Meet the creator of the notorious Player-Piano rolls in Westworld!

There’s nothing more Westworld than a 19th-century player piano playing the main theme at the Mariposa. Even the piano covers of present-day songs like “Black Hole Sun” by Sound Garden and “No Surprises” by Radiohead fit the western-esque atmosphere, although the piano player precedes the music by centuries.

But who in this day and age created the piano rolls that queue the piano keys for these songs? It’s not like bars, and local watering holes of the world all have piano players for everyone’s enjoyment. A forgotten American musical relic, piano players remain in the houses of collectors and museums.

The Westworld production team had no choice but to reach out to Stephen Kent Goodman, the proprietor of a company that provides music transcription services for player pianos to create custom music rolls for the self-playing piano on set.

Goodman told Thrillist in an interview that he was blessed with the rare occupation when he dropped out of USC to become an apprentice.

As a repairer of self-playing instruments, he didn’t have to worry about working with humans who can talk back and make music production difficult. The job entailed creating the slits in the paper, and the musical results were as easy as inserting the roll into the piano.

Goodman also explained the piano roll-creating process which starts with a Midi file forwarded to him by the production team of the composition he would be creating. He would then transfer the music file to a notation program that would translate the music into a cutting file. The cutting file would then be used to puncture the musical notes into the paper roll. The finished product would then be ready to be played on a player piano–no pianist required. Amazing, right?

The process, as you can imagine, is time-consuming and the Westworld team needed the paper rolls within a small time frame. Goodman took on the challenge and enlisted a perforator artist in Georgia in the final stages. To make the Westworld production team’s deadline, the rolls were sent overnight via FedEx.

Goodman wisely recognized that it isn’t every day a top TV show reaches out for player piano services. He mostly repairs self-playing instruments that will be used in public settings like museums and fairs. He says of the opportunity to work with the series, “There’s a whole generation that’s waiting for it.”

That’s what motivated me to stop what I was doing and take on this Westworld assignment. ” Creating the rolls for television allowed for the world to fall in love once again with the piano player and to hear its beautiful music.

What do you think of the piano roll-creating process? Share your thoughts below!