‘Riverdale’ Composer Reveals the Inspiration Behind the Show’s Score: “There’s No Rules”

The CW’s Riverdale has deservedly been lauded for its aggressive approach to storytelling, stand-out performances, and superb, timeless production design. But one aspect that often gets lost in the shuffle is the phenomenal score for the show, music composed by Blake Neely and Sherri Chung that brilliantly runs under every emotional moment, every dastardly new villain, and even the rare occasion Jughead (Cole Sprouse) scarfs down a burger.

It makes a certain amount of sense, though. Every episode of Riverdale jams in the equivalent amount of plots that would get strung out in an entire season of television on any other show. Add in a regular stand-out musical number (let alone full musical episodes) and the requisite CW-audience friendly pop song, and the score takes second (or third) seat to everything else.

But that’s sort of the idea.

“It’s a thematic heavy show,” Chung told Decider when we chatted over the phone last week. “On Riverdale we do more textures, and sounds.”

Chung and Neely have worked together on multiple shows, including most of The CW superhero series, Blindspot, and now Riverdale. The collaboration is complete, and often involves jumping back and forth on assignments, though Chung noted that she’s often composing for the Lodge family, particularly Veronica (Camila Mendes) and Hiram (Mark Consuelos).

With the third season in full swing, we chatted with Chung about what goes into making a regular (ha!) episode of Riverdale, the inspiration behind your fave ‘ships themes, the weird new theme for this season’s villain The Gargoyle King, and what to expect from the highly anticipated flashback episode.

The Rules Are, There Are No Rules

Unlike your CW superhero show with its soaring themes and, you know, rules, Riverdale is hard to pin down. Is it a teen drama? A murder mystery show? A musical? It changes from scene to scene… And according to Chung, that’s by design.

“Anything on the show goes,” Chung said. “And that was actually the premise of what the show was, even starting from the beginning, the whole idea of masking the time period. You don’t really know what decade you’re in. I mean yeah, it’s got all those elements of present day things but then it obviously has throwbacks from different decades in terms of the appearance of the show, the cars that you’re seeing. So I think the way to do that with music we were discussing was like, well anything goes. Anything is possible. We don’t want to use something that is so terribly identifiable… in any genres or any decade. I think that’s what ties it all together. There’s no rules. I mean, there are some rules. I would put some parameters on it just to get a feel of the world that’s created but I mean look, they went there.”

…But The Humanity Keeps It Grounded

If there really are no rules on Riverdale, which is kind of amazing to hear someone actually say out loud, then how do you make people care? Why is it not just a mish-mash of “things” happening? To Chung, it’s about the humans, not the plot points.

“What connects the show and you can probably say about all of [Producer] Greg Berlanti’s shows: there’s always a human quality aspect,” Chung said. “There’s always emotion… As wild as [Riverdale] gets, as dark as it gets … when composing it [you] pull out the human elements, pull out the emotional elements. Not just the ‘cry’ moments, but also the fear. Not just the fun of the scare tactics, but also the human emotion of curiosity, and mystery, and doing the right thing, and being tempted by the wrong thing… It’s seemingly irreverent about its world but at the same time, it’s actually really highly developed. What we try and do with the score is keep some of the key elements, so some sounds, some synths, and obviously some of our more wholesome themes. [Our job is] to maintain a lot of those things and have them come back at very important moments, really keep scoring the human aspect, and not just the extra crazy one.”

The Gargoyle King Is “Swamp Goth”

Who, or what, is the Gargoyle King? Right now it seems to be a sculpture, or costume, or being, or mass hallucination made up of sticks and bones and meat that’s convincing the teens of Riverdale to kill themselves, as part of a role-playing game called Gryphons & Gargoyles. But other than that, not a lot is known about this season’s big villain. For the now distinctive sting that plays when the King comes on screen, the mystery surrounding the character created a unique challenge.

