Yellowjackets: Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker Explain How the Series Soundtrack Has Evolved Since Season 1 (Exclusive)

Showtime’s hit series Yellowjackets has had some wild twists over the course of its first two seasons — and the recent Season 2 finale itself had some major turns — but the series’ evolution isn’t just limited to the story or performances on screen. The sound of the series has evolved as well. As the story, both the one set in the wilderness in 1996 and the one set with the survivors in the present day, changes, so does the music for the series as well. Speaking with detailed the process, both of how they came to be involved with Yellowjackets, and how their work has developed with the series, with Waronker explaining that there’s meaning behind every choice.

“I would say it’s evolved somewhat and we definitely adapt. We almost unconsciously sort of adapt to the changes in the storytelling as the show has evolved. When it first started, our friend, our good buddy, Theodore Shapiro, who’s a wonderful composer, did the pilot originally and he set up some really beautiful, mainly piano and choral vocal things with Caroline Shaw. That was before we knew that it was going to be a bloody maelstrom of total female brutality, inside and out. It starts off, it’s kind of sly how they set up the show and then it just descends and descends and it keeps doubling down on itself and doubling down on and it’s doubling down,” Wedren said. “So, Teddy couldn’t do the series because it was a long time between when they made the pilot and when it got picked up. So, it came to me, which is great because Teddy and I have worked together a lot over the years and we have a good sort of a little psychic thing. And Anna and I had just worked on a couple different TV shows, one comedic and light, one dramatic and sort of soap operatic, and we were looking for something exactly like this.”

Wedren explained that he and Waronker picked up with the series’ second episode and the crash scene and were quickly surprised that the powers that be wanted the music for the show to be noticeable rather than simply fade into the background, which gave them quite a bit to work with creatively.

“And so, we started working on it. And when it started it was really, we were flying kind of blind with just the crash scene in episode two, and the direction of the producers, which because we’re composers, and usually what happens is you get hired per project because somebody loves music that you’ve done in the past,” he said. “Usually, it’s music that jumps out because they remember it. Most score doesn’t jump out. And so, they think they want you for the music that jumps out, but then it turns out that they just want invisible generic background music. This was not the case with Yellowjackets, they just kept pushing us and pushing us further and further out. We were like, ‘Really?’ It was like a dream. So, when we started, the process was really taking direction from the producers to get us into this sonic frenzy world that they had in mind, which is an easy place for us to go, except that we’ve been so dog whipped over the years by being asked to reign it in.”

Waronker explained that the process took some “funny mistakes” before they fully understood and trusted that they really were being encouraged to go as “weird” as they wanted to go, but once they did things really took off — and they also evolved with the series itself.

“So, it took some funny mistakes to really understand and trust that they really did want us to push as weird as we wanted to go,” Waronker said. “And once we really understood that we started to unravel as the show did, and it started matching the show. And by the time we got to the second season and we saw how that had evolved, we realized, “Oh, we’ve got to do a lot of storytelling with the music where it doesn’t get in the way.” But it’s really driving all this information forward.”

She added, “There’s meaning behind every choice. Whereas in the first season, we were just kind of getting- We were generating and understanding and… I’m very theme oriented, and so I was constantly trying to identify sounds and melodies or instruments or whatever with certain characters. And by the time we got to the second season, it was just like a tapestry we were weaving, but thankfully, he’s always pushing for new, new, new.”

Has Yellowjackets Been Renewed For Season 3?

It was announced in December that Showtime has already renewed Yellowjackets for a third season which hopefully means the show’s creators will get to finish out its five-season plan. However, there might be a bit of a wait for the next season due to the Writers Guild of America’s current strike. 

New episodes of Yellowjackets hit the Showtime app on Fridays and new episodes air on Showtime on Sundays.