make like they are a vehicle for us to explore the meaning of human existence rather than vampires. They’re love stories about humans trying to make sense out of the lives they’ve been given. Before “Interview,” the strongest relationship that I had with a “vampire” film was “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” The music jumped out at me, and I have gone back and listened to it since. But that’s another film about love, though it feels more ‘vampiric’ to me than what we’ve made – which is an intimate relationship drama and the story about someone discovering who he is.
The big difference here from the cinematic “Interview” is that while Louis is still from New Orleans, he’s now black. What do you think that racial, and musical aspect bring to the show and the score?
I’m not sure that it’s Louis’ ethnicity that affected the score. It’s more the difference in time, because the original film and the books start in the late 1700’s instead of 20th century New Orleans. And it’s the difference of what a black man could do then versus this show’s setting. New Orleans is a great mixing pot. Everyone’s together, no matter who you are. I thought what music would have been in that turn of the century space.
Before this, you’d scored a terrific TV version of “The Exorcist,” where you were playing flat-out horror. But here did you want to go for that approach as well?
There are moments in “Interview with a Vampire” that do veer into more traditional ‘horror’ zones and I tried to follow those musically speaking. But as this was for the most part a romance, I was trying to write romantic music and themes. But yes, horror does play a part, which is most related to the vampire side of the story. It’s a horrific thing to murder people to stay alive.
Given that, it’s a dysfunctional love story in the first season between Louis and Lestat.
It is pretty dysfunctional. But if I was Louis or Lestat and in that relationship at the time, I’d be thinking about the love and passion. The dysfunction would happen because of whom these people are, and the nature of being a vampire in this world that they’ve built. So I tried to mostly write music that was not omnipotent, but from the characters’ points of view. The music for Lestat almost beating Louis to death is very romantic, because in that moment it feels like it’s about Lestat asking Louis to love him in the way he wants to be loved, and Louis refusing. There’s something heartbreaking about that experience. But then Claudia and Louis’ attempted murder of Lestat at the ending of season one has music that’s mostly in the “horror” realm.
It’s almost like “Rashomon” because in the book sequel “The Vampire Lestat,” you essentially find out that he’s the “good guy.” Did that ever cross your mind while scoring the character?
No, because I was trying to be true to what you’re seeing on screen, which is Louis’ version of events.
When Season 2 starts, we’re in Europe as World War 2 is about to end as Louis and Claudia are on the hunt for other vampires. Needless to say, it’s a horrific musical place as compared to what the score will turn into.
The first episode mostly takes place in Romania. I wrote music that was bleak as what we were seeing on the screen when needed. I also had to write a couple of Romanian children’s lullabies to be sung in a couple of different scenes. The lyrics were in the script for one of them, and an excellent Romanian poet named Daniel Popa translated them into Romanian. For the other lullaby, he wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music.
You’ve also deal with a hulking zombie vampire in the opener, which definitely falls into horror music territory.
The music that’s in the scenes in the forest with the Revenant are actually not mine. It’s an experimental piano piece by Henry Cowell from almost 80 years ago. I tried writing music for those scenes, but it never felt like the right thing for the interaction with the old-world vampires, which is why we ended up using the Cowell piece. But when we got into the Daciana’s lair at the end of the episode it was easier to get back to the kind of scoring that I understood this episode needed, because it was about these vampires trying to connect with each other.
When we get to Paris, the music becomes a whole lot more joyful inside the song-filled Théâtre des Vampires. What was it like writing those tunes, particularly when it came to the song for Claudia?
Most of the songs were written over a year ago because it was for “on-camera” music. They were based on the script and my conversations with Rolan. I did a little bit of research into the music of 1930s and 40’s Paris, trying to find music that was true to what would’ve been played in a theater at that time. I took into account that most of the “people” involved in this music are much older than that and have musical experience from previous centuries to inform them. It was a lot of fun to write that music. The main song that Claudia sings is “I Don’t Like Windows When They’re Closed.” It feels like a vaudeville tune, and I don’t get to do that thing very often. It’s nice to flex those muscles, as I really like Broadway showtunes.
The numbers there are a bit like George Méliès, as the vampires interact with film during the performances.
There’s a current British theater company called 1927, which does this kind of live animation work as part of their performances and made these animations for our show. I had several meetings with them talking about what kind of animations there would be, because my music would be commenting on it, like it would in an early Mickey Mouse cartoon. They sent me an early version that helped me understand what it would eventually look like. Then there was the knowledge that the live band would only be three people, as the theory would be that’s all they could afford in postwar Paris. That gave me more information as to what the most essential instruments were that they would play to accompany all the different kinds of plays that the Théâtre puts on. What would cover the most ground in terms of the expressions and arrangements that were possible.
What do you think the new Claudia brings to the part?
Delainey Hayles is brilliant. She’s a joy to watch. It’s different than Bailey Bass’ performance from season one, but I don’t feel that I’m missing anything. It feels like I’m still watching “Claudia.” It’s very easy to write music for her. We use her themes from season one to represent the bulk of her story in season two. So there wasn’t a great change for me. Delainey brings so much intensity and beauty to the part. Both actresses made me care about her.
How do you think the music plays into the Théâtre’s infantilization of Claudia, which definitely doesn’t make the more than grown woman in her body happy?
That made it easy to write this very saccharine song for her. Knowing that the song does so much damage to her meant that music had to be as sickly sweet as possible. It had to feel like something that would drive her crazy, in the way that someone who drives around in an ice cream truck would feel as they’ve heard that jingle over and over.
The big addition to season 2 is Armand. What do you think he brought to the music?
