With the Prime Video soon to release Hazbin Hotel and we here at Marooners’ Rock have got the chance to watch the series’ first couple of episodes. You’ll be seeing our full review very soon! Let’s rewind time on my end… For some time now, I’ve been jamming to the music from Sam Haft and the crew at The LivingTombstone for the past few years ranging from songs themed to well-known games to amazing collaborations and much more.
Even so, got to meet up with Sam Haft in 2023 at PAX East 2023 and it was a great pleasure to meet him as well as see them perform during one of the evenings at PAX East 2023. As I’ve already state, I’ve got the chance to watch the upcoming Hazbin Hotel series and was given the opportunity to chat with Sam Haft about his work on Hazbin Hotel as he co-wrote both music and lyrics. So without keeping you away, I lined up some questions for Sam Haft below.
Do you have more questions, leave some in the comment and I’ll see if Sam Haft would be up for answering questions from those in the comments below.
Andrew’s Question:
Can you share insights into your creative process when composing the music for Hazbin Hotel?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Songwriting for Hazbin is an extremely creator-driven process! Vivienne Medrano has a very clear vision for what she’s looking for, musically, sonically, and lyrically! My collaborator Andrew Underberg (who is AMAZING) and I have been fortunate enough to work with Vivienne pretty consistently for the last few years, so we’ve become better and better at hitting the mark faster and faster, but ultimately it’s always something of an iterative process. We write a demo, she gives us feedback, we refine and rewrite the demo, she gives us feedback on the changes, and before long we’ve got a finished song!
Andrew’s Question:
How did you approach creating a unique soundtrack for an adult animated series like Hazbin Hotel?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Something that really sets Hazbin apart as a musical is that the sonic palette of the show is incredibly broad. Most musicals have one consistent sound or style to them, in part because if you’re going to stage a musical, you only get one orchestra with a limited number of instruments! Hazbin, on the other hand, has what I would call a character-driven sound. The production for each song is defined by what singing characters and environments are part of the scene taking place under the song. This has resulted in some totally wild genre blends that are entirely unique to the show!
Andrew’s Question:
With your involvement in Hazbin Hotel, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and your work with games like DreadXP and others, how do you adapt your musical style to suit different projects and genres?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
I think the cerebral answer to this is that my background as a narrative writer and actor predates my work as a professional songwriter, so I’ve always had a focus on putting myself into the headspace of a character and tapping into the tone of a story. But the more emotional answer also taps into my deepest artistic insecurity; the worry that my adaptability is indicative of a lack of a personal musical signature! That identity crisis drove a lot of the experimentation and self-exploration that resulted in my solo EP Bad Times.
Andrew’s Question:
Are there specific challenges or advantages in working on music for an animated series compared to a video game or a solo project?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Well, writing for any visual medium carries a lot of limitations. What can you represent on screen? What budget for how many singers do you have? What is the narrative purpose this needs to fulfill? I would say there are a lot more challenges than advantages but those challenges are what make this kind of work so intellectually stimulating. It’s a song, but it’s also a puzzle!
Andrew’s Question:
Both “Poison” and “Happy Day In Hell” showcase narrative songwriting. Can you discuss your approach to crafting songs that contribute to the storytelling in these projects?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Well, “Happy Day In Hell” was rather straightforward! It’s an “I Want song,” it’s an introduction to the world and its characters, and it’s also something of a thesis statement for the first season of the show! It felt like an example of the requirements of the song writing the song for us. When the box around what you’re trying to write is so specific, in many ways it makes the job easier. “Poison” was a totally different animal, in that it’s what I’d describe as a “mood song.” It doesn’t serve the purpose of advancing the plot, but rather giving us the opportunity to explore a character’s state of mind. I connected with it immediately – I’m not personally a spider-demon sex worker in thrall to an abusive overlord in hell, but, like with acting, you find your points of commonality with the character and explore those. I’m a sexual assault survivor, my sense of self is highly tied up in my professional work, and I have a tendency brush off whatever issues I’m personally dealing with to put on a happy face for those around me. That’s much more than enough to create a meaningful connection to the character of Angel Dust and his mental and emotional state in that sequence.
