As the fourth season of Sons of Anarchy comes to an end, fans of the FX hit drama series will have something to enjoy and carry them through during the show’s long hiatus. FX, Twentieth Century Fox Television and Columbia Records have partnered to release the soundtrack “Songs of Anarchy: Music from Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1-4” on November 29th.
We recently talked to Sons’ music supervisor Bob Thiele Jr. who is responsible for, along with series creator Kurt Sutter, the distinctive music style of the show.
Thiele, who grew up immersed in the music world by virtue of being the son of legendary record producer Bob Thiele Sr., has some very impressive credentials of his own. He’s an Emmy® nominated musician, song writer, composer, and producer for several hit shows and Grammy® winning artists. His passion and respect for music and artists is quickly apparent as we talk about how he became involved with Sons of Anarchy, the music selection process for the show, its soundtrack and the season finale music.
Thiele’s lifelong music career and friendship with Katey Sagal – he produced her 2004 CD “Room”- led him to his association with Sutter. They began discussing his collaboration before Sutter developed Sons of Anarchy for FX and as they bonded over their shared fascination with the biker culture.
“Kurt knew he wanted music to be a significant part of the story. He felt with my background and versatility, I’m a musician, producer…I can wear a number of hats and it would come handy.”
Thiele’s talents have certainly come in handy and have been put to good use. Following Sutter’s vision, he’s helped shaped the series’ unique music style which consists of a jambalaya of original music and covers from established artists but mostly from indie artists and bands. Their efforts have been rewarded with a 2009 Primetime Emmy® nomination for “Outstanding Main Title Theme Music” which Sutter and Thiele received (along with Dave Kushner and Curtis Stigers) for the song “This Life.” However, the most impressive achievement is the popularity of the show’s music which is evidenced by their Sons of Anarchy North Country – Extended Play (EP) CD with four songs from Season 1 which was released in September 2009 and remains in the iTunes Soundtracks Top 100 Chart.
I decided the most logical point to start the interview with Thiele – an extremely personable individual – was to ask him about the process of coming up with a signature style for the show. His answer anchors us back to SOA’s first season, more specifically, the instrumental version of “Fortunate Son” (his song with Lyle Workman and The Forest Rangers – Episode 9, “Hell Followed”) and the Audra May cover of “Forever Young” (Episode 12, “The Sleep of Babies”), which he says opened up the possibility of using music as a component to push the narrative of the story and move it along.
His answer immediately makes me think of the recently aired episode “Burnt and Purged Away.” It features Noah Gundersen’s song “David” in a manner which I call “Classic SOA Style,” which is basically an action sequence with limited dialogue which feeds off a great song whose meaningful lyrics support the narrative.
“The way we’re doing it, it’s considerate of what is going on with the picture, with the screen. You don’t find it in other shows.”
I couldn’t agree more with Thiele as he continues to describe the development of the show’s distinctive style. “The music would not be sleek; it wouldn’t fit conventions of popular music of this day and age. A lot of the music from the show comes from not just biker bands that existed around the time the MCs became this iconic American entity but also blues bands.”
On a personal level, Thiele looks up to the rebellion of the 60s – where he regularly goes for inspiration. “The unconvention of the American sound of the Woodstock generation. Like the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin. Creedence Clearwater (Revival). They were following their own kind of muse, following their own code.”
He also took into consideration his belief that the show’s audience cares about the authenticity of the music.
“The music, to a larger extent, had to come from a similar place than the characters, that there was an authenticity, a rawness…that you got a sense of authenticity from the characters and the music had to match that,” Thiele says. “That’s why music resonates on so many levels, across age groups. It’s something that people can go into and say ‘Wow, this is authentic.’”
I could have talked about this with Thiele for hours but since I promised I would only steal about 30 minutes of his time, I moved on. It was time to inquire how the music for specific episodes was selected.
Bob Thiele Jr. is the music supervisor for Sons of Anarchy.
