Exclusive Interview: Discussing horror and vampires with True Blood soundtrack composer Nathan Barr

October 31, 1:21 AMSoundtracks ExaminerMark Morton

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Having only been in the film music composition scene for barely a decade, Nathan Barr has certainly racked up a mass of credits. With film work including Cabin Fever, the two Hostel movies, and 2001 Maniacs, he is easily among the breakout talent for the new breed of horror. Barr is also known for constantly challenging himself creatively, so between horror outings, he has frequently been seen scoring outlandish comedies for the Broken Lizard team (Club Dread, Beerfest, The Slammin’ Salmon).

But all of that is merely prologue, as Barr is best known for his dramatic and fiercely innovative scores for the hit HBO television series True Blood. In each episode, he effortlessly raises the bar for television music with unique instrumentation, genre blending, and a surgical attentiveness to character.

So, as we are on the eve of Halloween, be a little bit naughty, and sink your teeth into our conversation with Nathan Barr!

In your bio, it states that you were briefly under the wing of Hans Zimmer. What did he teach you that resonates through what you do these days?

I was under his wing for only eight months, and then I flew the nest. It was such an amazing experience. It was like being thrown into the deep end of the pool and learning to swim. I didn’t even understand what MIDI stood for when I began working for Hans. I had no knowledge of the technology behind film scoring; I had no knowledge about the creative process behind writing music-to-picture. So he was very gracious in the sense that he would let me sit behind him while he wrote and actually watch him write-to-picture, and that’s really where I learned that. And more than anything, he taught me the importance of technology. So when I walked in there, I knew next to nothing about any of that stuff, and when I left eight months later, I had a very strong foundation to work from.

By some bizarre twist of fate, you have become known primarily as a horror film composer, but you are also the go-to guy for the Broken Lizard movies. How did that dichotomy come together?

That’s a really good question, actually. It was just one of those random things. They say that, as a composer, you either start out in horror or porn, and I started in horror. I worked on a couple of horror films and then my agent randomly set me up on a meeting with Paul Soter, who is one of the Broken Lizard guys. And it ended up being for the film Club Dread, which was half horror, half comedy. It turned out to be a great collaboration, so it turned into opportunities to work on straight comedies with them, as well as Dukes of Hazzard, and they took me along for the ride. So yeah, it was a half horror, half comedy film that got the ball rolling.

I would suppose, then, that 2001 Maniacs was also a perfect vehicle for you, because it, too seamlessly blended elements from both worlds?

Yeah, absolutely; no question! They are both movies that deal with violence in a humorous way and play with horror stereotypes.

Something else that that crops up a lot in your work, especially in True Blood, is the inclusion of traditional Southern, Americana-style music. Is that something rooted in your heritage, or did you actually have to learn that musical language?

It’s so funny. No, I just sort of ended up doing these Southern-themed movies. I did another one called Briar Patch several years ago. I really have no connection to Southern music at all. The only real tie I had was my father used to play banjo as I was growing up, so that sound is in my ears. But as to why I am particularly writing Southern-tinged music, it’s a mystery to me, but I do enjoy it.

Do you find it challenging to inject suspense into an otherwise playful style of music?

Not really. One of the ways I’ve done it is instead of using a banjo, I’ll use an instrument that sounds like a banjo, like a Turkish Cümbü?, and then I’ll play it in a non-traditional way. So it still sounds kinda Southern but it brings about a certain level of tension that is required by the film. It’s fun to do that kind of stuff. I remember for 2001 Maniacs, there was this seduction scene, and I used a bowed saw, a banjo, and other stuff.

Do you go out of your way to use unusual instruments, or do you happen upon them for various projects?

I absolutely go out of my way to find them. What I’ve discovered is a way to keep composing fresh. Instead of sitting down at a piano every time I write a score, before I start each project, I’ll go out and buy a couple new instruments from wherever, as long as they look interesting and useful. For example, writing a tune on the piano is different from writing the same piece for the guitar. I think we all have those muscle memory issues that we lock into. And I think by changing it up from writing with a keyed instrument to a string instrument to a wind instrument, you are getting your mind to think about melody in a different way.

