{"id":430205,"date":"2026-01-24T12:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430205\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T12:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T12:24:13","slug":"how-the-heated-rivalry-composer-peter-peter-created-the-shows-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/430205\/","title":{"rendered":"How The ‘Heated Rivalry’ Composer Peter Peter Created The Show’s Score"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tComposer Peter Peter is just as surprised by the runaway success of \u201cHeated Rivalry<\/a>\u201d as everyone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was an honor and it went so fast,\u201d the Canadian singer-songwriter and producer told Variety about his experience working on the show. \u201cBut you can never know. I thought it was very edgy and very cool, but I didn\u2019t know it would be the biggest show in the world. And I\u2019m very honored by that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCreated by Jacob Tierney, the Crave original series was a quick hit and has only continued to rise, garnering millions of views and thousands of fans for its passionate portrayal of a relationship between closeted gay hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the center of the conversation, too, has been the show\u2019s \u201csexy, connected and ambient\u201d original score, as Peter describes it. And though he\u2019s released five solo albums (his most recent, \u201c\u00c9ther,\u201d inspired Tierney to invite him to score the series), \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d was his debut scoring effort, culminating in a 34-track album reminiscent of his signature electronic soundscapes. The album is now available to stream in its entirety, with a CD and vinyl also due out later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHere, Peter spoke with Variety about getting invested in Shane and Ilya\u2019s relationship, his favorite music<\/a> moments and how he created the buzzy, synth-driven score.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis was the first time you\u2019ve composed a fully original score. When Jacob Tierney approached you, did he have a direction in mind?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was pretty open. When he wrote to me on Instagram at first, he was like, \u2018I\u2019m working on the script right now and I\u2019m listening to your latest record. Are you interested in screen composing?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Yes.\u2019 I didn\u2019t have anything in mind. I did some research \u2014 I even watched \u201cYoungblood\u201d [and] hockey movies, but I wasn\u2019t really inspired, so I was composing in the open and gathering cool synth patches while reading the script.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI was envisioning something with a more fast-paced rhythm for the intimate scenes and when I received the first footage [it was] way different than I expected. It was way more sensual and way more delicate. So I changed the way I was picturing the music for that. I got inspired by the raw footage once I had it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe score works so well with the editing of the show. Did you do most of the composing once you saw the actual footage?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI kept a few ideas here and there, but when I received the [footage], I threw basically everything down the drain from what I had composed. I saved maybe two or three melodies. When I had the picture lock, I started composing. I had about two months to write the whole show \u2014 It was my first experience. But I really felt connected to the series right away\u2026 I got attached to [the characters] just reading the script.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you have any specific inspiration points during this process? Some fans have been comparing it to the \u201cChallengers\u201d score.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrent Reznor is one of the biggest [composers] out there and I really like his work.\u00a0 I watched \u201cChallengers,\u201d but I wasn\u2019t inspired [by it].\u00a0I\u2019m not someone who tries to draw inspiration from anything in particular. I jam on things. I play things over and over. And when it sounds good, I just commit to an idea. But, of course, everything can be an inspiration. Anything good is very inspiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe score also really mirrors where Ilya and Shane are emotionally with one another.<\/p>\n

\n\t[That] was intentional and sometimes beyond what I thought I could give. It was just a connection with the actual footage and the images and the characters. [The score] was built and composed with sincerity. I had the episodes in my digital workstation and it was all synced to my setup and I was just playing along to the characters with everything. So I was improvising live to images and sometimes it was based on a very specific tempo. For the songs, like the four different \u201cHeartbeat\u201d titles, the tempo is fluctuating, so I didn\u2019t impose any tempo. I thought it could be cool if it built with their heart\u2019s racing because of their connection together.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have a personal favorite moment from the score?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s really hard to choose one. Definitely \u201cInferno\u201d \u2014 I really like the dark, sexy vibe of [Shane and Ilya] in the penthouse. And on the lake, \u201cOne Soul\u201d is beautiful. It was an honor for me to compose the music. It\u2019s really hard for me to pick because I\u2019m so satisfied by everything. This whole show was magical in the making and it\u2019s still obviously magical right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHave there been any early conversations about Season 2 from a music perspective? Jacob had talked about wanting Carly Rae Jepsen involved and Miley Cyrus said she wants to do music\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t have any updates. We\u2019ve discussed a few things, but it\u2019s not something I can disclose.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas the plan always to release the score, or was that something that came after seeing fans\u2019 reactions?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI remember in my contract, there was something stipulated about the original soundtrack, but we didn\u2019t talk about it while we were working. When we were done, the producer was like, let\u2019s talk about an original soundtrack early next year, in 2026. But the reactions were so out of this world that we had to start during the holidays. So yeah, we weren\u2019t anticipating anything like that. And it was great. As soon as the show came out, people talked about the music a lot, so it was a very nice surprise for all of us, really. We\u2019re still very happy. So we rushed things because the fans really wanted it now, so we had to push things forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Composer Peter Peter is just as surprised by the runaway success of \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d as everyone else.\u00a0 \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[179314,49,48,75,140293,341],"class_list":["post-430205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-artisans","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-heated-rivalry","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}