Interview with the Vampire (Original Television Series Soundtrack)

Daniel Hart agreed to score Interview with the Vampire after being requested by showrunner Rolin Jones, with whom he had worked for the pilot episode of The Exorcist,[2][3] stating that Jones is "one of the best people to work for" and knows more about experimental and contemporary classical music than anyone he's ever met in Hollywood.[2][3] Hart and Jones spoke at length on what kind of instrumentation, melodies, and rhythms would suit the three main characters best, by sharing a "palette library" of music they were each interested in, with regard to the time period the characters lives in and their desire to reflect the music of New Orleans in 1910, especially African-American contributions to it.[1][2]

Hart worked on the score while doing the orchestral recording for Peter Pan & Wendy (2023),[4][5] which commenced from March 2022.[3] The score was recorded in four studios in Vienna, London, and Los Angeles, with Hart attending the venues outside the United States remotely.[6][7] A classically trained violinist, Hart played sixty percent of strings in the Vienna orchestra and the rest of the strings in the score.[2] The soundtrack consists of 19 tracks, including "The Sun Gives Life to Everything But Us", which he composed together with Shruti Kumar, and "Come to Me", which features a vocal performance by Lestat de Lioncourt actor Sam Reid.[2][6] The latter and "For a Young Violinist" were featured in the series as songs Lestat wrote for his lovers.[2][8] In an interview with ScreenRant, Hart said that his experience in writing in different perspectives and styles while scoring for The Green Knight (2021) had helped him writing in Lestat's point of view. Hart also chose "Vicious" as his personal favorite track from the soundtrack,[2] in which violin solo performed by Synchron Stage's concertmaster Damir Oraščanin.[9] He stated that the track's almost six-minute duration had given him a chance to "really develop something and expand it", and that he felt to have "unlocked something related to the show and to the characters".[2]

The track "Overture", containing the score's two main themes,[10] was shared by the series' official Twitter account on October 1, 2022, a day before the series premiered.[11] The soundtrack was made available for streaming and digital download by Milan Records twenty days later and was released on CD on March 3, 2023.[12][13]

The score was praised by critics and has been described as "operatic",[14] "swooning",[15] "haunting",[16] "elegant, ominous",[17] "absolutely gorgeous",[18] and "something out of Old Hollywood".[19] Comparing the score with Elliot Goldenthal's work for the 1994 film adaptation, Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK commented that Hart followed his predecessor's strategy: turning the whole score into a celebration of "classical opulence" and not shying away from the darker and more brutal side of the story, occasionally engaging in "some harsh and challenging dissonances". Broxton later summarized the score as "outstanding" and named it as one of the best television scores in 2022. He stated that through this score, Hart "has offered a new spin" that is "fresh and invigorating", and that this score proved that Hart "has the talent to wield enormous orchestral forces and write staggeringly beautiful thematic content".[10] Steve Greene of IndieWire listed Hart's work as the eighth best TV score of 2022, stating that Hart provided both "tragedy and romance" and could "tiptoe his way between something full and fierce and a haunting music-box feel".[14] Ben Bishop of Comic Book Resources called the music in the series "an essential character", stating: "Interview with the Vampire manages both [diegetic and incidental music] carefully and brilliantly, making music just as important to the characters as the viewers, even though they hear very different music. [...] It uses it to create a story just as informed by music as the culture it shows on-screen, blending reality with myth so much as to make the most fantastical part of the story not the vampires, but the music."[20] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek wrote that the score is "exciting enough to move transitioning street thug Louis to perform a soft-shoe duet, and classically-trained musician Lestat to put a boogie-woogie rhythm to a Bach figured bass".[21]

The series also featured song "Home Is Where You’re Happy" by the American criminal and musician Charles Manson at the end of the episode "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart", which was listed in Vulture's top 10 best use preexisting pop music on TV in 2022.[22][23]

Credits are adapted from the soundtrack's liner notes.[6]

• Soundtrack of the 1994 Interview with the Vampire film