Posted in: CW, Supernatural, TV | Tagged: Supernatural

Supernatural Composer Philip White Reflects on Legacy & Experience

Composer Philip White (Spa Weekend) spoke with us to reflect on his legacy on The CW's Supernatural and why the final season stood out.

To say that Philip White's experience as a composer was largely shaped by his experience on Supernatural would be an understatement, as he literally learned on the job, working closely alongside composer Chris Lennertz for all 15 seasons of the CW series. That, of course, doesn't mean he never got to work on anything else along the way, getting involved in multiple projects like Tyler Perry's Medea franchise, Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), the Smurfs franchise, Revolution, Ray Donovan, Agent Carter, Bates Motel, and Netflix's Lost in Space. Since the Eric Kripke series, he's worked on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, the Supernatural prequel spinoff The Winchesters, and ABC's The Bachelor franchise. While promoting his work on the Black Bear comedy Spa Weekend, White spoke to Bleeding Cool to reflect on the legacy he helped build on the Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki-starred series, its longevity, why the final season stood out, and how he fit the score within the licensed music.

Supernatural Composer Philip White Reflects on the Eric Kripke Series Legacy

Bleeding Cool: With so much of your career spent on Supernatural, I was wondering what being in that franchise has taught you and shaped you into what you've become?

White: I started working on 'Supernatural' with Chris Lennertz in 2005, 21 years ago, which feels insane that time has moved that quickly. It was shortly after I graduated from the USC film scoring program, and he'd just gotten the show. I started just assisting him with programming, and I worked with another composer before, so I'd gotten my feet wet with programming, but this was a network show. It needed to sound a certain way, so I learned so much from Chris over those many years, but especially in that first year, learning what the sound of the show needed to be and what it needed to do, especially because, for the most part, it didn't have many live elements, if any. Maybe we'd bring in a live cello for some more emotional stuff. Sometimes, we'd play electric guitars or a live woodwind, but other than that, it was all in the box. We had to figure out how to make it sound as convincing as possible, and so that rigor in programming- just the aesthetic of the sound and thinking, "If I was done with a cue, well what else does it need?"

So often I think it'd be finished, Chris would come in, have an idea, and it would just come alive, and I go, "Okay, that's what it needed." That would happen all the time, so I gradually learned what it took to produce music and make it sound as good as it could, certainly for a network show. All composers think, "Oh God! Is it good enough? Does it sound X enough, well produced enough, or what else could it need?" Some things move the needle; a lot of times, details we obsess over don't really move the needle, because it's not played as loudly as a song. That's an important thing I've tried to keep in mind, and it's hard to, because as a composer, all we think about is our finished product and how it can sound like a standalone piece, but of course, it's not a standalone piece. It must fit in with dialogue and sound effects, so it's part of that triangle.

How do you write in a way that presents yourself, presents the music in a way that you're happy with, but also obviously serves the project and doesn't get in the way of the other two? I would say it's a roundabout answer to your question, but working with Chris for all those years, I had the good fortune of being on 'Supernatural' for its full run. We certainly didn't think it would go 15 seasons by any means; every year it was like, "So are they going to renew it or are they not?" It was, fortunately, a show which, even though it was not wildly popular on the level of 'Lost' or something like that, still gained a following, and it just flew somewhat under the radar, but garnered enough attention and enough fans, certainly over the years. It was the little engine that could, so I'm quite grateful for my time on 'Supernatural' and also to Chris for letting me learn, figure out how to create a really good sound while certainly in those early years, and eventually having me write on it and get screen credit towards the end. It was a great, incredible experience, and I realize now, uniquely, it's so unheard of for shows to go that long now. I wish that they could, but yeah, not so much the case these days.

It was such a great anchor show for The CW.

Absolutely.

Was there a particular arc, season, or maybe an episode that you weren't certain initially, but glad it turned out the way it did?

The last season was very memorable because it was 2020, and so we were working on the last few episodes when everything shut down. When things started again, I would say six months later, there were two episodes left to do, but the last one, since we knew it was ending, and they weren't going to renew the show. We put our all into it, hired live players, but not too many because we didn't want to change the sound of the show drastically, but we had live wind and cello. That one was close to my heart; maybe the other two happened when I think, say, season six, but it was when Chris had me writing more on it. For those two episodes, I wrote a lot, and I tried some things I maybe hadn't tried before. For that moment in my career, I felt very grateful to have had that chance, and it was obviously a lot of work. It was the end of season six that stood out, but I don't think it would translate from an audience perspective necessarily. There are so many moments throughout the whole arc of the show that were memorable. It was a wonderful experience.

Most of the time, we do know what songs they're going to license. We definitely want to make sure that everything gels and that the handoffs are clean and in the right key. The tempos aren't jarring, obviously, but in terms of trying to match the style of the songs, no, they can live on their own. They exist in a separate world from the underscore, so the underscore still stays true to the sound that we've been developing over the course of the seasons, but in terms of the transitions, those definitely have to be massaged and worked through.

Supernatural, which also stars Misha Collins, Jim Beaver, Mark A. Sheppard, Mark Pellegrino, Alexander Calvert, Samantha Smith, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is currently available to stream on Peacock. Spa Weekend, which stars Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Anna Faris, and Michelle Buteau, is available in theaters.

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