Adolescence is a four-part Netflix drama with a staggering production ethos and a timely and important story to tell. Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, the latter of which also stars in the series, the show follows the community of family, friends, and law enforcement officials embroiled in a murder case in which a 13-year-old boy is suspected of killing one of his classmates. Most impressively, each episode in Adolescence was shot in one take, which is an especially outstanding accomplishment given that the show shepherds viewers through multiple locations, car rides, and even a window or two.

Given the show’s subject matter and ambitious concept, Adolescence required an incredibly deliberate touch from just about everyone involved in production. This extended to composers Aaron May and David Ridley, who used a somewhat minimal amount of music to greatly enhance the audience experience. The pair worked closely with director Philip Barantini, with whom they had collaborated several times before, on creating the perfect sonic atmosphere for the show ScreenRant’s Adolescence review called a “real-time rollercoaster”.

ScreenRant spoke with Aaron May and David Ridley about their work on Adolescence. The pair discussed their approach to the music and the story-enhancing inclusion of the series’ victim in the main theme and throughout the score. The duo also spoke about adapting Sting’s song “Fragile” for the series, and the possibility of an Adolescence season 2.

Adolescence Was A Different Kind Of Project From Day One

But Doing It Was A “No-Brainer” For The Composers

“It was an absolute no-brainer. It’s an immediate, ‘Okay, how do we be involved in this?’” David Ridley said when asked about the decision to bring music to Adolescence. A large part of that was the composers’ close working relationship with director Philip Barantini, Ridley revealed:”I think we’ve done every project he’s done, at least for the last five or six years … there’s such an immediacy and a realness to everything he does, and we love that. He’s always after something quite big in an emotional sense, and he wants the music to mirror that.”

But actually sitting down and beginning to score the series presented the composers of Adolescence with a different kind of scoring experience. According to Aaron May, “Normally, when you start a project, you get an edit and the edit is maybe twice as long as the project is going to be. You start writing to the edit, it gets edited down, and you build the musical language alongside the edit. With this, obviously there’s no edit.”

Katie’s Voice Holds The Adolescence Score Together

It Was The Missing Ingredient The Composers Needed

Emilia Holliday plays Katie in Adolescence, but the bulk of her performance can’t be seen on screen. In the show itself, Katie is largely seen only through photos and CCTV footage, but her voice became an integral part of May and Ridley’s score–and the ingredient they needed to make their “musical language” sound cohesive. The beginning of the composing process was marked by “improvising to [the show] and … throwing s*** at the wall,” May revealed, “[and] sending things to Phil.”

“It took quite a long time with us,” May admitted, before he shared what made it all come together: “The magical moment was when we started using voice in the score, and Phil suggested using the voice of Emilia Holliday, who plays Katie.” “She has this beautifully natural, untrained, pure voice,” May continued, “and as soon as that became part of the score, it really provided us with the inspiration to carry on composing.”

As for how it happened, “It’s a testament to Phil,” Ridley said, “in that he really wanted her to have a positive experience and be really involved. She was on set. She met Owen, who played Jamie, and they got to know each other a little bit. So, [she] and Phil had a really great relationship. Then, he heard that she could sing, so he said, ‘Do you want to just send some voice notes of you singing?’”

As it turns out, Adele helped her get the gig: “We got forwarded these voice notes of her singing Adele songs,” Ridley continued, “and we were like, ‘Wow, she really can sing.’” It was more than her ability, though, said Ridley: “She sounds like her age–she sounds like 14.” This was key because, as Ridley said, “she doesn’t get to speak as her character in the TV series, but her voice can still be present through the score … she kind of haunts the score with her voice.”

Aaron May & David Ridley Break Down Creating The Tone Of Adolescence

The Composers Explain The Show’s Three-Note Theme And Its Unique Overall Sound

Adolescence is not full of music, but the music it does have was carefully crafted and placed for maximum emotional impact. Speaking on how that was achieved, Ridley said, “We had one really amazing afternoon in an edit suite with Phil and Jo Johnson, the genius producer. We watched every episode and talked through exactly where music might be useful. At this point, we really didn’t know what the sound was going to be, but we were just discussing the score’s function.”

