Step into the studio of Ramin Djawadi, composer of ‘Fallout’ (2024) in Variety’s latest Behind The Song. Djawadi breaks down the process of creating the ‘Brotherhood of Steel’ theme song.
Variety Artisans presented by HBO.
Variety Artisans presented by HBO.
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00:00I'm Ramin Djawadi and I'm going to take you through one of the pieces from Fallout.
00:15The creator of the show is Jonah Nolan, who I've worked with in the past.
00:18We met on Batman Begins. We did a show called Person of Interest and Westworld together,
00:23so I was very excited when he approached me about his new show, Fallout.
00:31Stop! Mercy!
00:32The show's based on a well-known video game.
00:35There's a lot of songs in the game and then the score is this moody, ambient vibe, I guess you could say,
00:41and so that's definitely a starting point for us that we wanted to capture as well.
00:45It's this post-apocalyptic setting in the future, but however, the visuals are stuck in the 50s.
00:51The songs in there are from that era, actually, so there's a lot of those songs,
00:54and then the score kind of blends in and out of these moments.
00:56It's a great juxtaposition because it's an overall pretty dark show,
00:59but there's also a lot of humor in it.
01:00It was great that at the time when I came in that a lot of material was already ready to be shown to me,
01:04so I got an early cut of, like I said, maybe the first 20 minutes of the first episode.
01:15The first episode is a great introduction of our three main characters.
01:18There's Lucy, who lives in the vault, starts out, at least for her, she's this innocent person,
01:23and then there's Maximus, who is with the Brotherhood of Steel,
01:26so his journey gets set up, and then there's the Ghoul,
01:29which is a character that is more of a gunslinger, I guess you can say.
01:32I researched what the initial soundscape was for the game,
01:35and that was definitely the starting point, the mood of the show.
01:38The three characters that I just mentioned, they were new, so that was really my focus,
01:41so those are the thematic elements that I focused on to create for this series.
01:48Before I even start to write any notes, I sit with Jonah Nolan and then Geneva and Graeme, the showrunners,
01:53and we just sat in a room together and just brainstormed,
01:55and then they kind of talked me through the show,
01:57and that was really my starting point, trying to capture each individual,
02:00because they couldn't be any more different.
02:02What are the instruments, what's the mood, and all that that I needed to capture.
02:06So once I had that information, then I would sit down
02:08and then try to figure out how to put that into musical notes.
02:14The Brotherhood of Steel theme is what I have behind me here.
02:18It starts out kind of ambient, just to set the tone,
02:22because the environment with the Brotherhood is a little bit uneasy, actually.
02:25There's a little bit of tension that's almost threatening, you can say.
02:35So we have this low bed,
02:39a little rattle here,
02:40this pitch that doesn't really stay the same, it creates this tension a little bit,
02:44and even that rattle that we heard, that's like a percussive little,
02:47almost like a shake, but even that's actually done by a synthesizer,
02:50so actually that's not an actual percussive instrument.
02:53And then if I jump forward a little bit,
02:55that's the moment when Maximus gets his branding on his neck.
02:59It's actually played on these vocals that are pitched down.
03:03It's very uneasy, and so I thought some vocals could be cool,
03:07so I think that comes in around here.
03:21And then the melody continues.
03:22You could say it's almost like a religious feel,
03:24but I didn't want it to be a traditional church choir or something like that,
03:28so I thought to use these kind of vocals and then pitch them down,
03:31it just gives it more of a darker feel, so I thought that could be a good tone.
03:37There's these distortion-sounding guitars that also add to the bed.
03:42It's almost sounds like, again, a low-pitched slide guitar or something,
03:46where it's like you can't really define the pitch,
03:48but it just kind of slides in as they have their missions that they go on,
03:52and they have all the technology, and they have these powerful suits.
03:55So then the theme actually repeats, and French horns actually,
03:58to bring this heroism into it.
04:12And now, as we can hear, the bass is also starting to move,
04:15so now the harmonies actually open up a bit more.
04:17And then the next section, the percussion comes in.
04:25These suits that they have, this armored suit,
04:27it's very powerful but also very clunky,
04:30having this militaristic rhythm to it,
04:33I thought could be a good match with these when we see them walking.
04:36It's just they're so tall and thick.
04:43So even without playing any melodic elements,
04:45just playing that kind of militaristic marching rhythm
04:48could be just a signature sound for them.
05:05And then the melody continues.
05:06This is another section, you could call it maybe the C section.
05:13And then here we get the theme again,
05:15but now bigger, with percussion and the harmonies.
05:19So we hear the melody again.
05:23And then the piece finishes out with,
05:25actually, it's the first time we hear strings
05:28to just, again, enhance the emotion, to build the piece.
05:31They don't do that much other than just to help expand the piece.
05:35They're actually these ascending lines.
05:43And they're distorted, too, as you can hear.
05:45It kind of goes more with the guitar.
05:47These strings are synthetic as well.
05:49They're not supposed to sound like real strings.
05:51Once they get to this helicopter-type vehicle,
05:53the noise of the rotators were so loud,
05:55so to have elements that would cut through,
05:57that's the thick percussive element,
05:59and then these more elongated notes,
06:01that's something that will carry on top of the big sound,
06:04because that's definitely what they're trying to do.
06:06And then here we get the theme again.
06:08These more elongated notes,
06:10that's something that will carry on top of the big sound,
06:13because that's definitely rain, and helicopter sounds
06:16are very challenging, actually, with music always.
06:28When I wrote it, the cut wasn't finished.
06:30I think I just didn't really have an ending at the time,
06:33maybe for the scene, so...
06:38So like this, you can see the piece is just kind of vamping
06:41and it plays the melody.
06:47But it didn't have this additional element to it
06:50if I just solo it again.
06:59Just more harmonies, I guess, to the ending bit, I think.
07:09Harmonically, it kind of leads you more to definitive ending,
07:13I guess you can say.
07:15So I try to stay away from any online chatter, really.
07:18I have had a lot of friends reach out and say they watched the show
07:21and they're really into it and they're excited about it.
07:24Even people that did not know the game,
07:26there was such a buzz about it that people said,
07:28oh, I want to check this out, I want to see what this is all about.
07:31So people were very positive about it.
07:33I feel like a show like this, anything can happen.
07:36Everything is set up and a lot of ways can go,
07:39so I'm just going to sit back and wait.
07:41I always like to surprise myself, actually, once I get a script
07:44or once I get an episode to see what's happening.