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\n Heated Rivalry composer Peter Peter explains his \u201calmost vulgar\u201d first drafts, Scott and Kip Easter eggs, and the intentional quiet of \u201cThe Cottage.\u201d
\n Photo: HBO Max\n <\/p>\n
At South London\u2019s Clapham Grand, in the first of the venue\u2019s now-weekly Heated Rivalry<\/a> club nights, something was eliciting feral screams. The party hadn\u2019t officially started yet, but as hockey-jersey-clad clubbers filtered onto the dance floor, a recognizable needle drop blared through the speakers. It wasn\u2019t a soundtrack fan favorite like t.A.T.u.\u2019s \u201cAll the Things She Said\u201d or Wet Leg\u2019s \u201cmangetout.\u201d It was \u201cRivalry<\/a>,\u201d the first episode\u2019s gritty synth symphony of an opening track from the electronic score composed by Peter Jones, who is credited on the series under his stage name, Peter Peter.<\/p>\n In Jones\u2019s\u00a0ambient soundscape, competition thrums through crunchy synths and heavy drumbeats, while the show\u2019s tender heart floats across dancing arpeggios. \u201cI thought my job was more low profile on this one,\u201d the Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois synth-pop musician says of signing on to write the music for the Canadian sports romantic drama. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be intrusive in the show.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Heated Rivalry, Jones had five albums to his name and zero credits as a composer, but series creator Jacob Tierney was a huge fan of Peter Peter and wrote the scripts while listening to the singer-songwriter\u2019s 2024 record \u00c9ther. Tierney initially enlisted Jones to create an original score and lend several needle drops from the album. \u201cIt just kind of fell through,\u201d Jones recalls. \u201cWe got caught with the timeline.\u201d As negotiations slowed down, the needle drops were abandoned in favor of additional original-score cues, and Jones ended up writing dozens across the series\u2019 six episodes.<\/p>\n Like seemingly every facet of the show\u2019s production, the timeline was daunting. Once Canadian streamer Crave moved Heated Rivalry\u2019s release<\/a> forward from February to late November, Jones was confronted with fast-approaching deadlines. \u201cI had ten days to deliver episode one,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you can imagine it was seven to ten days an episode \u2014 approximately seven weeks to complete the whole show.\u201d Tierney gave Jones freedom to experiment, but they remained in constant conversation: The composer uploaded mp4 drafts to a shared Google Drive folder for swift feedback. \u201cTo this day, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s how TV composers work, but we had no time, so I couldn\u2019t just send him temporary files,\u201d Jones says. For a first-time composer, Heated Rivalry was a turbocharged trial by fire, one that Jones wouldn\u2019t have any other way: \u201cIt\u2019s a hell of a first gig.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones began composing solely from the scripts, though it wasn\u2019t until he saw the footage that he realized his interpretation wasn\u2019t right. \u201cI knew that they were expecting me to make \u2018sex music\u2019 at some point \u2014 it just wasn\u2019t how I was picturing the intimacy scenes,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt was way more emotional, so you couldn\u2019t just put a four-on-the-floor techno beat over sex if it didn\u2019t make sense.\u201d Jones says his first attempt felt \u201cvery intrusive\u201d and \u201calmost vulgar,\u201d so he pivoted to lighter melodies and synth-chord arrangements to soften the texture.<\/p>\n His first pass at the score also led him to believe he would have to write more cues than what was required. \u201cAccording to the script, the whole night club<\/a> with t.A.T.u.\u2019s \u2018All the Things She Said\u2019 \u2014 I was supposed to score that, but in the end I wasn\u2019t needed,\u201d Jones says. Spotting sessions, where the director sits down with the composer to watch footage and select which scenes require original-score or licensed music, clarified just how many cues he would need to compose.<\/p>\n Jones had a wealth of external gear on hand, and each instrument had its role: Access Virus, a digital synthesizer that\u2019s \u201cout of this world and can do anything you\u2019d like,\u201d was used for \u201cpads,\u201d or atmospheric chord harmonies that enhance the texture of the music. For the arpeggio melodies and bass lines, the composer relied on raw analog synthesizers like the Korg Mono\/Poly and the Juno-60. Percussion beats were sequenced on his drum machine, the Elektron Analog Rytm. Jones also bought a Hapax sequencer from the French company Squarp to build most of the arrangements. To record the cues, he synced Logic Pro, the music-creation software, to the show\u2019s footage and improvised along to the scenes in real time. \u201cI synced the computer with this whole external setup so I could stop looking at the recording software and just look at the image,\u201d the composer says. \u201cI would just jam with these machines and capture the improvisations.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the \u00c9ther needle drops that failed to make the final cut was \u201cLisbonne<\/a>,\u201d a sensual pop ballad that would\u2019ve soundtracked the first time hockey rivals Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie<\/a>) have sex in episode two. Jones wrote an original song to replace \u201cLisbonne,\u201d and Tierney suggested adding lyrics. \u201cSometimes it takes two or three years to write a whole album and produce it, but I had one night, so it was crazy,\u201d Jones says of writing \u201cIt\u2019s You.\u201d \u201cI started with the arpeggio synth and then I put pads on it, and I could hear the lyrics.