Within Breaking Bad's ominous world, music played an essential role in heightening tension, defining characterization, and furthering the plot. From synthesized chord progressions to bass drops, Dave Porter blurred the line between soundtrack and sound design and crafted his own dark, intriguing entity over the show's run.Some highlights: Walter White's screams shattering against a crescendo of synthesizers hyperventilating like airplane turbines, a fourteen-minute tour-de-force orchestration of a train robbery, and the theme itself, which perfectly embodies the strangeness of Vince Gilligan's abstract Western.A few days before the finale airs, he grins next to me in the auditorium of Sarah Lawrence College, his alma mater, having just given a talk to hundreds of undergrads. "This building wasn't here when I was a student," he mutters. Currently set to score M. Night Shyamalan's series Wayward Pines in 2014, Porter has mixed feelings about continuing to do the same thing he's been doing for five years.Noisey: Can you tell me a little bit about your odyssey to Los Angeles, and how you came about meeting Vince Gilligan and working on Breaking Bad?
Dave Porter: I started my career in New York working in commercial houses and in Philip Glass' studio. After that, I had my own production company with a couple other composers in Times Square and was doing music for documentaries and promos. We were doing fine but I always had this idea that I wanted to work on more dramatic material for film and TV. I always had an eye towards LA. Strangely enough, the kick in the pants for me to move was 9/11. I was living in Manhattan at the time, and, though I wasn't personally affected more than anyone else, our business lost a lot of work because production in the city stopped. I was part of an interestingly large migration of creative people from New York to LA in early 2002. I don't know if it's ever been documented but it's something that I just seemed to notice. In terms of getting into Breaking Bad, that's many years removed. I spent a lot of years doing not much and trying to find my way in L.A., and then I subbed in for this friend of mine who's a music editor on the TV show 6 Feet Under. That's when things started to pick up.Could you talk about the actual production process, in terms of creating music and the collaboration between editors, actors, and producers?
TV's different from movies. In TV there's a head producer essentially. A head producer is called a showrunner. In Breaking Bad's case that's Vince Gilligan and that person may or may not be a writer. He's creatively my boss.What was your relationship like?
Vince Gilligan has always been really open to creative ideas from everyone and he'll let you try everything. He'll let you fall flat on your face if you're willing to do it and I have done it before. He's great in that he's really open but when the time comes to make a decision he makes it.How involved is music in terms of telling the story of Breaking Bad?
I think that music is a character in the show and I think it has a role to play in telling the story. There are a lot of ways to do that musically. One of them is about creating a palate that's consistent, or isn't consistent—it can change from character to character. There are little motifs and themes that I have subtly but carefully used over the years. One of the things that defines Breaking Bad in particular is not so much the music itself but how we use it.What are some of the challenges in doing a show like this?
I think the toughest part for me is to not be too telling. To help tell the story but not point the audience unnecessarily towards any one particular conclusion. One of the great things about Breaking Bad is that it exists in shades of grey. Right? There's no perfectly good guy or bad guy. They're all flawed to various degrees. And they're all making morally ambiguous decisions all the time and one of the great things that I think about watching Breaking Bad is that everyone processes it through their own experiences. We're trying not to tell people how to feel. We just hope you feel how you feel.You started off studying electronic music at Sarah Lawrence. What were some of the genres of electronic music at the time and how did they influence your style?
When I was at Sarah Lawrence electronic music was very pervasive in pop music. It was a big deal, the technology was new, it was being exploited by every founding artist for good or for bad. I was always interested in artists and composers that were including that stuff without it being necessarily at the forefront. I'm not writing a concerto of synthesizers, but I am incorporating something cool or something unique that a synthesizer can do in a larger scale piece based on great music that we already know. And that's what drew me to Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Cage.What do you think of modern electronic music?
As with any of these things, some of it is good and some of it is bad. There are a lot of bands around now that sound like versions of bands I grew up with. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's a great thing, but it's not changing. It's all a cycle. It all comes back around. Talking about electronic dance music is interesting because while that is also cyclical, what is interesting to me about Dubstep and EDM is that it often is in the forefront technologically. It's making advances in sound creation and things like that.Do you think we'll see more creative freedom and risk-taking in TV scores going forward?
