BANG’s Timo Elliston and The Roots’ Ray Angry Return To Score Hulu’s Life & Beth Season 2

BANG’s Timo Elliston (Inside Amy Schumer, Abstract: The Art of Design) and Ray Angry (Descendant, The Roots) return to score Season 2 of Hulu’s scripted dramedy, starring Amy Schumer and Michael Cera, which is streaming exclusively on Hulu, February 16. The original music soundtrack will be released by Lakeshore Records in March.

This is Timo and Ray’s fourth season as a composing duo collaborating with Amy Schumer. In addition to last season’s Life & Beth, they previously have scored Inside Amy Schumer for Paramount+ and Expecting Amy, the documentary film series for HBO Max that included BANG composer, Brian Jones, as well. Timo said, “Amy has been such an incredible collaborator. She truly values the role music plays in the show.”

Season 1 featured music composed for jazz quintet for which Variety said, “An evocative jazz score by Ray Angry and Timo Elliston guides some of the show’s most effective scenes through their peaks and valleys, sometimes doing the heavy lifting for the emotional beats, and sometimes working alongside the actors on their way there.” This season, Amy Amy pushed the composing team to broaden the musical palette into some new territories, including some music that reflects one of this season’s locations, New Orleans. “The New Orleans sound is a given, it made a lot of sense for us to go and cover that. First, it’s just fun to do, and adds so much energy to a scene. And it’s a short distance away, musically, from where we were last year. The jazz in the score is probably a little less introspective this time around. More soul, and R&B influenced.”

There is also a strong classical component to much of the score this season. “It was her enthusiasm that led us to incorporate opera into the score - not the easiest thing to do! But, in the end, it really works, and it opens up these connections between seemingly disparate parts of the score. The vocal element and the classical style start finding their way into other parts of the score and it creates this common thread,” said Timo. Added Ray, “It’s amazing working with an artist like Amy who pushes new boundaries, which allowed us to explore a whole new palette for this season.” The feeling is mutual, as Amy responded, “Collaborating on the scoring with Ray and Timo has been one of the most satisfying honours of my life.”

The score was recorded at Electric Lady Studios and at Sear Sound in New York City, and it features the same stellar list of musicians from Season 1 - Sean Jones, trumpet; Ben Williams, bass; Myron Walden, saxophone and flutes; Eric Harland, drums; and both Ray and Timo on piano. This season also includes a live orchestra, and classical vocalists Amy Van Roekel and Aaron DiPiazza.

Having an orchestra at their disposal allowed the composers to explore even further into genres. “There’s one episode, in particular, where we get into this whole classic spooky music thing with the orchestra. Classic, haunted house stuff. I’ve always wanted to do that - did not see that coming that it would be on this show! And, yet, the heart of the score is the music that accompanies these intensely personal scenes that you see on the screen. Because, despite all the silliness in the show, it’s these very real-life moments in the show that are at its core,” said Timo.

As a bonus, the soundtrack features a collaboration with comedian Phil Wang, whose character on the show, Trevor, works in the medical profession, but really wants to be a DJ.

Timo said, “We got to do a short piece of Trevor’s music for the show, but we thought it would be fun to get the full experience of DJ Trev’s music out to the world. So, with Phil’s help, we created a full-blown DJ Trev opus for the soundtrack. With our orchestra playing disco strings and everything.”

Phil Wang joins returning cast members Amy Schumer, Michael Cera, Laura Benanti, Susannah Flood, Violet Young, Kevin Kane, Yamaneika Saunders, Michael Rapaport, LaVar Walker, Sas Goldberg, and Arielle Siegel. Season 2 also features new guest stars Jennifer Coolidge and Amy Sedaris. 

Life & Beth is written, directed, and executive produced by Amy, with Kevin Kane, Daniel Powell, and Ryan McFaul. The series is produced by Fifth Season.