“It just kind of impulsive and Sam was like, ‘Okay cool, I’m going to record you in two days.
“I think just loved merging those two worlds and to be like, ‘Here’s the music appearing in the physical form,'” Labrinth says. The cameo came about after Labrinth’s manager, Adam Leber, suggested the idea to Levinson - before “I’m Tired” even existed. Labrinth sings “I’m Tired” as Rue hugs him tightly, imagining that she is instead embracing her late father. Labrinth’s appearance in the show comes while Rue (Zendaya) is having a drug-induced come-to-Jesus moment in which she fantasizes that she is in a church. The song is particularly special to Labrinth for two reasons: he got to make a cameo in Episode 4 to sing it live, and he wrote it with Zendaya and Levinson. However, there are plenty of new tracks in Season 2, notably “I’m Tired,” a gospel-inspired song prominently featuring Labrinth’s powerful vocals backed by organs. “We’re not over it, and I feel like the audience isn’t either.” “I actually remade music for the whole show, like I was doing different cues and stuff, but it just kind of felt like it was okay for this music to be there,” he says. So it’s only fitting that Labrinth and Levinson decided to repeat some of the same motifs and themes in Season 2, such as “Nate Growing Up” in Episode 1 and “All for Us” in Episode 6. 19, the hashtag “Euphoria” has about 26 billion views and songs from the Season 1 score like “Forever” and “Still Don’t Know My Name” have over one million videos under them, each. Part of that is no doubt thanks to TikTok, where Gen Z has taken to discussing the show constantly, often with one of Labrinth’s songs playing in the background.
“As soon as Season 2 came out, the first score was, like, in the charts.” “The music’s not over for people, and I think that’s what we figured out in the show,” Labrinth says. And as Season 2 has taken off, with its first episode marking the strongest digital premiere of any episode of an HBO series, enthusiasm for the show’s original music has only grown stronger.
Over the past two seasons, Labrinth’s atmospheric, genre-twisting score has become just as much a phenomenon as “Euphoria” itself, earning him a 2020 Emmy win for outstanding music and lyrics for “All for Us” as well as a music composition for a series nomination. I use every angle of what I do to convey an energy.” “I would maybe look at myself in that lane, where it’s like, I get inspired with a song as well as an orchestral piece or a sound.
His first thought upon receiving the news? “That list isn’t very short,” he cracks.“There was a time when composers and producers were almost in the same place,” he says. Hart, who has never won a major industry award, was surprised to find himself on Oscar’s shortlist of 15 finalists for nomination. It was a long process, starting with his first song in August 2018 and finishing final revisions in October 2020. Surprisingly, he also added the sounds of the Prophet Rev2 synthesizer, mostly for “creating atmosphere” in the spirit of Wendy Carlos’ ominous opening music for Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” A theme for his lover Essel (Alicia Vikander) and one for King Arthur (Sean Harris) and the sword Excalibur are also heard. Gawain earned “a very playful, slightly off-kilter melody that reprises several times in the first section of the film,” but that immature-Gawain theme disappears as he departs on his adventure-filled quest and grows up over the coming months. Much of this was recorded prior to the pandemic, but when the March 2020 lockdown forced a postponement of the film’s release date, director Lowery began recutting his film, leading to multiple revisions in the score - mostly accomplished in Hart’s studio and with the help of other musicians and singers recording remotely. Hart also played all the violins and violas in the score, and augmented those with a six-member London cello ensemble. Other choices included the use of a quartet of recorders, a seven-voice choir of sopranos and altos, and an ancient stringed instrument called the nyckelharpa, which Hart had specially built and learned to play (“it sounds like a rustic viola,” he says).