Exclusive: Composer Jefferson Friedman Discusses His Score for Season 2 of DC Universe’s HARLEY QUINN
Harley Quinn was first introduced to audiences in September 1992 as Joker’s love interest in Batman: The Animated Series. Almost three decades later, fans have seen her in graphic novels, animated shows/films and blockbusters such as Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. The dark, yet lovable over the top character can currently be seen on DC Universe’s animated series Harley Quinn (the title character is being voiced by Kaley Cuoco). With the Season 2 finale approaching soon (June 27th), we decided to get some insight from one of the show’s creatives, composer Jefferson Friedman. Below Jefferson discusses the famous “Under the Sea” Little Mermaid parody they did, how the quarantine affected the show, and much more.
Synopsis:
The series focuses on a single Harley Quinn, who sets off to make it on her own in Gotham City.
Dread Central: Harley Quinn is a darker show, yet it has a lot of comedic moments. How do you find the balance musically between the humor and adult themes?
Jefferson Friedman: If you mean by adult themes, the hyper-violence of it, I think that’s funny in a way. In the same way that the humor is funny, it’s just everything on the show is so amped up and hyper-stylized. So it’s not so much balancing those two things.
DC: How did your Season 2 score differ from Season 1?
JF: Season 2 just gets bigger and bigger. The stakes are higher, so to mirror that the score had to get bigger and rise to the occasion. Some themes, such as Harley and Ivy’s love in the first season was very small, but as their love starts to blossom and get bigger, the score gets bigger and orchestral. That happens with a lot of the musical themes in the show, when they reappear in Season 2 they are a little bigger or a lot bigger than Season 1.
DC: Daniel Pemberton scored the recent Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Did you see the movie? If so, what did you enjoy most about what Daniel did with the theme for Harley?
JF: I haven’t watched anything DC related since I started working on the show, specifically because I didn’t want to be influenced by anything that has come before. Or anything that is happening currently in a literal way. Before I worked on Harley, I saw basically all the DC stuff. So I only wanted to be influenced by some sort of abstract memory I had of what the score sounded like for those properties. As far as Birds of Prey I haven’t seen it. I gave myself a self-imposed moratorium on DC stuff.
DC: Have you have ever talked to Daniel about his film score or Steven Price, who scored Suicide Squad, since you all are scoring for the same character? Do you know either of them?
JF: I don’t know either of them, so have not talked to them about it. My last answer explains why.
DC: The show’s producers are quoted as saying you think of this as Gotham seen through Harley Quinn’s eyes. Does this go for the music too?
JF: I’m not sure that there needs to be a definitive answer as to whether Harley is the narrator of the show. The reality of what she is experiencing is different than what the audience sees. I think that is one way to interpret the show. Definitely being able to write music that is really big and bold and crazy. The idea that it’s through Harley’s eyes gave me freedom to be whacky and crazy as I wanted to be.
DC: Do you have a favorite episode, musically, in Season 2?
JF: That’s a no brainer because it’s the most obscure episode. It’s episode 9 because I got to write a musical number that is a parody of “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. The interesting thing about this is I wrote that song as one of the first things I did for that show because the animators had to animate to my song, which is very different from how the rest of the scoring process works. Normally I score to the animation, but since it’s a song that had someone singing, they needed my song in advance. At the time I was just writing it as a song and then it occurred to me that I was going to have all these people animating something to the song, so it became a very special thing for me. I think it turned out good.
DC: Did the quarantine affect your production schedule at all or were all the episodes in Season 2 already complete?
JF: Just slightly. We had three or episodes left to do. So, the schedule got pushed back a bit. We had to do the music and sound effects review on Zoom. Luckily with animation and my part of the process, there doesn’t need to be any human contact. With live-action projects you obviously can’t have cast and crew on a closed set at the moment, but the beauty with animation is it exists in virtual reality.
DC: If there were to be a Season 3 what musical things would you like to try out, that you haven’t gotten to in the last two?
JF: Pat, Justin and I have already been talking about doing a whole musical episode if there were to be another season. So obviously that would be high on my list of priorities as far as what I would like to do. I have no idea what they have planned for Season 3 if we get one. I’m sure it would be whackier and crazier, so it would be cool to write music that goes with that.
Are you a fan of Harley Quinn? What do you think of our exclusive interview with Jefferson Friedman? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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