Daniel Hurt talks about writing the Vampire Lestat soundtrack and screenplay

In The Vampire Lestat, an adaptation of Anne Rice’s book of the same name and sequel to the AMC series Interview with the Vampire, Lestat, played by the possessed Sam Reid, is hardly a rock star.

Instead, when Season 1 of IWTV was in production, showrunner Lorin Jones originally planned for a modern-day Lestat to become an orchestra conductor. “That was a huge discussion,” says composer Daniel Hart, who was behind the show’s musical identity. Eventually, it became clear that due to the design of their grand plot, the vampires were required to play a popular form of music. However, it wasn’t popular enough to draw big crowds like Jelly Roll or Post Malone. Hence the choice of rock and roll.

The decision was, of course, a nod to Anne Rice’s vision for Brad Prince’s musical career. Compared to 2002’s Queen of the Damned, which featured a greasy-haired immortal diva fronting a nu-metal band on songs by Korn’s Jonathan Davis, this show’s soundtrack (arguably) better captures the gothic glam-rock spirit of Rice’s 1985 novel.

This new musical focus earned Hart an invite to the writers’ room for season three. His playwriting degree was put to good use there. Especially in the early episodes, Lestat received a lot of criticism from the uninteresting vampires. That meant it was often Hart’s job to deliver the same songs he was composing in different voices.

Lestat’s music may be a turnoff to some, but the third episode, “Toronto,” features some of his best songs to date. Despite being depicted as undead for centuries, this work is also surprisingly human. Because while “The Loneliness” is a story of loneliness unique to vampires, for us humans there is more than enough to dig into. (The same goes for upcoming releases “Stained Glass Eyes” and “Brutal Love,” each of which are gut punches in their own right.)

But the work didn’t end with writing. After co-producing on the Toronto set and making sure Lestat’s motley band looked legitimate in front of the camera, Hart returned home to write the score. Back in the year, the musician, wearing yet another of his many hats, played backing wolfish character Sam Reid on guitar as the Australian actor sashayed live around the stage at New York’s Beacon Theater at a premiere earlier this year.

Below, Hart talks about not taking Lestat’s lyrics as seriously as his own, talks about the many of these songs that went into making the soundtrack, and which songs from this season besides “The Loneiness” deserve to be baked in commemoration. Check out more influences in our exclusive playlist here.

Why did rock and roll still feel relevant for Lestat in 2026?

It seemed like there was a need for some kind of inferior popular music. That made it easy to make him into some kind of loser, trying to climb a mountain he could never reach the top of.

[Early on]I asked Lorin, “Has this Lestat ever listened to Beyoncé? Does he like Beyoncé? Is he going to make music like Beyoncé?” And Lorin said, “Of course he listens to Beyoncé, because everyone listens to Beyoncé. Of course he likes Beyoncé, because those songs are killer. Does his music show any influence from Beyoncé? No, not in a direct sense, because he’s a 265-year-old French vampire.”

It also didn’t feel like the Lestat we knew in seasons 1 and 2. Anyway, to Lorin Jones. I wish he had a little more Beyonce in it. [Laughs.]

The other characters make fun of Lestat’s lyrics…a lot. Was it fun to ride the line between good and bad taste?

Oh my god, so much fun. [My own] The lyrics are always very serious as I am about to embark on my own journey of self-discovery. I’m sure there’s a lot of that in the music that I put out, whatever the cheesiness and clichés, but I never set out to do that. So I was given permission to not always be serious and put my heart into it, and to be given permission to have boring lyrics…

I wrote a lot of that dialogue [making fun of Lestat’s music]. These were the writing assignments Lorin Jones gave me at the beginning of the writers’ room. He said, “Would you please write a review that criticizes this song?” It was a lot of fun to poke fun at the lyrics I wrote and poke holes in them and talk about how superficial and how derivative it felt.

It also took some of the pressure off me to write the best song ever written, or a song that felt completely new in some way. These songs could have gotten bad reviews because we wanted Lestat to be vulnerable and breakable.

Anne Rice once said that vampires are incapable of making good art because they are disconnected from human experience. But to me, Lestat’s music seems to get better as the season progresses. It’s because he’s reconnecting with his own humanity in a way.

I think Anne Rice made a really good point. If you’re not human anymore, why make art about the human experience? But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be nostalgic for the past, even if we’re no longer alive.

It put us in this kind of purgatory. Ultimately, we decided to write music about what he cared about when he was human, but mostly about what he cared about as a vampire. After all, he still cares about things in a way that seems pretty human to me. And since I’m the one writing the songs and I’m human, I had to write what I know.

I think “The Loneiness” is a great example of this, and one of my favorites this season.

