Fort Lauderdale Daily: South Florida will turn into the world of Westeros and Essos at the BB&T Center on Sept. 22, as the “Game of Thrones” Live Concert Experience comes to the stage.
The event features “Game of Thrones” composer Ramin Djawadi, and will take the audience through the seven kingdoms spanning the seven seasons of the critically acclaimed series.
Djawadi will lead the orchestra, choir and soloists through the concert, which will will include new music and footage from season seven, as well as a new stage design and visuals that differ from the previous tour of the “Game of Thrones” Live Concert Experience.
We spoke with Ramin Djawadi to discuss the tour, his career, what it’s like to compose music for film and more. Highlights from our conversation are below.
How do you create an immersive experience for the audience during the “Game of Thrones” Live Concert Experience?
The big thing for me was to try to create what I call a hybrid show. I wanted to take orchestral, instrumental music but create more of a show around it. “Game of Thrones” led itself to that really well.
For example, we have dragons on the screen, so I thought, “Well, why not when you play pieces where we see the dragons, they have [pyrotechnics] on the stage? Or why don’t we simulate some snow that’s falling down?” Things like that I thought would drag the audience deeper into the scenes and into their favorite show, reliving the scenes. That was always my intention—to really create that feeling of being in Westeros. The stage takes on different feelings and shapes and visuals that do all these things and emotionally, while you listen to the music, it visually gets enhanced as well. That was always the plan.
What was your reaction to the news of your Emmy nominations for “Westworld” and “Games of Thrones?”
Oh, it’s absolutely incredible. It’s an honor to be nominated, you know. Also, with these fellow nominees, there’s so much talent out there and it’s incredible to be recognized with a nomination like that. Both those shows are just incredible shows and I feel very fortunate to be a part of both of them.
What is your favorite song from “Game of Thrones” to perform on stage and why?
That’s kind of tough. They all kind of do something different. But if I had to pick one, I want to say it’s “Light of the Seven.” That’s the piano organ piece from season six. There’s a couple pieces where I don’t conduct the orchestra myself, where I actually play an instrument, and that’s one of the pieces where I play myself. I play the piano, and there’s a runway on the stage, so I’m actually deeper in with the audience out front. That’s always a very special moment when I’m out there and performing this piece.
What’s your process of composing songs for “Game of Thrones” and other film projects?
I always start with conversations with my director or producer. Before I write anything, I want to try to get into their head and explore what their vision is. Most of the time, they always come with ideas. They might be very excited about a certain instrument that they feel I should try and use with possible [songs], and they have feelings for certain characters about how they want the music to sound, be portrayed emotionally.
Then, my job is to actually put that into notes. I just love getting all that information and then being creative with that and translating that into music. With “Game of Thrones,” I do get the episodes and then I watch it together with the show runners. We discuss the actual scenes together and where the music should start and stop. Then I get to sit down and write about it all, and then play it back for them and then we discuss further. So, that’s always the process in writing music >>>
