The White Lotus Composer Quit After A Fight Over Season 3’s Theme Song

There are a lot of different reasons why The White Lotus has become the pop culture phenomenon it is now: the expertly chosen ensemble casts, the tricky balancing act of big, shocking twists and subtle reflections on life, and of course, the infectious, transportive music. But one of those elements is going to get a major change. Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, the musician behind the show’s iconic theme songs and scores, revealed he’s not returning for Season 4. The exit also brought to light a lot of behind-the-scenes tension fans weren’t aware of.

Tapia de Veer’s departure comes after Season 3’s theme song was widely criticized by viewers for removing the vocal ululations that had made the first two themes so beloved. In an April 2 New York Times tell-all, Tapia de Veer revealed it was creator Mike White who cut the iconic yodeling sounds.

“People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting,” the composer said. “I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway. He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that. I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything. So I just uploaded that to my YouTube.”

This tension between Tapia de Veer and White had apparently been brewing for a long time. Even back in creating the first season, the composer was confused by the musical direction that White was pushing for the show.

“He had a temp score, a song that is more like something you would listen to in Ibiza, in some clubby place with a chill, sexy vibe. And there’s literally no edge to it,” Tapia de Veer said. “It’s a good song; it’s nice music. There’s just absolutely no — whatever you find in the White Lotus music, the relationships with the characters — there’s none of that. It’s just nice background music.”

The composer tried to find ways to bring his own vision to life, but said he was repeatedly asked to incorporate this “weird music” he didn’t think added to the series. “I just stuck to what I was doing,” Tapia de Veer said. “And when I was giving versions, it was still the same thing: There were still crazy people and screaming and stuff like that. From there, it became this weird relationship of, ‘How do I pass all this weird music into the show?’”

Despite the ongoing creative clash, Tapia de Veer is glad he stuck to his guns in the end. “There’s one thing I’m pretty proud of and that is I feel like I never gave up,” he said. “It was worth all the tension and almost forcing the music into the show, in a way, because I didn’t have that many allies in there ... Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure, Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn’t give him what he wanted. But what I gave him did this, you know — did those Emmys, people going crazy.”