Mac Quayle (Leave the World Behind)

This week, we talk to composer Mac Quayle, who burst onto the scene in 2015 with his Emmy-winning score to Sam Esmail's mysterious, genre-bending series Mr. Robot. Since then, he's enjoyed healthy collaborations with Esmail and fellow showrunner Ryan Murphy, for whom he's scored everything from American Horror Story and Pose to 9-1-1.

 

For his latest score, Quayle reunites with Esmail for a film this time -- Netflix's eerie adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel Leave the World Behind. Following a well-off couple (Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke) on a vacation to a remote Airbnb with their two children, the film takes a bizarre turn when the home's owner, G.H. (Mahershala Ali), and his daughter (Myha'la) return and insist on staying there. Meanwhile, the power goes out, deer start behaving strangely, and one gets the sense the world is coming to an end.

 

That sense is borne out in Quayle's approach, constructed from a custom library of sounds he built specifically for the movie. And now, Quayle talks to us about building a score to suit the end of the world.

 

You can find Mac Quayle at his official website.

 

Leave the World Behind is currently streaming on Netflix, and you can hear the score on your preferred streamer courtesy of Netflix Music.

 

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