Thiele explains sometimes the music is already written as notes in the script. This is the case for “Forever Young”—which was originally written as a lullaby but ended up being covered by Audra May and The Forest Rangers—or for this season’s premiere episode which had already written in “What a Wonderful World” (originally written in 1960 by Thiele Sr. and lyricist George Weiss; covered by the Kills’ Alison Mosshart with the Forest Rangers).
“By that time, Kurt has a specific idea of what he feels lyrically, it’s like dialogue, the music very much becomes a character.”
This is where Thiele comes in and takes his cue from knowing the music is commenting on the scene.
“If there is a motorcycle chase, I have a large stash of songs that I’m accumulating that I’m putting in my playlist and I see the characteristics of the song, if the song looks like it belongs to the show.”
His ‘stash’ comes from all over the place and sometimes people even cold-call him to offer suggestions. However, Thiele remains focused on his task of sifting through the sand to find gold in the way of unknown artists and to maintain a consistent sonic style for the show.
“I’m not interested in the stuff that is overly familiar; we’re dealing with these guys that are living outside the norm. I’m mining a very different area.”
Many would consider having a smaller budget than regular network shows a disadvantage but Thiele says it has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Sons.
“Compared to most shows, we have a very small budget to work with. But that has worked out for us, and it has worked out because we’ve had to go to a different source. If you can’t afford it, it forces you to go to independents.”
Thiele is clearly proud to have found great talent in indie artists such as Audra May, the Austin rock band the Lions and Battleme which is a spinoff of The Lions singer Matt Drenik.
“Loyalty plays a big part too. We’ve gone back to a couple of guys, The Lions, White Buffalo. They were there with us in the beginning and we continue to have a relationship with them. Sonically it works for us.”
A more recent example of such a successful partnership happened with Gundersen, for which Thiele did some additional work on the song “David” to make it fit better with the scenes.
“It’s an interesting story. It didn’t have enough of a driving energy for the action so I went into the studio and overdubbed some drums to push it forward. That’s flexibility that we wouldn’t always have with a major artist or an artist with a major level because the band may be adverse to how we use their stuff. These are people that are fans of the show and are like a part of the family. There’s this mutual trust.”
Within that circle of trust, there’s a group of musicians whom Thiele has known for a while and has assembled into a band he’s exclusively created for the show to accompany the various guest musicians in the multiple covers of iconic songs used in Sons. The band is called the Forest Rangers and Thiele is also a member playing guitar, bass and keyboard. His pride for the band is evident when he says that if SAMCRO had a band; it would be the Forest Rangers. Fans of the show may have caught a glimpse of Thiele and the Forest Rangers during one of their cameos in the show. Recently, they appeared in “Out” as the band playing during Opie Winston’s (Ryan Hurst) wedding and in the Charming Heights garden party where they back up Sagal’s daughter Sarah White in the song “Dreaming Of You.”
Considering the Sons of Anarchy storyline revolves around rugged men and testosterone, I wanted Thiele to discuss the process of incorporating the female voices to match the narrative. He admits there aren’t that many opportunities to incorporate sonically a female voice into the show and how typically it comes via Sagal as she covers a song each season.
“Kurt tends to hear the male voice over the female. I’ll give him some suggestions and give him a couple songs and he chooses the male voices.”
However, when opportunities arise, Thiele makes the most of them. “There are times when we have a scene that is quiet, obviously like with the Audrey May song or when Gemma is having a cup of coffee.”
How much music they would end up creating for Sons came as a surprise to him and Sutter, and that ultimately impacted the song selection process for the CD. At some point, they considered only incorporating the show’s signature songs but in the end, they decided to focus on songs that were created specifically for the show.
“We thought there were so many songs that we conceived and created for the show, and that is one of the hallmarks for the show. Why should we dilute what we think is a part of the brand?”
Of the 15 songs in the CD, Thiele proudly informs me 12 of them are performed by the Forest Rangers.
