‘Russian Doll’ Music Supervisor on the Time-Traveling Cues of the ’70s and ’80s for Season 2
variety.comLily Moayeri If you weren’t familiar with Harry Nilsson before the first season of Netflix’s “Russian Doll,” you certainly knew his song “Gotta Get Up” after it recurred on all eight of the show’s episodes — every time Natasha Lyonne’s Nadia repeatedly reawakens on the same night after dying in different ways.
The second season of the series, now streaming on Netflix, doesn’t have a specific tethering song, but it serves up some choice cuts from the ’70s and ’80s, including Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” Falco’s “Der Kommissar,” Van Halen’s “Runnin’ With the Devil” and Nena’s “99 Luftballons.”These needle drops are apropos considering the central theme of the new season is time travel — whenever Nadia takes the subway. “We wanted the music to feel authentic and line up with the eras,” says Brienne Rose, music supervisor for “Russian Doll,” co-created and co-written by Lyonne. “Nadia is an old soul,” says Rose. “She’s complex with an erratic personality.
It’s not only about how she feels now, but how she feels over the course of time in different eras, and how the music represents her headspaces and experiences.
We wanted an aural expression of that.”Rose began working closely with Lyonne on the song selections a year and a half prior to shooting — even before a script existed. “[Lyonne] is such a music person, we can talk cerebrally and get granular with the music, deciding whether we want it to parallel or contradict what’s happening on picture,” Rose says. “Sometimes she knows exactly what she wants for a scene.
Read more on variety.com
