Halt and Catch Fire Brings Us Back to the 90s Through Music

There are just three episodes left of Halt and Catch Fire as this final season comes to a close. Before the final credits run, we talk with music supervisor Yvette Metoyer about the show’s signature period sound. And how she and co-supervisor Thomas Golubić pulled off one perfect song last season.

The AMC show has a cult following on Tunefind, where fans love the retro ‘80s and ‘90s soundtrack – often featuring some lesser-known gems from the quintessential artists of the era. One fan favorite song was “Velouria” by the Pixies, featured in episode 309 as Joe and Cameron reconnect during the two-episode season finale. Yvette takes us back and shares how that scene came together.

 

Yvette Metoyer:

We were close to wrapping up a truly fantastic season with just two more episodes to go. Our two creators/showrunners, [executive producers] Christopher Cantwell and Christopher Rogers are huge fans of Nirvana (who isn’t, right?) and wanted to feature Nirvana’s “Love Buzz” in the sequence where Cameron and Joe hang out together at the Comdex afterparty.

Of course, Nirvana would be the ultimate band to usher in the 1990’s sound, but unfortunately, we were unable to license “Love Buzz” – The Kurt Cobain documentary, “Montage of Heck” had recently been released – and the band weren’t up for much licensing at the time.

Thomas Golubić and I had our work cut out for us. This was the first season that I would be co-music supervisor with Thomas, and even though we were doing wonderfully for the season, I was nervous about this scene but ready to take on the challenge.

Trying to replace Nirvana was no easy feat. The band are considered one of the premiere grunge/alt rock bands of the time, and their sound was so ubiquitous of the 1990’s. After several waves of good and not-so-good ideas, I started combing through The Pixies catalogue, specifically the “Bossonova” album, which was released in August of 1990.

When we landed on “Velouria,” the thought occurred that this could be the one – there’s an ethereal quality and a sense of longing expressed in the song that captures the swirl of emotions Cameron is experiencing at that moment. We sent a small collection of songs, including “Velouria” to production for the scene and waited.

After several days, we received the news from Chris & Chris that they also really responded to “Velouria,” and that the song did everything needed to establish the 1990’s time period, but most importantly, the song told Cameron’s story, quite beautifully actually.

 

 

Since we cleared “Velouria” early on in the pre-production stage, the song was played on set while the scene was being filmed, which gave the actors the ability to hear the song while they perform. Watching Kerry Bishé (Donna Clark), MacKenzie Davis (Cameron Howe) and Lee Pace (Joe MacMillan) do what they do best, it’s easy to see that they’re all such compelling performers – and the entire sequence from Donna & Cameron’s exchange to Cameron & Joe’s moment together, with “Velouria” scoring the scene, was so satisfying.

 

 

More

〉Check out the songs featured in Halt and Catch Fire

〉Listen to SuperMusicVision’s special Halt and Catch Fire character playlists on Spotify

〉Read our interview with Thomas Golubić