Nicholas Britell Talks to StarWars.com About Creating New Sounds for Andor

StarWars.com: The series is a really grounded take on Star Wars. As the composer, how much does that impact your work?

Nicholas Britell: It’s a good question. I was always such a huge fan of [Andor showrunner] Tony [Gilroy]’s, for years as a writer and also as a director. Michael Clayton is one of my wife’s and my favorite movies. So I think the idea, from very early on, even before I joined, was that they were going to actually give me a lot of freedom to create a unique musical landscape. They really felt it was important to have, given the tone and, especially given how the show starts, there’s a gritty, darker vibe to things. Tony and I talked about that. Tony felt very strongly that he really wanted it to have its own musical language, hopefully.

Now, of course, you know, I’m a huge Star Wars fan and as well, and I think for me it was important really to do maybe two things. I wanted it to have that sense of self, of its own feeling. But at the same time, my hope was, of course, that throughout there’s still a sense of the spirit of the Star Wars universe. The Star Wars universe has such an amazing, timeless sense and feeling. And I think, hopefully, especially certain themes as we go, I wanted to feel like we were still in this world, you know what I mean? Even if it is a very distinct sound.

StarWars.com: Obviously with Star Wars, John Williams’ music is so well known. Was it hard to go for this more somber tone and avoid the more romantic style that we associate with Star Wars?

Nicholas Britell: You know, it was interesting. I think because it was presented to me from the very beginning as like, ‘Let’s really reimagine this,’ I think that gave me the confidence. And also, [Lucasfilm president] Kathy Kennedy and Tony were so supportive of that. They really encouraged that. It was never an issue of running into that direction and then saying, ‘Oh, I can’t.’ You know, it was more just actually, really starting from the very beginning of, ‘What is Andor and what do we want to feel?’ And, you know, ‘What is the sense?’ I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but there’s certain on-camera music — there’s a lot of on-camera music in the series, as you know, a lot of elements where there score and music and sequences are happening at the same time on-camera. Some of those elements in particular connected to Marva and Ferrix, those were places that I really started. ‘What is that feeling?’ And dealing with what was right in front of me there. You know, what is Ferrix? Who are these people? Who is Cassian? I think the starting place, interestingly, with some of these themes was very much that I wanted the music to have its own feeling of discovery. We don’t really know where we are at the beginning of this. And Cassian himself, as we discover, he’s learning who he is as well, throughout the series. There is a sense of discovery of self throughout this show. And so, I think the music, at the very beginning and like, even the first main title theme, for example, there’s like, a question. There’s a pulse, and then there’s another, and it sort of grows, and you are learning what it is as it happens, and then it has a crescendo and then it cuts out.

So I think, in a way, there’s almost a metaphor there for the show. This idea that we are learning, the characters are learning. It’s something a little different. It’s something new and the music is, hopefully, providing a sense of that sense of learning and discovery as well.

StarWars.com: I was looking at your body of work. I don’t know that you’ve done sci-fi or space fantasy before. 

Nicholas Britell: I have not. I’ve always wanted to.

StarWars.com: What was it like, jumping into this?

Nicholas Britell: It was amazing. It was so exciting. Look, to be a composer and to get this type of an opportunity, it’s humbling, it’s exciting. It’s everything. It’s everything, and above all, I think, I have to say it again, just because it’s so true, the support and the confidence and the care with which everyone approached this project, from Kathy Kennedy to Tony Gilroy, to the entire production crew, everyone was so supportive and wonderful to work with. It gives you this sense of possibilities, like, ‘We can really try stuff here.’ And that’s a wonderful feeling, I think, certainly for a composer.

I incorporated, right from the very top of the show, analog synthesizers. There’s a lot of created sounds. There’s a lot of synthesizers, there’s a lot of atmospheric elements I’ll bring in. In addition to a 50-piece string orchestra, brass, percussion. It gets very large scale, for sure. But also, it has the ability to, hopefully, be very inward and very dark and very particular as well.

StarWars.com: Yeah. I was going to ask about the instrumentation, because I thought I was hearing electronic sounds.

Nicholas Britell: For sure. Oh, yeah.

StarWars.com: Can you talk about bringing that blend [of instruments and techniques] into it? 

Nicholas Britell: Yeah. Again, one of the fun things here was that chance to experiment. Tony is a musician as well. Tony was in a band years ago. I mean, Tony has a real sense of music. And so, it’s wonderful working with someone who has that sense. Not that it’s about the language, because I actually think a lot of time, musical terminology isn’t necessarily helpful in talking about music. But I think knowing your feelings is so important and knowing when you hear something, what do you feel? And Tony’s very good at that. He’s very good at, when he hears something, he clocks how he feels. And so if I say, ‘Oh, do you want something that feels kinda like this?’ Or, ‘Do you like this kind of a feeling?’ And he immediately will say, ‘Yeah, I dig that. Let’s follow that.’ And so that was very helpful early on when I was trying to put the palette together, because at times, I thought it was very important that we do have the ability to go into rich strings. But at the same time, perhaps, as you’ll hear, certainly in the beginning of the series, it’s also really important that we have really close mic’d individual strings at times on the cellos, for example. Hopefully you hear the bow on the strings — you hear the closeness of that. Because one word that Tony would use that I really felt a lot, especially when we’re alone with Cassian at times, there’s a sense of intimacy there. There’s a sense of contemplation. There’s a sense of loneliness at times, for sure. And I think it’s important that the music itself reflect those things. There are times where we go huge, where it’s probably the biggest sound I’ve ever created. [Laughs.] But at the same time we also go really, really tiny and close. It’s really important to, hopefully, convey those feelings, and what Cassian is going through. Because he goes through a lot, as we know.

StarWars.com: I don’t know if it you’d call it a motif, but something I hear throughout the show is just these pulsating rhythms.

Nicholas Britell: Yes. Totally.

StarWars.com: That serve to kind of ratchet up the tension, I think. Can you talk about developing that and knowing where and when to place it?

Nicholas Britell: Absolutely. There’s a sort of pulse motif that you hear right from the very top of the first opening title theme. There’s a couple layers of them. There’s one that’s very low, that’s almost like a signal kind of a pulse, you know? And then there’s a higher pulse which comes in, which is a synth pulse. And those, oftentimes, presage some type of Cassian motif, I would say. Not always, but that’s sort of a signal sometimes that this is about [Cassian]. Cassian has various motifs around him, but I always think of themes as being about relationships. I don’t often think of themes as being like, if you see this, you hear this. I usually think about what’s happening, what’s the relationship of things, and maybe a theme connects things. Or when you hear something and then something new comes in play, you’re like, ‘Oh, now we’re connecting that new thing with this.’ It’s about dynamic connections.

There are certain motifs that I think of as kind of about Andor the series itself. Cassian, for sure, but Andor as a kind of universal feeling, in a way. So the pulse sometimes implies a broader element like that. And then there’s, obviously, real percussion at times. And then there are a huge variety of other themes, for sure. But yeah, that initial theme that you hear right at the very top of the first main title, for sure. I’ll also add that all the main titles are different. The first main title sort of sets the stage a bit, but each main title is a variation on that theme. And each time as we go, it’s related sometimes to what we’ve just experienced, and sometimes to what we’re about to experience.

Read the interview in full at StarWars.com, and listen to the music from the first four episodes of Andor available now on select streaming services.