Composer Christian Lundberg is an anomaly in music and, his atypical career finds him breathing some of the rarest existing air in Hollywood. The Swedish born guitarist is proof that there is no “right” way to make it in Hollywood. The man who is bringing unbelievable amounts of chill and high intensity to The Bear on FX didn’t start out wanting to be a composer. He started off doing music tech services. As LA is the city of dreams, it seems quite fitting that he took the opportunities as they came and built upon that to get where he is. There is no rulebook for success, and that goes doubly or triple so in the entertainment biz.
As the show has grown over the past four seasons, it has gained a fervent fan base and is the darling of the critics and journalism circles. Beyond being a captivating show that gives us characters who are quite broken yet persevere day after day, the editing actually outshines all of the achievements of the cast, and creative teams. The previous seasons had been mostly wall-to-wall source, music and needle drop (from Sufjan Stevens to The Replacements and from Tangerine Dream to Trent Reznor). In a radical shift, the show runners tapped a composer (from Hans Zimmer‘s bullpen no less) to turn up the heat in the kitchen and intensify the already hair-trigger personalities, and exchanges happening in real time.
We got to speak to Christian about his work and, while we say this a lot, his music is exceptional. It rides in on what one can only assume a white horse would look like where it made on a synthesizer, and this electronic tapestry exudes a cool factor that many scores only wish they could get close to.
There are plenty of high watermarks in this seventeen track album, which listening to it alone you would never think this would be the soundtrack to a world of nuanced and neurotic characters existing in the fire and brimstone of a fine dining kitchen. But that is the beauty of how sound is adaptive and interpretive, and Christian brings the noise, so to speak with lots of driving themes, ones that build in tandem with the shows narrative, as the octaves and intensity rises, there is gritty guitar, plenty of catchy motives, and fun elements thrown in the mix and if you look up “cool” in the dictionary, I’m pretty sure it will say “see THE BEAR Season 5.“
In his musical career, Lundberg was a fitting addition to Bleeding Fingers as his guitar can truly make your heart cry. And with The Bear, this pensive and increasingly groovy ride through Chicago will have you coming back for seconds. We talked to Christian about that and plenty more on this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
