When music supervisor Gabe Hilfer was asked to join the White Lotus team for the show’s second season, he jumped at the chance.
“It’s cool to be a part of a project that is water-cooler talk,” Hilfer tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a decent amount of work and we use a lot of music, but it is such a fulfilling show because it’s just really good and everybody is a professional.”
But working on a zeitgeisty show with a passionate fan base means that water-cooler talk can turn testy from time to time — as was the case when Season Three premiered and the audience was treated to a brand-new theme song. The show’s Instagram was flooded with grief-stricken comments, such as, “Respectfully, bring back the theme song wtf is this?” and “Um crime” (with two crying emoji faces).
“I think the fact that people seem to be really noticing it is a testament to how popular it was last season,” Hilfer says, “and how the music is so integral that people really latched onto the theme for last year.”
Hilfer, 48, who’s worked on other beloved (and occasionally divisive) shows like Mare of Easttown and Ozark, as well as movies like Creed, Crazy Rich Asians, and the Oscar-nominated Nickel Boys, takes us through his White Lotus experience.
How did you get involved with The White Lotus?
A good friend and collaborator of mine, Janet Lopez, worked on Season One and then she wasn’t available for Season Two. She asked if I would be interested. There have been two shows in my life where someone called me and asked, “Would you be interested?” and when I found out the names of both shows I just said, “Yes.” They said, “Do you want to know the fee, the schedule, or anything like that?” And I was like, “No, it’s fine. I’m definitely going to do it. I love this show so much I want to be a part of it.” One of them was Eastbound and Down and the other was White Lotus.
What is your collaboration process like with Mike White?
Since we knew this season was going to be in Thailand, it’s about immersing yourself in Thai music and figuring out all the different styles, genres, big artists, and the people who I can use as a resource. Coming into this, it’s not like I was an expert in Thai music, so you go and try to become as close to an expert as you can, musically speaking, and find people who can help. We found some great people in Thailand who were more than happy to work with us and help us contact some of the artists. It was also about getting a whole big stockpile of music, so that when we got postproduction we could say, we need something high energy, or sort of slower and spiritual or different types of genres. It’s a lot of trial and error. We really want to lean in, own these musical moments, and turn them into montages. We’re not afraid to mix it high and have music be a really integral part of the show.
How do you and the show’s composer, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, work together?
Cristo is his own creative force. He’s writing the music, and I’m not giving notes on the score. That’s his lane, and I’m in the other lane, but we collaborate and overlap since we’re both part of the music team. We’re kind of two sides of the musical coin. In the spotting sessions, we’re looking at these locked episodes, we talk about the music that’s in there, and we discuss if we want to change or keep it or how we can improve on it.
The new theme song has turned out to be a big topic of conversation! Can you tell us about what went into crafting that?
The song changes every season, and it reflects the tone, mood, and the themes of the season. The theme songs for the first two seasons were a little bit more related creatively, but they’re totally different songs. Season Three is about spirituality, and it’s meant to be reflective of that. I think that people are just noticing it more because it’s considerably different than last season. Last season’s theme song was so beloved that now people are like, “What happened to my favorite stuffed animal? You guys changed it.” I will say it grows on you. I have a feeling by Episode Three, Four, or Five, people will have adjusted to it.
Mike gives Cristo a lot of creative freedom, especially with the themes. He’ll say, “How do you want to interpret the theme this year? How do you want to do it?” They go back and forth and they have a conversation about it. It’s a whole process. One of the things about the show is they’re very aware of not repeating themselves. Reinvention and creating the overarching new themes every season are important, and I think the music certainly reflects that. And there will be a new theme next season, too.
The music in The White Lotus is beloved by viewers and has become so integral to the fandom. How do you see the role that music plays in the show?
So much time is spent on the scenery and the aesthetics, and I think music plays a part of that. We really leaned into Italian music last year, in Season One it was a lot of Hawaiian music, and this year we’re doing a lot of Thai music to help transport the audience to the location they’re filming in. That’s very deliberate. When the editorial team and the producers embrace music as a key component, where there’s constantly music playing and it’s emotionally affecting you, it becomes a part of the show just like the sets, the wardrobes, and all of those things that bring you into these people’s lives. I’ve worked on plenty of projects where music is important but maybe should be heard and not seen. But this isn’t like that. Mike [White] loves music. He loves embracing it and figuring out how we can get the emotional response from the audience with the music that we’re choosing.
Is there a particular moment from this season of The White Lotus that you enjoyed working on the most?
In the first episode, when everyone is arriving at the hotel by boat, which is this long, three-and-a-half minute opening number, we used “Made in Thailand” by Carabao. That is a real moment. The authenticity of all the music is important to us, and making sure that it’s appropriate. Not everything is always from Thailand. We put a Khruangbin song in there that really fits creatively but then also a cover of “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath when Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character [Saxon Ratliff] is looming like a shark in the water, like hunting his prey. That’s a fun one. We talked early on about trying to get some covers that were done in Thai. There is another song coming up called “A Ba Ni Bi” in Episode Four, which is a cover of a song. We found it and loved it, then when we went to get approval we found out that it’s actually a cover of a song that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979. It was unexpected and fun because we chose it and honed in on it purely for its creative merit, and then when we dug deep and did some private investigating, we learned the real history of the song.
Did you feel any added pressure coming into Season Three after winning an Emmy for your work on the second season?
Not really. White Lotus is Mike White’s thing. It’s his vision, his story, he writes every episode, he directs every episode, he is in charge, and we’re following his creative vision. So Emmy or no Emmy, you’re there to make the music as good as the rest of the show is with its writing, the casting, the cinematography, and the score. All of those elements in the show are so good, the pressure is really to just up your game so that it mirrors the quality of the show overall.
You’ve worked on so many great shows and films — in the last year alone, there was No Good Deed, Invincible, Blitz, and Nickel Boys, which is nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. What was it like to work on that film?
There’s the end product and then there’s how the sausage is made. Sometimes the end product can be great but the process is difficult. That was not the case with Nickel Boys. Ramell Ross is a visionary director, and the producers of that film are some of my closest collaborators, whose commitment to making artistic, thoughtful, and meaningful movies is unparalleled. It feels great when a film is acknowledged like that.
What other projects do you have coming up that you’re excited about?
I’m doing this show called Task with Brad Inglesby, who did Mare of Easttown and that will be released this year. I believe we’re pretty far along on what’s been shot. That’s a fantastic show. And there’s another one called The Studio with Seth Rogen, which is a little [Hollywood] inside-baseball that comes out at the end of March. Righteous Gemstones’ final season comes at the end of the month. There’s also a lot of stuff that’s early days. Chris Mundy [who created Ozark] has a new show Lanterns, which is another HBO project about DC Comics’ Green Lantern that he wrote with Damon Lindelof. That just started shooting and is going to be incredible.
From Rolling Stone US
