‘The Traitors’ Knows You Love Those Hyper-Specific Lyrics
[Editor’s note: The below article features spoilers about Season 3, Episode 4 of “The Traitors.”]
At the end of Episode 4 of “The Traitors” Season 3, Bob the Drag Queen is banished in a coup led by fellow traitor Boston Rob. As the three remaining Traitors slowly make their way into the turret, traitors Danielle and Carolyn rail in confessional against Boston Rob, forcing their hands, and a song plays. “You’ve got blood on your hands,” the vocalist sings moodily. The lyrics are tailored as perfectly as host Alan Cummings’s plaid suits — which is entirely the point.
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The Peacock reality series often features somewhat on-the-nose lyrics and, by now, fans somewhat expect the joke. Earlier in that episode, as the competitors filed into the round table and Boston Rob prepared to lead the vote for Bob the Drag Queen, the lyrics ran, “There was a fire burning in my eyes / And blood running rivers in the night / Follow me down into the valley night.”
“The Traitors” knows you love it — and yes, they are very intentional about it. “We always feel like it’s important to show the audience that we’re not taking ourselves too seriously,” executive producer Sam Rees-Jones told IndieWire. “So we like to have fun with lots of elements of the show, including the music.”
The songs typically crop up in the final act of an episode as the tensions (and treacheries) mount. As soon as production wraps, the producers look at the plotlines and the stories they’re going to zero in on and then bring ideas to Bleeding Fingers Music and Feel for Music, the two companies with whom they work on music placement.
”We go to [them] and say, ‘Look, there’s a moment in the traitor’s turret where trust is at an all-time low, and they’re questioning each other,” Rees-Jones said. “‘Let’s talk about a subject for a song that might work around that.’ For example, there’s a track called ‘Friend or Enemy,’ right? Which is quite on the nose, sure, but it’s also quite fun. And like I said, I think it’s important to have a knowing wink.”
That doesn’t always mean hearing lyrics like “Oh death, oh death, please spare me now” before the Traitors make their kill for that night. Sometimes, that means leaning into the comedy of casting a wide range of reality TV stars and letting them loose in a castle in Scotland while conjuring up new and outlandish theories. In other words, sometimes that means focusing on Tom Sandoval.
”He’s brought a different dynamic, and it’s very fun to play around with that,” Rees-Jones said. “The Traitors” definitely has fun with Sandoval, whose wide-eyed expressions of disbelief or suspicion punctuate scenes like punchlines — often accompanied by the signature plinky notes of the more light-hearted “The Traitors” score.
”Those comedic moments [in general], whether it’s intentional or not, are so important to us,” Rees-Jones said. “The music needs to add to that, and sometimes that can just be a breath with no music and just a moment of awkwardness or ridiculousness or whatever it is. The comedic moments are important, but it’s important to have texture within the show as well, music-wise, right? So that when you when you reach those moments of backstabbing and treachery, you’ve had a little palate cleanser in between.”
The goal for both the score and the original songs is to effortlessly guide viewers through the darkening emotional undercurrents of each episode. It can be cheeky fun when lyrics directly respond to the twists and turns of the game, but ultimately Rees-Jones wants the music to help pull viewers into the atmosphere and the intrigue of “The Traitors.”
“We’ve worked really hard on what the tone of those songs are. I love some lyrics [and a female voice] that are haunting and beautiful. I wouldn’t say it’s so much, ‘Oh, we’ve gone too far [with the lyrics].’ It’s more, ‘Do they feel right in our world?’ And if they do, then it’s fun to play off that,” Rees-Jones said.
In other words, “Let the music haunt you / While ‘The Traitors’ entertains you.”
“The Traitors” premieres new episodes on Peacock every Thursday through the season finale on March 6.
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