Ramin Djawadi on the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience and the end of the show
By Dan Selcke
(Photo by J. Kempin/Getty Images)
Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi is still traveling North America with the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience, and talking to many a local outlet as he criss-crosses the continent. He spoke to the Houston Chronicle ahead of tonight’s show in San Antonio, TX, and discussed the logic behind the huge scale of the concert performance. Turns out it’s pretty simple. “Think about it, on the show Dany has dragons, and those dragons breathe fire. So we need fire.” Makes sense.
Before that, he spoke to Access Atlanta, and expounded on the kind of audience involvement he was going for.
"I really always wanted the audience to get interactive with us and be emotional while the music is being performed. And it’s working. For example, at the very beginning of the show, we’re playing a sort of medley of the different themes of the main houses. The audience literally starts cheering when they see their favorite characters or they start booing when they see a character that they don’t like. Obviously for us — all of the musicians — it’s really exciting, because you immediately realize the audience is getting involved."
Speaking as someone who went to the Concert Experience, it is indeed very hard for a Game of Thrones fan not to get emotionally involved with the performance. There’s something about seeing the characters appear on towering screens, combined with the swell of epic music, that summons the feels.
Going further back in time, Djawadi reflected on how Game of Thrones bucked the trend of TV shows downplaying elaborate intro sequences in favor of short, no-nonsense title cards, like this:
We’re not saying those intros are bad, mind you, just that they were a far cry from the long TV intro songs of the past. Djawadi agreed. “It really bothered me because I remember loving main title songs as a kid,” he says. “But the trend became skipping straight to the show. When the creators approached me, they told me I had two minutes. That’s a feast for a composer.”
"They wanted a title that summarized the tone of the show. And the one word they used was ‘journey.’"
The Game of Thrones main theme has since become iconic — in time, in might even help swing the pendulum back to lengthy openings, which would be a nice feather in Djawadi’s already crowded cap.
After the concert tour is over, Djawadi will get down to the business of composing songs for season 7, and that means facing something he’d rather not think about: the impending end of Game of Thrones. “The concert has taken my mind off of it a little,” he said. “But I will miss working with all the people involved. I feel so fortunate to be a part of it, but I do feel sad and depressed that it’s coming to an end.”
As will we all. In the meantime, here’re the remaining dates on the tour:
- 3/16: San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center
- 3/17: Houston, TX – Toyota Center
- 3/19: Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
- 3/23: Los Angeles, CA – The Forum
- 3/25: Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
- 3/26: Phoenix, AZ – TalkingStick Resort Arena
- 3/29: San Jose, CA – SAP Center
- 3/31: Seattle, WA – Key Arena
- 4/1: Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
- 4/2: Portland, OR – Moda Center
