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5 May 2022 3:14 PM

Heartstopper: How the show’s creators created such a magical and prideful playlist

Attitude chats to Heartstopper executive producer, Patrick Walters and the show's music supervisor about nailing the music and supporting queer artists.

By Alastair James

Words: Gary Grimes; pictures: Netflix

Once in a music act’s career they might be so lucky as to produce a song that becomes so intrinsically linked to a blockbuster film or television series that it becomes nearly impossible to separate the two in the public’s consciousness.

Who can hear ‘Too Lost In You’ by the Sugababes without picturing the characters in Love Actually embracing? One listen of ‘Boom Clap’ by Charli XCX transports us to Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley roaming the streets of Amsterdam in The Fault in Our Stars, just like Ellie Goulding’s ‘Love Me Like You Do’ conjures images of smoldering glances exchanged between Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in 50 Shades of Grey.

The skill of marrying music to film is an art that when mastered, etches a permanent mark on the viewer’s mind.

Joe Locke and Yasmin Finney as Charlie Spring and Elle Argent in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

A recent shining example of this kind of mastery is Netflix’s heartwarming, gooey queer teen romance series Heartstopper. If like us and pretty much everyone else, you found yourself devouring the series in one sitting over the past two weeks, there’s a good chance you also found yourself furiously Shazam-ing ‘Want Me’, the show’s infectious opening track by alt-pop act Baby Queen.

Or perhaps days later you’ve caught yourself still humming along to Shura’s 2015 hit ‘What’s It Gonna Be?’ as you walked down the street?

Alongside its ground-breaking queer storytelling and stellar cast of young, fresh-faced stars, Heartstopper’s blend of introspective bedroom-pop tracks, energetic indie ditties, and bona fide pop bangers is one of the show’s most accomplished and talked about elements.

Timed beautifully to some of the show’s most tender moments, Heartstopper’s music manages to resonate deeply with both its young Gen Z audience and its older, nostalgic queer viewers alike.

To learn a little more about how you go about capturing the feeling of young, queer joy so effectively through music, Attitude recently caught up with some of the show’s team to dig a little deeper into the process behind selecting songs that have moved audiences around the world.

From left to right: Joe Locke as Charlie Spring, Kit Connor as Nick Nelson, Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent, Tobi Donovan as Isaac Henderson, and Will Gao as Tao Xu in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

The process, in this instance at least, began with a humble Spotify playlist, made by its Executive Producer, Patrick Walters, and the writer of both the show and the graphic comic series it’s based on, Alice Oseman.

“Alice was writing the scripts and I was in creative consultation with her about them. A lot of the time we found ourselves WhatsApp-ing tracks to each other being like, ‘Oh my God, this reminds me of this moment between Charlie and Nick or this reminds me of Tara in episode six,'” Walters explains.

The pair eventually collated their suggestions into a collaborative Spotify playlist which Oseman would then listen to as she refined the show’s scripts.

By the time the project was cast and it came time to begin filming, Oseman and Walters had a very clear picture of what the show should sound like, largely informed by this growing playlist which they then provided to their young cast to listen to in order to help them dive into the world of their characters.

“We wanted to conjure an authentic reality of what it’s like to be a teen in the UK, and so much of that is music,” Walters outlines. “Having a young teenage cast who we could send the playlist and go, ‘Do you like these songs?’ was so helpful.”

The show’s focus on so-called ‘bedroom pop’ artists, who produce simple, intimate pop songs often with stripped-back instrumentals, was intended to act as a parallel to its young characters, who very frequently appear on screen alone in their bedrooms.

Joe Locke as Charlie Spring in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

“It’s accessible and the sort of stuff that any kid could make if they just had a laptop and an idea,” Matt Biffa, the show’s music supervisor explains.

Of the 34 songs on Heartstopper’s Official Mixtape playlist on Spotify, roughly half are by queer artists, both established (Rina Sawayama, beebadoobee, girl in red) and emerging (Baby Queen, Orla Gartland, Smoothboi Ezra, Montaigne).

This was wholly intentional on the creators’ parts Walters took note to clarify. “That is so baked into every facet of Heartstopper, from the crew to the cast to the music acts in the playlist, we were always pushing for LGBTQ+ artists.

“One of the joys of selecting music for the show has been in our relationships with artists like Baby Queen, who are just so inspiring to us in how they go out and break the mould in the industry. We never wanted lots of really established acts in the playlist, we wanted to spotlight emerging queer pop musicians that we loved.”

Perhaps one of the show’s most memorable music moments comes in its third episode, which sees two of the queer couples at the centre of Heartstopper share their respective first kisses at a raging house party (who knew fourteen-year-olds went so hard?).

Kizzy Edgell and Corinna Brown as Darcy and Tara in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

Shivers were surely felt around the globe thanks to the double punch of Tara and Darcy’s first kiss, soundtracked by Chvrches’ euphoric 2015 anthem ‘Clearest Blue’, followed swiftly by an edge-of-your-seat private moment between Nick and Charlie which culminates in their nervous but tender first kiss as Toby Green’s club-ready remix of ‘Alaska’ by folk-pop artist Maggie Rogers builds in the background.

“The idea around that sequence was to always create goosebumps,” Walters says. “We wanted our young gay audience to feel the queer joy inherent in that moment.”

It’s so successful in this mission that it’s almost hard to believe that Tara and Darcy’s kiss was very nearly set to another song, equally as euphoric and by a truly iconic queer artist.

