Deadly Class is a television series about a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of late 1980s counterculture, which follows a disillusioned teen recruited into a storied high school for assassins.
The first season on Syfy’s Deadly Class wrapped up last month and given how explosive the finale was, it’s no wonder viewers are desperate to see how things turn out for the King’s Dominion kids. The show hasn’t officially been renewed for a second season yet, but last week at Wondercon the cast revealed fans should hear soon. Also at the convention was the show’s composer, Nathan Matthew David discussing all aspects of Season One. Since many of us didn’t get to attend Wondercon and hear all the behind the scenes secrets, we decided to speak with Nathan below about the Vegas episode, the finale and more.
Now that Season One has concluded, what was your favorite part of scoring Deadly Class?
Nathan Matthew David: Without a doubt, my favorite part of scoring the show was collaborating with Rick, Miles and the Russo Brothers. The entire experience was creatively freeing and it made me into a much better composer. It was an honor to help translate Rick’s incredible comic to screen. Both he and Miles have such keen ear for music, so it was really important to get the tone and sounds right. And it was a tremendous experience to work with the Russo Brothers. Their resume speaks for itself, so I learned as much from them as I could with each meeting.
Was there anything, musically wise, that you didn’t get to try in Season One that you would like to experiment with in Season 2?
NMD: It’s going to be a lot of fun to open up the palette even more in the second season. I think we found a great groove in the last few episodes of the first season, and those episodes opened doors to new places we can go musically. I have some ideas that I’m really excited to explore for the next chapter.
Which character did you enjoy scoring for most? Why?
NMD: I loved scoring the incredible female leads of the show! Lana and Maria did such amazing work, so I had a wonderful time developing their sounds. I love that when we first meet them, they’re such badasses. And I love the different sides that we uncover as the season progresses. Maria’s arc in particular was so dynamic as she navigated abuse, mental health problems and addiction.
The Vegas episode titled ‘Saudade’ was pretty crazy. You previously discussed creatively exploring many new things for that episode. Can you touch on this a little more?
NMD: Rick is such an amazing collaborator and allowed for some incredible musical liberties throughout the first season. I’m really grateful for that. We were in ‘open’ mode for all of that episode. How do you translate a psychedelic drug trip musically without sounding canned, cliched or without stepping on the narrative? It was a big question. For this episode, I used a ton of modular synth. In particular, I used white noise as a primary rhythmic element. I’ve never tried this before, but in a few of Marcus’ tripping scenes, you’ll hear this rhythmic white noise pattern. It’s a bit of an ode to the modular synth music from the 1970s.
That Vegas episode takes place in 1987. How did you and the showrunners hone in on what that specific sound was and how did you make it authentic to that time and place?
NMD: We had a future-past approach to the show. So we borrowed elements from the 1980s, but we also used a lot of modern elements as well. I think it helped to create a distinct sound for the show rather than just trying to replicate a sound from that era. We also leaned more into the B-sides of 80s bands as influence. It was a lot of fun to be inspired by bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream, but then also do our own thing. We never wanted to be derivative, but we did want to be inspired at times from sounds of that era.
The show’s finale definitely had a distinct theme of classic horror. Did you alter your score for this specific episode than what you had been doing the rest of the season?
NMD: The score follows the arc of the characters and the story, so it develops and grows over the course of the season. It was really important for us to create that arc and develop the themes as the characters develop. Many of the themes and sounds from the episode were planted earlier in the season. Most of them come to full bloom in the final episode, just as the story does. I do love the approach of the final episode, and I think it demonstrates how the show always wants to be surprising. We always want to throw curveballs; we never want to be predictable.