The Young Pope: Interview mit Musikerin Lotte Kestner

Anna-Lynne Williams is Lotte Kestner, and her song „Halo“ – yes, a Beyoncé cover – appears in episode 8 of „The Young Pope“, a Sky production from 2016. Michael Braun from serieslyAWESOME.tv talked to her about the appearance in the series, about her feelings concerning the use of her music in „The Young Pope“ and future projects.

Michael Braun: Your cover of the Beyoncé song „Halo“ was chosen by creator Paolo Sorrentino for his current show „The young Pope“. Can you tell us something about the process and the communication between you and the production team?

Lotte Kestner: Yes! I was so thrilled to see the song used so prominently in the episode, it’s definitely one of my favorite placements I’ve ever had. As far as the communication though, it’s not too glamorous. In general someone from the music department will contact my label, or me directly if it’s one of my self released songs, to sign paperwork. I don’t often speak to the director or writer personally, unless they want me to write something original. Like the song that Robert and I wrote for Pinup Dolls On Ice. Or most recently I wrote a song for a film called Maybe Someday, so I was in touch with Michael who wrote the film and starred in it, and he talked to me specifically about what he wanted for a particular scene. I watched the whole film before I started writing, and everything came together really well. That song will also be on my new album.

Michael Braun: Tell us something about your feelings – from the moment it was save that Helo would appear till the live appearance in the show!

Lotte Kestner: I actually wasn’t sure if Halo was definitely going to be used (lots of songwriters to get clearance from) until I started receiving messages from people in Italy who had seen the European airing of the show in late 2016. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that the song had ended up in the show after all. It aired here in the States just a few weeks ago, so I stayed in that night and watched it.

Michael Braun: Do you like „The young Pope“? And what are your favourite tv series so far? I know you love Twin Peaks, right?

Lotte Kestner: Yeah it seems like a great show, really stylized and edgy. I haven’t seen all of the episodes yet, just the first few so far, but I’m looking forward to finishing it up. as you said, Twin Peaks is probably my favorite show of all time, I also really loved Millennium when it was on when I was in college. I watch a lot of comedies now actually, since I’ve experienced some issues with chronic pain in the past few years, it’s nice to turn on shows like The Office and Arrested Development to lighten life up a bit. But I’m also into some cool dark crime shows, often British, like The Fall and Luther. Oh, and Downton Abbey! Got to get some romance in there.

Michael Braun: My first contact with your music was the appearance of „Different stars“ from your former band Trespassers William in the brilliant movie „Love Song for Bobby Long“. Do you see any differences between music for movies versus music for tv shows?

Lotte Kestner: There isn’t too much of a difference, especially these days now that people watch both films and TV at home via Netflix etc. Especially if the show is kind of epic and filmic like The Young Pope. The music can be used just as dramatically. Of course it’s exciting to go to the theater and wait to hear a song from one of my bands, but most of the films that we have had music in were independent releases and only came out on line or DVD anyway. I did go to an early screening of Love Song for Bobby Long when I lived in Los Angeles and that was a really cool experience. You can get kind of nervous when you haven’t seen the scene yet, or where the music will come in. Surreal.

Michael Braun: Since music from your back catalogue was chosen for movies and series – wouldn’t it be nice to work exclusive on a whole soundtrack for a series or movie?

Lotte Kestner: Yes I would definitely love to work on more music written exclusively for a film or show, or a whole soundtrack. As I mentioned, I do have this new song that was tailor-made for the film Maybe Someday, they also included my song Pairs in the film, which was already written of course. But yeah writing the new one was a real challenge and I always feel like my writing is a bit different when it’s a sort of assignment. Like I wrote Wrestler originally to accompany a painting in a museum exhibit. Songs that I write with someone else’s objectives or requests in mind, I end up carving out something a little bit different from my own work and tends to be less autobiographical, but the result is usually really exciting to me.

Michael Braun: Are there any perspectives for further appearances in the near feature?

Lotte Kestner: Not that I know of yet, though I heard that one of my songs recently played without permission on a show in another country! So we are looking into that :) Opportunities tend to pop up unexpectedly. And a few things that I signed off on a few years ago are still waiting for the official releases so those will feel new I suppose when they finally come out.

Bilder: Sky (The Young Pope) / Michael Braun (Anna-Lynne Williams)