‘White Lotus’ Composer Says He Won’t Return for Season 4 After Creative Clash With Mike White: We’ve ‘Had Our Last Fight Forever’

variety.com:

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the acclaimed composer of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” said he won’t be back for Season 4.

In an interview with the New York Times, the three-time Emmy winner said he and creator Mike White had different visions for the show’s theme song, which started in Season 1 and intensified during production of the currently airing third season.

For the show’s first two seasons, Tapia de Veer’s eery theme song contributed to the show’s unsettling atmosphere with strange sounds including a recurring “ooh-loo-loo-loo” chorus.

But the “ooh-loo-loo-loos” were cut for Season 3, igniting confusion. This season, the composer said White had in mind more of “background music … a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe.” Ultimately, for Season 3, the theme song became more of a traditional lounge tune (sans the “ooh-loo-loo-loos”), which has divided fans of the show. “I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway,” Tapia de Veer told the Times. “He thought it was a good idea.