The Traitors has it all.
asserted
Traitors → have → it
Have you ever noticed how the soundtrack manipulates your perception?
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soundtrack → notice → perception
A sinister orchestral flourish hints at a double cross.
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flourish → hint → cross
A cheeky chord injects humour into a kitchen conflab.
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chord → inject → conflab
As ever, though, you shouldn't trust what happens in the castle.
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what → trust → castle
The music can provide emphasis or act as misdirection, all at the producers' behest.
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music → provide → behest
Duplicity was baked into the music from the beginning.
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Duplicity → bake → beginning
"I remember the BBC was quite reluctant to even think about a show with murder as a main feature, so I knew I didn't want the music to go really dark," says Sam Watts, who composed the opening theme and much of the incidental score (but is not responsible for the show's haunting cover versions of well-known pop songs... more on those later).
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who → remember → those
Watts, who had previously worked on Planet Earth and The Sarah Jane Adventures, pitched to work on the programme with only a basic idea of the set-up.
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who → work → up
It was only when he learned Winkleman was the host that he settled on his approach.
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he → learn → approach
"They sent me a little shot they'd done of the opening with Claudia and the castle.
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they → send → Claudia
That's when I knew it was going to be a bit camp and high drama and all the glorious things that Claudia brings to the show.
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Claudia → know → show
So I just went with that - dark but fun."
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I → go → that
For the title sequence, the 44-year-old wanted something memorable.
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old → want → something
As a kid, his favourite song was Bernard Hoffer's gloriously over-the-top Thundercats theme, external, so that's the level he aspired to.
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he → aspire → top
"I was trying to write something that signified the show was starting, so that people would run in from making their cup of tea in the kitchen to watch it.
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people → try → it
And I wanted a memorable melody that people could hum, because it helps with the identity of the show."
uncertain
it → want → show
The Traitors theme is "one of the biggest pieces of music I've ever written", he says, recorded with a full orchestra and overdubbed with dozens of electronic elements to create a heightened, hyperreal atmosphere.
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he → write → atmosphere
That bled into the 20 or so other pieces Watts wrote, which also appear in dozens of international spin-offs.
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which → bleed → offs
The idea, he says, is that the whole hour feels like a film trailer, with viewers permanently waiting for the psychological pressure chamber to explode.
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chamber → say → trailer
To achieve that, he employed several techniques of trailer music - most notably the "Braam", a klaxon-like punctuation mark invented for Christopher Nolan's Inception (see video for a fuller exploration).
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he → achieve → exploration
Show producer Sarah Fay took that concept and amplified it.
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Fay → take → it
"We wanted to just supersize it and make it feel like a drama, not like your usual reality [show]," she said in a rare interview with Metro, external when the first civilian series aired in 2022.
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series → want → 2022
"We wanted to make it feel like that edge-of-your-seat cinematic drama with, you know, elements of Succession, and we wanted it to feel like Knives Out when you get into the castle!"
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you → want → castle
To achieve that, she commissioned additional music from film trailer composers, including Hans Zimmer's company Bleeding Fingers.
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she → achieve → company
But she also sprinkled in a handful of creepy cover versions.
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she → sprinkle → versions
Some became instant classics - such as a sinister spin on Britney Spears' Toxic, external, or a version of Tears For Fears' Mad World, external seemingly broadcast on a tannoy from Hades.
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Some → become → Hades
They're so integral to The Traitors' aesthetic that it might surprise you to learn they weren't recorded specifically for the show.
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they → surprise → show
Both examples were created by German writer-producers 2wei.
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examples → create → 2wei
Based in Hamburg, they had no idea their music had appeared in The Traitors until friends in the UK messaged them in excitement.
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friends → base → excitement
"We were just flipping out," says 2wei's Simon Heeger.
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Heeger → flip → ?
"It's completely different to how we ever thought it would be used."
Heeger founded 2wei, pronounced "zwei", in 2016 with his old college friend Christian Vorländer.
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Heeger → think → friend
They had both spent time in LA working on advertisements and (stop me if you're sensing a theme here) film trailers, before moving home to build a music production empire.
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you → spend → empire
"Christian worked on the Mad Max soundtrack, which is really known for the big drums and the orchestral scale – and that was really the starting point of our sound," says Heeger.
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Heeger → work → sound
"Whenever you hear big epic drums with an orchestral sound and maybe a female vocal on top of it, it's usually something we had our fingers in."
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we → hear → fingers
Their big break came with a stormy reworking of Destiny's Child's Survivor, which featured in the trailer to Alicia Vikander's Tomb Raider, external.
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which → come → Raider
Since then, their music has appeared in films like Wonder Woman and video games such as League of Legends.
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music → appear → Legends
In The Traitors, original 2wei songs like Blindside, external now feature alongside their covers (other producers, including SYML and Damned Anthem also contribute songs to the show).
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producers → feature → show
Heeger says their background in commercials makes the music perfectly suited to the show's slippery skullduggery.
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music → say → skullduggery
"In adverts, you only have a few seconds to convey a certain emotion and, especially in Traitors, where there are cliffhangers and moments that you don't expect, you need music that comes to the point right away but still has a boldness to it.
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that → have → it
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
