“The White Lotus” theme song has always been uniquely recognizable, but the Season 2 theme catapulted the score to new heights, as the Renaissance club track took over the Internet and became a popular needle drop around the world. It might come as a shock, then, to everyone that’s danced to the song that composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer initially thought the Season 2 theme was “terrible.”
In an interview on Variety “Artisans,” presented by HBO, Tapia de Veer explained how he wrote the beloved song “Renaissance” and how he came around to realizing he had captured something special.
Tapia de Veer wasn’t initially prepared to craft a second theme song, since “The White Lotus” was originally envisioned as a limited series. Due to its success, they were renewed for Season 2, and creator Mike White requested the theme song include Renaissance elements and Italian opera, given the season was set in Sicily.
“I took a little time to make an intro that would have those elements with things like a little harp, and some opera singing and some orchestral beats…And once I had that intro I started figuring out how to bring back the elements that are recognizable from the first season, which are the voices.”
That unmistakable yodeling was featured in the first season’s theme.
“[The original singer] wasn’t there when I made the demo but I did take her voice. It was still her voice that I played on the keyboard,” Tapia de Veer explained.
Of course, the Season 2 theme is distinctive from the Season 1 theme in that it features a dance beat that becomes more and more intense as the song nears its end. Tapia de Veer broke down how he reached that climactic peak that combines EDM and acoustic elements with that famous yodeling.
“After the voices, it felt like it could become bigger. I’m a big fan of the way [Paolo] Sorrentino uses dance music and then switches to some really beautiful classical music,” he said.
“All the elements start slowly changing into an electronic thing. I was just tripping, really, when I started making that beat. It really felt like being in a club and just celebrating with tons of people,” Tapia de Veer continued.
It’s understandable that the song became such a hit in clubs given the way that Tapia de Veer slowly built up the infectious energy of the song; every four beats he wanted to increase the energy.
“When the kick comes in and all of a sudden we’re in a club, it just felt natural that these voices are so powerful, that every bar felt like I could go up one step and then another step. The next step it felt like we reached some kind of peak of energy and then you realize the next bar, you could still reach another one and then another one, so it keeps going,” he said.
Tapia de Veer also discussed how perfectionism can sometimes impede the songwriting process. He wrote “Renaissance” and didn’t think it was his best work, but when he sent it over to “The White Lotus” team a month later, they loved it.
“What often happens is we start perfecting things in the studio…and generally speaking things become complicated and too brainy and somehow you start strangling the life out of that…I think there’s an energy that people [liked about ‘Renaissance’] and it has nothing to do with whatever perfection or skills you have in the studio. It’s just a very spontaneous thing, grabbing a moment, and once it’s there, don’t touch it, just let it breathe.”
As for season 3 of “White Lotus,” the composer is pulling inspiration from an interesting place, TikTok.
“I hear interesting things in TikTok or YouTube sometimes,” he explained. “I think that the best song I heard in the last few years that I can remember is people harmonizing to a cat on TikTok. There’s a cat, and somebody put some piano and then some girls started harmonizing, and then there’s all these versions harmonizing this cat, it’s super moving and so spontaneous and fresh that this is grabbing a lot more my attention than super-produced pop music.”
“I’m a fan of pop music, but it feels like it’s been a while that I feel like something has surprised me,” he continued. “So I’ve been looking a lot into these eight-second bits of music that people [are] putting together and harmonizing a cat or stupid, silliest things. To me, it’s like a gold mine, it’s just moving to me. It feels like you are actually in contact with a person.”
Bring on the singing cats. Watch the full conversation above.
