'The Americans' Composer Nathan Barr Continues to Break New Ground

The Americans are in their sixth and final season on FX. Along with the performers who have brought Joe Weisberg's characters to life, the composer of the series' soundtrack has been there from day one. With more than three dozen films and numerous television credits in hand, Nathan Barr remains enthused about every project, especially the next one.

My recent chat with Barr showed just that, as The Americans head for their final turn. "When you work on a show for so many years, you really come to think of the characters as messed up as they may be as a family," he says with a chuckle. "And so you know I've spent countless hours in my studio writing music for the sort of emotional journey of all these characters, so it's definitely really sad, especially on a show that you know is of the quality of The Americans. I'm obviously biased, but to me it's one of the more exciting, well-written, (acted and) directed dramas out there. So I'm sad to see it end."

In terms of Barr's work he puts this project, "up there with one of the more unique scores I've come up with, sort of the scoring environment that was created between the use of the piano, and both of the guitars and cello and all that stuff. So I'm really proud of the work, and I'm really proud of the reception of the work, not only among fans but among fellow peers, fellow composers. I've gotten some really nice calls from some other pretty wonderful composers about the score, and that's always nice, to be recognized by one's peers. In terms of the larger canon, it's definitely among the proudest of my achievements and you know, a very different show from something like True Blood."

Even then, Barr had the ability to perhaps pick and choose his jobs, but, "I was looking for shows that allow me to have a unique voice, and this was certainly one of those from the beginning."

Barr was brought to The Americans by showrunner Joel Fields, who asked Barr to compose a music demo. "I took a weekend a couple years ago before Season 1," he explains, "and I wrote (a) seven-minute suite, and they really loved what I did immediately. I always like writing a demo because if my first instinct is received positively by the filmmakers, then I know we're going to be in a good groove probably. And that was certainly the case with this."

When it comes to scoring for TV or film, the composer is writing music for the entire show. "It's pretty much any piece of music you hear that's not a song is something that I've written and tailored specifically to the picture," Barr explains. "The one exception is I wrote a song with Pete Townshend for Season 2, and that was an incredible collaboration of course, just a pure joy to work with someone like him. But other than that, everything is tailored, even that song was tailored very specifically to the scene. As composer that's kind of what we become really good at, sort of following the emotional journey, or the thriller aspects whatever it is, we've become really good at sort of enhancing that in just the right way."

Much as The Americans resonated with their audience, the undercover adventures of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings did the same, as Barr freely admits. "I think as anyone involved in a show you want to find like those couple of things that you can sort of hang your hat on and really plug into," he says. "I plugged into the relationship issues that come up in this incredibly difficult job they're doing, (which) is extremely deceptive, and yet they do love each other. There was a lot of rich sort of fodder there to work with."

What begins as a mission, becomes much more for the KGB tandem. "It's like any relationship," Barr notes with a chuckle, which soon turns to laughter from both of us, "there's a rhythm to it and you know, just the or the horrifying aspects of their relationship where you know someone's at home taking care of the kids and Elizabeth will come in, and she's just killed someone, and have to, you know, make mac and cheese. It's the absurdity of the fact that this is just kind of true to live like there are definitely examples of this that that were drawn on by Joe and Joel as they wrote the show. So it's really just crazy."

The Americans was first a novel by Weisberg, who had also written a screenplay. Barr says both Weisberg and Field had their synergy, and he was able to work with that. "Joe and Joel are both incredibly collaborative in the best way," he explains, "they know what they want, and they know when they get it. And that's very helpful because I think some filmmakers, they're never sure if they've gotten what they're asking for. And that's not the case with Joe and Joel at all, they have such a laser focus on what the vision of the show is and yet they're willing to really lean on, and inspire all of us who are working on a show to bring our own unique part to it."

It's no longer uncommon for collaborators to be far-flung, as production for The Americans is based on the east coast, while "me and P.J. Bloom and Amanda Krieg Thomas are the music department, we're out here on the west coast. So it's been largely sort of a conference call relationship," Barr says, "but it's been a really amazing collaboration and Joe and Joel, truly a pleasure to work with. As anyone can attest who has done a lot of TV shows or movies, it's not always the case, there's sometimes some very difficult personalities involved and it's just not the case for the show. It's been just so supportive and lovely."

With six full seasons, Barr admits there is a type of "grind" of composing for a program with changing dynamics. "I don't think it's the same grind that one might experience on a network television show," he explains, "where you're pumping out between twenty-two and twenty-six episodes in a really brief amount of time, and you have tons of music and no time to turn it around. It's a little bit more forgiving than that, the schedule. I think the grind is more over the course of six years. We get a break, though; it's like you get to regroup before you go back and dive into that world again."

