Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: exclusive, Exploding Kittens, interview, Jina An, sasheer zamata, Shirley Song, The Oatmeal, tom ellis

Exploding Kittens Composers on Chaotic Animated Series, Music & More

Composers Jina An & Shirley Song spoke with Bleeding Cool about creating the epic music for the Netflix animated series Exploding Kittens.

Jina An and Shirley Song have accomplished much in their nine years of experience as composers in Hollywood. Both met at Berklee College of Music and are classically trained, innovating to whatever the project asks. Among recent projects the duo collaborated on include Disney/Pixar's Onward (2020), Netflix's XO Kitty, and Prime Video's Five Blind Dates. Their latest project is the Netflix animated comedy series Exploding Kittens, based on the popular The Oatmeal webcomic and card game. The series follows the misadventures of God (Tom Ellis) and the Devil (Sasheer Zamata) as they make sense of their new environment on Earth with reduced powers and are stuck in the bodies of large cats and taken in by the Higgins family, who live in the suburbs. An and Song spoke to Bleeding Cool about their work on the Matthew Inman and Shane Kosakowski animated series, creating the themes for Godcat and Devilcat, and their backgrounds.

Exploding Kittens Composers Jina An & Shirley Song on Setting Matching Music, Inspirations to Animated Series

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Exploding Kittens?'

Song: First, Jina and I are fans of the tabletop game. We loved it and were huge fans of The Oatmeal's comics as avid readers of his comics. When we found out there was going to be a show about it, we were excited, read the synopsis of what the show was about, and cracked up and we were like, "Oh, man! This is something we'd love to work on."

An: We were familiar with the card game and each unexpected card. The drawing itself and everything is so unique. The 'Exploding Kittens' world itself is so unique that we felt the music was already going to be a challenge in a good way, and that was what we looked forward to. We were nervous in the beginning, too, because we didn't know what to expect, but we knew it would be a fun journey because these guys are hilarious.

When working with the creators, how do you help bring their vision to life? Did they let loose? How did it go down?

Song: We received a lot of creative freedom and are grateful they trusted us so much. We knew the overall sound in terms of heaven and hell and Godcat versus Devilcat, and it would be this epic choral, orchestral type of music. Jina?

An: This project was in development for a long time and through the [Covid-19] pandemic. We hopped on later, but they worked on it for so long that they knew the ins and outs. They were so familiar with everything. Also, they knew exactly what they wanted, which was helpful. They had brilliant ideas. They had their ideas and like "Why don't you guys? What about this reference and this reference? I was like, "We haven't thought about that. Then, things we wouldn't think to incorporate we would. We would do it, and then it would be like, "Oh, a genius!" This was so funny because we've mentioned a couple of times already within the five minutes of this, they're just such hilarious writers. So. Yeah.

How do you contrast developing the themes for Godcat, Devilcat, Higgins, or any other part of the show?

An: There are three different worlds: heaven and hell, and most of the time, the action takes place on Earth. For heaven, we played choral, ethereal strings, and harp. We'll bring that theme whenever we're there because those three were the first ones we worked on or officially started. Whenever we have characters from heaven come down to earth, we'll add those flourishes, and for hell, that one was fun because we use the harpsichord. Right? It's so funny how choral music can be so ethereal and heavenly, but at the same time, it can get so evil and demonic.

When you're possessed, it's so weird. The chorus and melody you use could change to another whole world. We would use the deep bass voice like the devil itself. We used a lot of metal guitar to bring out that satanic vibe or many of those chugs. All the possessed scenes we went hard to show that, and then we have the Higgins family. Shirley, if you want to?

Song: I was going to say it was fun. Also, I remember with Godcat and Devilcat, a lot of times utilized choir, but again, what sets their themes apart instrumentally, we used a lot of organ for God as well. As Jina said, harpsichord and we recorded some clarinet pitch bends. Every time we saw Devilcat appear, you hear this clarinet pitch band that introduces her to bring this bit of a quirkiness because she is from hell, but she's "evil." She's so quirky and not good at being evil. Otherwise, she wouldn't be on Earth. With the Higgins family, we established a sweet family thing. Every time they reunite, we'd have that playing. When Greta was in her science mode, we played her theme. When we were on Earth with the Higgins family, we always went on different adventures and through various genres. One moment, there on this type of adventure; the next moment, we're in this sort of horror and vampiric world. Theme-wise, with the Higgins', other than the family and greatest theme, it followed the storyline and their adventure.

An: We feel every day is unexpected, and we would go from Cajun-style fiddle music to leprechaun at one point. EDM, what else?

Song: There were so many different genres going on.

An: It was super fun.

What was it about 'Exploding Kittens' where you're doing the type of creative things you wouldn't normally do in other projects?

Song: Every episode sometimes had several adventures going on and was almost like an ad experience for us musically in that one moment we're doing that epic, bombastic choral, and orchestral music for hell and heaven and whatnot. The next minute, we're thrown into an eight-bit video game. The next minute, we're being thrown into, as Jina said, and it's a Cajun flair style music. There were so many different genres and tropes going on musically. It was everywhere, and that was so much fun. I don't think we've worked on anything else where we were thrown to be like, "Now we're here. You're writing this completely different style of music."

An: It's such a rich experience musically fitting for the visuals, as you'll realize watching it. Also, as Shirley mentioned earlier, the creators and showrunners were trusting. Each spotting session, "Hey, go for it! Follow your guts! We trust you." We had the freedom to experience and go all out. Something we would normally play safe, we wouldn't, because it's so bombastic, like the title itself, 'Exploding Kittens.' We were bold and brave with our experiments with each episode.

What were your musical influences growing up?

Song: I grew up playing classical piano, so it was a classical upbringing and came in handy for 'Exploding Kittens'. I sang in the choir in school and remember one of the repertoires we performed at the Sydney Opera House. It was "O Fortuna, Carmina Burana." That was used as a reference for explaining. It was nice knowing that, like I said, I remember how I sang in the choir, and how powerful that was and bringing that to compositionally for export and cadence.

An: I'm a string player, so a lot of the solo string pieces growing up, I was drawn to violinists like Sarah Dunn and cellist Sarah Chang. Whatever they performed a tango on violin was so cool. A lot of the melodically rich pieces like Vivaldi's 'The Storm' bit when the violin goes crazy, and I thought, "How the heck can an instrument sound like that?" I was drawn to that and because I went to an international school, world music was like experiencing different traditional folk music and performing them with my classmates. We both went to Berklee College of Music, and that was an expansion pack of that. Many different genres and traditional music we've experienced. Those are all big influences and came in handy for the show, too, because there's a huge American Roots program in Berklee, and when we got chain and chuggers, it was like, "This is stuff we've done at Berklee, we've had masterclasses with." That's why we are film composers; we must be able to adapt to different projects and worlds. A lot is not just one person or one type of music; it's a lot of things that shape or take a path.

Exploding Kittens, which also stars Suzy Nakamura, Mark Proksch, Ally Maki, Kenny Yates, Betsy Sodaro, Tom Kenny, and David Gborie, is available to stream on Netflix.

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