Paul Leonard-Morgan Talks Composing Tales From the Loop, Cyberpunk 2077, and More

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

To pivot over to one of your other upcoming projects I know youre involved with Cyberpunk 2077.

Aw, yep. Thats a totally opposite project from Tales From the Loop!

I know! Theyre completely opposite sides of the spectrum, but I know a lot of people are very excited about it. What can you tease about that, particularly with regards to the music?

[laughs] Hang on, let me check what Im allowed to say. No, there are three composers me, and then two composers who work with CD Projekt Red. Marcin Przybylowicz, who did The Witchers soundtrack, which is just incredible, and I love it. Hes just brilliant. And then P.T. Adamczyk, who Ive already worked with, and hes incredible. His beats are just sick, theyre so tight. And he sends us this stuff, and Im going like Damn you! And hes like But your stuff is really great! But its like, You say that, but your stuff is really great! And then we listen to Marcins stuff

Ive never collaborated with other composers before, and then in the last year, suddenly, Ive worked with Phillip Glass at one end of the spectrum, as far as a classical composer. And then suddenly I end up with Marcin and P.T., who go We loved your work on Dredd. We dont want to do the same thing as that, but we really really like that style as a starting point.

And its funny, because youve suddenly got the three of us, and its not a case of trying to work out Well, thats Marcins cue. Thats P.T.s cue. Thats Pauls cue, in the same way of working out Well, thats Phillips cue, or thats Pauls cue. Its a case of trying to write a soundtrack thats really fluid, thats all in the same world, and still sounds really cool.

And I think the thing with Cyberpunk, in the question of What style is it? I would say that its hardcore electronica. And there is hardcore electronica, but its not this kind of dance music or EDM. And weve got Russian synths and Polish synths and American synths. There are loads of synths going on there, but theres also humanity. Because theres a lot of humanity in Cyberpunk, in a very different way from Tales From the Loop, obviously. But theres stuff that happens in [really emotional] moments, as well as, obviously, full-on chase sequences going on. So weve got real instances of going over-the-top with it, but there are some really haunting bits as well. Youve got all this stuff that goes on you really kind of create an emotional connection to those characters. I would say its hardcore electronica, with a lot of humanity.

Thats amazing. Im so excited to hear that, because everything you just described sounds fascinating.

Well, Jenna. Its weird parallel with the way that Phillip and I wrote Tales From the Loop, because it was kind of the same Game music is as much technical as it is anything else, because with film, youre getting the hit points. The guns always pulled out at the same point or two people kiss at the same time. Whereas with game music, its obviously technical, but people dont do things at the same pace. Someone might go and do something and come back. No two people are going to play a game at exactly the same pace. So youre creating, almost, a series of loops. And there are hit points and trigger points when things happen, which then kick off another loop. And a lot of it is about making it sound like its one piece so that people dont notice. 

And on top of that, youve got elements of Blade Runner, youve got elements of that 80s stuff. But at the same time, I dont want it to be a pastiche of 80s stuff. Thats been done before, so often. Thats why we spent the first month or so of the soundtrack trading synthesizers and trading keyboards and going Well, what sound are you using? Why dont we try this? Why dont we try that? And its a testament to one of the synths that we use, that weve all got, that none of us are using in the same way. I think because none of us know how to use it, its too complicated. [laughs] 

We literally woke up one morning, and we were bouncing ideas off of each other going What do you think of this for this part? And they were like How the hell did you get that sound? And I was like With this keyboard. And they were like Ive got that keyboard, and it doesnt sound anything like it. And I think when youve got that. instead of relying on people to just give a sound, because thats just lazy writing but using it as part of your creative process, its f-cking fun. The three of us have been working on the soundtrack for two or three years, back and forth. And by the end of it, we genuinely wanted to create a unique sound that no ones heard before. And I think, fingers crossed theres only a few people that have been entrusted with listening to some of it, theyve all gone Bloody hell. This is unreal. Were really excited to release it to the world, but weve got to finish it first. 

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.