The first soundtrack that British composer Natalie Holt remembers having made a big impact was that of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the 1982 film that features a great theme created by John Williams. And it’s not like she had this experience in cinema because she was born in the same year, this soundtrack was only discovered by her years later. Still, it’s still an interesting anecdote because decades later she was chosen to write the music for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, a piece of content from the Star Wars franchise, whose iconic music is by no one but Williams himself. That’s right, in these ironies of fate, she worked with her idol who received her with affection and generosity.

One of the things I love most about my work, more than being able to write and talk about Culture and Cinema, is being able to talk to the creative minds behind the series and films I watch and, often, I enjoy talking to costume designers and composers more because they are they subliminally construct the story we see, inducing us to react and get emotional by highlighting details of the plot and characters with their clothes as well as the music that sets the scenes. And, of the younger generation that has been creating the soundtracks, I am even happier that some women are standing out, like Natalie Holt and her friend, Hildur Guðnadóttir, with whom I spoke a few weeks ago. It’s winning the lottery!

It’s a shame that we don’t always have a lot of time to chat, but this week Natalie sat down to talk exclusively to CLAUDIA about her work on Loki, which is nothing short of spectacular. The theme of the antihero who is the protagonist in one of Marvel’s best and most consistent works gives Natalie the opportunity to play with instruments and time. Before moving on to the chat, let me give an introduction to those who don’t know it yet.

Natalie Holt studied classical composition (she plays the violin) and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and then the National Film and Television School. A film fan, she took her first steps as an orchestrator in films like Stardust while pursuing a career as a musician (she played on George Michael‘s tour with the Sinfonica), but in 2012 she was nominated for a BAFTA (the British Oscar) for her work on Great Expectations and then there were several nominations for awards and successes. Series like Wallander and KnightFall are hers, but her work on Obi-Wan Kenobi and, of course, Loki, are the most famous. We talk about all this and what’s next. I mean…what can Natalie share!

CLAUDIA: Firstly, Loki has been an incredible work, and without spoilers, this season even gave room to play with retro versions that were fun and intelligent. in addition to appearing in the episode. How do you define each person’s personality in music and time?
Natalie: I came up with the theme for Loki when I was still interviewing for the job, actually. I gave the demo to Kate [Herron, director of the series] and she loved it. His theme grew throughout the first season and in the second season they asked me if I would like to make a cameo and it was super fun. So with that, I was on set and met Tom [Hiddleston, in other words, Loki] and he told me how much he loves music and gave me a book of poetry, which was so cool. He told me that he listens to the theme of the series to get in the mood to play the role, which is really cool, knowing that he wrote a track that connects with the actors who play the characters.

CLAUDIA: And how did your career as a soundtrack composer begin, is it something you always wanted to do? What are your inspirations?
Natalie: I discovered I wanted to be a composer when I heard the E.T. soundtrack, it was the first time I noticed the music in a film and I was only 5 years old and it’s a song by John Williams, who I’ve always admired and last year I I worked on a soundtrack with him so it was really cool.

CLAUDIA: And I was going to ask you about how this job was because he seems so sweet, everyone praises him so much as a person…
Natalie: Generous. Yes, it was amazing to be around him and know the whole story of Star Wars and he is the composer who inspired me to be a composer I told him that when I was introduced and he joked with me “Gosh, I’m sorry about that!”. He is very humble gave me advice, and commented on how difficult work is. It was very sweet and supportive.

CLAUDIA: And what are you working on now, could you share it with us?
Natalie: I’m working on a video game soundtrack right now and another TV series that should be released soon, as well as some pieces for a solo album. Things for myself [laughs]

CLAUDIA: It must be super different!
Natalie: Yes, for video games it is very different because I don’t have images and I have a deadline of two years, but as I can’t comment on what the game is unfortunately I can’t go into details. But it’s a very different process that I found liberating because I’m not “bound” to the images.

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