EXCLUSIVE | 'Harley Quinn' composer Jefferson Friedman says it’s ‘a thrill’ to have freedom over show's characters
The second season of 'Harley Quinn' has just begun, and in the post-bomb devastation, Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) is looking to take on the new Injustice League in the changed city of New New Gotham, and she's going to be doing that in style. We talk with the show's composer, Jefferson Friedman, in an exclusive interview, where he talks about the show and takes us through his creative process.
Jefferson Friedman first worked with developers Joel Halpern and Patrick Schumacker on 'Powerless,' and talked about how both shows differed. "One of the fundamental differences is that on 'Powerless' we really had our hands tied a lot of the time as far as getting access to a lot of the major DC characters [was concerned]. On 'Harley Quinn,' obviously, we've been given carte blanche to use all the characters in basically whatever way we want. So it's a thrill to be able to do that," Friedman told MEA Worldwide (MEAWW)
In the new season, a new Injustice League has formed, serving as the primary season antagonists. "It was very important to me to have each of the four members of Injustice League have their own sounds," said Friedman. "Now, obviously, Riddler's sound was already established in the first season, but Two-Face's music is relatively new, which is like this old-timey jazzy 1920s style thing that is so ridiculous, but somehow works in the context of the show. Bane's theme also existed to a certain extent in the first season but it's much more developed here, now that Bane is a bigger part of the show. Mr Freeze — that's one of my favorite themes I've come up with so far in the show. It's got like, I don't know exactly what it is about his theme that makes it sound like cold to me, but for whatever reason for me [it] feels like Mr Freeze," he added.
The Penguin (Wayne Knight) was unfortunately killed off rather quickly at the end of the season premiere. "Penguin sadly didn't get another screen time for me to devote like a lot of time coming up with the unique theme for him. Pour one out for Penguin," Friedman joked. The Injustice League's theme, seen in Episode 1 is, "sort of a mash-up of all four of their different themes."
Friedman also walked us through how the music sells a major joke in the show's scenes, using the example of Damian Wayne (Jacob Tremblay) appearing as the new Batman in front of Jim Gordon (Chris Meloni).
"Obviously you set up this expectation with music that this is going to be Batman. And then the reveal is that it's Damian, and having the music cut out when he shows up is the musical joke basically," he said.
"So you see the silhouette of Batman, you hear his music that we hear every single time Batman shows up in this series, then Damian ends up being him, the music cuts out and that's how I make that joke as the composer funnier. But then, the Batman music comes back in when he's doing it a goofy little Kung Fu thing. This seems kind of a microcosm of the way you can use these archetypical sounds in both an anticipatory way, like sincere at the top when it seems to be Batman, then use the exact same Batman theme ironically when Damian is like this short, little kid doing karate," he added.
When asked if he had any input into the writing of the show, he had one thing to say: "Not at all. There is one case later in the season where I was involved from the beginning, but basically the episodes are written and done all done two years ago or something. All the voices are recorded then it's animated and then I see it. So everything's pretty much locked and by the time it gets to me," he said. "Basically [for] the show, the house is built, the rooms are done, and my job is to be an interior decorator and make it feel like a home."
Friedman also offered his insights into his creative process. "I get the final cut of the episode and then the producers and I do what's called the spotting session. It's called the spotting session because you sit down with the producers and you choose which spots in the show need music, and you figure out where they're going to start, where they're going to stop, and what they're going to sound like. It's sort of conversation that's bouncing ideas back and forth between me and Pat and Justin, and then once we finish spotting the episode, then I go away and I write the music that we talked about," he informed.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview, where Jefferson Friedman talks about which character was the most challenging to compose a theme for, his inspirations, and an upcoming musical number of 'Harley Quinn.'