We’re on record with our love for Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 1 currently streaming on Netflix!), the most original DreamWorks animated show since… well, since ever. And we’re especially in love with its music.

As we said in our review, if you get to the second episode and you’re not sold on the show by the music alone, you might just be tone deaf. And hate joy.

Today, we caught up with composer Daniel Rojas to chat about the music of Kipo and how this job – like the show – was so incredibly unique.

Roarbots: How did you first get involved with Kipo?

Daniel Rojas: DreamWorks was looking for a composer for Kipo who also had experience writing and producing songs. There were a number of songs that needed to be written prior to animation and they wanted someone who could write modern songs, not in a “Broadway musical” style, that would then be able to use the sounds of the songs and implement them into the score. They reached out to my agency, and my agent thought I was a good fit for it. They sent me a brief that I absolutely loved, so I sent some demos for it. After a few weeks, DreamWorks had me over for a meeting with the music team and show creators, and they asked me to do some demos to picture. They requested some revisions after my first versions and eventually I got a call from the head of music at the studio telling me they had decided to go ahead with me for the project. Needless to say I was stoked!

RB: How did you arrive at the “sound” of the show? It’s really unique and totally different from other DreamWorks shows.

Rojas: Thanks! That’s nice to hear. I have to give credit to the creator Rad Sechrist and co-producer Bill Wolkoff who had a pretty clear idea of the direction in which they wanted to take the show musically. A lot of the world of Kipo is based on Los Angeles’s subcultures: the settings, color schemes, character designs, etc. So the music had to be something that fit that world, and a traditional animation or orchestral score wouldn’t cut it.

We talked about adding a hip-hop spin to the score and bringing elements of different types of urban and pop music to keep it interesting and dynamic overall. We needed distinct types of music for each of the mute gangs, but we knew we had to keep them cohesive somehow too. That ended up being a bit challenging because throwing a bunch of beats or instrumental songs on top of every scene wasn’t the answer either.

I still needed to score it and respond to all the emotions and nuances in the story, so we ended up with this mix of traditional score with a heavy hip-hop influence. When we could afford beats, we did that, but many other sections have more traditional score with a mix of strings, brass, and synths. I kept most percussion with hip-hop sounds to have a through-line, even when the music was more orchestral.

RB: One of the things that really struck me about the show is how important the music is. It plays a significant role in several episodes, and it’s prominent in every episode. I imagine that was intentional?

Rojas: Absolutely! The music in this show was written into the script, which is not something you come across often as a composer (unless you’re doing a musical of course). Kipo plays guitar duets with her dad, Benson is a DJ, there are rocker snakes, banjo-loving cats, wolves that rap… it’s truly a gift for a composer!

On top of that, music supervisors Kier Lehman and James Cartwright helped shape many characters and mute gangs with the coolest song choices, so I had a lot to respond to. I was able to write in more styles of music on this show than any other project in my life.

RB: I have to ask about the origin of the Newton Wolves Rap. Which came first, the song or casting John Hodgman and GZA?

Rojas: The casting was first. Both of them were already on the project when I jumped in, but the song hadn’t been written. There were lyrical ideas on the script, though, and I tried to stay as close to them as possible because they were clever and hilarious. I started working on a beat and collaborated with my friend Myke Brown, who is a rapper, so we could try different things and see what felt best. We wanted it to be old school and not very fast so it could be easily understood. Once we had a demo we were all happy with, we went into the studio and recorded GZA and John, who were fantastic and added their own spin to it.

RB: You get thrust into the world of Kipo and must form an alliance with one of the mute gangs. Who will it be?

Rojas: I’d jam with the Umlaut Snakes in CactusTown!

RB: The soundtrack that’s out now is a mix of your original pieces and the songs used in the show. Can we look forward to more of your music getting released?

Rojas: That’s a good question! I honestly don’t know yet. I’d love to release more of the score at some point, but that would be up to DreamWorks and the label they work with. I’m very happy they wanted to release a few score cues along with the songs, though. That doesn’t always happen.

RB: Who’s the one composer working today that everyone should listen to?

Rojas: That’s tough! I’m equally influenced by composers and music producers, honestly. So I’m going to say Ólafur Arnalds (composer) and Ian Kirkpatrick (producer).

RB: From where you’re sitting now, what advice would you give to your 10-year-old self?

Rojas: Work more on lyrics. I love writing songs, but I’m not strong at lyrics. I love adapting them and playing around with melodies for the vocals, but coming up with the words and making them good is something I strive to work more on. Luckily, there’s a lot of great writers I can collaborate with and learn from, as I did on Kipo.

RB: If you had to classify yourself as a kind of candy, what would you be?

Rojas: Probably Nerds!