Daredevil season 2 will bring new musical themes for Elektra and Punisher thanks to composer John Paesano, who composed the iconic title music for the Netflix series and the excellent soundtrack for both seasons. Paesano spoke recently with the hosts of Sci Fi Fidelity about how he developed the signature sound for Daredevil, its characters, and its environment.

Many fans of Daredevil can immediately recognize the show’s main title theme, which features a series of repeating notes underlying single piano tones, and Paesano explains that this repetition makes the theme more accessible. “We really wanted to try to keep the score as grounded as possible, and I think the same thing can hold true for the main title,” he said. “We really wanted to make it memorable, and when I hear the word memorable I always think of simplistic.”

Simplistic doesn’t have to mean small or unobtrusive, however. Paesano explained why his music is so understated: “If you want to push people out of the scene and make them a viewer, make the music big… make people feel like they’re watching a movie. If you want to bring people into a scene, it’s almost the exact opposite. Let’s pull the music back; make it music that’s felt but not heard.”

One way to make the music in Daredevil felt is by making use of sounds associated with Matt Murdock’s blindness and heightened senses. Instrumentation evocative of sonar signals or audio feedback are all strategic choices, according to Paesano. “We also use a lot of heartbeats for our pulses, but we definitely try to play with the idea of Matt kind of using those heightened sensibilities because of his blindness, and we try to play with some of that stuff in the score.”