Cinelinx’s resident musicologist had the opportunity to speak with composer Ian Hultquist about the music of The Walking Dead: Dead City.
Just last week I had the opportunity to speak with composer Ian Hultquist about his work on the recently released The Walking Dead: Dead City, which follows Negan and Maggie to the walker-infested remains of Manhattan. Ian Hultquist is an American composer & producer currently based in London, United Kingdom. Over the past few years he has made a name for himself composing the scores for numerous films, documentaries and TV shows. Ian started his career in music as a founding member of the band Passion Pit, which started in Boston, MA where he was studying Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. He’s also known as one half of Drum & Lace, as part of that group he’s worked on the music for films like Assassination Nation and Rosaline, just to name a few.
I hope you enjoy our conversation about The Walking Dead: Dead City.
I think I’ll start with how familiar were you with The Walking Dead before working on this show?
I was pretty familiar with it. I hadn’t seen the entire series. But I did use to watch it. And I think I made it through eight seasons or so. So I’d see most of it. I had read the first graphic novel. And I’d seen a bit of Fear the Walking Dead. So I was pretty familiar. I knew enough to know that when I got the offer, that it would be a very big universe to jump into.
What did you think of the premise of The Walking Dead: Dead City, because that’s a pretty crazy environment to go to for a zombie apocalypse show.
Yeah, I thought it was really brilliant. They had such a strong vision for what they wanted to do with the show. And I just thought it sounded so exciting and fresh, and, truly something we had never seen before. In a universe like that, that we haven’t even seen in other TV and film. We haven’t seen too many city shows that have zombies in them. I was excited to do something that would feel exciting and new to people.
At what point in the show’s development were you brought in to work on it? Had they already filmed episodes?
I was brought in before filming started. They had written all the scripts, and they were working on pre production. I was actually part of the team where all the heads of department pitched our creative direction to the president of AMC. So, cinematography, production, design, wardrobe direction, we were all together on a Zoom call, showing what we envisioned for the show, which is really exciting and a bit nerve wracking. I was brought on, I think, originally in July or August (of 2022), and they started filming I want to say end of September, October (of 2022).
Were you composing by episode or did it all get written all together like one giant movie?
We took it episode by episode. Before they started filming, I did write about a 10 minute long suite that set the tone for what I thought we could do, figuring out the palette, figuring out some character motifs and themes. But once they started filming and sending me episodes, we went one by one. We did jump around though, we actually started, I think with episode two. And then we jumped back to episode one, and then jumped to episode six.
How many episodes are there?
There’s six altogether.
Did the show producers have a particular sound in mind when they brought you in?
The original idea was to do a take on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York. I mean, honestly, that was really the real mark for everything art wise and production wise. That was really the spark that lit the match. But once we dove into it, we kind of took it. I think we evolved it and then we went past, there’s a lot more going on. But the biggest ground rule we said from day one was this should never sound like the original show. We really want this to sound totally different and unique and fresh for this universe and really make it feel like we’re in new territory.
There’s no original music from The Walking Dead? From the original series, there’s none of that appearing in Dead City.
No.
Oh, wow.
If anything [does] that is not on purpose. It’s all because there’s only 12 notes in the scale. But no, I did my best to make sure I did nothing to copy a Bear McCreary score whatsoever.
So I guess that would mean Negan would have a totally different sound to him because Negan is a pretty iconic character in The Walking Dead. So if you went with something entirely new, what kind of sounds did you create for him in this new environment?
I was working off a palette already that was very different from The Walking Dead show where they always relied a bit more on a folksy palette, like it was a strong small string section and guitars and like drum set. Our [music] was very synthesizer based from the start. And also a lot of keyboard, a piano that is also in the score. So for Negan, I did something; it’s this low descending piano riff that carries throughout. I think it might have layered a bit of baritone guitar in there just to beef it up a bit. But the real focus is the piano part, as well as these eerie drums that go along with it.
