close
close

‘Hazbin Hotel’ Composers Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg Talk About the Creative Opportunities This Unique Animated Series Provides – Awardsdaily

Posted on by angelo






Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg are the songwriting team behind Amazon Prime’s animated series Hazbin Hotel. Having previously worked with showrunner Vivienne Medrano, they knew Hazbin Hotel would have great creative opportunities. This creativity drawn from top-notch experience in season one will continue in season two.

Awards Daily: With songs relating to the plot or characters of a given episode, what is the process of working with the writers to create the music?

Sam Haft: I think a big part of the process of each song is figuring out what the context of the story of the song is. Story beats precede and follow. What plot-relevant information it must convey. This is something we approach with each song, looking at a series of beats it needs to hit. Then we manage that on each piece of music.

Awards Daily: What is your man’s collaborative process for creating music?

Andrew Underberg: It varies from song to song in a somewhat unusual way. One of us will start the chords or piano parts, then the other will jump in and come up with a melody, then the other will start writing lyrics. The first season we did a lot of work remotely, sharing a logic session and then going back and forth until a song was finished. To me, there’s nothing more satisfying than getting stuck on an idea and coming back the next day and finding Sam has finished it. We’re currently working on the second season and we’ve been in the same room more, which is really nice. But it doesn’t give that element of surprise.

Sam Haft: Andrew and I are fortunate to have a long history together. This is not the first time we have collaborated. We met when I was 14 and he was 16.

Awards Daily: Speaking of collaboration, this isn’t your first project with Vivienne Medrano. You also worked on his other show, Helluva Boss. What is it about his material that speaks to you so much?

Sam Haft: I think the element of surprise is one of the things that makes working on these shows so exciting. Because every time a new song is assigned, there’s really no limit to what it can be. It could be a flamenco song with elements of steampunk, it could be punk rock that also has to be operatic. The hodgepodge of styles is something you can’t prepare for, which is one of the things that makes it so exciting. There’s always a mysterious ingredient every time we start a new song.

Andrew Underberg: This is in response to Vivienne’s direction that this character is supposed to sound this way, and it’s a duet with this other character who usually sings in this genre. So that’s where these unusual mergers come from. Vivienne is also a huge fan of musical theater so she’s very keen that the songs do what they’re supposed to do in musical theater, which is a lot of fun for us.

Awards Daily: I don’t know if this is something that happens on your end, but with Alastor’s voice still having the distortion of the sound of an old radio, is that something that affects the way he sings or the way you should make music?

Sam Haft: I would say to some extent. In season 1, when we were writing Alastor’s music, we didn’t include the effect. We’ve started doing that now in season two and I think it affects the songwriting in terms of the perception of range. Amir Talai, who plays the role of Alastor, has an astonishing vocal range and is an extremely versatile performer. But it’s not just about the notes he can hit, it’s also about the notes that will sound optimal with that transatlantic accent, with that radio filter, and that’s something we’ve definitely kept in mind. the mind. Alastor is one of the variables we’ve got a handle on now, but while working on season two recently we had a case with a character who had an accent and we realized that meant any rhymes we wrote had to be different. . Because his vowel pronunciation was totally different from ours when we were writing it.

Daily Rewards: We continue with Alastor (he was one of my favorite characters), his creepy theme about staying gone, and the final moments of season 1 where he sings about dying, then about his plot. I’m just curious if you can say anything about creating the elements of his voice there?

Andrew Underberg: Thinking about the overall aesthetic of Alastor, one of the things that stands out to me is that it doesn’t feel like we need to be in a popcorn structure. In fact, it’s the exact opposite of that, letting meandering melodies transport us harmonically to strange places, which is certainly happening in both of these places. These two moments are his bad side when he doesn’t try to smile.

Sam Haft: I completely agree! Alastor is one of the characters whose sinister moments are all about leaning into dissonance. There’s, like Andrew said, more winding melodies, there’s more dissonant chords, there’s a scary 13th that we use at the end of Stayed Gone. We definitely try to play up the creep factor musically.

Awards Daily: As someone who doesn’t know music as well as he should, is there anything you found particularly interesting or challenging this season?

Sam Haft: I would say our work for season two was much more piano-focused. But in Season 1, it was in equal measure writing songs while playing chords on a guitar or a piano. For the second season, we kept the final production much more in mind as we worked on these songs. So there was a lot more use of the piano in the writing process and we were a lot more deliberate in arranging the orchestral choices.

Andrew Underberg: The first season, we were still learning the casting and the best place for their voices. The recording schedule is very limited in terms of the time they have to rehearse. So it was really learning on the fly the first season. Now, for the second season, we have a better idea of ​​who sounds best where, and we also have a more personal relationship with all the talent. So it’s easier to write for them.

Sam Haft: I completely agree. I think part of it is that it adds another dimension to songwriting, that it’s not just, okay, this is the plot point, this is what Charlie must do, this is the style in which she lives. Erika works? How will Erika Henningsen read this line? Now it’s not just about keeping the characters in mind, but also the performers.

Andrew Underberg: When we wrote “Sorry,” we had no idea what Sir Pentious would sound like.

Sam Haft: I knew it was going to be Alex Brightman voicing him, so I thought maybe you’d do something juicy like Beetlejuice. But Sir Pentious ended up being so different. So now the references, as we write these songs and put together demos with scratch vocals, we have a very clear idea of ​​how each one sounds. Also, because there are so many ensemble pieces throughout the show, how does everyone sound together. It’s another dimension that has definitely changed the way we write songs with the new season.

Awards Daily: final thoughts?

Andrew Underberg: For me, when I think about what makes this show special, it’s Viv’s spirit and the trust she puts in us. Which is not to say that she holds her feet to the fire if something doesn’t go as planned and we’ve strayed from what she’s looking for. (laughs) I’m often impressed by her imagination and the creative direction she brings to the whole show, especially on the musical side where we get our marching orders.