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"The show is almost like a mixtape that we give to our audience."
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In an exclusive interview with Jen Malone, the critically acclaimed music supervisor of HBO’s hit series Euphoria, we got a good look at what it takes to make it in music supervision and what it’s like working with such a talented cast and crew to make a show like Euphoria.
Here are the 17 things she revealed:
1. A twist of fate led Jen to working in music supervision and, eventually, Euphoria.
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“I went and saw the movie Iron Man, the music supervisor credit rolled by, and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to do that. I’m going to be a music supervisor.’ I moved out here [Los Angeles] and started hustling like crazy, taking meetings with anybody who would meet with me. I went to a networking event and very serendipitously met Dave Jordan, who does [the music supervision] for all the Marvel films. I said, ‘Richard Craft won’t get back to me about getting my résumé to you. And he said, ‘You know my agent?’ I said, ‘Of course I know your agent; I want to work for you.’ He said, ‘That’s creepy but awesome.’ He gave me my first internship that summer."
2. She actually began her career in the music industry and teaching Ashtanga yoga.
“So [when] I started out, I was a publicist in Boston for years running my own PR company doing PR for rock bands. I got super burned out and was also teaching yoga. I took a job as a marketing manager for Lululemon and then very unexpectedly got fired.” She ended up taking a job at a café washing dishes until she made the leap to music supervision.
3. Her work on Euphoria came after prior success on shows like Baskets and Atlanta.
FX Networks
“I reconnected with a friend of mine, Kaitlin, from Boston, and after helping her with some single song clearances, she called me and said she was working on a show with a lot of crazy clearances and not a lot of money, but that it was with Donald Glover. I said, 'I’m in,' and that’s how I got Atlanta.” This same friend introduced Jen to Sam Levinson, the creator of Euphoria, and the rest of the producers. “We just all hit it off. I was so excited about Sam’s vision, to have music be a character and help tell his story.”
4. With Euphoria being such a music-driven show, Jen approached the season much like preparing a mixtape.
“The show is almost like a mixtape that we give to our audience. Like in the same way that everybody shares music, you know a friend will be like, 'Oh my god, this song is so dope, you have to listen to it,' and then it enters your personal playlist, right? So in a way, it’s like we’re sharing Sam’s mixtape to the audience."
5. A lot of music for the show was scripted in by Sam, who is also the showrunner, meaning Jen and her team would be given songs to clear before approaching the rest of the soundtrack.
Eddy Chen / Via HBO
“Sam scripted in INXS for Cal’s theme in Episode 3. And we ended up using that as, like, a springboard to score the rest of Cal’s backstory. It led to a lot of late-'80s and early-'90s new wave stuff.”
6. Cal’s prologue episode was actually among Jen’s favorite episodes to work on because of the heavy '80s/'90s influence.
HBO / Via Tumblr
“It was very exciting to assemble a playlist and work with our editor Laura [Zempel] on that episode to put it all together because a lot of the songs in that prologue are just my favorite songs: Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen, and of course INXS."
7. When seeking clearance on a song, you have to present ALL of the context to the legal team.
HBO
“Well, there are a lot more dicks in Euphoria than in any other show,” Jen joked as she discussed how context is so important when clearing music. She mentioned the difficulty in working to clear music for a show like Euphoria: “When you clear a song, you have to present how the music is being used, how long it’s being used for, and what’s happening when the song is playing. You have to include whether there is sex, drugs, gun violence, etc., because some artists aren’t comfortable having their music over certain content.”
8. Every time a song is played in any way, it needs to be 100% cleared.
HBO
“If somebody is just singing a song, you know, just in the shower or something, you have to clear that. If Rue, for example, was just rapping the lyrics to a Tupac song without the song actually playing, you still have to clear the publishing on that because it’s copywritten material.”
9. Supervisors will often present “options” and “temp” music for a scene, which means that the songs originally placed in a scene may not make it to the final cut of the episode.
“So 'temp' is short for 'temporary.' Editors will just put in a song that’s kind of like a placeholder that we may use; we may also swap it out if it’s something that can’t be cleared. Then sometimes directors and showrunners will get what’s called ‘temp love,’ which makes it difficult. Sometimes it’s just a song pulled off of YouTube that can’t be cleared, but they want it, and you have to try and replace it with something.”
