Yellowjackets: Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker on Pairing the Score With Iconic '90s Needle Drops (Exclusive)
While Showtime's Yellowjackets is known for its wild twists, dark turns, and ever-evolving mysteries, the fan favorite series is also known for its music. Each episode of Yellowjackets has plenty of iconic needle drops, frequently featuring great songs from the 1990s. Alongside the pop music soundtrack, the series also has an incredible score. The two musical elements work well together to help support the overall storytelling in Yellowjackets and for composers Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker, it's by design and part of their own musical DNA.
"We try and be pretty conscientious of that," Wedren told ComicBook.com about the show's soundtrack. "And I think also because of our pedigree, it's pretty easy for us or natural to draw from that well of '90s. Even just we know the guitar settings."
Both Wedren and Waronker are no strangers to the '90s music scene. Wedren was part of the band Shudder to Think, while Waronker is the frontwoman of the band That Dog, giving them a unique insight into the settings and gear used in the songs featured in the soundtrack and, in turn, letting them create music evokes similar feelings in support of the story.
"So much of making music is about making music that evokes different eras or different genres, is knowing weirdly what gear was used," Wedren said. "And when it's '90s stuff, we just kind of know. That's what we grew up with."
"Also, how we support the storytelling in the show, thought-wise, we were doing that with the music as well," Waronker added. "So, you'll see, we really got to stretch that muscle in the last episode ["Burial"] because I would say that the last 20, 25 minutes is wall to wall music. They're not singing, it's not a musical. But we know what needle drops are coming, and so sometimes we would maybe ease up on the sore so it didn't overshadow the song. And sometimes we would be abrupt about it, and sometimes we would totally weave it in to deliver the song. So, we wanted it to really feel cohesive."
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.