You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs,

and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishi Kei Kesh Hirwe.

The TV show Severance debuted on Apple TV Plus in February 2022.

It was created by writer Dan Erickson and developed into a series by director

and executive producer Ben Stiller. He directed the pilot and most of the episodes. After the first

season came out, Severance was nominated for 14 Emmys, including outstanding drama, and it won two

Emmys for main title design and for musical composition.

I love this show, so I was really excited to talk to the composer Theodore Shapiro about

how he came up with the show's theme music.

In this episode, you'll hear how the theme music first came into existence in a totally

different form, and then how Teddy reimagined it to become the final version.

But first, here's a little background on what the show is about.

This is Adam Scott.

In severance, I play Mark Scout, an employee at a company called Lumen Industries.

He leads a team whose employees have undergone a severance procedure that surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives.

When they go to work, they know nothing about their lives in the outside world, and in the outside world, they have no knowledge of their lives at work.

Mark has chosen to undergo the severance procedure after the death of his wife,

so he can go to work free from the overwhelming grief he feels every day.

But Lumen Industries is a mysterious company.

When Mark and his team start pulling at the threads,

things start to unravel in ways no one expects.

...