When composer Andrew Lockington set out to score Landman, Paramount+’s intense new drama from Taylor Sheridan and Christian Wallace, he didn’t begin with the typical toolkit for a West Texas-set series.
Lockington admits he considered embracing “the sounds of wrenches and things against pumpjacks” — percussive elements that were regionally appropriate for a story rooted in oil country. But ultimately, he chose a direction that felt more human — raw, soulful, and intentionally imperfect.
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“It actually stems back to a conversation [Taylor and I] had, just talking about music and life, and the most authentic moments in life that have happened to you,” he recalls in conversation with Wallace in today’s episode The Process. “I brought up the idea of being at a bonfire party, being a teenager. The party dies down, 10% of the people are still awake, sitting around the fire, and you start having these conversations, contemplating where you fit in the world… It’s very real and very raw, and Taylor and I said, ‘That’s what the music should sound like.'”
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It’s a surprising but fitting origin for a show set in the high-stakes world of oil and gas, one as much about family — and the loss thereof — as it is about corporate geopolitics. The soul of the show was captured through the use of guitar, the human voice as an instrument, and unexpected elements like the medieval Nyckelharpa — an instrument with no direct connection to the world of Landman, which somehow cut to its emotional core, nonetheless.
Lockington came to Landman following collaborations with Sheridan on Mayor of Kingstown and Special Ops: Lioness, which, while made for the same platform, live in entirely different sonic worlds. It was through these earlier experiences, he says, that he “really found a wavelength into the musical version” of the stories Sheridan likes to tell.
The composer credits their creative shorthand to the trust they’ve established — the comfort he feels in coming to Sheridan with “half developed” ideas, knowing that he’ll be encouraged to take the time and space to find their best iterations.
Sheridan, he adds, is “like a really good coach on a football team. He knows what the player’s strengths are and how they work together, and he can kind of help you realize that you’re self-editing too much.”
The lesson the composer has taken from his time on the show is that “perfection can sometimes be the enemy of creativity. You can sometimes edit out your own best moments, and it’s really about having a great team where you can find the strengths in each other.”
View our entire conversation between Wallace and Lockington, who are already at work on Landman Season 2, above.