That’s how I try to keep things fresh. And something that I do a lot on True Blood a lot that I love is, instead of using synthesizers and samples, picking up an acoustic instrument and playing without click to a scene. So you are reacting to the scene not just as a composer, but also as an audience member.

So, when you pick up a new project, what determines your primary compositional instrument?

That really depends. I was actually just talking about this with some other composers the other day. As you do more and more films, practice enables you to recognize, based on how the film is shot and what the scope of the story is in terms of textures. These days, when I look at a film, I can tell you right away whether or not it will be able to handle an orchestra. And the other part is being able to think outside of the box. If I determine that it is not suitable for an orchestra, and I find that guitars would be right for it, instead of doing the obvious thing and using acoustic guitars, I’ll go to something else in that family that is going to add something a little bit unique to the sound floor.

One of the truly endearing qualities of your ability is that, although you have a lot of horror scores to your credit, you manage to give each its own voice, with little to no crossover tonality. That is a feat so few composers are able to accomplish these days.

That’s a really, really huge compliment, thank you! I think the idea of identity with a composer, a director or writer is something that is so important, and I think it gets lost A, in the studio system when everything is homogenous (they take the identity out of it), or B, that someone doesn’t have a particularly unique voice. So it’s nothing I set out to do consciously, it’s just something that comes naturally. And I am very grateful when I put out something that sounds like me rather than someone else. It gives me a unique style and flavor that I get hired for. There are lots of composers in this business that can make themselves sound like another composer to a T, and they get hired to do that over and over again. You never really get a sense of their style, and that would be my nightmare.

And speaking of nightmares, I loved the way you contrasted the brutality of Hostel with a whimsical, almost fantasy-based score.

I was just flipping channels the other day and that came on. It’s totally over-the-top, but that was definitely a conscious choice that Eli Roth and I made. And that sense of quirkiness is definitely a part of Eli’s filmmaking. I think the people who are horrified by Eli’s films aren’t understanding, to a degree, that Eli’s standing on the sidelines laughing at the whole thing. To an extent, there’s a sense of humor to the whole thing, which allowed me to play up that quirkiness in the score.

On the topic of Eli Roth, have you heard any truth to the rumor that Thanksgiving will actually be made in the near future?

You know, I’ve heard rumors about that same thing swirling around for a while now. I haven’t heard from Eli directly. He’s got a lot of projects he’s working on right now, all of which are very exciting, and I think that might be one that is in the pipeline. But I’m not 100% sure about it.

So what exactly lured you to television?

I wasn’t seeking out television at all. I haven’t deliberately stayed away from it, it’s just that it never really came into my life. And that’s partly okay with me, because I don’t watch much TV at all. So really, what brought me to TV was just [show creator] Alan Ball. It was one of those really lucky twists of fate. He shot the pilot and was cutting it together, and somehow my score for Hostel wound up in the cutting room, so they used it as temp. Even though it wasn’t exactly right, there was enough of something in it that they liked, so they called me in for an interview. So, they narrowed it down between me and another composer (who happens to be a dear friend), and Alan went away on vacation after shooting and took a stack of each of our CDs. And I guess he just felt that the match was better with me. So I got the Ball call saying he wanted me, and there was no way I was turning that down!

When creating the sound of a scene or episode of True Blood, what is your primary focus? Is it the emotions of the characters, the setting, or a thematic atmosphere?

It’s absolutely 100% about the characters. Alan doesn’t speak in musical terms. He’s always speaking to story and character, and as a composer for TV, the job is to enrich the lives and storylines of those characters. And so everything I do for the show is based around the characters – what a character is thinking, what his/her motivation is, where the character is headed in the story. And of course, there are essential themes, like Bill and Sookie’s love theme, and things like that. But it is definitely all character-driven.