“We had wanted a different song that we couldn’t get the rights to, Immaterial by SOPHIE,” he reveals. “Alice and I felt very strongly that if we could have a trans artist playing as this lesbian kiss is happening and this bi-curious character is looking on that it would kind of add to the rainbow spirit of that moment.”

Kizzy Edgell as Darcy in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

However, as the legendary trans producer and artist’s tragic death occurred not long before the show’s music was being selected, it simply wasn’t meant to be. “There was no way that they were going to give the rights away, not because of the show but just because it was too soon.”

“We were kind of sad about that,” Walters admits. “We then had to move on and go, ‘What song can bring that joy and sense of abandon?’

“We still didn’t know what the song was going to be for that moment until a week before. Whilst we were shooting the bowling alley scenes, I ran up to [the show’s director] Euros Lynn with my phone playing ‘Clearest Blue’. He was just about to call the action on the take, and he was like, ‘I love this!’.

“In the Chvrches song, we all felt that sense of euphoria and sparkle but there’s also a sense of longing and a tentative mood to that song. No other song that we could find had that.”

It’s this canny ability to craft atmospheric but urgent-sounding pop songs that has helped the Scottish group sell out venues around the world for almost a decade now.

“Everything happens for a reason. Chvrches now feel so intrinsic to that moment, you couldn’t imagine anything else,” thinks Patrick.

Corinna Brown as Tara in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

Once the team had nailed the perfect song for the scene, they utilised it fully by playing it on set for the actors as it was filmed, perfectly timed just as we see it on screen, to help transport them to this climactic moment in their characters’ lives.

“We really wanted the song to be playing for the actors when we filmed the party scene, so they felt the emotional significance of what was ultimately going to be on screen. It was really important to us to get that moment the music drops at that technicolour moment – I remember speaking to the sound people that day, we had to be really specific about when to press play on the song,” says Patrick.

It’s a spine-tingling moment to watch on screen, and Walters tells us it was just as emotional to witness from behind the lens. “In that moment, some magic happened. I remember all of the crew were looking at our actors, Kizzy and Corinna, with tears in their eyes. It was an extraordinary moment. Having the music selected and playing it on set to let the actors feel it definitely helped create the magic that you’re seeing on screen.”

Before viewers even have time to catch their breath, the camera follows Nick (Kit Connor) as he chases our loveable protagonist Charlie (Joe Locke) up a staircase, as Maggie Rogers coos over pulsating synths growing louder and louder, for an intimate but private embrace.

“The Maggie Rogers song had always been on playlists in relation to episode three and the party. We didn’t feel it was quite right for that moment between Tara, Darcy, and Nick, but it was waiting in the wings. Once it was there in situ following on from the Chvrches song, it just felt so right,” Walters continues.

Kit Connor as Nick Nelson in Heartstopper (Photo: Netflix)

The scenes are easily two of the most talked about moments in the series and their popularity has driven hordes of viewers to both artists’ streaming platforms.

At the time of writing this piece, before you’ve even finished typing the word ‘clear’ on Spotify, you’ll be met with ‘Clearest Blue’, naturally, but just below you’ll also find the Rogers remix, plus an Orla Gartland track featured in episode two.

The show has created an association between these songs and Heartstopper that the artists will find hard to shake – not that, we’re sure, they would ever want to.

Indeed, Chvrches and Rogers are just two of many artists who experienced a significant boost in sales and streams since Heartstopper dropped. A number of the featured songs trended on TuneFind, a platform designed specifically to help TV fans find songs featured in their favourite shows.

Orla Gartland, Shura, and Chairlift’s featured tracks even recorded their biggest ever week on the UK’s Official Charts, despite the tracks being released up to 10 years previously, whilst Baby Queen’s ‘Want Me’ enjoyed a whopping 553% increase in its chart sales from the previous week.

It must, we asked Walters, be hugely gratifying to know that the show has so directly supported these young queer artists?

“It’s a dream come true because Alice and I really believe in the artists,” he clarifies. “For example, Baby Queen, who has three songs in the show, we believe that lyrically, and in terms of speaking to that young, queer Gen Z demographic, she’s doing it with precision and true artistry.”

The artists themselves have not been shy in sharing their gratitude for inclusion, with acts like Shura, Gartland, and Chvrches taking to Twitter to thank the show.

“They seem to be really overjoyed,” Walters mentions. “We’ve had really lovely messages from Orla Gartland and Lauran Hibbard, and actually quite a majority of the artists featured. Shura, I think, was saying on Twitter that the official mixtape’s Spotify playlist is like a festival line-up, which I think would be the most extraordinary, amazing festival line-up of all time!”

Elsewhere, music supervisor Matt Biffa tells us of a text he received from Jamie Oborne, head of the record label Dirty Hit which plays home to many Heartstopper artists such as beabadoobee, Rina Sawayama, and Wolf Alice.

“He texted me to say thanks so much for having these acts in the show, their streams are going through the roof. He said this kind of thing allows him to then reinvest in the artists by putting them back into the studio and doing more writing sessions.”

“To have artists who were just breaking was super important,” Biffagoes on to say. “So, now to see that people are being driven to those artists and to explore the rest of their catalogue? Well, it’s the dream.”

To relive the magic, you can stream the Heartstopper: Official Mixtape playlist in full now on Spotify.

The Attitude May/June issue is out now.

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