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True Detective’s Music Man T. Bone Burnett Interviewed in Entertainment Weekly

By Reuben Levine

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It’s very apparent by now that HBO likes to keep things low-key when it comes to True Detective. That sort of handling is how you get a situation like this, in which a major news item for True Detective fans ends up in a small interview ten days from premiere. But such is life.

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Entertainment Weekly had a quick chat for the man behind True Detective’s music, T. Bone Burnett. Burnett is credited as the “music director” straight off, so that should put a quick end to any lingering questions about his involvement.

Before we get into it, however, we should tell you upfront that T. Bone Burnett doesn’t discuss the music from True Detective’s first season and isn’t asked. So much for that soundtrack.

Even though we may not have left the south entirely, Burnett’s plans for True Detective season two’s music are very different from the first season’s:

"“It’s very, very different…This year, it’s an incredibly different landscape, and different colors. It’s barren and dangerous, more arid and electronic…it’s just me and the guys playing instruments the way a machine would sound.”"

We’ve said it before, but True Detective’s second season has to be different in all the right ways to carve its own path without relying on the success of the first season. A different sort of “sound” is one way of doing that. It’s also worth noting that, when asked about inspiration, Burnett lists “glitch-hop” artist Tipper.

Like everyone else involved with True Detective, Burnett is excited about the script. But that’s not where the meat of this interview lies. The most interesting moments come from EW trying, in vain, to pry more details from Burnett. But he’s under the same lock-and-key as all of the actors.

When asked if they had to work in “total privacy,” Burnett didn’t mince his words:

"“Sort of! We kept everything real tight. But it wasn’t a bunker.”"

True Detective is an unusually secretive production for HBO, and that appears to run very deep. We weren’t even aware of Burnett’s full involvement until this very interview. Finally, when asked about that Lera Lynn song from the first trailer, Burnett was able to share some actual details:

"“It’s called “The Only Thing Worth Fighting For.” It hasn’t been fully released. I’d rather let that be revealed as the show plays out. But it’s an interesting axis to the show. There is original music that plays an important part in the story this season.”"

Of course he wasn’t willing to divulge more than that, but it’s enough to pique our interest. All in all this is one of the better non-info interviews. To read the entire (very short) interview and to find out how much of the season he’s actually seen (half,) you can head over to Entertainment Weekly.

Next: We have more plot details for True Detective season two.

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