I like that there is a lot of action in your music – it is not a standard atmospheric droning. And you also manage to temper the tension with these somber, tragic elements allowing the viewer to almost feel the pain these vampires have carried with them for centuries.

I think again, it’s the strength of the writing and the story. A lot of the time, I don’t even consciously push for it. It’s there in the story, so it naturally comes out in the music. I get tuned into the story and what’s going on. Alan is very clear and concise about what he wants the music to say in each scene. But for whatever reason, I think I do “sadness” well. I really relate to that part of True Blood. I love the sadness, the angst of the romance – that’s a place I am very comfortable enriching.

Do you have a theory as to why vampires and string instrumentation go together so well?

Oh wow, that’s a really good question. Just thinking about Twilight, True Blood, and some of the other films that have been out…I don’t know. I don’t really know why strings work so well for vampires. The basic storyline behind most vampire stories is beautiful, immortal people who are struggling with a world that is moving on without them and getting involved with people who will grow old and die. There are these big themes of romance, lost love and tragedy – those are big threads that lend themselves well to something a little more epic.

So, when you’re putting the show together, do you do it scene by scene, episode by episode, or do you do it in a string of bulk moments?

I do it scene by scene by scene, episode by episode. When each episode is ready, I get together with Alan, the editors, the producer, and with music supervisor Gary Calamar. And we decide were a song is going to go, which Gary will handle, and where score is going to go, and I am going to handle that. And then, I go home and start working through the show, one scene at a time. Alan will come up to my studio probably every other week during the season, and I will play him through an episode. Then I work on fixes and go from there until it’s done.

Do you ever catch yourself running into moments where you will repeat yourself?

Yeah, definitely. And I think that goes back to what we were discussing with musical identity and having a unique voice. I think it can become a little bit of a curse sometimes. I haven’t experienced it too much, but a couple of really big composers come to mind who are so known for a unique sound they’ve created that they get asked over and over and over again to recreate that same score. I think that is a blessing and a curse, when your style is so distinct, to keep it fresh, and what they really want is the score you wrote for another movie. I think to some degree that I can’t help but to repeat myself; I am who I am. But I think True Blood is a good departure for me from the sound I’ve established with other horror films.

But it seems like you do keep that in mind as True Blood progresses. Each season takes on its own tone. The first season was basically setup and centered largely on Sookie, so the score was very intimate, homey, and at the same time tragic. The second season’s music expanded to something much larger and more diverse, because it was about the world around Sookie, and it took on this more adventurous, dangerous, and cinematic approach. Where do you plan to take the third season?

Those are really good ways at looking at the primary differences between Season 1 and Season 2. I only have a vague notion of where Alan and his writers are taking the story of Season 3. I do know they are continuing to expand the world of these characters even further. I am really looking forward to the fact that I am going to have to come up with some new themes and develop fresh musical ideas for later seasons and just grow with that world.

Obviously they are going to have to deal with Eric going from this background, mysterious character to eventually breaking out and probably becoming somewhat of a loose cannon based on what happened to him in Season 2. Are you already planning on how you will develop him?

Yeah, he’s an interesting character, because the first couple times you meet him in Season 1, the moments were brief enough that it wasn’t a place to establish a theme for him. So, it’s only in Season 2 where they flashed back, and I was able to create a bit of an identity for him. I know his theme is pretty tragic, because there is a heavy loss when he lost Godric. So I think as his character becomes more complicated, I’m going to have to figure out how to make his theme follow that journey or else come up with another theme for him.

When you took on True Blood, were you conscientious of the world of Twilight and the flooding rise in popularity of the modern vampire stories?

