Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg are the composing team behind Amazon Prime’s animated series Hazbin Hotel. Having worked with the showrunner Vivienne Medrano previously, they knew Hazbin Hotel would have great creative opportunities. That creativity learned from a top-notch experience on season one will continue into season two.
Awards Daily: With the songs connected to the plot or characters of a given episode, what is the process working with the writers in crafting the music?
Sam Haft: I think a big part of every song’s process is figuring out what the story context of the song is. What story beats come before it and after it. What plot-relevant information it needs to convey. That is something we go into with every song, looking at a series of beats that it needs to hit. Then we manage that on every piece of music.
Awards Daily: What is your guy’s process working together to create music?
Andrew Underberg: It varies from song to song in a somewhat unusual way. One of us will get started on the chords or the piano parts, then the other one will jump in and get some melody, then the other will get some lyrics going. The first season we did a lot of remote work, sharing a logic session and then handing off back and forth until a song was done. For my end there’s nothing more satisfying than getting stuck on an idea and then coming back the next day and finding out that Sam has finished it. We are working on the second season now and we were more in the same room together, which is very nice. But it doesn’t give that element of surprise.
Sam Haft: Andrew and I are lucky to have a long history together. This isn’t our first time collaborating. We met when I was 14 and he was 16.
Awards Daily: Speaking of collaboration, this is not your first project with Vivienne Medrano. You also worked on her other show, Helluva Boss. What is it about her material that speaks to you guys so much?
Sam Haft: I think the element of surprise is one of the things that makes working on these shows so exciting. Because every time there’s a new song assigned, truly there is no limit on what it might be. It might be a flamenco song with elements of steampunk, it might be punk rock that also needs to be opera. The genre blend mishmash of styles is something that is impossible to prepare for, which is one of the things that makes it so exciting. There’s always a mystery ingredient every time we start a new song.
Andrew Underberg: That comes at Vivienne’s directive with her saying this character is supposed to sound this way, and it’s a duet with this other character that usually sings in this genre. So that’s where those unusual amalgamations come from. Vivienne is also a huge fan of musical theater and so is very much down to having the songs do what they’re supposed to do in musical theater, which is a lot of fun for us.
Awards Daily: I don’t know if this is something that happens on your end, but with Alastor’s voice always having the distortion of sounding like an old radio, is that something that affects the way he sings or the way you have to make the music?
Sam Haft: I would say to a degree. In season 1 when we were writing the music for Alastor we didn’t have the effect baked in. We started to do that now in season two and I think it does affect the song writing in terms of having a sense of the range. Amir Talai, who performs the role of Alastor, has an amazing vocal range and is a tremendously versatile performer. But it is not just about the notes he can hit, it’s about the notes that are going to sound optimal in that Transatlantic accent, with that radio filter, and that is something we have definitely kept in mind. Alastor is one of the variables we have a very good handle on now, but just working on season two recently we had an instance with a character who had an accent and we realized that it meant that all the rhymes we were writing had to be different. Because his vowel pronunciation was totally different from ours as we were writing it.
Awards Daily: Continuing with Alastor (he was a personal favorite of mine as a character), his creepy theme about staying gone, and the final moments of season 1 when he’s singing about almost dying and then his plotting. I’m just curious if there’s anything you can say about crafting the elements of his voice there?
Andrew Underberg: Thinking about Alastor’s general aesthetic, one of the things that jumps out to me is not feeling like we need to be in a popcorn structure. In fact the exact opposite of that, letting winding melodies carry us to odd places harmonically, which definitely happens in both of those spots. Both of those moments are his evil side when he’s not trying to put on a smile.
Sam Haft: I totally agree! Alastor is one of the characters whose sinister moments are all about leaning into dissonance. There are, as Andrew said, more winding melodies, there are more dissonant chords, there’s a creepy 13th that we use at the end of Stayed Gone. We definitely try to play up the creep factor musically.
Awards Daily: As someone who doesn’t know music as well as he should, is there something you guys found particularly interesting or challenging this season?
Sam Haft: I would say our work for season two has been a lot more piano driven. But in season 1 it was equal measure writing songs while playing chords on a guitar or on a piano. Season two we kept the final production much more present in mind as we worked on these songs. So there was a lot more piano use in the writing process and we were a lot more deliberate in arranging orchestral choices.
Andrew Underberg: The first season we were still learning the cast and where their voices sat best. The recording schedule is very limited in terms of how much time they have to rehearse. So it was really learning on the fly the first season. Now for the second season we have a better handle on who sounds best where, and also having more of a personal relationship with all the talent. So it is easier to write for them.
Sam Haft: I totally agree. I think part of it is it adds another dimension to the songwriting, that it is not just, okay, this is the plot point, this is what Charlie needs to do, this is the style she lives in. It is now also how does Erika work? How will Erika Henningsen read this line? Now it is not just keeping the characters in mind, it is also the performers.
Andrew Underberg: When we wrote “Sorry” we didn’t know what Sir Pentious was going to sound like at all.
Sam Haft: I knew it was going to be Alex Brightman voicing him, and so I thought maybe you do something crunchy like Beetlejuice. But then Sir Pentious ended up being so different. So now the references as we write these songs and put together demos with scratch vocals, we have a really clear sense of how everyone sounds. Also, because there are so many ensemble pieces throughout the show, how everyone sounds together. Which is another dimension that has definitely changed how we’re writing songs with the new season.
Awards Daily: Final thoughts?
Andrew Underberg: For me when I think about what makes this show special is Viv’s mind and the trust she has in us. Which isn’t to say she keeps our feet to the fire if something is not as intended and we have strayed from what she’s looking for. (laughter) I’m often in awe of her Imagination and the creative direction she brings to the whole show, especially the music side where we get our marching orders.