Andrew’s Question:
How does collaboration play a role in your music creation process, especially when working on projects like Hazbin Hotel?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
I love collaborating! I subscribe heavily to the adage that if you wanna go fast, go alone, if you wanna go far, go together. I also never believe I have a monopoly on all good ideas! Collaboration with Vivienne is a very iterative process where we’re presenting series of ideas for notes and edits and continuously refine and polish them, collaboration with Andrew Underberg my co-writer on Hazbin is very cooperative where we’re both noodling around with ideas simultaneously, and collaboration with my music partner on The Living Tombstone Yoav Landau is very back-and-forth, where Yoav will have a great idea, pass it to me, I’ll work on it and pass it back to him, and so on until we have a full demo.
Andrew’s Question:
Are there any memorable experiences collaborating with other artists or creators on these projects?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
It’s all memorable, but one of my favorite elements of this sort of work that I can’t talk about enough is the directing! Every actor works so differently and it’s so fun getting a sense of everyone’s performing style and learning how to collaborate on an engaging performance! I also feel like I’ve learned a lot about running these sessions from our voice director Richard Horvitz, who is absolutely incredible.
Andrew’s Question:
The Living Tombstone has been dubbed “the Internet’s biggest gaming band.” How has the online gaming community and collaborations you take part in influence your music? What do you enjoy most about creating music for this audience?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Well at the end of the day, I think gamers have a very finely honed radar for inauthenticity, so what has always helped us is that we’re genuinely fans and gamers ourselves. It doesn’t come from a place of, “this is what our audience likes,” if we’re making music about it, it means we like it. And we’re incredibly lucky that as we’ve grown and succeeded as a band, and made a lot of music that has nothing to do with fandom, that we’ve kept that audience and kept on making really engaging works of fan art. I don’t think we’ll ever be ‘done’ doing that.
Andrew’s Question:
Reflecting on your career, what would you consider to be the most significant or personally rewarding moment so far?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
There are so many! One would certainly be the incredibly warm response to my very first song for one of Vivienne Medrano’s projects, “You Will Be Okay,” which is a lullaby sung from one character to their young child. I wrote it when my son was 1 year old, and I put a lot of my personal feelings as a father into it, so its reception was incredibly meaningful to me. Also, the platinum certification of My Ordinary Life was a major milestone, and it’s the first song my music partner Yoav Landau and I ever wrote together, so it felt like a wonderful full-circle moment. And of course the recent NY premiere of Hazbin Hotel! I love our cast and crew so much, and the collective jubilation we all felt getting to see the show release was so wonderful.
Andrew’s Question:
How do you balance your work in The Living Tombstone with the projects you and the team work on, and do you have a preference between the two?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Generally speaking, TLT always comes first. The band is my primary occupation and my primary workplace, and the songwriting work I do outside of TLT is on a more freelance basis. That said, Yoav is an incredibly understanding creative and business partner, and there have been times with Hazbin where I’ve had to say, “Hey I need to really focus on this for a couple weeks,” and that’s always totally cool with him.,
Andrew’s Question:
Can you share any upcoming projects or collaborations that you’re particularly excited about?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
Well, we’re shockingly close to recording season two of Hazbin, and we’ve been writing the soundtrack for the second season, and I’m so incredibly proud of that. Additionally, on the TLT front, we’ve been working with one of my favorite ever collaborators, a record producer named CJ Baran, on our next full length record, which is entitled “Rust.” I’d describe it as almost a “rebellion concept album,” that explores a lot of issues of authoritarianism and systemic oppression, which is a dimension that has always been subtly present in our work but our work on this feels really immediate and vital in a way that I really hope connects with people. I can’t wait to show everyone.
Andrew’s Question:
Is there a specific genre or medium you haven’t explored yet but would like to in the future?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to work on a LOT of genres between TLT, Helluva, Hazbin, etc, so there’s not much I haven’t done! I’d actually love to do some more guitar-driven singer-songwriter music! I have a solo record baking called End Times that stylistically lives somewhere between Mitski and Cake, and I’m very excited to dig into that, but I’m a while off from having the free time to explore that yet.
Andrew’s Question:
For fans who want to stay updated on your latest projects and connect with you, could you share where they can follow you on social media? Additionally, where can they find updates on The Living Tombstone and stay informed about Hazbin Hotel?
Sam Haft’s Answer:
For fans who want to stay updated on Sam Haft’s latest projects and connect with him, you can follow him on Instagram: SamHaftMusic. You can also follow The Living Tombstone on Instagram: LivingTombstone, and stay informed about Hazbin Hotel on Instagram: HazbinHotel.
