At this point, it's hard to imagine a journey back to Westeros without the music of Ramin Djawadi.
The second season of Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon still starts each episode with Djawadi's iconic theme from the show's predecessor.
From there, the Iranian-German composer's brilliantly unsettling score continues to set the tone throughout, building upon the television franchise’s themes of honour, revenge and redemption.
And as the cold war rages on, the composer plays a key role in ramping up the necessary tension, fashioning haunting melodies and working closely with showrunner Ryan Condal.
In an interview with the Grammy Awards website, Djwadi described how he would watch each episode of House of the Dragon before adding the appropriate score.
“It's called a spotting session. I sit down with the showrunners … and we watch the whole episode together. Then we decide where music should start and where it should stop. And then we talk about those moments. What theme could we use? What should the mood be?,” he said.
“Sometimes we get into great detail, and sometimes we don't. We have to figure out the right instrumentation when there's a turning point, so they'll give me more inspiration and direction. And then, I write all the music and create these digital demos, which I play for them. Then, we'll watch the picture with the music together and see what works and what doesn't. Do we need to tweak it more or not?
“Once we all agree on the music, I record it. It's important to point out that it's a collaboration. I don't just write whatever I want. The showrunners have a clear vision.”
From being mentored by a maestro Hans Zimmer to the rules he followed when composing the Game of Thrones soundtrack, here is what you need to know about Djawadi.
1. He studied at a leading US conservatory
Born in Germany to an Iranian father and German mother, Djawadi graduated from the Berklee College of Music in the US, having studied guitar and film scoring.
“The music I was writing lent itself to film,” he said in an interview on the conservatory’s YouTube page.
“Because film scoring is such a wide style of music, I think it's important for everybody to pursue their favourite music rather than trying to copy somebody else.
“What people in the industry look for is to find something original. So, pursue what you like best because that's when you write your best music.”
2. He was mentored by Hans Zimmer
Djawadi got his industry start by landing a job as a studio hand at Remote Control Productions in Los Angeles, a film score company run by Oscar-winning German composer Hans Zimmer.
As part of the gig, Djawadi assisted composer Klaus Badelt in contributing additional music and arrangement for 2003 blockbuster film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
“I was literally working in the machine room taking care of the computers and the samplers and all that.
“Then, little by little I was allowed to work on some projects. My big breakthrough was the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and so that's when I started arrangements,” he said in an interview for the Grammy Awards website.
“[Zimmer] has been an incredible mentor for me, not only musically, but I think more so how the meanings are done and how to be organised with all the amount of music to write, and there's so many other aspects to the business other than just writing music.”
3. One instrument was banned when composing ‘Games of Thrones’
By the time he was tapped by Games of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, Djwadi was in demand by Hollywood, having composed his own projects and assisted Zimmer in a string of hit films including 2005's Batman Begins , 2008's Iron Man and Deception (2008).
After watching two unreleased episodes of Games of Thrones, Djawadi signed up for the series and created a modern score according to guidelines set by Benioff and Weiss.
“One of those famous things that we laugh about is when they said to me right away, ‘we don't want any medieval flutes, because I know we have dragons and we have swords and all that, so no medieval flute,’” the composer said in an interview on the Grammy Awards website.
“They said, 'look, you can use synthesisers', because there's definitely plenty of synthesisers in the score.
“It's all pretty much organic, but they wanted contemporary. Then the cello came up, which is the leading instrument in the show, and we all agreed that that could be a great instrument.”
4. He went on a world tour
The success of Games of Thrones not only resulted in the separate releases of soundtracks for all eight seasons, but also resulted in Djawadi embarking on his first and only concert tour.
For the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience, he conducted an 80-piece orchestra and choir for a North American and European arena tour spanning 87 shows, from 2017 to 2019.
Each performance was split into two sections, with the composer playing 34 works and the Games of Thrones theme performed in the encore.
5. He hears in colours
Djawadi reportedly has synaesthesia, a perceptual condition that has him seeing colours when music notes are played.
“It’s actually something my wife discovered,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “She’d always asked me about my process and how I write music, so I just described it to her.
“I see it in visuals and all the colours come to me and it triggers notes and melodies, and I didn’t know there was a terminology for it.”
6. He also did the music for Fallout
Amazon's Fallout series is undoubtedly one of the breakout hits of 2024, building on the long-running success of the video game franchise of the same name to craft a post-apocalyptic sci-fi series with thrills, humour and heart, not to mention catapulting its stars Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell to the television A-list.
The series managed to both please long-time fans and win over a legion of new ones, thanks in part to its accessible tone set by its compelling score by Djawadi.
The show, set in the far off future in the aftermath of a nuclear war in the mid-20th century, has a retro-futuristic feel, which Djawadi aimed to capture with his music.
“It’s this post-apocalyptic setting in the future, but the visuals are stuck in the ’50s. The songs in there are from that era, actually, so there’s a lot of those songs and then the score kind of blends in and out of these moments,” he recently told Variety.