The function, according to Ridley, was “gluing gaps between scenes.” The composer cited episode one as a key candidate for score, because “you are moving very quickly between scenes … and you need to have something to keep that tension and dread.” After that, “it’s kind of my and Aaron’s jobs to go away.” But figuring all of that out was difficult, said Ridley: “To be completely honest, we were worried we weren’t going to get it. It was a particularly difficult [score] to get.”

Once Katie’s voice became the linchpin of the score, everything became easier, said Ridley: “Once we realized that voice was going to be a big part of the score, we decided on exploring other sounds that have a breathy element to them. We started recording a bass recorded that Aaron actually got me for my birthday–thanks, Aaron–harmonium, and this huge Victorian pump organ [Aaron bought] that weighs more than 200 pounds. [The organ] is old and dusty and completely out of tune, but … it’s just got this wheezy trembly effect.”

May discussed the process of coming up with the show’s signature three-note musical theme, revealing that it was one of the later things they wrote: “We knew that we had this recording session coming up, and we’d written a lot of music incorporating media we knew we wanted to record. We had material, but at that point we didn’t have anything thematic.”

After a good bit of brainstorming, May said, “We got something which was about 30 seconds long, and also was quite heavily arranged in [that] it had lots more textures, lots more sounds, and was quite thick. We just gradually began pulling things away, pulling notes away, and shortening it. And every time we pulled elements away or simplified the melody, it seemed to hit harder … it was a real sense of starting big and pulling, pulling, pulling until we had almost the most minimal version that we could have had, which also happened to be the most effective.”

Sting’s “Fragile” Made The Show Because Of Its “Weirdly Relevant” Lyrics

“Lyrically, It Just Fits Perfectly”

Sting’s “Fragile” can be heard at a key moment in Adolescence episode 2, sung by a children’s choir. “[It was a] conversation between Phil and Mark Kirby, the music supervisor, and they discovered “Fragile”, which has weirdly relevant lyrics,” said May, continuing, “Not only is it a stunning song, but lyrically, it just fits perfectly.”

To create the arrangement, the composers found inspiration in the album The Langley Schools Music Project, an album recorded in 1976 and 1977 compiling children’s chorus renditions of popular songs including David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and The Eagles’ “Desperado”. “There’s just something about hearing children singing as a group together, with all the imperfections that comes with that,” May shared, “so that was a starting point for us.”

“They shot [episode 2] in a school, and a lot of students from that school were in the episode,” said May, before revealing that some of those students were even on the final recording of “Fragile”. “Jo Johnson managed to coordinate with the music teachers to get their choir, who were 15 strong, and extend it into a 35-strong choir. Then, we went up and recorded them for two days in a village hall.”

“One thing that was very important … was that we wanted their accents to come through, because in the UK there [are] huge variations of accents in quite a [small geographical area].

“There were 35 students … plus Emilia Holliday, who joined us. She’s singing the solo at the end of ‘Fragile’,” Ridley added.

Adolescence Season 2 Addressed By Composers

Ridley Also Shares His Hopes For The Format Of New Episodes

Despite the show being a smartly told, closed loop of a story, questions abound regarding the possibility of an Adolescence season 2. “I think those conversations would certainly be happening,” Ridley said, adding, “I think there are also conversations happening about the continuation of the one shot form because of how effective [and engrossing] it is. For me, it’s heartwarming because I come from a theater background … there’s something theatrical about it.”

“There’s also something that is demanding on the viewer in terms of [how] you really can’t look away,” Ridley continued, “[With] most TV these days, lots of people are consuming it with their phone in their hand. They’re splitting their attention. But there’s something about the one-shot [format] that demands the attention. Otherwise, you’re not quite sure if it’s a one-shot. To see so many people respond to it in such a huge way shows that there’s still an appetite for quality TV [and] quality drama.”

“But to give an official answer,” May added, “we very much hope there will be [a season 2], but we don’t know.”

ScreenRant also interviewed Dr. Marcus Maloney about the expert’s reaction to Adolescence and its response by audiences, plus the larger global factors behind the story the show told.

All four episodes of Adolescence are out on Netflix now.