10. Jen recalled doing “extensive detective work” to find and clear some of the songs for Season 2.
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“In Episode 5, the Sharon Cash cover of 'Fever' was put in, and I had to do extensive detective work to find who owned the master because they’re a record label that was only in existence from 1967 to 1969. And there was little to no information on the web of who owned it and how to get in touch with them.” She continued with a joke: “It’s a very, very special set of skills. I'm thinking that my next career will be a private investigator.”
11. Every so often, though, Jen would tell production to “just trust [her]” on a song for a scene, knowing it’s the perfect fit.
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HBO“There were times where I would give five or six options, but, like, in the Megan Thee Stallion moment in Season 1, that was definitely one where I told the editors, ‘Just trust me,’ and I remember after the final playback, Sam was like, ‘Malone, everybody on the cast is so excited about Meg Thee Stallion.’”
12. Clearing the final cut of an episode can be extremely last-minute.
HBO
“We have Sam in the room, and we’re making the picture tweaks and music tweaks and just, you know, perfecting the episode up until the 12th hour sometimes. Films have a much longer schedule — you can work on a film for a year, as opposed to working on a whole season of television in nine months. I have to give a shoutout to our editors, Julio [Perez IV], Laura [Zempel], and Aaron [Butler], who also just work very, very, very hard under some pretty crazy deadlines and timelines. But music is so important to them as well. They're brilliant with working with music, and I'm just very lucky to have that collaboration with them.”
13. Connecting this new, younger audience with legendary artists of yesterday as well as newcomers of today has been one of Jen’s favorite parts of the music supervision process.
“You go on TikTok and hear Gerry Rafferty and Steely Dan, and it’s so exciting to know that if it’s an unknown artist [to Gen Z], having them on the show can really impact their career with its meaning. One of the best parts of the job is when we see the ripple effects and the impact it has on the artist’s career.”
14. Twitter had a lot to say about some of these moments, including Lexi’s introduction in Season 2, set up by an iconic strut down the halls of her school while hyperpop is playing in her headphones.
HBO
Jen shared her excitement over the fan reaction, saying, “It really sets up Lexi’s character development. It was so fun to see that happen, and people went nuts online. It was great because a lot of people don’t know Laura or her band, 100 Gecs. And what was really exciting afterwards was hearing from the record labels that there was a huge increase in streams, and that their Spotify numbers and socials were blowing up after that episode aired.”
15. Jen has been keeping up with this Twitter discourse throughout the season, specifically the memes related to the soundtrack and her contributions as supervisor.
“It's been special watching Season 2 and then, of course, following Twitter. Like, a must-do when you're watching the show is to follow along with all the tweets and the memes that pop up; they’re just so funny.” She was excited to see so many tweets about her role as music supervisor going viral as well. “On that first episode when my name popped up, I was like, I'm a meme. The tweet went viral because it is completely true.” She referenced another meme she saw about the pressures of being a music supervisor on a show with so many songs. “There's also a meme I saw with a video of Roman from Succession saying, ‘Okay, fuck. Okay,’ which is literally what we do every single day. We get a cut [of an episode] and see that there's like 50 songs, and you're like, ‘Fuck, okay, let’s do it.’”
16. Despite this heavy workload, music supervision has only recently received critical recognition. The Outstanding Music Supervision category was only added to the Emmys in the last six years.
WarnerMedia
“It’s very new to have the job of a music supervisor be recognized as part of the storytelling process. I do think that [the music supervisor’s role] just keeps growing and growing,” Jen said when we discussed the recent addition. “[Music supervision] has always been there. Even going back to, like, The OC or Gossip Girl, those shows broke bands like the Killers or Death Cab for Cutie.” After a quick fact-check, it looks like the Killers and Death Cab were fairly new bands before their relative appearances on The OC, proving Jen’s point about the influence of pop culture on artists and their careers.
17. And finally: Jen is no stranger to critical acclaim. She has already scored multiple nominations for her work on Zola and Malcolm and Marie.
The Hollywood Reporter / Via HollywoodReporter.com
“Me and my girls, Nicole [Weisberg] and Mandi [Collier], were just nominated for a Guild Award for Zola,” she said, reflecting on her prior success and how grateful she is. “I’m just really lucky and grateful for all the people who believed in me and gave me a shot to get here. And it’s been a journey — just 10 years ago, I was washing dishes.”
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