Musical Chemistry

"Breaking Bad" (TV series) - Dave Porter

As it builds to its highly anticipated finale, "Breaking Bad" is widely hailed as one of the finest television series of all time.  What elevates this drama is the excellence with which every element is crafted: the acting, writing, directing and cinematography are the most obvious examples.

But don't overlook Dave Porter's masterful work scoring each and every episode.

Great scores in film and television come in two flavors: those that call attention to themselves and those that you don't often notice. Both types are equally effective in the right hands and in the right context.  John Williams' classic score for Star Wars is something anyone can hum - its grandiosity and power match the scale of an intergalactic battle between good and evil.

Showy scores like Williams' tend to get the most attention. And people also notice music when it's bad - heavy handed or repetitive or incongruous. 

But music that people don't consciously notice, even while it ties together scenes and amplifies emotion, music that would be sorely missed if it disappeared? That is the work of a very talented individual.

Dave Porter's work on "Breaking Bad" falls in this category.  Not to say that you never notice his score, because you do.  But on the whole it directs attention not to itself but keeps it on the story, where it belongs.  It never takes you out of the moment. It never hits you over the head to tell you THIS IS SCARY or THIS IS FUNNY or THIS IS SAD.  It's subtly perfect.

Because the characters have evolved so much over five seasons, Porter is always coming up with new music.  He isn't just coming up with a handful of great themes to reuse and tweak, he's constantly creating a new soundscape.

His work here is also distinctive for its lack of standard orchestral instruments. Instead, he features electronic sounds and ethnic instruments, as well as acoustic guitar and found sounds that aren't created by a musical instrument. 

And in this day of short title sequences, Porter came up with that memorable dobro and percussion theme that punctuates every cold open and primes the viewer for an hour of gut wrenching suspense.

1 - What is your favorite score for a television series and how has it influenced your work on Breaking Bad?

Dave Porter: As a whole, I'm probably more influenced by film scores than those from television, although there have been a some important exceptions.  When I was 14 years old it would have been hard to drag me away from Miami Vice on a Friday night…  Michael Mann and Jan Hammer used music in a very aggressive and overt way that hadn't happened previously on TV.  Certainly Twin Peaks is another - the way that David Lynch has always melded music and sound design has been a big influence on my own work.

(Editor's note: Once, as an icebreaker, my colleagues and I had to name our favorite TV theme songs. I said "Twin Peaks" and none of my two dozen co-workers knew the song - and we worked at a television network! Here it is in all its beautiful and mysterious glory. A TV theme would never be allowed to run this long nowadays.)  

2 - Since, sadly but inevitably, BB is ending, what will you be working on next?

DP: I'm very excited about my next project, which will be a series for Fox entitled "Wayward Pines."  It is being produced by M. Night Shyamalan, who will also direct the first episode. Chad Hodge and Donald DeLine are also executive producers, and the cast they have lined up is fantastic: Matt Dillon, Terence Howard, Melissa Leo, Juliette Lewis, and more.  It is a thriller that is expected to air next summer.

3 - When a song is used in an episode of BB, such as Jim White's "Wordmule," is it added to the sound mix before, after or during your scoring, and do you ever consult with the music supervisor about what songs get used?

DP: All of the music, additional sound effects, dialogue fixes, etc., get mixed together in the final audio mix, which is generally the last step in the creative process of a film or television episode.  Most films and tv shows have a music supervisor in addition to a composer, and that person is responsible for the licensed music that is used.  In our case, that job is handled by Thomas Golubic and his staff, who do an amazing job.

I do coordinate with Thomas (and of course Vince Gilligan and other writers/producers) about where music should be used, and if we are going to use music in a particular scene whether it should be source or score.

If we decide source (aka licensed) music is the best option, then creatively that task falls to Thomas.  On a few occasions we've been unsure whether score or source would be the best option, and we've both worked on music for a scene, in which case Vince Gilligan would make the final decision.

4 - You've been very accessible to BB fans on Reddit and Facebook, etc.  Is using social media a must for a career in music or simply something you enjoy doing? 

DP: This is an interesting question, and one that I don't think I fully know the answer to yet.  I'm not sure that being available on social media is really anything that is likely to further my career… at least I don't see it that way.  But I guess you never know -- it certainly can't hurt to have people be aware of your work.  

For me, I started doing those things because I had an inside view on a unique television show that people were eager to talk about.  In the beginning, in particular,  it was fascinating to connect with fans who were early adopters and as passionate about the show as we were.  As the show grew in popularity I used these social networks as an interesting gauge of where we were during the crazy ascent of the show into the popular series it has become.  

As my career moves on beyond Breaking Bad it will be interesting for me to see what role social media plays.


5 - How did you select which tracks to include on the soundtrack album, given more than four season's worth of material, especially since your music for the series is not just a collection of themes and stings?

DP: Selecting cues to include on my score soundtrack CD was definitely tough.  My view is that as a film/tv composer my task first and foremost is to create music that supports the film or show.  I'm never thinking about what something is going to sound like on a soundtrack record when I'm writing it.  

But of course listening to a soundtrack record is a very different experience, with different requirements and expectations.  I really wanted listening to the score soundtrack to be a cohesive experience, but this meant, for example, that some of my favorite cues didn't make it simply because they felt too short and there wasn't time or budget to rerecord them.  

Overall it was a very rewarding experience, though, and I'm really pleased to have the score soundtrack available for those fans that are interested.

6 - What was the hardest episode to score?

DP: From a purely logistical standpoint, last summer's "Dead Freight" with the train heist sequence was the most demanding.  Previously, I think the longest cue I had written for the show was around 4 minutes long.  The train heist cue lasts almost the entirety of the final act, approximately 13 minutes.  For any composer working on an extended action sequence, it is a lot of work to keep the music varied and follow all the peaks and valleys across a long stretch of time.  

From an emotional standpoint, my "Jane's Demise" cue was probably the hardest.  That was not only a very difficult scene to have to watch hundreds of times, but a very complicated series of emotions and reactions that had to be accounted for musically without necessarily commenting on the scene from a moral standpoint.  That particular cue had many incarnations before arriving at exactly the right one. 

7 - Showrunner Vince Gilligan and editor Kelley Dixon are always quick to praise your work.  Will you be on any of their podcasts this season

DP: Our official podcasts, which Vince and Kelley put out for every episode, are an amazing source of insider info on the show.  I highly recommend them for fans of the show.  I always love attending them because without fail I'm also learning all kinds of new things that I never knew.  

I have been a part of a number of them, and I'm honestly not sure if I will be a part of any this final season… they tend to be a last minute thing.  I have, though, recorded DVD commentary on a few episodes already, which are always fun as well.