Inside the Music of Breaking Bad

The SCL hosts a panel discussion on the music of Breaking Bad, featuring composer Dave Porter, music supervisor Thomas Golubic, and show creator Vince Gilligan. The panel discusses the chemistry that goes into composing the unique music and the science behind selecting the sourced songs in the series–moderated by composer and SCL Board member and seminar chair Joel Douek.

DAVE PORTER began his musical training at the piano at age five, and began composing as a teen. He studied classical and electronic music composition at Sarah Lawrence College, and started his professional career at Philip Glass’ studio in New York City. Dave is the series composer for the Emmy-acclaimed drama “Breaking Bad” on AMC, and was awarded an ASCAP Film and TV award for “Breaking Bad” and the FOX Studios paramedic drama “Saved” which aired on TNT. He also served as music editor on the final season of the HBO drama “Six Feet Under.” He was the composer for the ABC series “Red Widow,” the documentary “Bigger, Stronger, Faster”, which premiered at Sundance and is currently airing on Showtime, and the horror film, “Smiley.” His scores also appear in the dramatic films “The Oh in Ohio” (Parker Posey, Danny DeVito), “Ultraviolet” (Milla Jovovich), and “Vacancy” (Kate Beckinsale). Dave will finish scoring the final episodes of Season 5 of “Breaking Bad” this year, further expanding the unique blend of ethnic and electronic instruments that have become a signature of the show.

THOMAS GOLUBIC´ is a Los Angeles-based music supervisor, DJ, and Grammy-nominated record producer. His music supervision credits include the AMC series ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘The Killing’ and the HBO series ‘Six Feet Under’ among other high-profile film and television projects. Musically speaking, his formative years were spent over the 10 years he spent as a DJ and music programmer for tastemaker LA radio station KCRW 89.9 FM. After ending his radio show in 2008, Thomas turned his attention to music production forming The Arbiters, a music collective creating mash-ups with synchronized visuals. Thomas has become known as an innovative club DJ spinning wildly eclectic sets often with live synchronized visuals. His SYNCHRONIZE re-score project, featuring live DJ re-scores of feature films has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, Dubrovnik Film Festival and U.S. Comedy Arts Festivals, and is being developed as an original television series for the AMC network. Thomas was nominated twice for Grammy Awards for producing each of the ‘Six Feet Under’ soundtrack albums.

VINCE GILLIGAN, series creator and executive producer of Breaking Bad, was born in Richmond, Virginia and raised in Farmville and Chesterfield County. He received the Virginia Governor’s Screenwriting Award in 1989 for his screenplay Home Fries, which was later turned into a film starring Drew Barrymore and Luke Wilson. As a writer and executive producer on The X-Files, Vince shared Golden Globe Awards in 1996 and 1997 for Best Dramatic Series. His other credits include the Fox Television series The Lone Gunmen, which he co-created, and the features Hancock, starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron, and Wilder Napalm, starring Debra Winger and Dennis Quaid. After writing and directing the Breaking Bad pilot, Vince received the 2008 Writers Guild Award for Episodic Drama and accepted a Peabody Award honoring the show’s first season. In 2012, the Writers Guild honored the show once more with both the Episodic Drama and Drama Series Awards. Breaking Bad earned Emmy® Award nominations in 2008 and 2010 for Outstanding Directing for a Drama and in 2009, 2010 and 2012 for Outstanding Drama, was named one of the best shows of 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 by the American Film Institute, and was hailed in 2009 as “the best of the 21st century” by Stephen King.