'Home Before Dark' OST: Nathan Lanier says he loves blending seemingly conflicting emotions together
Composer Nathan Lanier is a well-known name in the music scoring industry, and unless you've given up watching TV in the last decade, you've almost certainly heard his work. The talented multi-instrumentalist has been crafting the background scores for plenty of well-known television shows, movies and games for over 20 years now.
Some of his famous projects include the series 'Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn', 'Dancing With The Stars', 'So You Think You Can Dance', and 'America's Got Talent', while his impressive film repertoire includes 'Justin Bieber’s Believe', 'Jem & The Holograms', 'Max Steel', and 'High Strung: Free Dance' - the latter included some original songs and dance pieces composed by Lanier himself. Besides this, he's performed with Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, John Williams, and Michael Bublé, while his music has appeared on 'The Tonight Show', 'Conan', 'Ellen', and for many corporate brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonald's.
Nathan Lanier's latest project involved scoring the music for 'Home Before Dark', Apple TV+’s new mystery/drama series starring Brooklynn Prince that is inspired by the life of the young journalist Hilde Lysiak. When she was just nine, Lysiak got the scoop on a murder case hours before the media did, and Lanier's lush, sweeping, cinematic score perfectly complements the childlike wonder and brooding drama that flows throughout the series.
Since the show places a special emphasis on giving children a voice in society, it's only fitting that Nathan’s score literally does this by featuring a Youth Choir throughout the season. The series pilot has been directed by Jon M Chu of 'Crazy Rich Asians' fame (whom Lanier has worked with in the past). Chu also serves as executive director for the series that was recently renewed for its second season.
The first three episodes of 'Home Before Dark' will premiere on April 3, along with the release of Lanier's soundtrack, so we thought this was the perfect time to talk to him about his craft and the new series.
How does this new show 'Home Before Dark' differ from your other soundtrack projects? Were there any unwritten rules?
While composing, I get to embark on a wide variety of musical adventures. I’m constantly discovering new ways to tell a great story through music. When composing for dance, the music has to take a very front-and-center role as opposed to underscoring a drama-mystery like 'Home Before Dark' which requires a more subtle and sometimes even subliminal approach.
Your work on this show required you to mix light and dark elements masterfully well. How did you manage to make something that sounds cohesive?
Discovering what the tone of the show will be is a process not unlike sculpting. You might have an overall feeling about it, but you keep chiseling away at it until it reveals itself. Then it’s a matter of mapping out the musical narrative - what's the purpose or motivation of the music and how it will serve the story? What characters, objects, or story points get a theme? Will certain instruments and orchestration be tied to those thematic ideas? It’s a long process, but when you find the right answer everything just clicks.
I love blending seemingly conflicting emotions together. The music feels more emotionally authentic that way because our feelings in life are never simple. There are always subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle conflicts constantly rubbing inside us. So naturally, there will be notes that don’t always resolve and sometimes rub us the wrong way or tug at our heartstrings. The best kind of happiness always comes with a pinch of sadness and so the music has to emote that to feel real.
How did you come to work with a youth choir on this OST? What was the experience like?
Very early on Jon M Chu, Dana Fox, Dara Resnik, Joy Gorman and I discussed what kind of score the show would need. But before even getting into the creative musical ideas, they expressed that they would love to have kids involved with the making of the score in some way. Empowering children is integral to the spirit of the show, so we literally “gave them a voice." Vocal contractor Jasper Randall helped us put together a 16-member youth choir that not only performed on the score but also recorded a cover of Carrie Underwood’s 'The Champion' that featured in Episode 1. These wonderfully diverse children ranging from 9-12 years of age were really fun to work with, and they brought such an emotional range and honesty to the music.
What's your Digital Audio Workstation of choice? Do you occasionally sample live instruments? Which are your favorites?
I do all my writing in a massive template in Logic, while the final 5.1 music mix is done in ProTools. I love recording with a live orchestra, but it's usually contingent on the needs of the project's score and the budget. At the very least, I always have a handful of live instruments on track because working with musicians is a magical feeling. While I primarily compose on the piano or guitar, my main performance instrument is actually the violin. In general, I tend to favor instrument sections like strings (in the orchestra) as opposed to individual instruments. That being said, the violin itself is so beautiful and expressive. The piano is so comprehensive and dynamic, while an electric guitar can create an endless variety of diverse soundscapes. Strangely enough, I also love the diatonic harmonica ... but don’t hear it a lot and don’t get to write for it too much.
When it comes to creating great dance music, what's the most important element?
I think the most important thing you can give to a dancer is something to react to, something unexpected. The beat, groove, and hook are important foundational elements, but I want to convey a story arc that the dancers can express themselves to in emotionally complex and theatrical ways. I like to call the kind of dance music I write "Cinematic Dance," which fuses elements of various genres like hip-hop with the orchestral cinematic storytelling of a score.
Who are some of your favorite music composers or musicians?
Some of my favorite classical composers include Dvořák, Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky. My favorite film composers are Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, James Newton Howard, John Powell, and of course the incomparable John Williams. Another very big musical influence in my life was the music of Michael Jackson. But if I want to just chill, I will usually put on some Frank Sinatra or Aerosmith.
Nathan Lanier's soundtrack for 'Home Before Dark' will be released on April 3 along with the premiere of the show's first three episodes on Apple TV+