Student Blog: Glorious Purpose: An Interview with 'Loki' Composer Natalie Holt

After finishing the Loki series, I had so many questions. Luckily, some of them were answered in a chat with Natalie Holt, as my first interview for BWW!

Disclaimer: Parts of this interview have been edited for clarity.

So, in terms of students of the arts pursuing a career in the arts: do you have any advice?

Just stick at it, I would say, because it took me ages to find my way to my goal. And I had to kind of go at a tangent to it sometimes and like, teach the violin, prove it and play. And I always knew I wanted to be a film composer, but yeah, it took me like, 10 years from graduating to starting to make a living doing it myself, solo, without assisting or anything. So yeah, just stick out if you can and just keep trying and don't be told that you can't do it, just persevere.

Who is your current favorite musical artist?

I'm listening to a lot of Sam Cooke for some reason, like, just chill summer. My daughter really likes it. You know, that kind of chuggy, 1950s, simple chord progression. I'm just finding that really relaxing to listen to at the moment. I've been listening to some classical music and reading through with a score and just trying to have a bit of a palate cleanser after finishing Loki.

What is your favorite school memory?

Oh gosh, I remember my violin teacher- I had this really lovely violin teacher who saw me performing in a concert. It was, like, my county's 'Young Musician of the Year' concert, and he was one of the judges, and I won the concert on violin. I think I was 16. And he just said, "You've got so much music in you but your technique is really, really appalling". And he was like, "Come to me for the summer", and he was a Russian, you know, he was leader of the London Symphony Orchestra for a while and stuff, so he was super technical. And I spent the summer when I was 16 going to him for three hour long violin lessons and doing loads of studies, and going back to basics and really learning how to play so that my technique was nicer. And I just remember, he always used to buy me doughnuts.

What's your favorite kind of donut?

Oh, these like, simple jam doughnuts. Do you know like just, jam with sugar. Yeah, I just remember those doughnuts in the middle of violin lesson. That's such a random memory, but it's a very lovely one.

How does it feel to hear your music finally put together and displayed on screen?

Oh, it's just, you know, I'm just so delighted and happy that I'm doing it and it's the thing I've always wanted to do. And, you know, it's like... that kind of engagement with the emotion of the story and the character. And, yeah, seeing it all come together and being finished as well, because obviously there's moments there when you're not sure how you're going to finish it and if it's all going to come together and be okay. So... yeah, it's on the whole, a really satisfying experience.

I noticed you use the theremin a lot in your compositions - what was your reasoning for choosing the theremin over other instruments, and how does that tie in to your inspiration?

Well, it was kind of a combination of the fact that I did a lockdown, kind of musical "pass the parcel" piece with an ad agency that I work for, and I met Charlie Draper, because he'd had the piece before I had the piece and I was like "Whoa, what's that instrument? It sounds super cool". And I just kept hold of his number -or, you know, I think I asked the agency guy for his number, because I just thought "I want to use that in something". And then, I remember, in the first meeting I had with Kate Herron when I was pitching for Loki, she mentioned that she loved the theremin. And she had this piece by Clara Rockmore in her pitch. She's dead now, but she was a kind of prolific theremin player in the 50s. And so, Kate was like, "I really want that sound in the score somehow". So yeah, those two elements of the kind of... random meeting of a theremin player and Kate's desire for a theremin player were the things that led to my decision to use it, I guess. And then, you know when you kind of try something and you're not sure if it's gonna work, and then it works and then you end up using it more and more and it's like Botox or something? I ended up with a score full of theremin, and I'm very happy about that. I think it really is a perfect instrument for Loki, and it's so expressive and it's so otherworldly, and it has that callback to those 1950s sci-fi B movies so yeah. I'm glad Kate wanted it.

Clara Rockmore's "The Swan".

When composing the Loki Green theme, what was your process like?

I came up with the theme for Loki in the demo that I did to get the job, like, I had to do a pitch to kind of "win" the job. And that was the thing that I came up with as his theme, like, right from the get go. And it was in that original pitch. And then I had the idea of putting a kind of classical ornamentation or something over-the-top to bring it together and give it a flourish, because he's such a flamboyant, over-the-top character. And then I put that Ride of the Valkyries inspired arpeggiated string figure over the top and, yeah, that was it that was kind of the theme.

Follow-up question: I noticed that people have been putting an Avengers theme (titled Assemble) over the Green theme - I was wondering, was it intentionally written to slot in with that theme?

It wasn't intentional, I hope I don't get sued!

When writing music for the show, where did you start?

So I got the job, and then I read all the scripts, all six scripts. And then Kate had to go off and shoot. And she kind of held off sending me any episodes, but she was like "Oh, at Marvel they like to have a suite of themes". And so I was asked to do this 10 minute-or-so long suite, which contained all the different characters' themes, and then that had to be approved by the execs. And I just worked on that for a month while Kate was shooting, and she was sending me [clips] of like, a bit of Jonathan Majors' performance in Episode Six, because she was like, "I think you should see this, it's gonna be really inspiring for how, how he's playing the character". And then I came up with a Kang theme from seeing those.

