A couple of weeks later, I go into a meeting with him, and they had cut it in the first temporary version. It didn’t have the flashes yet, but it basically had everything else. Although funny enough, it was the same thing you see with the tape machine, but David re-shot the whole thing because there were literally finger smudges on the reels. It was already great, and most people wouldn’t even notice, but he was fixated on it because he’s such a perfectionist in the most wonderful way. So, he re-filmed the whole thing, but back then, I saw the first incarnation with my title piece, and it was like, “Wow, amazing.” I was so happy they picked that one because it was one of those things that felt like a gift. I can look at it from the peripheral because I really don’t remember writing it. It was almost like it happened too easy.

After that, I went forth, and I brought in a quartet, drummers, and all sorts of stuff. I re-did things on it, added other things, and made a bigger version of it. At the end of the day, the version we hear is still exactly the mix from that late night — that’s the one that made it on the show. I probably worked for another two months on things that never made it in. There were some rad incarnations, but at the end of the day, it was like, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” There was something magical about it from that first night.

It can be tough to know when something is truly finished. Like you were saying, you were able to make some other incredible versions of it, but ultimately, you had nailed the title sequence unbeknownst to you the first time. How do you know when to stop?

Yeah, completely. How do you know when to stop? That’s the hardest thing. It’s like that old adage, and I don’t know who said it first:” Art is never finished, it’s just abandoned.” At some point, you just have to let it go, and hopefully, you do that at a stage where it’s in a great spot because it can transform. One of my favorite things to do is go in, mute everything, pull all the faders down, and throw up a few tracks to listen to in isolation. Say you have forty tracks on something, and you pull everything down, and listen to three elements. It makes you go, “Wow, that’s a thing too.” It can be incredible, and it opens up.

You don’t want to be too precious about anything. I try to maintain the editing skill. I think it was John Lennon who said that the best thing he ever learned to do was to edit himself. I think there’s some truth to that — when you can look at things from the peripheral, and be able to say, “Is this great or does it need something more?” Not everything you do is going to be wonderful, but maybe you can do something better to get it there, or maybe something’s missing, or maybe you just need to simplify. Simplifying can be a good thing as well. Sometimes, it’s better to keep it to only three or four elements. The brain can’t function when we’re hearing all of these different things at once, so what are the three main things the brain can function on right now?

To really answer your question, it’s hard to say. At the end of the day, like with this title sequence, you finish, and you mix it down. It becomes this two-track stereo thing, and you listen to it. Yes, you can go back in and do another ten versions of it, but you have to be able to have perspective and go, “Even though I spent two months on it, and now, it seems like such a waste of time, that first one was better. There’s a certain charm to that one.” It happens all the time.

The second season largely focuses on the FBI’s investigation into the Atlanta Child Murders and alleged perpetrator, Wayne Williams. Could you explain the intention behind re-working the main titles theme sequence into a haunting choral arrangement for the season finale?

It was one of the last things I did, and I had the help of three girls I know that were sweet enough to entertain it. For one, they basically represented a boys choir. When I originally worked with Fincher on Gone Girl, I did the trailer and teaser, and I brought in a choir. I originally wanted to do a boys choir, but what could I do? I couldn’t put out an ad like ‘Musician seeking little boys.’ It seemed impossible to find a little boys choir. I just didn’t know how, but I thought maybe women could pretend to be a boys choir.