Barr works to the show, something he prefers. "I enjoy watching a show for the first time when we spot each episode," he says. "So when we first sit down over the phone to discuss what the episode is going to do musically, I always liked watching it first there. I don't like to read scripts unless I have to. I don't really work ahead too much unless they have a specific scene, like, 'Okay in Episode 9 of this season, there's this six-minute cue, we'd like to send that to you now, and to see what you do with it before we send it out to the network'."

Barr's upbringing was a musical one, as both parents were musicians. Furthering the uniqueness was that he spent three very early years in Japan. "My dad had a business opportunity there back in the seventies," he explains, "my brother was born there. I came back to the states when I was four, but I had just started at a little bit on the Suzuki violin. I remember going to a concert, (my mother) played the koto; she was a pianist, so I grew up with those interesting sounds that were not so western. And that's a very different world."

His interest extended to shakuhachi, the Japanese flute. "I remember just missing something really beautiful and foreign and mysterious and otherworldly about it," Barr says. "It just opened up my ears at an early age to you know the idea of some really incredible stuff going on in other cultures that I hadn't yet experienced. I'm a collector of musical instruments from all over the place, all time periods and you could almost say that started there too because we had these unusual instruments lying around the house when we got back to the States. I would get my mom's koto down, put the bridges up play with it."

While Barr's initial foray into music as a child was violin. He later gravitated to the cello, but not without some resistance. "Once I got past the fact that I hated violins and my mom had acknowledged that," he says, "I didn't like cello for a long time; and then I met a really fabulous cello teacher in ninth grade who taught in New York City and at Bennington College and that sort of was a game changer for me, where I thought 'Oh my God, it's just an amazing instrument,' and then I played guitar too, so I kind of grew up playing cello, and in the orchestras, and you know guitar in bands; I was just in high school bands like cover bands and stuff. But I think the composing thing really started to become the thing where I caught that bug, and I look at myself here twenty years later into it, and I am still kind of I'm amazed sometimes that I can sit down and still be as excited about what I do now as I was twenty years ago when I was just getting into it."

That occurred near the end of Barr's college life at Skidmore. "We had a neighbor who said, 'Oh, give me a tape of your stuff'," Barr recalls. "So I came up with these ten to twelve jingles that I wrote for fun. And I just plugged into something there in myself that I had never experienced before and I just loved it. And then I came out to L.A.; fate would have it that I had an interview with Hans Zimmer and that kind of work really kicked in and started."

Barr's credits embrace a longstanding relationship with Eli Roth, which includes scoring for the upcoming The House with a Clock in Its Walls. "He walked into my studio in '99 or 2000," Barr recalls, "he saw my DVD collection and he's like, 'Alright, I wanna work with this guy.' And so I ended up doing Cabin Fever, Hostel, and Hostel II. It's been an amazing collaboration. We just had a really great time, it's really different for him and it's really different for me and it's been fun to sort of experience together."

Barr's most recent projects include finishing Season 2 of The Son for AMC. Future work for Barr includes Carnival Row, which is set to debut on Amazon Video in 2019, and a musical version of True Blood.

For those who wonder about getting one's foot into the door of this part of the industry, Barr suggests: "There is no better way than to start by interning with a composer who is already doing what you want to do. It's the quickest way to learn, (when) you're thrown into the deep end of the pool. I've got two guys working for me now who are really doing a great job and flourishing, and that's kind of the way it was for me. So that's kind of the way in, and in terms of how to get in touch with those people, I would say just find their websites and e-mail them. Maybe they are looking for some help one weekend and will give you a call. It's not so far out and farfetched."

Barr has also completed a major personal/professional project, his own studio in Reseda, California, not far from his home in Topanga Canyon. "It's an eight-thousand-square-foot facility," he says, "that can accommodate up to like a fifty, fifty-five-piece orchestra. "which is sort of going to be where I'll spend the rest of my life as a composer. I wanted this to feel more like home almost than a recording studio. The entire back (control room) wall is as much as a diffusion wall, (and it) is books from the early 19th century.

"It's a really fun amazing place that feels very fresh and unique. And so it's just like this big shot of adrenaline and excitement and freshness to the process that really keeps things going. I think we all need to kind of reinvent ourselves throughout our lives."

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Photos courtesy of Impact24 PR