“This was one where we’re just like ‘What are we thinking for this?’ And of course we didn’t know what anything looked like at first. We were talking to [showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa] about it and we’re like ‘What’s our overarching theme for the season?’ And Roberto says these words: ‘swamp goth.’ And we’re like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ Does that mean banjo? Does that mean Dobro [guitar]? And that was actually what we started with — back-country kind of.”

Once Neely and Chung saw the premiere, it crystalized that they were on the right track with the idea, and helped focus a theme we cited as “alarming,” given the suddenness with which the sting pokes its head into the score.

“We really tried to do something like what you’re saying: it’s alarming. You can’t really place your finger what instruments are there or what it is, because of course, even the Gargoyle King itself is like… Really what is it? Is it human, is it a costume? Is it an entity? Is it a spirit, or are we hallucinating this? We wanted to mask the instruments as well. It’s kind of a mashup of that. But something that would just be like really unsettling. So harmonically unsettling, sonically unsettling.”

Also of note? Neely and Chung don’t know the true identity of The Gargoyle King, something that harkens back to Neely’s days launching the CW superhero shows. Though Chung admitted she was curious to find out the King’s identity, they both ultimately worried that knowing who — or what — it is might tip their hand. Meaning, say, if Veronica turns out to be The Gargoyle King (she’s not) and they weave Veronica’s theme in there, consciously or otherwise, fans would pick up on it. So don’t go breaking down the theme for clues. Sorry, ya Nancy Drews.

Varchie’s Theme Is “The Sweetest”

Part and parcel with a show like Riverdale are the couples. And one couple being put through the ringer in Season 3 is Varchie, a.k.a. Veronica and Archie (KJ Apa). Drilling down couple by couple, we asked Chung first about the Varchie theme.

“Oh my gosh. It’s like the sweetest… There’s something sweet, there’s something sexy. I mean it becomes Archie[‘s theme], because there’s something so wholesome and honest about him. The Varchie theme, there’s something in there about Veronica’s persistence, also about Archie’s wholesomeness and his innocence.”

That said, Chung noted that even with something distinct like a couple’s theme, that music often weaves its way into other parts of the show that don’t include those couples. Then a choice needs to be made.

“There’s an upcoming episode where it just seemed like the perfect moment to use the Varchie theme. And it was a distinct choice to not do it, because it was such a bold move, it was such a bold choice on this new direction for the show — new direction in terms of a new storyline about what’s happening with the characters, new development in the story. Because of that it almost felt like, this is not so much about Varchie, this is more about what’s happening to the group… What’s happening to the show. Of course the Varchie theme would’ve worked here, it would’ve been very moving, but we were trying to think of just a bigger arc than that.”

Bughead’s Theme Is Actually Betty’s Theme

Another extremely popular ‘ship on the show (arguably the most popular) is Bughead, a.k.a. Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Jughead. To hear Chung tell it, that theme is dominated by Betty.

“[There’s] a different kind of wholesome and goodness to Jughead and Betty. Betty to me, that’s just like, cute. Betty has her own sounds that you hear. There are sounds that come in with her that are just like voices, very soft delicate ‘hoo, hoo’ and very high ones… There’s something about her delicacy and her vulnerability and sweetness that I think is in there.”

The Serpents Don’t Have A Theme, ‘Cause That’s How They Roll

Ever since the gang the Southside Serpents were introduced, they’ve slowly grown to take over every aspect of the show. From antagonists to the saviors of Riverdale, the gang has become integral to the action. But funnily enough, they don’t have their own theme song (may we suggest “Mad World”?) and probably won’t any time soon.

“I could not hum you the Serpents’ theme because there is not one,” Chung noted, “but there are certain sounds that are always [with] them. And then of course, in this season the Northside/Southside has all been disbanded, it’s kind of getting rearranged. So we’re coming up with a piece of [new] informing parameters [because] the Serpents aren’t really the same exact thing anymore.”

