Some guests visit Geektown Talks To… once. Composer Fil Eisler has apparently taken out a long-term lease, as he returns for a record-breaking eighth interview!
Fil first joined us back in 2013, when he was creating the music for ‘Revenge’ and recording with a full orchestra every week. Over the years, we’ve caught up with him to discuss everything from ‘Revenge’, ‘Empire’ and ‘UnREAL’ to ‘Thunder Force’, along with the many strange instruments he has collected on the way.
However, it has been five years since our last conversation, so there was plenty to cover when I visited Fil’s Los Angeles studio for only their second face-to-face interview.
The conversation begins with a brief look back at the LA fires, which scuppered an attempted interview last year and forced Fil and his family to evacuate. Thankfully, his home and studio survived, although many of his friends and fellow musicians were not so fortunate.
From there, the pair reflect on how Fil’s work, career and family life have changed since that first interview thirteen years ago, along with the things that remain exactly as frantic as ever.
A major focus of the interview is ‘Outer Banks’, which recently brought the Pogues’ treasure-hunting adventures to an end after five seasons. Fil has been with the Netflix drama since work began on its first season in 2019, long before anyone realised quite how enormous the series would become.
View this post on Instagram
He discusses seeing the scale of the show’s fandom first-hand, how its music grew alongside the characters, and the unusual instrument that became central to one of its most recognisable themes. We also explore the two distinct musical palettes behind the Pogues’ early adventures, the expansion into increasingly epic orchestral territory, and what it was like saying goodbye to a musical world he had been building for seven years.
Fil also talks about composing both ‘Fire Country’ and its spin-off, ‘Sheriff Country’, which arrives on Paramount+ UK this month. While the dramas share characters, locations and the occasional crossover, their music needed to give each series a distinct identity.
That includes making use of an impressive collection of acoustic instruments and some extraordinarily talented musicians. Fil’s advice for UK viewers beginning ‘Sheriff Country’ is wonderfully simple: “Spot the dulcimer?”
On the film side, the conversation turns to ‘Momo’, the fantasy adventure based on Michael Ende’s beloved novel. Fil reveals why the project became such a personal one for him and discusses returning to his songwriting roots to create the end-title track “Time Is All We Have” with Sam Ryder.
The collaboration began after Fil reluctantly pushed himself back into co-writing at a songwriting retreat near Glastonbury. It also confirmed that Ryder seemingly possesses an endless supply of energy and a voice capable of carrying through an entire stately home.
There is also a detour into Fil’s earlier life touring as Robbie Williams’ bass guitarist and his appearance throughout Netflix documentary ‘Robbie Williams’. Fil admits he only managed to watch around five minutes before noticing a slightly unfortunate pattern in the archive footage.
“It looked like my function in that documentary was to be walking around in the background of every single scene holding a glass of vodka,” he jokes.
As this was recorded inside Fil’s studio, we naturally had to investigate some of the unusual instruments surrounding us. These include a giant metal Bass Desmophone, an amplified instrument resembling an enormous kalimba, an ever-expanding modular synth collection and a piano that has been attacked with a chainsaw and lovingly renamed “The Beast”.
View this post on Instagram
Fil also explains why he would much rather wander around hitting, plucking and vibrating physical objects than scroll through menus on a computer, and how working with sound designers has introduced even more peculiar noises into his scores.
Finally, the conversation moves into AI-generated music, Fil’s lack of interest in removing people from the creative process, and why he “detests” describing music, film and art simply as “content”. We also discuss the value of bringing creative people together in the same physical space, which was one of the driving ideas behind his new studio.
It is an entertaining, thoughtful and occasionally gloriously sweary reunion covering music, television, strange instruments, Robbie Williams, artificial intelligence and the changing realities of working as a composer.
Listen to the full interview below, and subscribe to Geektown Talks To… wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find more interviews alongside Geektown Radio and Geekstorians.
You can subscribe to all our interview podcasts on the Geektown Talks To… feed here. And if you’re searching for the latest TV reviews, UK air dates, and streaming news, don’t forget to subscribe to the Geektown Radio podcast! You can click here to subscribe to Geektown Radio on iTunes or click here for the RSS feed. If you want to support the show, you can now do that here via the Acast supporter’s link, and find us on Acast here.
Login to Geektown