Fans of the Syfy series Helix understand that the music chosen for the show is its own character, creating a surreal landscape underneath each episode's macabre and bizarre scenes.
Behind that musical score is Reinhold Heil, once a member of the Nina Hagen Band, as well as the producer of '80s anthem song "99 Luftballons." Heil is a Golden Globe-nominated composer who has written music for film and TV, including Run Lola Run, One Hour Photo, Deadwood and Cloud Atlas.
In this exclusive interview, Heil recently spoke about his experience working on Helix and what his process is like when composing music for each scene.
We also have an exclusive sneak peek at some intense music from this week's episode of Helix:
The music in Helix is more relevant than on many other TV shows. How do you approach scoring scenes for the series?
There are certainly a lot of weird and unexpected sounds in this show. And every once in a while I get asked to do special and uncharacteristic things for the score. For instance, I did a rendition of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" in episode six in season one and also another classical piece in episode four in the second season.
Of course, I also made the main title, which is very easy listening and recurs throughout the show. For Helix, there is definitely this aspect of music counterbalancing what is going on in the show, but also there is of course a lot of underscore. That is the main part of my work, probably 90%.
I thought that the underscoring was going to change a lot from the first to second season, but as it turns out, it didn't change that dramatically. The second season has a bit more of an acoustic flavor because of the different setting, although those sounds always go through some sort of technical treatment. The sci-fi aspect and the synthesizers never completely go away even though we have a setting that looks somewhat 19th century.
Everything in the laboratory is very low tech, so the change in visuals and vibe of the show is definitely reflected in my choice of sounds. But even with acoustics, you can be weird and jarring. My favorite aspect about working on this show is that the approach to music and sound is so unconventional.
This season of Helix sees a change of scenery. Did that change the angle from which you viewed the music for season 2?
Yes, it did very much. But I always try to keep things as consistent as possible. So I write themes for characters and bring them back. I like to get an overview and look at the entire season as one big movie. The good thing is that I can look back at season one and see what has changed and how that should influence my palette and choice of sounds. Sometimes not every character gets specific themes. Sometimes they are just motifs and sometimes just interesting sound choices that are consistently used for different aspects of the story.
Obviously, if you go from a high tech research facility in the Arctic Circle to an isolated, primitive Island inhabited by a cult that lives in a monastery, that has to affect the choice of sounds, but it doesn't mean the score has to be more conventional. It just means it has to sound a little more organic than season one.
Do the song choices for each episode (such as "Do You Know The Way to San Jose?") affect how you score specific episodes?
No, they don't. I think it is very important that they don't because if I were to refer to the source music in the score, it wouldn't be as effective as it is. I think the whole point is that the source music is supposed to run counter to the rest of the score.
In rare cases, the producers might have the desire to license a song that turns out to be too expensive or otherwise impossible to get the rights to. Then I have to generate something that fulfills the same purpose as their desired song. In these cases, I obviously try to make it sound different from the rest of the score. For example, in episode three in season two, Sarah is working in the lab and is very annoyed by all the low-tech equipment and the slow pace at which she is forced to work due to rules of caution. In the background, we hear a classical church organ piece, which I wrote, trying to annoy Sarah even more. Then Sarah starts breaking the rules, puts her earphones on and listens to hard rock music. That's a scene where two cues butt up against each other that have nothing to do with the rest of the score. If the licensing doesn't work out, then I'm asked to step in, which I did.
What is the most challenging thing you face when scoring music for Helix?
Occasionally, I might have a favorite piece of music but the showrunner has a different vision for the scene. It would be a mistake if I keep trying to convince him to take my piece just because I love it. That's just wasting his time. Sometimes you have to kill your darlings. And at the end of the day, I know I am here to help the showrunner realize his vision. That's sometimes challenging, but very gratifying, especially with a great showrunner like Steve Maeda.
Where would you like to see the music go in Season 3?
I have absolutely no idea where season three is going. It is impossible to think about the music without knowing the location of the show. Think about the differences between the Artic Biosystems lab in season one, the island setting in season two, and if season three were hypothetically set in Paris. The style of the show would have to be completely different. With Helix, in general, I think anything is possible, so who knows? It's definitely not the kind of series where once you find the sound of the show, you don't have to change it for 7 or 8 seasons!
If you could use one program or instrument on Helix what would it be?
If I had to restrict myself to just one program, it would have to be Logic Pro, a Digital Audio Workstation by Apple. It's possible to create incredible sounds using just Logic's internal instruments. Having said that, I don't think I would want to run Logic without Zebra by U-He, a synthesizer plugin, my favorite by far. Or Kontakt 5 by Native Instruments, which is a sampler that goes quite a bit deeper than the one that's built into Logic. These programs cover pretty much 90% of what I do. And all these programs and plugins are filled with my homemade samples and patches.