Choni Is “Still Developing”

We’ve already gone to bat for why Choni, a.k.a. Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan) should get more screentime on Riverdale. And now we’ll add “give Choni a theme” to that petition. The Town With Pep’s most prominent LGBTQ+ couple is relatively new, having only been introduced towards the end of Season 2. And perhaps because of that, they don’t have a love theme as of yet.

“Choni doesn’t have a theme yet,” Chung said. “It’s something that we haven’t fully developed yet. We’re still developing it, we’re still seeing more of them. And I think as we see more of them, we’re trying to get a sense of who they are and where they’re going and what they’re doing… It’s interesting to see how that’s happening too, as the season goes on.”

TL;dr version, stay tuned.

The Upcoming Flashback Episode Is Everything You Dreamed It Would Be (Musically, At Least)

It’s been pretty clear since characters started casually dropping lines about events that happened decades earlier in Riverdale that we’d be flashing back at some point. That point, it turns out, is the Wednesday, November 7 airing “The Midnight Club.” In the episode, Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick) tells Betty the history of what happened to her and the other Riverdale parents back in high school during their first experience with the ominous Gryphons & Gargoyles.

And true to Riverdale, even though technically the episode is set in the ’90s, complete with the teen actors playing their own parents (Lili Reinhart plays Alice, Cole Sprouse plays FP Jones, etc.), it’s still basically a Very ’80s Episode, complete with stunt-casting Anthony Michael Hall as Principal Featherhead.

The original score will totally back that aesthetic up.

“I wanted it to be harder than it was,” Chung said, laughing. “I wanted to fight for it more, Roberto and Michael Grassi, the other producer, literally said to us ‘Go as ’80s as you feel comfortable. Go as ’80s as you want, go as ’80s as you can.’ That’s like a dream, to be told that. I’m a little bit more of a child of the late ’80s early ’90s probably more, but I consider myself a child of the ’80s.”

The challenge came in taking the original Riverdale score, turning it into synth-inflected ’80s pop, and then mixing in the sourced songs that flesh out the score. At first, Neely and Chung erred towards using ’80s scores as inspiration, before they realized they were headed in the wrong direction…

“What we didn’t do is go look at ’80s style scoring,” Chung said. “We weren’t actually drawing upon that, we were actually just drawing upon songs that you would have heard on the radio, and how do we incorporate that into almost a song-like score in some ways. But it was really fun to just put parameters and say: nope. We’re gonna use synth, and we’re gonna use this drum pattern, these drum sounds, or this crazy big sounding bass… Using exactly what we would normally do in Riverdale, but we’re gonna do it in ’80s style. And then there’s just flat out ’80s everything.”

That means you will hear an ’80s style reinvention of the Riverdale theme, as well as other recognizable themes including Bughead and Varchie’s themes. You’ll also hear the actual themes themselves, though, because Chung added that, “those moments are necessary and needed.”

“The episode itself is really, really smart,” Chung continued. “That’s another reason why a flashback episode can actually work. It’s not just for shits and giggles. They do it for a reason… What’s really great is the actors looked like they were having so much fun. And Blake and I, even in our review meetings, we were talking about that. [It] was very inspiring for us as composers.”

There Are More Surprises Coming

When asked about the future of the show, Chung sounded like she was practically bursting at the seams with excitement. Though she was mostly mum on what to expect (this is a heavily spoiler prone TV show, after all), Chung was able to tease that as the world of Riverdale opens up over the course of the season, new, exciting themes will be introduced in the score. That includes one for The Farm, the mysterious cult that’s sucked in Alice and Betty’s sister Polly (Tiera Skovbye), as well as a lot more for Veronica’s just opened speakeasy in the basement of Pop’s Diner.

“We’re hoping the audience will take the journey, we hope that we’re doing our job and sonically they can take these new journeys with us,” Chung said. “Anything goes within certain parameters, so we’re planting things… We’re just having fun developing [the] new worlds that are being created in this universe. There’s a lot going on. Oh man. Everyone’s in for a real treat.”

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Where to stream Riverdale