So I really tried to go with my gut and write something fresh and new for his character. Negan is also interesting this season because we really see so much more to him than we have in the past. And he really talks a lot about why he’s done the things he’s done, and why he’s had to be so evil. By the time we get to the end of the season, actually, we really see him in a completely different light. So his theme actually takes on a new sound and becomes very sweet and sad, and a lot lighter than what we hear before.
He’s traveling with Maggie, right? Does anything similar happen to her theme in this season? Because they’ve got a lot of history between them.
It’s interesting. Anytime I read from Maggie this season, her scenes are always in conflict with other characters. I realized there was never really a standalone Maggie theme necessarily. It was always themes about Maggie in conflict with Negan, Maggie in conflict with Herschel, her son, who’s an angsty teenager and just wants nothing to do with her. So it’s always kind of Maggie being pulled in different directions. I’m kind of hoping that if we’re lucky enough to do a season two, that I can really develop a strong standalone Maggie theme.
What sorts of instruments were included for The Walking Dead: Dead City?
Lots of synthesizer. My friend, Ben Vlissingen is an avid sound designer and field recordist. And he was on a family trip in rural Maine and went to this haunted, abandoned warehouse, and did a bunch of field recording there, banging on metal, sending sound sources down really long tunnels. And he sent me a lot of that material, and that ended up going into the score in different ways, either as percussion instruments to mix with the drum samples I had, or scary sounding drones.
I also used a bit of my guitar viol, which is an instrument that’s kind of a mix of a cello and a guitar put together. And I actually can’t play it very well. But I can make it sound scary. So I used it for a couple nightmare sequences that deal with Maggie. So that’s, that’s what you hear during those moments.
I know you said you didn’t bring anything from the original Walking Dead music wise, but I’m comparing the two for a moment. What do you think changed with the overall sound by moving the setting to Manhattan, compared to where they were before?
I think we went for something that’s a bit older. I think it’s very loud at points. It’s also very industrial sounding. There’s moments where some of the action scenes we go full on grunge metal rock a little bit. I’m using guitars and really heavy pounding drums. And I feel like before, the music has had to be a bit constrained. And I feel like this one was just like, let’s just keep pushing it and pushing it. Because Manhattan is such a, it’s an overbearing city. It’s very intimidating and loud. And we we wanted it to feel like that in the music.
Was it challenging, making wholly new themes for The Walking Dead? Because I’m just surprised that nothing was brought over. Because usually when there’s a spin off, there’s usually some musical tie back. So did that increase the difficulty at all?
A bit, mainly, just because I know I’m stepping into this huge franchise universe. This is [actually] the first sequel series to the main show where everything else was kind of happening in parallel. I feel like this is the first true sequel to what’s happened before. I think it was a matter of doing something that could hopefully live up to what’s come before it. But, you know, I like reading the material, I think it was, if anything, it was fun to just put your own spin on it.
Because these characters in this world are almost mythological in some sense. Like, we need other characters in the story who’ve heard the story of Negan. They’ve heard these rumblings of what’s happened in the past. They know their communities that they come from. So it’s kind of interesting. It’s almost like superheroes in a way where you know, every time we have a new Batman, it’s fun to have a new take on what his theme could be.
Speaking of themes, did you make a theme for the walkers themselves? Because there’s a whole lot of them.
There wasn’t necessarily a walker theme. I think I kept things mainly for human characters. But I feel like the the action pieces with the walkers definitely have a sound to it. Things will get very intense and distorted and weird. And it definitely amps up as we get through the show. I think the peak of it is probably in episode five, which takes place in the sewers. I’m not going to say what they find down there, but it’s not good. And I think that’s where it’s really the peak of absolute walker madness.
You said you included a bunch of sample sounds from that warehouse? Were there any other sounds brought in that were recorded in different places? How did you choose those?
It’s always just a bit of an experiment. Not every sound fits everywhere. And I’m actually very picky about what I want to put into the score. Because I don’t want to ever put stuff in just because I really wanted to put it in because it feels like it belongs to the music, and it’s adding to the scene, it’s not taking anything away. Another sample instrument we had that actually been also built was this thing called the pin box, where he took this wooden box and drilled a bunch of nails into it.
