With its central story focusing on a plane crash-landing in a Mexican jungle and its passengers being left stranded, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue doesn’t need much else to make it feel dark.
From the first scene of the first episode, composer Chris Roe employs a heavy score. Highlighting tensions between the group and their suspicions of each other, Roe’s score elevates the dark cloud that hangs over the survivors.
The creative recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom to discuss his work on the MGM+ original series and the instruments he used to bring its music together.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
How did you come about being involved with this project?
It was a project that I pitched for through my agent. I didn’t know any of the team beforehand, which is quite unusual. I sent some of my music, and we had an excellent meeting, particularly with director Brian O’Malley. We connected on Zoom; he could see all the synth instruments behind me. He’s a big synth nerd himself. He wanted to find music that differed from the usual murder-mystery genre… I did a lot of prep work, like reading the scripts and researching Aztec instruments and Mexican culture.
When you say you sent them your music, was that past projects you’ve worked on?
Yeah, exactly. It’s always a mixture of past projects and things that I thought would be suited to the brief or a few different avenues to explore. I think they then took some of those pieces and used them as temp score, which was great that my music was used throughout the edit. I think there was quite a lot of my music from the series Wolf that I did, a BBC series, which they liked.
Can you explain the process of working with Brian and Anthony Horowitz to develop the shows sound?
I was lucky enough to be brought on board quite early… The first thing I would do was just try to come up with sketches, so I hadn’t seen any of the visuals or anything. I’d read the scripts, but I just let my mind wander and see where we could take things, really trying to get the show’s sound.
We tried out various things. Because it’s based around a plane crash, one of my first ideas was to take radio static and make all the drum beats in the show out of it — and some of it ended up in. My collaborator, Olly Shelton, a great sound designer, mixer, and composer, and I worked together to create some… instruments out of airplane propellers.
We took a recording of a propeller plane and pitched it and put it through many processes that you can play on the keyboard… I would send stuff back and forth with Brian. He was really busy shooting, so (I’d) hear back maybe once a week or something.
This was an interesting project because I think at first we were pushing it very dark, and Brian liked that, and everyone on the team did, I think, in principle… when they started trying it in the edit, I think it had lost some of the sense of fun. We know they’ve all died, so it was sort of like because we were going so dark with music, it was overdoing that point. We then had some time to go back and keep a lot of what I’d done, but then also try some more playful elements, which is where I brought in some of the Aztec instruments, like the ocarina and shakers, and played with it a little bit more and having more fun with it.
Was there one element that you felt the score should accentuate the most?
When I was reading the script for the first time, at the end of the first episode, it turned to night. That’s when the first murder happens. Anthony’s description of the jungle and all the creatures watching on… really kind of ignited something. It’s one of the first tracks I wrote. It’s called ‘Nightbird.’ That stayed in throughout all the edits, which is rare not to have many changes.
The camera tracks through the rainforest slowly and steadily, and the music is almost marching, pushing the camera forward. It’s those moments that I found I could let myself go because they were hyper-stylized rather than realistic. Because you have nightfall, there’s no dialogue, and it’s all very mysterious, that was a lot of fun to write for.
More challenging bits are the bits around the camp, how much to score the dialogue between the characters, and how much to throw doubt (and) cast doubt on them in the beginning. As we go through, you can do that more, but at the beginning, there’s no reason for them to be mistrustful of (each other) until that first murder happens.
What did you want to ring out in (scenes focused around characters and dialogue)?
Just finding those little moments of suspicion where maybe they glance over at one of the other characters, and there’s a little shaker. It’s all quite minimal and subtle musically. I think I overscored the first few attempts; then, it went too dark. It was too much. I think part of the problem sometimes is you get the first episode, and you’ve built up all these tools and things that you want to use for more than the first episode, but then you’ve got to remember the arc of the whole show… it was about finding subtle tensions between the characters.
Can you discuss the specific instruments you used to highlight those tensions and suspicion and the visuals?
The setting of the show is a real gift as a composer. To have the rainforest it’s already so musical and full of sound. There are a few different instruments like a hollowed-out wooden drum called a teponaztli, which is quite ominous. It just has two very ominous notes. And then the ayoyote shells as well, the shakers.
One of the main lead instruments is the ocarina, which I never realized before when I was researching it, is a kind of Aztec instrument… It almost sounds like a human voice, so it’s quite disturbing. You can hear a lot of the breath when you play it. It’s quite a characterful instrument.
There’s quite a lot of guitar, but it’s played differently. I worked with a guitarist, Declan Zapala, who’s an amazing percussive guitarist. He does lots of percussion on the guitar’s body, and then there’s a lead trumpet in some parts. Tom Walsh played that kind of mariachi sound. There are so many things to draw upon.
But then the bed of it is strings and synths… A lot is going on there, including a lot of different instrumentation. We wanted it to sound like you couldn’t recognize some of the instruments, but I think it’s good that you can pick them out. We wanted everything to feel unfamiliar and unusual.
Were there any other projects or existing scores that you used as inspiration?
I was building on the work that I did on Wolf because that had a lot of horror elements but also some dark comedy. It was good having gone through that process, knowing how to balance the comedy and the horror.
I do love the score for White Lotus… That setting was a significant influence, particularly when they were around camp and the subtle glances and characters interacting with each other and casting suspicion. I love Cristobal’s (Tapia de Veer) score on that. I think those were the main two influences.
Now that the season is finished and released, how do you feel about being on the other side of it?
Relieved. It’s always a relief, an intense process, whatever you’re working on. It’s nice to see it out there and to be proud of the work that I’ve done on it and see it being received well. It’s interesting to watch people guess who the killer is and watch that play out. I’m also excited when it will be released in the U.K. later in the year on BBC…
I loved the process; I think I just put everything into it. You get absorbed by everything, so it’s nice to step away sometimes and then onto something else. I’m looking forward to seeing it come out in the U.K. and maybe other places and seeing how fans react.
Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue is available to stream on MGM+. The soundtrack to the series is also available to stream.
