It’s no surprise to say that once again, Anthony Breznican brings us an illuminating interview this time with The Mandalorian composer Ludwig Göransson as he discusses his process creating the music of the awards-nominated Disney Plus show.
I thought it was striking that you have a show that’s about this loner character, and here, the score, which sounds like a great many people, was actually performed by its composer. Was there was a loner aspect to the recording of this theme? Is that a fair way to look at it?
Yeah. That’s fair. You’re following this character throughout the show, and he wears a helmet, so he doesn’t have any facial expressions. I’m the facial expression. The music is the facial expression, telling how he feels going through this journey. That was my start. And I created these songs, but that was just me playing all the instruments. That was the skeleton of the score.
How did it evolve as time went on?
When I started receiving the episodes and saw the scope of the show and the different planets they went to, and all the different creatures, I started expanding the sound, adding the tech elements, a lot of synthesizers, a lot of program beats and modern production. And then the third element is a huge orchestra, which I wanted to get the soul of Star Wars. On top of the theme, in the middle of the video, you see the world expanding. And you hear the orchestra coming in, and you see the ship. And you hear the horns and the trumpets.
