I'm Segun and I'm the composer for the new series of Doctor Who.
My role is to aid the storytelling through music
and to work with Chris and Matt
and to figure out what the sound is, what the direction of the music is
and how we want it to work with the new direction
that Chris is taking the show in
He's a real rising star that a lot of people were
talking about in the, in the music composition world
His experimentation, the use of sounds, the use of
electronic and found sounds along with orchestrated
sounds and he was very interested in building a
sound world around the show
He was fascinated with the history of the music of the show
Of course, when the show first came out
it was pioneering, Delia Derbyshire helped set up
the Radiophonic Workshop and helped create the original sound with Ron Grainer's theme tune
and those sounds are still ahead of their time
they're still cutting edge 55 years later
I studied some stuff about the Radiophonic Workshop
when I was going through my GCSEs
and that was really, really important because that left an impression on me
about music and what music could be and it was no
longer a case of it just had to be a piano or it just
had to be an orchestra or it just had to be a
rock band or something, it could be found sounds
that you were manipulating and working with and playing around with
and, and so much more
What's great is to be able to actually bring
that side of things into the show
not to say that it's the same as what they did but
certainly, I've been very much inspired by that creativity
I think he just brings a new approach
there's stuff in his score that you'd find in the charts
there's stuff that you'd find on Brian Eno records
there's sort of more ambient soundscape-y stuff
I can talk to you about how Rag'n'Bone Man
and Adele and other artists in the popular world
have really influenced the score
have really influenced the score very much as much as Radiophonic Workshop but
very much as much as Radiophonic Workshop but
also people like Steven Price doing 'Gravity' and
Jóhann Jóhannsson doing 'Arrival'
how those kind of influences are in it as well, so
it's definitely a modern score but then it doesn't
leave behind live instruments or influences from the classical world either
it's got those in it as well, so it really does pull
from lots of different areas
I think he's done a brilliant new version of the theme
which both harks back to the show's history
and makes it feel very modern
Before I was really, completely on board we had
a discussion about the Doctor, we had a discussion
about what's Chris, as the lead creative, what's he
trying to convey with this Doctor and also
Jodie as well, what's she bringing to it, what's she conveying
so, Chris talked me through a lot of things to do with
her and to do with hope, and to do with how she's playing the character
and that just really inspired me, so we finished
the conversation and I said, look I'll write some music for you
and I just started writing, and spent a few days on it
and sent it over to them and that was in a way my
emotional and musical reaction to that conversation
with Chris about who the Doctor is and what she stands for
The music for Doctor Who in this series, what I hope
it will do is it will bring the sense of joy
and the sense of excitement that the show has
but it will also bring those moments of quiet contemplation and emotion
So, it's a really fresh, different feel to the show
and sort of compliments the new look of the show
If you think about the range of tones and emotions
we have, for example, in episode one, just that alone
probably hits all the notes that any other whole series might hit
We're not pulling back or hiding from any big emotions or big moments
we are being as bold about being very, very small
and subtle and gentle, as we are about being
really big and being really on the front foot
What we demand from our composer is really huge
and that's the exciting thing about Segun
is he's unifying all that into a new voice for the show, which is really great