Posted in: HBO, Movies, TV | Tagged: lanterns

Lanterns Composer Discusses Distinguishing Hal & John, Grounded Themes

Composer Stephanie Economou (Jupiter's Legacy) spoke with us about how Rock inspired the Lanterns score, Jordan & Stewart's themes, and more.

With 15 years of experience, Stephanie Economou has worked across film, TV, and video games across all genres, from action, adventure, comedy, drama, and horror. Among a few of her notable works are The Martian (2015), The Meg (2018), Whiskey Cavalier, Marvel 616, Mulan (2020), Jupiter's Legacy, Mortal Kombat 1, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023), Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken (2023), and Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Economou spoke to Bleeding Cool about what might be her most ambitious yet in the HBO live-action series, Lanterns, getting to work with creator Chris Mundy, how she distinguishes the themes of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), and shaping the series' grounded nature with grunge.

Lanterns Composer Stephanie Economou on Her Grounded Musical Journey of the HBO Live-Action Superhero Series

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Lanterns' and how did you get involved?

Economou: I was really intrigued by the project because Chris Mundy was attached to it and I really admire his previous work. I got attached to the project because Chris and the creative team were looking for a few composers, and they had us demo some scenes from the pilot episode. I had an idea that was something born out of watching some of those scenes, seeing how gritty, dark, and moody they were. So musically, I tried to steer it in a direction that was a little more rock-influenced and grungy. That was what kind of sparked this creativity and luckily, Chris liked it, and so we proceeded from there.

Were you already familiar with the comics before taking on the project, or were there some issues that you were told to look at for some inspiration?

I was not familiar with the comics before I started; can't lie about that. I have never seen the (2011) feature film that came out years ago. However, when I was hired on the project, I did get a bunch of the comics; I read a bunch of the Geoff Johns run just to get myself in the headspace and start to learn a little bit more about the origin stories of these characters and how it's evolved over time. I wanted to familiarize myself with that element of it, particularly for Hal and John, and yeah, start to dip my toe into those worlds.

You said you're already familiar with Chris's work, and what was your impression of working on that project with him along with Damon (Lindelof) and Tom (King)?

I love 'Ozark' so much, so that's what I knew Chris's work from. I didn't have a ton of overlaps with Tom or Damon, because composers come in post-production; there wasn't a lot of collaboration there between the two of them. Chris was my main point of contact and my main collaborator for the whole process, and he was obviously very closely in touch and in communication with them. So, I'm hopeful that they're happy with how the score turned out and the directions that we took with it.

How important was it to keep 'Lanterns' grounded and having the score reflect on it? I know that, like comparatively with films, there's always more of a quick build-up, whereas the advantage of TV is you get to have a little bit slower, more organic build. What was it like to transition that for the screen?

Yeah, so the grounded nature of the series is pretty undeniable from seeing parts of it or all of it. However, it does have these moments of being spectacular and leaning into the sci-fi elements of it, so I needed the score to expand and contract. I needed there to be this tactile grounded element in the music for when they're on Earth, following John and Hal's stories, and that's why I think I felt inspired by the rock genre, particularly like 90s rock, like Nirvana, Mark Lanegan (from Queens of the Stone Age), and Alice in Chains. A lot of the sound worlds pull from those stylistic influences for their themes. However, for the 'Lanterns' theme, like the Green Lantern theme that I wrote, it's much wider in scope. It gets a lot richer and has this overarching theme that I hope people feel it lives up to the legacy of the Green Lantern. Obviously, in the TV space, you have more time to expand upon these themes, so it was very fun getting to put these themes through its paces, recontextualize them, and reharmonize them depending on what's happening in the story.

How did you want to distinguish the way that you had a theme for, say, Hal versus John and make sure there wasn't too much overlap between the two?

Yeah, it's a great question, because both (themes) have these rock roots; I wanted to try and separate them, even if they share DNA, like instrumentation palette, like there are guitars and bass and drums in both versions. I will say that when I wrote John's theme, I want it to feel very measured, precise, and calculated, because that's sort of him, right? He's a military guy. He's sensitive, yet proud, steady, and a little bit lonely, so the grunge aspect came into it because of that. It's very Nirvana-influenced. The first scene of the show really is where I wrote John's theme, and it's got this like rubber bridge guitar, baritone rubber bridge, guitar strumming, which feels quite lonely, but it's very steady, and I think that speaks to who he is, then there's this electric guitar electric bass riff that follows him around too, so it gives him a bit of the kind of stature.

When it comes to Hal, I tried more like a Black Keys influence. He is very rugged, a bit of a cowboy, and plays by his own rules. It's more like garage blues rock versus John, which is a little bit more grunge-leaning. Hal's scrappy, and he has got a swagger to him. I recorded the percussion that follows him around as empty beer bottles, glass, and scrap metal. It's very scrappy, very much like him, so it's got a little bit more attitude, whereas John's theme, even though it sometimes has a little bit of energy and rhythm to it. It's a little more structured versus Hal's, which is a little more risky.

How does your experience as a composer and being the industry over the years inform on how you tackled 'Lanterns?' I mean, you've done so many things like from the epic stuff with 'The Martian,' TV shows like 'Jupiter's Legacy,' and video games mold the way you've done things on the production side of things and your creativity over the years?

Every last thing informs the next thing, right? Any creative person knows that you're very much shaped by your experiences and the things you expose yourself to and the work that you do, so I do feel that everything is a little puzzle piece and it makes up what is potentially my unique sound or my approach, my creative approach to writing music. I think getting to work on very different and diverse projects has really shaped who I am as a composer, so working on bigger Hollywood blockbuster films and then small indies where you can use a very different kind of instrumentation palette to these epic TV series with comic book influence and really colorful characters. It's all a chance to flex a muscle that maybe you haven't quite used, but still like using tools from the tool belt that you've had over the years. Everything's a new opportunity to try something different and create a more well-rounded voice.

Was there any sequence in any episode that was particularly difficult for you to execute?

I have to say I had so much fun on this score. This is one of my favorites I've ever written, and the process was so amazing. Working with Chris and the whole creative team was just so brilliant and so encouraging of a lot of the ideas that I brought. I would say there wasn't one that was exceptionally difficult. One that was very fun but also a little bit challenging was, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say [laughs], but there is a scene where they leave Earth at some point. There's always a dance between music and sound design to make sure it comes across as very immersive for the audience, so you don't want the music to take it all. You want the sound design to also have its place, so finding the right sonic palette for something otherworldly, something that we haven't quite heard before, was a really fun challenge, but also, it's part of being a good collaborator is making sure that you leave space for other elements.

Lanterns, which also stars Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Nathan Fillion, and Poorna Jagannathan, premieres August 16th on HBO and is available to stream on HBO Max, with new episodes airing Sundays.

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