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One thing I’ve noticed in Castlevania: Nocturne, and its predecessor Castlevania, is that both animated Netflix series really incorporate music to full effect. Not only do the tracks pay homage to the popular video games of the 1980s and 1990s, they also draw on eclectic influences to make a robust sound. Curious to learn more, I spoke with Trey Toy, a composer heavily involved in developing the music for Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne. The soundtrack for Season 2, which he co-composed with Trevor Morris, came out on February 28.
Toy’s original career plan was to play guitar professionally in the studio or on tour with a band. One guitarist he would love to meet is Charlie Hunter. Toy admires the intense and expressive way Hunter plays. He said, “[Hunter] plays multi-stringed guitars which are essentially half guitar and half bass. They have two outputs, one to a guitar [amp] and one to a bass amp. He plays guitar and bass at the same time.”
Today, Toy works as a composer, producer, guitarist and electronic musician. The Braveheart soundtrack, a gift from his father, contributed to his interest in scoring for TV and film. He heard the music and fell in love with it years before watching it. “Putting the movie to the score that I knew as a kid was really cool. To this day, I think that is one of the most influential scores for me and one of the most special pieces of music written for film.”
Scoring for the Video Games
Toy is quite familiar with the Castlevania video games, which feature Dracula pitted against vampire hunters, usually of the Belmont family. His older cousins played many of the early games from the 1980s and 1990s. As for Toy’s favorite, it’s definitely Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. “That’s obliquely one of the influences of Nocturne. It was very special because this show really reminded me of playing those games as a kid.”
Nocturne‘s main heroes initially are Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel), Maria Renard (Pixie Davies) and Annette (Thuso Mbedu), who hope to fend off the devastation wielded by vampire baddie Erzsebet (Franka Potente). To structure the soundtrack, there were some important things Toy had to keep in mind. “With a game, the music is a lot more center-stage. Typically with a television show, the music is operating in the background to support the onscreen drama. We realized early on with Nocturne that wasn’t going to cut it.”
And so it was crucial for Toy and Morris to rely on bold melodies and themes. They incorporated instruments anachronistic to the Gothic period, including didgeridoo, bowed banjo, and electronics. “We always wanted an element of the score situated in this Gothic world, whether it was deep choir, organ, harpsichord, or baroque cello playing.”
Taking Erzsebet as an example, they always used one specific instrument whenever that vampire appeared onscreen. “She represents at least in my mind the evils of aristocracy. The first time we meet her, we hear a dissonant atonal harpsichord that’s processed with a lot of effects. We wanted that element to be there to situate her in the French aristocracy.”
Old World and New World
Nocturne opens with the French Revolution, but this Castlevania series goes well beyond Europe. That opened more opportunities in Toy and Morris’ creativity. Annette’s theme “was performed by a musician name Don Chilton, who plays conch shells like they’re woodwind instruments. For historical context, the conch shell was the symbol of the Haitian Revolution.”
Other characters backstories provided new settings, too. “We also had flashbacks in Season 2 to ancient Egypt, so we included Middle Eastern woodwinds and vocals. It’s essentially the first time we’ve brought Castlevania outside the boundaries of Europe.”
On top of the array of instruments, Toy and Morris spent a lot of time planning additional vocals well in advance of the animation being ready. The vocals and music were critical to the arc of Annette’s friend, Edouard (Sydney James Harcourt). “He’s an opera singer turned night creature who performs works from the classical repertoire throughout the series. We worked with Sidney extensively to produce those and to make sure they worked with the scene. That was a big part of the process in leading up to scoring the first episode.”
Some Final Thoughts
Toy has composed for a range of well-known projects, including Halo, Tulsa King, Fear the Walking Dead and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He started out as Morris’ assistant back in 2016 during Castlevania before becoming a member of his staff the following year. Since then, he’s worked periodically with Morris on other projects. He believes that time really helped him in his career and their collaborations. Toy said, “Trevor was also my first mentor both musically and in terms of the craft of putting music to picture. Stylistically, it was hard to tell where my music ends and where his begins. Working with him is seamless.”
There’s no word yet on whether Netflix will green-light another season of Nocturne or a brand new series. Toy would be thrilled to “see Castlevania series made for 20, 30 [more] years” for the fans, particularly with so much videogame content left to draw on. “I would love to see Dracula come back in some capacity with Richter, Maria and Alucard fighting him. In this series, we didn’t see Richter fight Dracula.”
The Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2 Soundtrack is available on Spotify and other digital platforms.