\u201d His breathy vocals speak to what Shane and Ilya are afraid to admit to themselves \u2014 that their relationship has progressed far beyond casual hookups: \u201cStay right here \/ Don\u2019t ever leave,\u201d he sings.<\/p>\n At the time of writing, Jones felt the pressure to create a track with the same emotional potency of \u201cLisbonne\u201d without the privilege of months to perfect it. \u201cIt was like, Oh man, I have to beat my own songs!\u201d he jokes. Still, remnants of those forgotten needle drops exist elsewhere: \u201cCiel,\u201d<\/a> another track from \u00c9ther, was intended for an All-Star Game in Tampa. It lives on as the name of the night club where Shane and Ilya trade longing gazes in episode four.<\/p>\n As a tender contrast to the pulsating synths that course through much of the score, the piano is crucial to the series\u2019 more intimate moments. The inspiration came from an unlikely place: the soap opera The Young and the Restless. \u201cThe piano theme is very dramatic,\u201d Jones says of the soap\u2019s music. \u201cI thought it was interesting to add this sensitivity because it\u2019s part of the language of romance to me. I knew that I didn\u2019t want just EDM songs.\u201d (Jones even named one of Scott and Kip\u2019s themes \u201cYoung and Restless\u201d; it plays after a panicked Scott escapes a gallery date with Kip in episode three, \u201cHunter.\u201d<\/a>)<\/p>\n For the scene in which Shane and Ilya dip into a bathroom during a Vegas awards ceremony, the score is pared back to soft piano chords that echo as though they\u2019re bouncing off the porcelain tiles. Jones created the \u201cwarp-y piano\u201d by running those notes through a rack-mount effects unit, a device that alters the sound of the piano. When Ilya offers Shane his \u201cdeal\u201d to hook up later, the score holds on a long suspended chord that heightens the tension of the exchange. \u201cI needed to hold back on progression in this very moment and to keep it hanging, because that\u2019s what he does to Shane,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n After Shane loses MVP to Ilya, they escape to the latter\u2019s penthouse suite for a round of sex lacking in the tenderness of their first time. As Ilya instructs Shane to touch himself, the aptly titled \u201cInferno\u201d plays, a Challengers-esque banger filled with dirty beats, destined to be a mainstay of Heated Rivalry club nights forever.<\/p>\n Even then, Jones resisted the fervid EDM of his first instincts. \u201cIt\u2019s very slow techno,\u201d says the composer. \u201cAt first, I thought 130 bpm, but \u2018Inferno\u2019 is 100 or 90. I really needed to slow everything down. Otherwise, it didn\u2019t fit the direction of the show.\u201d The four-minute track builds in layers \u2014 a bass-y drone, then a single drumbeat kicks in before ramping up with what Jones calls a \u201chacker synth\u201d riff \u2014\u00a0to grow with the intensity of the scene. Each heavy beat pulls at the tension of the scene until it\u2019s stretched taut. \u201cI wanted to introduce that thrill but also the blurry dynamic in their relationship,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n Though much of Jones\u2019s original demos were scrapped, the \u201cHeartbeat\u201d leitmotif was one of the few cues that evolved from his earliest ideas. It\u2019s a romantic series of four cues that return again and again to signal an intimate encounter; in each recurring appearance, the chords remain the same, but the texture varies. \u201cHeartbeat I\u201d<\/a> foregrounds a bouncing synth melody as Shane and Ilya reunite after months apart in episode one; the rapid descending arpeggio of \u201cHeartbeat II\u201d<\/a> plays as Ilya sexts Shane before a game. \u201cHeartbeat III\u201d \u2014 of tuna-melt infamy \u2014 fluctuates in tempo before accelerating to a climax. It\u2019s maybe the most pivotal motif in Shane and Ilya\u2019s story, but Jones describes it simply: \u201cIt just sounds like love, so I wanted those chords to evolve as their love evolved. It\u2019s the theme of their hearts syncing.\u201d<\/p>\n When Jones first read the scripts, the story of fellow hockey star Scott (Fran\u00e7ois Arnaud) and his smoothie barista boyfriend, Kip (Robbie G.K.), wasn\u2019t its own stand-alone episode but sprinkled across two episodes. Once it was clear the structure of the show had changed, the composer knew he had to create a contrasting sonic world for Scott and Kip. Jones differentiated theirs from Shane and Ilya\u2019s by incorporating the guitar: \u201cI used the \u2018Young and Restless\u2019 theme for that,\u201d Jones says. \u201cThat was originally composed on the piano and then I did a version on electric guitar and did some synth arrangements on top.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLa Nuit Est Longue\u201d is the other major cue, a hopeful track of steady electronic drums, cymbals, and pads that accompany Scott and Kip\u2019s first night together. Musically, it deviates again from Shane and Ilya\u2019s world, but Jones ensured there was some overlap. \u201cIn a way, it\u2019s the same chords as \u2018Heartbeat,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cI wanted to make a reference to the previously written music, but I didn\u2019t want it to be obvious, so the chord placement and rhythm is way different. I needed to blur things a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n When Shane and Ilya argue on a Las Vegas rooftop at the end of their rookie year, the longing and regret of that confrontation is set to \u201cTwo Souls<\/a>\u201d: wistful hornlike drones paired with a repeated crescendoing rhythm. It\u2019s a theme that doesn\u2019t return until much later in the season through the track\u2019s softer counterpart, \u201cOne Soul.\u201d This acoustic version, led by Jones\u2019s shorthand for romance, the piano, is teased after Ilya confesses his love for Shane over the phone in Russian. It returns in its totality at Shane\u2019s cottage the morning after they admit their love for each other.<\/p>\n