I think you already have. I definitely do. I wouldn't say film music has gotten worse by any means, but I do think T.V. music has gotten better and the reason why T.V. music has gotten better is because the T.V. production as a whole has gotten better. T.V. shows look so much better than they used to. They're acted better, they're written better, and part of that is skill level, part of that is technology coming of age, the ability to make things look great with less money on a smaller scale television budget. And likewise for composers. We have tools now that we didn't have ten years ago that enable us to do things at faster and hopefully better than ever before. And these stories are demanded. If you have a great show it is much more able to carry a score that is more individualistic, more unique.How do you see your style developing for your upcoming project with M. Night Shymalan?
I don't know. It's going to be an interesting journey. And there are going to be aspects of the music I've written for Breaking Bad that I'll always include in everything I do. This sort of meshing of technology and organic sounds, those are just things that interest me inherently, so I'll always do that. How does anyone do something that is different but still has the magic of what they did before? I think for me it's about drawing on some strengths that I didn't use on Breaking Bad. On Breaking Bad I leaned heavily on my passion and love for synthesizers and technology and all that. But I underutilized my interest in traditional classical scoring.Which is what you grew up with.
I'm not going to go off and write a straight up string quartet or anything. But maybe I'm bringing in strings or other things that I didn't use on Breaking Bad, to get me somewhere new and challenge myself. No one wants to regurgitate themselves all the time. If you're going to grow as a person and as an artist you need to challenge yourself at a certain point.How do you think growing up with classical music, and a classical understanding of music, influenced your style?
There's no question having it in the back of my brain, all this theory, all this history of composition, helps me all the time, whether I'm knowingly drawing on it or not. It's about knowing those rules of what works in music so you can break them if you want to, because rules are made of rubber. But having that knowledge is key as is being a pianist from so young. I'm innately comfortable with the keyboard so when I'm writing music I'm not thinking about my fingers. I'm really thinking about what I'm doing musically and that is important and comes into play.What were some of the most valuable things you learned from Breaking Bad?
I think for me the biggest single thing is, and working on Breaking Bad made me much better at this, is learning how to use music. Where it's most effective and why. How to stay out of the way with music. I actually believe in most film and T.V. there is too much music. But it's identifying where a show is strong and staying out of the way, when it is, and when you have something to contribute musically being able to identify those moments and make the most of them. By virtue of not having a lot of music previously, it has more impact because there hasn't been more music previously. The danger of having a lot of music is that your audience tunes it out eventually. But if you're coming in after five minutes of silence you're much more likely to have an impact.
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Dave Porter: I started my career in New York working in commercial houses and in Philip Glass' studio. After that, I had my own production company with a couple other composers in Times Square and was doing music for documentaries and promos. We were doing fine but I always had this idea that I wanted to work on more dramatic material for film and TV. I always had an eye towards LA. Strangely enough, the kick in the pants for me to move was 9/11. I was living in Manhattan at the time, and, though I wasn't personally affected more than anyone else, our business lost a lot of work because production in the city stopped. I was part of an interestingly large migration of creative people from New York to LA in early 2002. I don't know if it's ever been documented but it's something that I just seemed to notice. In terms of getting into Breaking Bad, that's many years removed. I spent a lot of years doing not much and trying to find my way in L.A., and then I subbed in for this friend of mine who's a music editor on the TV show 6 Feet Under. That's when things started to pick up.
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TV's different from movies. In TV there's a head producer essentially. A head producer is called a showrunner. In Breaking Bad's case that's Vince Gilligan and that person may or may not be a writer. He's creatively my boss.What was your relationship like?
Vince Gilligan has always been really open to creative ideas from everyone and he'll let you try everything. He'll let you fall flat on your face if you're willing to do it and I have done it before. He's great in that he's really open but when the time comes to make a decision he makes it.How involved is music in terms of telling the story of Breaking Bad?