“What’s your favorite song from the CD?” I ask.
He seems partial to “John the Revelator” and the recent “House Of The Rising Sun” (Battleme & The Forest Rangers with Katey Sagal), but loves the Spanish version of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Franky Perez & Los Guardianes del Bosque which also reveals a bit of Thiele’s humor. Los Guardianes del Bosque is the Spanish translation of Forest Rangers.
It’s time to ask the most pressing question that is plaguing SOA fans: what we can expect for the music in the Season 4 two-part episode finale the first (the first of which airs tonight).
“There isn’t a lot of music but the music that does exist is very powerful,” Thiele says.
He goes on to equate it to the impact of other finale songs from the past such as “John the Revelator” (Season 1 – Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers), “Gimme Shelter” (Season 2 – Paul Brady & The Forest Rangers) and “Hey Hey My My” (Season 3 – Battleme). Thiele wouldn’t reveal the finale song but he does spill on some general details.
“We’re giving you nine minutes of the song and very sparse dialogue. You’ll see the dialogue and get a final eight minute song. But that song is totally going to propel what is going to happen. It’s extremely powerful. The song is very iconic and here, it’s in a context that you wouldn’t naturally expect. Take a song that is so familiar and cast it in a light context that not only honors the song, but definitely works for the narrative.”
That whole explanation got my juices going in anticipation for the finale. Our conversation was about to end and I had to ask Thiele about his experiences with Sons of Anarchy fans.
“Coming from the music business, I never had direct experience with the fans and what I found, especially with this show, there’s a really dedicated and serious group of fans.”
Thiele then shares a recent incident in a coffee shop where he was approached by a 65-year-old woman, who was a companion nurse to another lady, after she spotted the SOA gear he was wearing. The woman proceeded to share how incensed she was at a certain character’s death and her excitement exponentially increased after he revealed his involvement in the show. The same experience has happened to members of the Forest Rangers.
“When people find out they are involved with the show, their conversations take a different direction. It’s an incredible phenomena; it’s a testament to the power of television. But I think when you get a show like ‘Sons,’ which has the kind of really over the top fans, it adds another layer to the experience. I see it with other guys— Theo…Tommy—, when they go to some booking for a Harley show or something and they are overwhelmed by the fans. It’s pretty awesome to have that much of a positive impact.”
That comment wrapped up my enjoyable conversation with Thiele. As I did my homework to prepare for this interview, I kept coming across references of various individuals stating how pleased they were to work with their ‘good friend’ Bob Thiele. It’s not uncommon for people in the industry to say such things but in our 45-minute conversation, I came to understand why they would say something like that. I found Thiele easy to talk to, laid back, forthcoming and above all, generous with his time. He assured me we could keep on talking for as long as we needed to – even though I was being the time keeper in our conversation. I blame my parents for teaching me the importance of respecting other people’s time because I would have enjoyed hearing more about the experiences and work of this passionate spirit. It’s most definitely my loss.
On multiple occasions, I’ve heard Sons of Anarchy fans state Kurt Sutter knows a good thing when he sees one. I don’t know Sutter personally; I briefly met him once in a busy press room during the 2010 San Diego Comic Con which, in my opinion, doesn’t really count as a ‘meet’ with so many people around. But in regards to Thiele, I agree with the fans. Sutter was able to spot and handpick a gem out of a set of dunes.
Tune in to Sons of Anarchy, Tuesdays at 10:00 PM E/P only on FX.
Check out the brand new site for the Forest Rangers which debuts today: http://www.theforestrangers.com/.
“Like” Forest Rangers on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Forest-Rangers/378677498765?ref=ts&sk=wall.
For more on the show’s music, visit the episode and music guide: http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/soa/episode.php
Follow @SAMCRO_BLOGGER, @sutterink and @FXNetworks and tweet using the hashtag #SOAFX.
All photos courtesy of Bob Thiele and PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.
elleL
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