I wrote these lyrics in October 2024, so it was not long after I joined the writers’ room. I made a demo and sent it to Rolin. He sent the cake back to me. A cake appeared at my house with the word “Loneliness” written in icing. He didn’t do that with other songs, so obviously that struck a chord with him as well.

Are there any songs from this season that you think are also suitable for cake?

I don’t know if the song itself is worth the cake, but “Stained Glass Eyes” was the hardest to write. It was the song that took the most time to write, and I rewrote it from scratch three times. I haven’t done that with any other songs this season. I don’t do that much when I write my own songs. If I have an idea and I don’t really like it, I usually abandon it and work on another song. However, this was a mandate from Lorin and was specific to the required scene.

There’s a song that uses “Good Luck, Babe!” As a template…

It’s the same.

oh really?

The first version I made…I don’t feel like I plagiarized that song at all, but to me it felt very much like it was in the same universe, even the same solar system. Like the orbiting moon, “Good luck, babe!”

Some fans were really fascinated by the idea of ​​Lestat listening to Chapel Lawn.

I’m very happy. I know people want to leave a mark on this show of music that they relate to. Even the people who don’t like the music on this show are the ones who want to write about this show online where I can see them…The main category of people like that are people who don’t like this show because it doesn’t sound like Korn enough, or like the Queen of the Damned soundtrack enough. I feel a bit sorry for them, but that music already exists. I didn’t feel like anyone needed to redo it.

Were there any other versions or full songs of the song that didn’t make the cut that you would have liked to have included?

I think Lorin did a really good job of finding a place for all the songs. There are some songs that didn’t make it to the show, but Lorin and I have talked about them since then, and it seems like those songs aren’t necessarily being thrown in the trash. Perhaps it will be used in some way someday.

Sam Reid, unlike the other cast members, is not a musician. How did he prepare for this role?

He was in musicals when he was younger, so it’s not completely foreign to him. But yeah, he’s not a professional musician.

It was a challenge for all of us to go into the studio and record the vocals for these songs and find a way to do it in a way that made sense for the characters and for Lestat. how does he sing? In a French style? What is his accent? What influences it? That’s a very difficult puzzle to figure out. I had to memorize not only the lyrics but also the lyrics, and I can’t believe I was doing all that work in my head. [also] The melody I wrote…

I know Sam did a lot of research before getting in front of the camera. When we were shooting in Toronto, that was really cool. But seeing him at the premiere was just perfect. It looked like he had performed 200 concerts. It came to him so easily, or it seemed so easy to him. It was really moving to watch.

“Your Biggest Fan” is about Lestat being imprisoned and turned into a vampire against his will, but the song was shot like a much cheesier music video. Was that always the plan?

It didn’t necessarily go to plan. I didn’t write it for that kind of scene. It was really Lorin Jones and a little bit of Hanna Moscovitch – it was their brainchild. I thought this was the best idea I’ve ever seen executed. Never in a million years would I have thought to do it myself.

I was there when they shot this movie, and watching Damian Atkins transform into Magnus is a revelation in itself. He seems like a very quiet and nice guy, but suddenly he becomes a monster. It’s a real eye-opener. And to incorporate that monster into a choreographed ’80s power ballad music video…what a juxtaposition. What a breath of fresh air.

Were there any movie musicals on your mood board? Maybe I’m biased, but there were some scenes that really reminded me of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Lorin Jones is a big fan of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, so she’ll be very happy to hear you say that. That was a big test for Lorin, especially when we started.

My favorite musical movie is “West Side Story.” It’s my favorite musical of all time. I don’t think there’s much West Side Story in these songs or scores, but the song “Big Boss” feels like a Grease influence. It feels like it’s shaped like a triangle [Toni Basil’s] “Mickey” [Gwen Stefani’s] “Hollaback Girl” and a few different songs from Grease.

Are there any songs on the soundtrack that Lestat would want to have on his setlist for decades to come?

He’ll probably get bored with all that, right? He is very fickle.

But if there’s one song that resonates with him the most, it’s probably “Brutal Love.” Because this is a love song. What makes this antihero so appealing, even outside of this season, is that he seems to need love in his life.

I once read an article about how some of the staff cried during the filming of “Brutal Love.” Without spoiling too much, please tell us a little bit about the production of this song.

This is one of the straightest pop songs I wrote for Season 3. I mean, it’s not Taylor Swift. But it’s a ballad, so it’s a song that touches your heart. I didn’t expect the reaction I got when I shot it because that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to move people.

Again, I looked around and not everyone had tissues or anything in their eyes. There were just 3 or 4 people. But still, I don’t remember anything we did in Season 3, or anything I’ve ever worked on, that moved the crew to tears during filming.