Not even remotely. I was completely unfamiliar with True Blood and I was completely unfamiliar with Twilight. So I didn’t pay attention to it at all, and I think that was the right call. And I don’t think Alan was particularly familiar with those books, either. I think one of the things that kept Alan’s approach so fresh was that he didn’t know Buffy the Vampire Slayer well at all, and he didn’t know Twilight. So he really worked with Charlaine Harris’ books and came with his own vision. He said “to hell with what they’ve done with vampires in the past.” He just changed it up a bit to make it his own. And I think that was the right call with the music, too. I know Carter’s [Burwell] done something wonderful with the first Twilight, but I wanted to go somewhere totally different.

Do you know what took so long in getting the True Blood Season 1 score released commercially? I thought it was odd that it came out as Season 2 was ending.

I know there are always issues with who is going to release the score soundtrack and who is going to release the songs soundtrack. Typically the songs soundtrack gets released first. And then there are contractual demands, depending on the label that is releasing the song soundtrack, that there would be a hold put on the release of the score soundtrack, so there is no confusion in the marketplace. There’s all that sort of stuff. So I would hope to see a score soundtrack come out for Season 2 much sooner. Because at the end of the day, it ended up being a year and a half from when Season 1 premiered to the time the score was released, and I think that was really kinda tragic.

Well, there is a timeless quality to the Season 1 score, which is a great thing. It is very earthy and organic sounding, and it just seems like the kind of thing you can take on the road to clubs and theaters with a band if you wanted to. Do you have any live performance aspirations?

That’s funny you ask that. We’ve been talking about that. I actually just spoke recently at a TV signing with Bear McCreary, who does Battlestar Galactica [NOTE: Read my interview with Bear here], and he had done just that. He decided to start doing live shows with his music. And it got me thinking about doing something similar, because the score to True Blood is very small, very organic. I perform the entire thing myself – the guitars, pianos, cellos – and it would be very easy to find just three or four other musicians, teach them the parts and do some live performances. That is certainly something I’m thinking about.

Are you getting used to the accolades you’ve been receiving recently for your work on True Blood?

You know, I’ve done like 30 feature films, most of which no one has ever heard of – most of which no one ever needs to hear about – a couple which have been great, like the Eli Roth and Broken Lizard stuff. But the nicest thing about it is after spending 10 years in a room composing music with no one really listening (because no one sees these films), it’s so nice that there is an audience out there each week that is actually really paying attention to what I’m doing. It just takes on a whole new level of fulfillment for me as a composer. But hey, I’m really comfortable, and I hope it continues!

How was your experience at the Scream Awards?

That was fun. I was only really there for the red carpet event, but it really hit home just how big True Blood is and how big Twilight is, and how crazy about vampires people are right now. That was really fun to see. And I had a really nice moment where I was on the red carpet, and these two girls were calling my name. I turned around and they said that they loved my music and listened to it all the time. That was my little rock star moment.

So what do you do to keep busy between seasons?

I’m actually working on four films right now, which will carry me from now to the beginning of Season 3, which I’ll start up on in February. I’m working on a film called Peep World, which is a dramedy directed by Barry Blaustein, who is a friend of mine, and stars Sarah Silverman and Raine Wilson. And then I’m doing a thriller/horror film called Open House, which is actually directed by Anna Paquin’s brother, Andrew. And Anna and her now-fiancée Stephen Moyer both have cameos in that movie. It’s a really great movie, I was really blown away by it, and it’s Andrew’s first time as a director. And then I’m doing Darren Bousman’s new movie. He directed Saw II, III, and IV. He’s doing a movie called Mother’s Day, which is more of a psychological thriller than horror, as well. And I’m doing a movie Eli Roth and Eric Newman are producing, directed by Daniel Stamm, which is called Cotton, and is just straight-up horror.

For a while there, I was wondering if my film career was permanently on hold, but then I got these four all within the space of a couple months of each other. So it’s pretty exciting! True Blood is totally cinematic and I love working on that show, but I absolutely want to keep my film career going as well.

For more information: Keep up with Nathan Barr at his official website, Facebook, and on MySpace. And don’t forget to check out his amazing score to True Blood at HBO, Amazon, Screen Archives, and iTunes!