‘Slow Horses’ Composing Team of Daniel Pemberton, Toydrum Creates Non-Traditional Score For Apple TV+’s Spy Thriller

Daniel Pemberton and Toydrum (comprised of Pablo Clements and James Griffith) are the composing team for the Apple TV+ drama series Slow Horses. Starring Gary Oldman, Slow Horses introduced viewers to a collection of MI5 rejects forced to serve in administrative hell. Still, the team, led by Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, manages to find their way into the action and investigate issues that threaten to damage England.

In this Awards Daily interview, Pemberton and Toydrum detail how Slow Horses season three truly marks the point where they found their rhythm in creating the score. They also dive into how their unique way of composing music fits perfectly with the tone of the show. Plus, they reveal how cool it was for Mick Jagger to make “Strange Game” for the main titles!

Awards Daily: The music from the season three pilot Strange Games is your submission to the Emmys. Can you talk about what it was like composing for that episode?

Pablo Clements: With Slow Horses one of the things that has been very important is establishing a sound that feels very unique to the show. Within the show the slow horses themselves are slightly wonky and the goal is to find a sound that didn’t have the slickness of TV spy dramas that have come before. We spent a long time creating the sounds and a palette and then limiting ourselves to those sounds. Each season has a different through line so we try to set up a theme.

James Griffith: For the season three pilot we had to go a little outside the Slow Horses world because it took place in Istanbul. With this eight minute chase scene we wanted to give the sound a more Middle Eastern feel. Then because there was a lot more action, including manipulating a drum machine to help cut through some of the machine gun fights that come later in the series. We also banged away a big metal sculpture with bars from a friend who’s a weird instrument maker so there’s a lot of the percussion in the opening sequence. Dan, when he comes over, gets excited and finds things in our studio we didn’t even remember were here.

Daniel Pemberton: There’s a big process of experimentation early on in this series. We first try to be free and experimental and then we try to contain it and control it so it can work throughout the series.

Awards Daily: Considering the tone, this season has a lot more action and yet the show still keeps its sense of humor. Does that affect how you guys do your composing?

Daniel Pemberton: I think one of the things we all love about Slow Horses is that it has that juxtaposition of extreme intensity of shambolic spies. We are always very conscious with anything that we do that it fits in the sound world of Slow Horses we have created. So the way we try to do that is that everything is connected so that you can go from the lighter moments into the heavier and have it still feel like an authored score, and those bits of music still feel like they have a connection to one another.

James Griffith: Also the way the show is set up going from heavy action with a little bit of humor in it, you can still play it seriously, it’s not slapstick. There might be something funny that happens but it’s witty and dark enough that it can just sit in that moment, like in those gunfights there might be a little quip here or there that’s funny but you still feel that it’s a jeopardy moment. But as Dan said, the sound palette lets us jump in and out if we need to.

Awards Daily: You guys have worked together on 16 out of the 18 episodes. How has that dynamic worked for you?

Daniel Pemberton: I think season three was the strongest one where all the ideas we tried to establish over the first two seasons really came together with season three. I think with season one it’s always very complicated on a brand new show trying to get the tone right, and this show had a very unique tone. So within that process everyone’s trying to work out what the show is, and we are looking at how to keep the integrity of the sound. Then in season two it’s the first time we introduced different textures. By season three it was the first time that we worked out a really good process of working together that felt like everyone was totally in step. It is a big series and there are different directors every season. But we have now established the tone, and have very clear ways the show sounds, and I think everyone understands that now, which is a lot better for us because we can then go and just write.

James Griffith: Yeah, people aren’t on our back as much about what the show is, it’s now established and successful. So, as we have changed, no one has questioned the new stuff we bring in. But yeah, the collaboration really came into step by season 3. It was easy to be, like, We got this far with this one. Dan, what do you think? Then he would throw some stuff on that.

Daniel Pemberton: We would tag team a lot of the work. I usually do everything on my own, so it’s really nice to do something with collaborators. We both come from an off-kilter sound background so that is one of the big reasons why we did this series together. We both have an approach that is not mainstream and conventional.

Awards Daily: In the score for Istanbul footprint from the first episode you start the score with this piercing sound in the beginning, and it reminds me when we start the final episode after the bomb has gone off and we have the ringing in the ears of the characters. I was curious where that idea came from.

