What It's Like to Compose for Netflix From the Inside
I compose the score for Leanne, Chuck Lorre's Netflix sitcom starring Leanne Morgan. Keb' Mo' called me to lead the team. Here's what it actually feels like from the inside.
I Compose the Score for Leanne on Netflix.
Here's What Season 2 Felt Like.
I'm Lauren Lucas. I sing the theme song for Leanne, Chuck Lorre's Netflix sitcom starring Leanne Morgan. I also compose the music for the show (and if I’m doing it right, you don’t even notice the music, you only feel it). I’m wrapping up the music for Season 2 this week.
Not a bad room to be in. Leanne Morgan and Keb' Mo' in L.A. at the Season 1 wrap party of Leanne on Netflix
Season 1 was already a full-circle moment. Keb' Mo' (one of my genuine musical heroes) was hired by Chuck Lorre to compose the music for the show. He called me to lead the team of musicians actually making it. I sing the main title theme. I compose the instrumental cues between scenes. Even though this was a new way of making music for me, it starting feeling like the reason I moved to Nashville 27 years ago.
Season 2 felt even better.
Here's what I've learned watching Keb' work: the man will walk into a session, play one bass note, pull out a single snare hit, and the entire piece transforms. Not because he's doing more. Because he knows exactly where the music needs to breathe. That's a lesson I will carry for the rest of my career.
By Season 2, our whole team had found that same language together. We understood what Chuck wanted. We understood each other. The deadlines were still real. The stakes were still high. But the work felt less like pressure. The experience felt like we found a purpose.
That doesn't happen often. I’m not taking it for granted.
Season 2 of Leanne launches late summer on Netflix. When you watch it, you'll hear what that kind of collaboration actually sounds like.
If you want to get closer to the songs — the ones that never made an album, the ones written in little rooms that nobody else ever saw — that's what The Inner Listening Room is for. One vault song a month, with the story behind it. Eight songs are already waiting inside.
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Lauren Lucas is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter and composer. She sings the main title theme and composes the score for Leanne, Seasons 1 and 2, on Netflix. She is a former Warner Bros. recording artist with a 27-year Nashville catalog.
Vintage
Earlier this week, I received a text from my friend, John, telling me that New Country Brew is featuring Farewell Angelina's recording of, "Vintage!" New Country Brew is a radio show syndicated in 43 stations around the country and in the UK on CMR Nashville.
Earlier this week, I received a text from my friend, John, telling me that New Country Brew is featuring Farewell Angelina's recording of, "Vintage!" New Country Brew is a radio show syndicated in 43 stations around the country and in the UK on CMR Nashville. How cool is that?!
Many of you know that Farewell Angelina is a sisterhood I'm so proud to be a part of. Once an Angelina, always an Angelina. And I'm thrilled to have written three of the songs on their current EP. These women have worked so hard and are kicking butt on the road!
Vintage is one of my personal favorites that I've written with FA. Nic, Andrea, Lisa and I penned this tune with long-time friend and musical badass, Joe West. It was inspired by one word that Joe threw out as an idea: vintage.
We wrote this tune at Joe's gorgeous home studio out in the country. His studio is built inside of an old barn with platinum records hanging on the walls and the random Grammy award sitting on the studio console. No big deal.
The acoustics, lighting, and entire vibe of this place is conducive for songwriting magic. It took a while to wrestle the lyric down, but finding the lyrical angle is probably the most fun for me. Once we got a handle on it and a sweet guitar riff, it flowed like wine. I even got to squeeze a line in the chorus about my husband's '68 Camaro. I won some major bonus points for that one on the home front.
Here's an acoustic songwriter take of the tune from yours truly. See if New Country Brew is syndicated in your area and crank it up! And, for sure, check out Farewell Angelina's studio recording of, "Vintage" off of their new EP.
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My tomato leaves are yellowing and falling off in my hand. I'm a first-time gardener in Nashville and I'm figuring it out in real time — here's what's wrong and what I'm trying to fix it.