I think that music is a character in the show and I think it has a role to play in telling the story. There are a lot of ways to do that musically. One of them is about creating a palate that's consistent, or isn't consistent—it can change from character to character. There are little motifs and themes that I have subtly but carefully used over the years. One of the things that defines Breaking Bad in particular is not so much the music itself but how we use it.What are some of the challenges in doing a show like this?
I think the toughest part for me is to not be too telling. To help tell the story but not point the audience unnecessarily towards any one particular conclusion. One of the great things about Breaking Bad is that it exists in shades of grey. Right? There's no perfectly good guy or bad guy. They're all flawed to various degrees. And they're all making morally ambiguous decisions all the time and one of the great things that I think about watching Breaking Bad is that everyone processes it through their own experiences. We're trying not to tell people how to feel. We just hope you feel how you feel.
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When I was at Sarah Lawrence electronic music was very pervasive in pop music. It was a big deal, the technology was new, it was being exploited by every founding artist for good or for bad. I was always interested in artists and composers that were including that stuff without it being necessarily at the forefront. I'm not writing a concerto of synthesizers, but I am incorporating something cool or something unique that a synthesizer can do in a larger scale piece based on great music that we already know. And that's what drew me to Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Cage.What do you think of modern electronic music?
As with any of these things, some of it is good and some of it is bad. There are a lot of bands around now that sound like versions of bands I grew up with. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's a great thing, but it's not changing. It's all a cycle. It all comes back around. Talking about electronic dance music is interesting because while that is also cyclical, what is interesting to me about Dubstep and EDM is that it often is in the forefront technologically. It's making advances in sound creation and things like that.Do you think we'll see more creative freedom and risk-taking in TV scores going forward?
I think you already have. I definitely do. I wouldn't say film music has gotten worse by any means, but I do think T.V. music has gotten better and the reason why T.V. music has gotten better is because the T.V. production as a whole has gotten better. T.V. shows look so much better than they used to. They're acted better, they're written better, and part of that is skill level, part of that is technology coming of age, the ability to make things look great with less money on a smaller scale television budget. And likewise for composers. We have tools now that we didn't have ten years ago that enable us to do things at faster and hopefully better than ever before. And these stories are demanded. If you have a great show it is much more able to carry a score that is more individualistic, more unique.How do you see your style developing for your upcoming project with M. Night Shymalan?
I don't know. It's going to be an interesting journey. And there are going to be aspects of the music I've written for Breaking Bad that I'll always include in everything I do. This sort of meshing of technology and organic sounds, those are just things that interest me inherently, so I'll always do that. How does anyone do something that is different but still has the magic of what they did before? I think for me it's about drawing on some strengths that I didn't use on Breaking Bad. On Breaking Bad I leaned heavily on my passion and love for synthesizers and technology and all that. But I underutilized my interest in traditional classical scoring.Which is what you grew up with.
I'm not going to go off and write a straight up string quartet or anything. But maybe I'm bringing in strings or other things that I didn't use on Breaking Bad, to get me somewhere new and challenge myself. No one wants to regurgitate themselves all the time. If you're going to grow as a person and as an artist you need to challenge yourself at a certain point.How do you think growing up with classical music, and a classical understanding of music, influenced your style?
There's no question having it in the back of my brain, all this theory, all this history of composition, helps me all the time, whether I'm knowingly drawing on it or not. It's about knowing those rules of what works in music so you can break them if you want to, because rules are made of rubber. But having that knowledge is key as is being a pianist from so young. I'm innately comfortable with the keyboard so when I'm writing music I'm not thinking about my fingers. I'm really thinking about what I'm doing musically and that is important and comes into play.What were some of the most valuable things you learned from Breaking Bad?
I think for me the biggest single thing is, and working on Breaking Bad made me much better at this, is learning how to use music. Where it's most effective and why. How to stay out of the way with music. I actually believe in most film and T.V. there is too much music. But it's identifying where a show is strong and staying out of the way, when it is, and when you have something to contribute musically being able to identify those moments and make the most of them. By virtue of not having a lot of music previously, it has more impact because there hasn't been more music previously. The danger of having a lot of music is that your audience tunes it out eventually. But if you're coming in after five minutes of silence you're much more likely to have an impact.