We went back to season one, and there’s very little of Armand in it because his reveal happens at the very end of the last episode. So he didn’t necessarily have a theme. There’s a little violin counterpoint line that I wrote that goes on top of the Beethoven that’s playing in his reveal. We went back to that to see if that could be a theme for him in season two. We did reprise that violin part in a couple of key scenes as a sort of callback. But the biggest change is writing a love theme for his relationship with Louis. I wrote that theme very early on, and it gets more airtime in season two than any other theme because it’s so much about their relationship. I got to write multiple variations of it across time and instrumentation.
Armand is an Indian slave from centuries ago. He’s a calming influence and a “likeable” character, way more than Lestat.
There’s a scene in episode 4 where he and Louis walk through a museum at night and they come to a painting of him as a much younger man. I wrote a piece of music for that called “Amadeo,” which is the name he says he had at the time. That piece of music itself is supposed to be meditative. In some ways it’s similar to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata which is playing over his reveal in season one. There’s something very meditative about his calmness that is imbued in most of the episodes, except for episode five, which takes place in 1970’s San Francisco. That’s the first time we get a glimpse into this other side of Armand the Gremlin. He’s much more vicious in the way that he deals with Daniel Malloy. We tried to make it as creepy as possible. But it’s still not as flamboyant or bombastic as Lestat’s music. There’s still a quieting, unsettling essence in him. It’s all subdued and under the surface, either way – whether it’s calm, loving Armand or dangerous, murderous Armand.
Yet Lestat is still very much a part of season two as the demonic, invisible guilty conscience of Louis. How did you want to get that across?
What a joy to write for “fake Lestat.” He’s so silly, fun and contrarian and destroying everything in the moment for Louis. It’s a lot of fun to write for that kind of ghost. We brought in a lot of Lestat’s season one themes for those moments, because technically this is all in Louis’ head.
How do you think Louis has progressed as a character in this season?
Well, he knows himself better, doesn’t he? He’s unearthing more about who he is. He has a hobby as a photographer. When he’s giving the interview with Daniel Malloy in present-day Dubai, he seems to be more emotional as he’s rediscovering his own story.
Would you say the scoring of this season in livelier?
It’s very different. There’s a lot more room to do musical storytelling. The theatrical nature of a vampire troupe brings its own flamboyance to the music. Then there’s just so much more music written for season two than one. It’s probably the most music I’ve written for anything. It’s so much music! (laughs). This season feels more fun, so we wanted the music to be more fun. It’s less Louis being torn about who he is, and about him enjoying who he is.
The Talamasca is introduced to “Vampire” in this season, though we’ve seen them already in AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Mayfair Witches.” Now AMC has announced the Talamasca are getting their own show. How did you want to play this supernaturally obsessed human society here?
Their member Sir Ragland James has his own theme. It’s the music that plays in the restaurant when he first meets Daniel. But it’s hard for me to imagine that music as a theme song for a show about the Talamasca. It’s very pretty and reserved and romantic in its harmonic structure. So I don’t know if that music has a life outside of our season because it was written very much more that scene, which just happens to have Ragland in it.
Yet the Talamasca pose no human threat to the vampires whatsoever here. The only danger is other vampires. How does that affect the score?
There’s no Van Helsing. The vampires are too powerful. I think that creates a more level playing field, because all of the main characters are vampires. And vampires only get murdered by other vampires. So in a way it’s as if they’re all just humans with basically the same level of life experience and relatively the same level of powers. They all live their lives with the same set of rules. That makes it easier to score probably.
You’ve always been a unique composer who’s brought a distinctive voice to such genre projects like “The Green Knight,” “A Ghost Story” and “Pete’s Dragon.” What do you think your “indie” musical nature brings to “Interview with the Vampire?”
I guess that because there’s so much music in season 2, and so much stylistic range within it that there are multiple opportunities to write music that’s a bit more experimental than what I get to write for other projects. In the mix of music that feels like Mozart, Gershwin, Morton Feldman, Darius Milhaud or Philip Glass or any number of contemporary classical experimental composers. I’m just grateful to have a chance to have that canvas to paint weird stuff on. It’s fun to make weird stuff.
Once this is over adapting “Interview with the Vampire,” will you be taking on the adaptations of Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Lestat” and “Queen of the Damned” should this “vampire universe” go on?
We’re talking about season three now. It would ostensibly follow “The Vampire Lestat,” and that means we’re figuring out how to tell the story of Lestat as a rock star in some form or another. And that probably means more songs and score. But we don’t know yet. I hope to keep doing this as long as AMC wants to keep making it.
What kind of stamp do you think “Interview with the Vampire”, and your music has made on TV vampires, and the vampire genre at large?
I think it’s too soon to tell. I’m so much into it that it’s hard to see from the outside. But I will say that people who are fans of the show reach out to me sometimes online. They’re really passionate about it and the music in a way that’s not been the case with other things that I’ve worked on before this. I’m proud of those projects, but they haven’t been seen by as many people who’ve seen this show. It has a broader appeal than something like “A Ghost Story.” But at the same time, it’s an interracial homosexual love story, so unfortunately not the broadest appeal of appeals because of the way our society is currently structured. So to that end, it feels like it brings a space where people who feel like they might not belong in this world we currently have can feel a bit more welcome. That’s certainly the feeling that I get from the fans who reach out to me. This show fills a space for them in a way that Rolan and company have chosen to tell these stories in a way that other shows haven’t. That’s very gratifying to feel that we’re doing something that people want, need or enjoy.
Photo by Emily Ulmer
Watch “Interview with the Vampire” on AMC or AMC +, with Daniel Hart’s scores for both seasons available on Milan Records HERE. Visit Daniel Hart’s website HERE
Special thanks to Jamie Bertel at Sony Classical Music