The Diplomat (Original Television Soundtrack)

The score for The Diplomat is now available to stream everywhere here

If you haven’t seen it already, catch the show on Sky/NowTV

After reading the scripts for The Diplomat, director Jill Robertson and I exchanged countless playlists with a huge variety of tunes and ideas; 60’s French Pop, Angel Olsen demos, Stereolab, you name it...

I decided, really early in the process, that the more “traditional” instruments used to score drama wouldn’t work for this setting, these characters and their stories. Any time I tried to use violins or celli or flutes - anything orchestral - it didn’t work at all.

It was only when I began recording what we ended up calling “hazy” instruments - vibraphones, chimes, glockenspiel, Fender Rhodes and 70s-sounding guitar tones - did I begin to find the right texture for the soundtrack.

It was at that point we began to think about how we might incorporate a vocal into the score. I thought my friend, singer and regular collaborator MayKay’s voice would be perfect for the tone of the show. She and I wrote a song for each episode which was used in a key moment each week. I also sampled and twisted her vocal performances to create different atmospheres across the series.

Series produced by World Productions.