The TV show Severance debuted on Apple TV+ in February 2022. It was created by writer Dan Erickson, and developed into a series by director and executive producer Ben Stiller. He directed the pilot and most of the episodes. After the first season came out, Severance was nominated for 14 Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series, and it won two Emmys: for Main Title Design and for Musical Composition. I love this show, and the main title sequence is incredible. I was so excited to get to talk to the composer, Theodore Shapiro, about how he made the main title theme music. In this episode, you’ll hear how that theme first came into existence in a totally different form, and then, how Teddy re-imagined it to become the final version.

You can buy or stream the Severance main title theme here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Rob Moose and Gabriel Cabezas – strings
Oliver Latta aka Extraweg – main title design
Theodore Shapiro and Ben Stiller had previously worked together on Dodgeball, Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Zoolander 2
Adam Scott
Temp track
Moog Model D
Bobby McFerrin

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Sasami is a singer, songwriter and producer who grew up in Los Angeles. But now she’s based in Northern California, and as you’ll hear in this episode, that’s significant. Sasami went to school for classical French horn. She was in the band Cherry Glazerr, and she’s had a lot of collaborations with other artists on their projects and her own. Collaboration is at the heart of the song that I talked to her about for this episode. It’s called “In Love with a Memory,” and it features Clairo on vocals, and it was co-produced with Grammy-winning producer Rostam. The song is on Sasami’s third album, Blood on the Silver Screen, which is out March 2025. Coming up, you’ll hear the original voice memos that she recorded for this song back in the fall of 2022. You’ll also hear the demo she made in Garageband after that, and then how she and Rostam turned that demo into the final version, a duet with Clairo.

You can buy or stream “In Love With A Memory” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Graham Brooks – guitarist
Drew Tachine – drummer
Squeeze – Sasami’s second album
David Lynch
GarageBand software
Haim
Licorice Pizza
Hand Habits and King Tuff
Thelma & Louise

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Kevin Barnes started of Montreal in 1996 in Athens, Georgia. The Sunlandic Twins came out in 2005; it was their seventh album. And I remember when that album came out, how it felt like they were suddenly everywhere. And the breakout song from that breakout album was “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games.” And so, for this episode, I spoke to Kevin Barnes about how that song came together, and what it meant to them then, and what it means to them now.

You can buy or stream “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Satanic Panic in the Attic – of Montreal’s 2004 album
Reason software, Cubase software
Prince and Duran Duran
Bryan Poole – former of Montreal band member
Ray Davies and The Kinks
Edward Gorey, Tristan and Isolde, Oedipus
Afrobeat and Fela Kuti
Pointillism

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