James Griffith: That cue starts when Donovan is kicked out by Alison and then we see that she is hiding something like he suspected. That sound plays up that mood.

Daniel Pemberton: It was their EMS Synthi, which is very rare, best known for being used on Pink Floyd records. It’s a very unstable piece of electronics that creates very visceral sounds. Which we like on this show and use a lot in this series. Because it has a sound that doesn’t sound slick, we want to have an organic and crankiness to it. The same way the characters do. It is very important for us that the stuff we do in episode one has a through line all the way through the series. Every season we go through the scripts and work out what the story beats are and how to have thematic sounds that can pay off towards the end. Episode 1 is where we usually plant those seeds.

Awards Daily: I’ve listened to “Strange Game” on YouTube probably more times than I should admit to with one of the people who composed it. I’m just curious what it was like making that song?

Daniel Pemberton: It was amazing! Working with Mick Jagger is still one of the most amazing things I have managed to do in my career. I love the fact that the opening episode of this season is called Strange Games, based on Mick’s lyrics. The first thing he did with the opening verses he did in one take on an iPhone recording. So I put it up and did a little editing and sent it back to him. I had no idea how much time we would get with him, but he’s probably the best singer I’ve worked with in terms of just easy to get along with, super professional. He sent it back saying, we can make this better, and said he’s going to go to his studio and record it properly.

He was always improvising, and I said to do that here, and one of the lines he just sang was, “It’s a strange game.” I was like,”Oh, my God, that is the line that is the song!” So I took that line and edited and looped it four times into the chorus. I was, like, “We actually have a song here,” thinking that’s it, that’s all I’m going to get, and I’m very happy. Then Mick said, “I can do that better.” So I sent it back to him and he re-records it and put some tweaks into it. There was just a lot of back and forth with him, and it all came together very quickly. He has such a great voice to work with, and it really fits in the sound world that we created for this score.

Awards Daily: The score at times plays within the show itself. Does that influence other work that you do for the show?

Daniel Pemberton: For me a good theme tune should feel like part of the world of the show rather than something that’s just tacked on for marketing. The palette of the song is the palette of the score. So there are a lot of elements in that song that we use within the score and occasionally we bring the song back. I think we did it in episode six in a dramatic moment at the end. We just did something in season four that was so powerful we actually had to cut it because it took over too much in the scene, which is a shame because it was really cool. I’m always keen to try to get little bits of it here and there so there’s a real connection between the song and the score world.

Jim Griffith: Having it at the end of season three is a really good wrap up. The song helps us know that we’ve come to the end.

Daniel Pemberton: I simply enjoy hearing it as well! I love that song!

Jim Griffith: You have never talked specifically about how you did that song, so I’m glad you asked that question. We knew you wrote it with Mick Jagger when we were talking to you about coming in to work together but we never actually asked you the specifics.

Daniel Pemberton: He is really cool. He was, just like, here’s my number, phone me up. I was, like, what? I have phone calls with Mick Jagger, which is the most surreal thing. He is just awesome.

Awards Daily: I am certain you cannot say much about season four, but I know you guys have already done it. Can you give us anything in general?

Daniel Pemberton: We just wrapped season four and we are very excited about it. Between us we think it might be our best work on the series yet. (Besides the episode we’re pushing here!) When I first came on this I didn’t really think I’d still be on it this far along. While the show was always great, it keeps getting better and better and we love working on it.

Jim Griffith: We all work out a lot of stuff and you have your ups and your downs no matter what level you’re at, and this show is definitely an up. It’s a great show, well written, well acted. You have Gary Oldman. It’s just a great show to be a part of.

Daniel Pemberton: It is a very unique series and it has taken people time to discover it. Anecdotally, season three is where it went from people saying, what is a Slow Horse? to, oh, I love Slow Horses. It feels like it hit that tipping point where people are really enthusiastic about it. It is great because season three feels like where we have come into our own with our approach to the music. The series really has come together.

Awards Daily: You can add me to that anecdote. I discovered the show literally last year and binged it through season three and thought, this show keeps getting better and better.

Daniel Pemberton: We will do this again for season four!

Awards Daily: That would be great!