Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: cobra kai, Leo Birenberg, netflix, Zach Robinson

Cobra Kai Composers on Sekai Taikai, Scoring Narratives & Miyagi Scene

Cobra Kai composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson discussed scoring the Sekai Taikai, plot-driven themes, those Miyagi moments, and more.

Aside from the solid foundation Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald built off the existing The Karate Kid lore, the strong, balanced narratives, and epic returns, there's the epic score that helped set the mood for the series courtesy of composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, who were there from the beginning during the series' YouTube days. As the series preps for part three of its sixth and final season in February 2025, there's still more ass to kick as the Sekai Taikai reaches its conclusion. Birenberg and Robinson spoke to Bleeding Cool about how they scored the event to set itself apart from previous tournaments, devising the themes to the competing dojos not named "Cobra Kai" and "Miyagi-Do Karate," if the showrunners allow them to tease plot via their score, and what went into the epic Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) dream sequence in episode 10 "Eunjangdo."

How Cobra Kai Composers Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson Scored Dojos & Daniel-Miyagi Sequence

Bleeding Cool: Leo, Zach, what did you want to establish when you started working on season six? How did you want to make the Sekai Taikai more epic than previous tournaments in 'Cobra Kai?'

Birenberg: It's global in scale, so it must be bigger. Our main thought going into season six is like, "How are we going to?" We asked this every season is how we are going to make it bigger than last time? The story and universe are expanding, and we need to make that music feel like it matches both in terms of scope and stakes, which, as you know from watching, are life and death.

Robinson: Yeah [laughs] I agree.

When you devised the themes for the various dojos, what went into the thought process? Certain ones probably warranted their own more than others with the screen time, like the Iron Dragons. What inspired you for their themes?

Robinson: It was inspiring to watch as viewers of the show get to see fans witnessing these new dojos and get inspired by watching them do karate. We had a visceral reaction at the Iron Dragons reveal when we first watched that episode, so our goal was to translate our enthusiasm as fans and viewers into the score. Some of it was a lot easier, for example, when they're fighting the Dublin Thunder, we quickly went to like, "Okay, we have to have a Celtic theme going all fight. With iron dragons. They don't have a world music flavor; we wanted to have something aggressive.

We put in some Spanish-style guitars for Tiger Strike. The Russians have male chanting and anvil sounds. Then, for the Redentores, the Brazilian team, we had Brazilian percussion and incense. That was the most fun part of this block.

Birenberg: A huge part of our creative approach to 'Cobra Kai' has always been finding ways to mash up styles and genres of music. Whether we're talking like a spiritual or pastoral thing and turning it into like any of this rock thing. Perhaps they go opposite or add synth-wave elements, like with this whole show had been this like a giant love letter to the 80 is doing where we're taking more than the '80s rock. Where we're trying to bring in all these different influences. This was one more way for us to find a bunch of new influences and bring them like fold them in today into the 'Cobra Kai' sound to make something new.

Were there subtle things you wanted to add for the Iron Dragons, like throwing in a bit of Terry Silver's (Thomas Ian Griffith) theme, given their eventual ties to him?

Robinson: The answer is no, and I'll tell you why. Leo and I don't read the scripts, so when we watch these episodes in order with Jon, Josh, and Hayden to go over what we want musically in the show, we do not know what's going to happen. We are watching it as fans, and we did not know until the end of episode eight that Terry Silver was involved with the Iron Dragons. We did not know he was coming back.

When we were working on episode six, as the Iron Dragons were introduced, we did not know Terry Silver was going to be in the show. We did not have any idea or any inkling that we should be harkening back to our original 'Cobra Kai' themes. I will say that I remember Jon wanted us the fight with De Guzman (William Christopher Ford) in episode seven and then a little bit in early episode eight. Jon wanted us to use the [John] Kreese (Martin Kove) theme a lot in those episodes to get the listener, the viewer, to think Kreese was a little more involved than what he was in there. My wife was watching with me; she didn't know what was going on and had zero idea Terry was coming back. I think it worked quite well without hinting he was coming back.

Speaking of muddling things up as far as the surprises go, how do you guys approach Daniel's dream sequence when he fights Mr. Miyagi? Was there a different approach you guys wanted to take since we're accustomed to seeing how Daniel remembers him? How was it different from when you had those flashbacks from 'The Karate Kid' films and when Daniel uncovers elements of Miyagi's past?

Birenberg: It's a dream sequence, and it's also the first time we have seen Mr. Miyagi, like how the Internet and Reddit call "Prime Miyagi." Miyagi at his absolute peak when he's like literally killed somebody in this tournament, the apex of his fighting prowess, if not his wisdom. We wanted to make that scene feel like this legendary character came to life.

The score is this larger-than-life nod to the retro kung fu movies and martial arts epics from a different period of storytelling. Our goal in that scene was to play that in this retro cinematic way as much as possible. Within that, we have a lot of themes for Miyagi himself, Daniel's relationship with Miyagi, and different parts of Miyagi's story. There are probably like five or six tangential Miyagi themes in the show. We worked all of those into that sequence, along with some new material. It was more like we were leaning into the aesthetic of that sequence. They did this grindhouse film degradation look to it, and even the aspect ratio is different than the rest of the episode, so that was our inspiration.

Cobra Kai returns on February 13th on Netflix.

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