And then yeah, it was like, I kind of started in Episode Six and knew where I was heading. I had that suite of themes, so if I had a scene with Mobius or Loki or whatever, I'd use their two themes and switch them around or do a sample version depending on what was going on in the scene.

Because Loki was an already established MCU character, you definitely had things to pull on - what was your process like with the newly introduced characters, like Mobius and Sylvie?

Well, when I read the first two scripts before I saw any footage, I sort of thought that Mobius would be more like a big, lumbering, cheeseburger-eating cop. The way Owen Wilson played it was much lighter and, you know, he was kind of darting around and so I had to speed up his theme a bit from how I imagined it.

That is really cool to hear because I definitely think the interpretation of the character is so important, and seeing it on the page is probably different from seeing it on the screen.

Yeah, when I'm reading a script, I really like to know which actor is going to play it, or, you know, just seeing the face of the actor. You know, like, Tom Hiddleston playing Loki... I don't know, imagine if anyone else was playing that character. It would just be totally different, wouldn't it?

Yeah.

Although I don't know if you've ever seen Tom Hiddleston's pitch for doing Thor.

Oh, the screen test?

Yeah, I stumbled across that. I think someone sent it to me and I was like, "That's hilarious. Imagine if it's been the other way around".

Yeah. It almost makes you wonder, you know, "What if?"

Maybe that's what the What If?... series is about!

What is your favorite little musical detail people may not pick up on the first time around?

Um, gosh. No, not really, I don't think there's anything. I guess everything's dramatically related on the whole, unless Kate put a piece in because she wanted it, and it didn't totally make sense. But on the whole, I feel like the storytelling is pretty thematic with the music. So I guess I'm pretty proud of that.

You've also done a bunch of work outside of Loki - what was your favorite?

I feel like Loki is high up on the list because it was such a lovely collaboration [and] such a nice team of people to work with. And everyone's been so nice and grateful, even Tom Hiddleston called up to say thank you and I met him and everyone, and everyone's just been so nice about what I've contributed, and it's just kind of blown me away [and] given me a huge head. I think it's probably the most detailed thematic writing I've done, I would say as well - and the biggest, the biggest scale. I was given a choir and an orchestra and a huge brass section to work with. So yeah, it probably is Loki to be honest, at this point.

Well that's good to hear that everyone was so tightly knit, almost like a family.

Yeah, it did feel like that, and we had our Wednesday catch-ups, our Wednesday music meetings. And it was like, "That's what I'm doing on Wednesday", and it felt weird when it was the last one, and we were like, "Oh I guess this is it for a Wednesday music catch up". A bit sad.

That's good to hear!

Oh, I was a bit pissed off though, because they said "We're going to send you a present from production", And I [thought] "Oh, that's sweet!". And then this present arrived from America a couple of weeks ago, and I think something must have happened in transit, but I opened this box up and it was empty. I think it was meant to be a Loki poster.

That's really funny though!

They mentioned it on the last call, they were like, "Oh, we're sending you something as a token of our appreciation". Like, I received an empty box. Maybe the God of Mischief interfered in there.

You got Loki'd!

I did, yeah!

So, with the show wrapping up airing in the past couple of weeks, have you been keeping track of all the things people are saying about the show? I know people have been using your music on TikTok, especially the main theme.

No I don't, I'm not on TikTok. I don't know why. Yeah, and I've got a small daughter, so I don't have loads of time to do social media stuff, but I've definitely I've looked on Twitter and Instagram. And those are, [like], my two social media outlets. And yeah, people on Twitter have been really... like, the comments have been amazing. So yeah.

Yeah, I'm glad that you're able to see even a little bit of that, because there is a lot of praise for the show.

Awh! I'll have to get a TikTok account and do some stalking.

Do you have a favorite Easter egg or moment in the series?

Oh, it was so fun to do the handover from the Avengers. You know, Alan Silvestri in episode one, it starts with his original cue and I had all his stems, and then it segued into my cue from where the suitcase gets dropped, so that was really fun to pass the music over from Alan Silvestri. I love listening to the multitrack from his recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra as well, that sounded awesome.

As we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to say regarding the series, or anything you want to plug?

I've got a movie coming to Netflix in the fall called Fever Dream, it's directed by Claudia Llosa, and it's an Argentinian film about a mysterious illness, so it's quite timely. Yeah, and [Loki] was such an amazing experience - Kate Herron was awesome, just so much respect to her. I think she's just held the show together, and it was great to work with her.

You can find Natalie on Twitter (@filmmusicholt) and Instagram (@natsholt), and you can read more about her at natalieholt.com!

All episodes of Loki are currently streaming on Disney+.

All photos belong to the rightful owners.

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