Going west(world) of Westeros.
Warning: This interview contains spoilers fromWestworldseason 4.
Ramin Djawadiis booked and busy.
Composer Ramin Djawadi discusses the sounds of ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Westworld.'.Ollie Upton/HBO; John Johnson/HBO
He was the man to do it, having scored the now-famous orchestral melodies for the original series.
“I was on the original [Thrones] series for eight or nine years.
It’s very close to my heart,” Djawadi tells EW.
The roomies head to a restaurant, where Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) will go on a not-so-great blind date in ‘Westworld’ season 4.John Johnson/HBO
Do you feel that the score itself had a deeper connection to the story this season?
RAMIN DJAWADI: That’s a great point actually.
I think this season is a perfect example of how well sound and music score can work together.
Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) walks with Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) in HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon.'.Ollie Upton/HBO
At this point, you’ve done so many.
Have you developed a tried and true method of how you approach these specific covers start to finish?
What’s fun about the show is, we use them at different moments.
Sometimes it is more of a montage, so then the song plays out pretty straight as the original.
It always depends on where the scene is, and same with the instrumentation.
There’s such a variety of parameters with the future stuff [and] the Westworld stuff.
There’s so many different aspects to it, instrumentation-wise, that guides me.
And at the core, of course, is the piano, because that’s how it all started.
Do you get to choose all of the covers that are incorporated into the show?
I don’t choose them.
That’s left up to the showrunners.
We also have a music supervisor on board that makes suggestions.
That happens as Teddy is looking up at Christina and the end credits start to roll.
So, first of all, many times I don’t read the script.
I just come in when the show is shot.
So, I’m not sure if it was particularly written into the script.
It gets so epic when we see Teddy again, and she’s on the balcony.
The big thing was the emotion of the two of them and the history they have.
It just felt right to have a song like that instead of score.
Another one isMetallica’s “Enter Sandman.”
I’m curious what the decision there was for changing things up a little bit.
It’s exactly what you’re saying.
The idea was to change things up, because we felt we have done this twice.
So we thought, “Let’s just pick another classic, epic song.”
We landed on “Enter Sandman,” and also, clearly, didn’t go fully jazz.
But, especially in season 3 when it pushed into this future world, it became very synthetic.
Same with the songs and in the score itself, sometimes we use more synth.
You had two really subtle orchestral covers in season 4 that stood out to me.
Do you approach those the same?
They were very subtle.
People may not have even picked up on them if you didn’t point them out.
It’s interesting that you caught those and point them out.
A player could be playing the piano at the restaurant.
So I have to treat it very much like that.
It has to be a solo piece in the background.
It’s a lot harder to catch, but that’s the fun of it.
You have to look out for them.
So then it’s about memories.
There is always a meaning to the song.
“Enter Sandman,” I grew up with that song.
I’m a huge Metallica fan.
It seemed like a slightly different arrangement.
I wasn’t sure if that was intentional in that moment.
Very glad you’re pointing that out, because it also is kind of montage-y.
And I thought, “Well, we haven’t used the main title theme that much.”
And we tend to use the main title theme towards the end of the season always.
That’s why we have the drums and there’s guitars.
It’s a lot more edgy than the actual main title.
I can think of two things, actually.
One is Caleb’s daughter, the grown up version.
Her theme gets established very early on.
We did not want to give it away that we then get to meet [C] later.
I really enjoyed developing that.
How many times hasWestworldcovered Radiohead?
I lost track after five.
Actually, me too.
I don’t know.
But I definitely know that Radiohead is on the top of the list.
I think we have covered their songs the most.
And why that is?
Number 1, we’re huge fans of the band.
Everybody on theWestworldteam loves Radiohead.
It’s just great music.
It can’t beWestworldwithout a Radiohead cover.
That’s right, yeah.
Let’s pivot toHouse of the Dragon, which is coming up this weekend.
The main theme music, is that similar to what we’ve heard inGame of Thrones?
I don’t know if I really can comment on this yet at this point, to be honest.
I think that we unfortunately have to wait with that a little bit.
Do you have a general idea of when people will finally get to hear the main theme music?
What was your starting point forHouse of the Dragon?
I read the script [later].
I read it, and then shortly after HBO wrapped shooting, and then I got the episodes.
This is all about the Targaryens, so the big thing was to keep their sound and their themes.
Like I said earlier, the DNA, it needs to be connected.
That was a foundation.
I wanted to connect the two like that.
Definitely the sound that Daenerys had is tied to the Targaryens.
The sound is the same.
So, they’re the two separate themes, but sonically, they’re similar.
Were there specific instruments you were really excited to use forHouse of the Dragon?
What was important to me was to keep the general sound alive.
We’re back in Westeros."
That was always the idea.
No, not really.
The big difference is that we have new showrunners.
It’s notDavid BenioffandDan Weiss, it’sMiguel SapochnikandRyan Condal.
They might have a different vision.
We worked very closely together.
They are a part of my inspiration of where the score is heading.
House of the Dragonpremieres this Sunday on HBO and HBO Max.
The podcast launches Aug. 21.
