You may know Hrishikesh Hirway from any number of his many musical endeavors over the years, from his aughts indie-pop band The One AM Radio to his Lakeith Stanfield collaboration Moors to his more recent solo material—or, maybe most likely, as the creator of the popular Song Exploder podcast. Hirway has also long been in the business of soundtracking film, TV, and video games, and his latest project has been scoring his friend Drew Hancock’s upcoming twist-promising horror film, Companion.
Before the wide release of that movie on January 31, Hirway’s full score will be made available next Friday, January 24, via WaterTower Music. Backed by a 12-pieces string ensemble on the newly unveiled recording “Iris’s Theme,” the final piece in the puzzle came together when Hirway learned that the actress who plays Iris, Sophie Thatcher, is herself a musician. “I played a demo of it for Drew with my own voice singing the part, along with a pitched-up layer of my voice,” he explains. “He loved it, and told me that Sophie makes music herself, and we immediately decided that it had to be sung by Sophie. She came over to my place with Drew one day, and was able to put all of Iris’s wistful, longing spirit into the vocal. We also left my pitch-shifted demo vocal in there, as a barely noticeable layer.”
Without giving too much away, Hirway notes that this decision corresponds to a plot point in the movie featuring pitch-shifted vocals. Before we learn what that might be, listen to the lilting, haunting “Iris’s Theme” below.
