Tales From the Loop debuted on Amazon Prime last weekend, bringing a one-of-a-kind sci-fi series to the masses. Inspired by the art book and RPG from Simon Stalenhag, the quasi-anthology series takes place in Mercer, Ohio, a small Midwestern town that is stationed around the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics. The center has developed the nickname The Loop for the particle accelerator-like machine that sits inside of it, which promises to unlock new secrets about the universe but ends up adding so much more unexplained phenomena into the lives of those in the town.
Theres so much about the series for fans to love, from the ensemble cast that includes Rebecca Hall and Jonathan Pryce, to the truly breathtaking technical aspects. One of the most haunting qualities of the series is its music, which is brought to life through a collaboration between Phillip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan.
Leonard-Morgan is no stranger to poignant and epic soundtracks, with a filmography that also includes Dredd, Limitless, and Dynasty. But in Tales From the Loop, his and Glass work has an atmospheric but earworm-worthy effect, which only adds to the heartwrenching plot of the series itself. In celebration of Tales From the Loops release, we chatted with Morgan about coming up with the series sound, as well as his work on the highly-anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077.
Joining Tales From the Loop
ComicBook.com: What drew you to Tales From the Loop? Because it seems like such a unique project to be a part of.
Paul Leonard-Morgan: The opportunity to collaborate with Phillip Glass. [laughs] I was called by Mark [Romanek], our wonderful director who I adore. Hes clearly an incredible person. And Ive been wanting to cooperate with Phillip for a while, but Phillip is an unbelievably busy boy. And my name was kind of thrown out in the room, like Look, Pauls worked with Errol Morris before, hes done three or four films. Phillips done all of Errols previous stuff. Theyve clearly got a similar kind of style. And Mark was like Hang on, he did Wormwood? I love Wormwood!, which is this Errol Morris thing. So again, Mark then knew my stuff. But it made it a lot easier its not this case of two random people being thrown in a room together. And Ive met Phillip a few times as well. So that was kind of a total thing of F-ck it, because I get to work with Phillip.
But then, when they described the actual series to us its like nothing Ive ever heard of before. And getting to do this dream three-month collaboration with Mark just on the pilot, let alone the whole series, which took about nine or ten months. But the kind of level of detail that they showed in wanting to create this thing, it was like nothing Ive ever dealt with before. Normally, its like Were writing one episode this week, two episodes, whatever. And this was You want an orchestra? Were going to get you an orchestra. Cinematographers. Theyve got the talent behind everything about it. Its like nothing Ive ever seen before, genuinely, and Im saying that even if I hadnt worked on it. Its just incredible stuff.
Collaboration
What was the process like of collaborating with Phillip?
The collaborative process with Phillip was, again, like nothing I could have imagined. Phillip Glass is the greatest living American composer, in my humble opinion. And you just walk into a room with him I went up to New York and had a coffee with him in his kitchen and hes the most wonderful human being.
In terms of the collaborative process, we were looking at images of Simons from his book, Tales From the Loop, just to get us going. We sat down at Phillips piano, he started writing chords, and then I started writing the melodies. And it became this incredible process I went back to LA, and then we started reading the manuscripts and running through some ideas. And we just started messing around with each others stuff, figuring out what kind of instruments that we wanted to create this unique-sounding score. And I was suggesting maybe using [one specific instrument] for The Loop, so that every time something magical has happened, [its accompanied by] a really basic, innocent instrument. So I suggested a recorder, and Im bizarrely enough happily trained on the recorder. So we played it on the recorder, but we could also play it on the Egyptian theremin. Phillips knowledge of music and his instruments is phenomenal.
And then we had [one instrument] that was like a glockenspiel, but was made out of huge stones from the garden. And again, all of those things led to a soundtrack which is really quite distinct. Mark, the first thing he said to me and Phillip was We want the soundtrack to be able to stand the test of time, where you could listen to it by itself without watching it with the actual visuals. And you can just listen back to it as a beautiful listen. However many months afterwards, I stepped back last night with a glass of whiskey and listened to that score again. And theres not a day that goes by where I dont think its just beautiful music.
Favorite
Is there a sequence in the show, just from a composing standpoint, that is your favorite?
It sounds arrogant to be like Oh, yes! That one, that one, and that one. Genuinely, there are quite a few. I mean, in Episode #6, theres a couple of beautiful melodies. Episode #8, which is I cant really say what happens, but there are two very large reveals. Each of those moments, I kind of look back and go Yeah. Again, it sounds arrogant, but Im really really pleased with that, because its got that heart-wrenching moment, and it all worked so perfectly.
In Episode #1, where again, without giving too much away where theyre walking towards The Loop and start going underground. Theres this big, orchestral sequence, and its funny because Episode #1 and Episode #2, it felt like this big orchestra. Whereas a lot of the other episodes, it was really cut down not because of financial concerns, Fox and Disney and everyone was just so supportive. They all just said Look, whatever you need to make this brilliant, do it. And again this just doesnt happen!
Cyberpunk 2077
Advice to Aspiring Composers
Do you have any advice for somebody who wants to break into your industry and get into your shoes of composing for movies or TV?
Yeah, dont. [laughs] Actually, you have to be so passionate about it. When I started out, I didnt know that I wanted to write [television and film] music. I just knew that I loved writing music. And then I started producing bands and I loved anything to do with music. And it always feels like you get to do your passion, you get to do your calling. And youve got to, because you do twenty-hour days in the last three or four weeks of a soundtrack. You just dont sleep. But youre just completely loving it.
With this, youve got to love it. So, what do you do when you want to start doing it? Well, a lot of people go Oh, I need to imitate this person, I need to imitate that person. I think theres no point in imitating other composers, because other than the fact that its already been done whats the fun in it? Its got to be fun, and whats the fun of trying to do someone elses sound? Establish your own style and establish your own sound, and then people will come to you because they love your sound and they love your style. First and foremost, its about establishing your own sound. So, go experiment. Create a sound thats not like anybody elses, and its not because youre trying to be different, but because you really believe in it. And I think there is that if you build it, they will come thing if you do good work, people will come to you.
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Season 1 of Tales From the Loop is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and length.
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