And you could bow them, you could strike them, and they would kind of resonate and give us a really eerie prickles on the back of your neck feeling. And we actually did that even before I knew I was going to get this show. We’ve just covered doing it for fun, because that’s what we both like to do. But when I got the show, I was like, Oh, this is perfect. And that definitely ended up in there quite a few times for big percussive hits or stings.
How did working on The Walking Dead: Dead City compared to other shows you’ve worked on? Was it a big departure working on a post apocalypse story?
It was similar in that it’s a TV show, and I’m very used to working in the TV format, and the episodic format, but um, I think there was a lot of care put into what we were doing and we wanted to make sure we were doing it right. And I think because it is a franchise and it’s a universe there was a lot of pressure to make sure that it’s going to be as good as it can possibly be.
Thankfully, I think everyone was very happy with it. It was a tough job. I went through a lot of revisions in the music. Barely anything went just like v1. And so we got to the later episodes, it was always a work in progress, so to say. But by the time we get to the end, I think I was very happy with it. And thankfully, so far people have been liking it since it’s aired.
Tell me a bit more about that. How many revisions would you have to do?
Yeah, some cues would be like, version 10. Granted, it’s not a complete rewrite every time it might just be small adjustments. But I would just kind of every time I’d have to do another print, I would just go up a version number. But yeah, so some things we’re getting into double digit revisions, which was a bit daunting, but we got there.
Is there any particular musical detail you hope sticks out to the audience?
I hope people catch up on the Negan theme, and how it slowly evolves throughout the season. And then hopefully, if I did my job, right, it will really pay off in Episode 6. I just hope people can feel scared by walkers, I feel like we’ve seen different versions of walkers for 12 years now, and all these different shows. And we really tried to find some really fun ways to scare people with it. So I hope that people still feel excited and anxious and scared when they’re watching it.
Do you score to the picture? Is it like when they score for movies? Or is it just written and then placed on it later, if that makes sense?
Yeah. For the most part, I’m writing to the picture, I think in film more often than not, it’s easier to write not to picture and then see where it can end up. A lot of editors and filmmakers are looking to work that way. Now, especially if you come on early, into a project where you have time to experiment and try things out. You know, if you have one of those jobs, or you have to replace a composer and you have three weeks to do it, there’s no time for that, you just have to get those keys in. But I am finding more and more that if there is the luxury of time, and I was open to it, trying to write away from picture is a very fun and creative thing to do.
And it also feels very collaborative, because then your music might be getting placed in scenes that you wouldn’t have thought to do it, but it actually works that much better. So on TV, that’s why I wrote that theme or that suite when I first got hired to try a little bit of that. And a few of those pieces did actually make it into the show. The main title theme, actually, of the show got spurred from that, and a few of the character themes originated from that.
Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve created for The Walking Dead: Dead City? If you had to pick one?
I do. In Episode Six, there’s two actually. There’s one that’s on the soundtrack called “Where there’s smoke” it’s over a slo-mo montage in episode six, I won’t say what it is. And then also the piece where Negan seemed kind of turned upside down and actually getting a much lighter, sweeter version of it. Which on the soundtrack is called “We both want the same thing.” I’m very proud of those.
It must have been a lot of fun to make a theme for Negan that evolves given everything he’s done.
Yeah, yeah, and that was something that we talked about from the beginning. In Episode Two, you see the the dark Negan that we all know then maybe love from the original show and you see what he’s still capable of. But then you see also the second it’s done, you see this remorse and this guilt on him they’ve never seen before and it really changes his whole dynamic. I really think they did an amazing job with his character this season.
Is there anything else you’d like people to know about The Walking Dead: Dead City?
I hope people are enjoying it. I hope everyone will stay tuned and keep watching these episodes and that fingers crossed, the writers can come to a resolution and end the strike. And maybe we can talk about a season two.
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I want to say thank you to Ian Hultquist for taking the time to speak with me about The Walking Dead: Dead City, which is currently airing on AMC.
