Composer Dominic Lewis opens up about scoring ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ his influences from The Beatles to John Williams, and the creative process behind his Emmy-nominated main title theme.
“I submitted it thinking, ‘Oh, I should submit it,’” Lewis says of the main title theme. “But I never in my wildest dreams thought it would get picked to be nominated, so it’s a real honor.”
In this candid conversation, Dominic Lewis tells Awards Focus how he became attached to ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ recounting the audition process and his collaboration with Jonathan Tropper and the Apple TV team. He shares insights into his composing approach—whether starting from the script or waiting for footage—and explains how the whimsical, piano-driven score balances comedy and drama. Lewis also reflects on his broader musical influences, from The Beatles to Richard Strauss, and the mentors who shaped his career, offering a glimpse into both his creative process and his passion for music across genres.
In the wealthy enclave of Westmont Village, hedge fund manager Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) seems to have it all—until his world unravels following a betrayal by his wife Mel (Amanda Peet), estrangement from his children, and a sudden firing under suspicious circumstances. Desperate to maintain his lavish lifestyle, Coop turns to robbing the very people he once considered friends and neighbors. But when one heist goes disastrously wrong, he’s pulled into a dangerous spiral of secrets, lies, and shifting moral boundaries, revealing just how fragile—and interconnected—their privileged world really is.
Created by Tropper, the series stars Jon Hamm, Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn, Hoon Lee, Lena Hall, Mark Tallman, Isabel Marie Gravitt, Donovan Colan, Eunice Bae, and Aimee Carrero. Series directors include Tropper, Craig Gillespie, Greg Yaitanes, and Stephanie Laing. The series is written by Tropper, Jamie Rosengard, Jennifer Yale, Josh Stoddard, Evan Endicott, Danielle DiPaolo, and Bryan Parker.
Season 1 of ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ is streaming on Apple TV+.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?
Dominic Lewis: Oh, nice to meet you too. I’m fine, yeah. All good. How are you?
I’m doing well. How did you first become attached to working on ‘Your Friends & Neighbors?‘
Lewis: I’d worked with Brad Carpenter on a show called ‘Kaleidoscope.’ Brad is married to Chris Arruda, who’s the producer on ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’ They were looking for a composer and obviously, Chris knew my music through ‘Kaleidoscope’ and put me up for the gig. I was introduced to Jonathan and the guys at Apple. They sent me the scripts and they asked me, would I demo for the gig? It was crazy for me at that time. I couldn’t demo and I had to say no.
And then they asked me again, would I demo. They asked me again, I said, “Yeah, okay.” That’s when they sent me the scripts and I was like, Oh, wow, this is amazing. I asked for more scripts. They sent me two and I asked for three. I read three and I was like, “Can you give me four?” And then after four, they cut me off, they couldn’t give me any more scripts.
I was really excited about demoing and I submitted three scenes from the pilot. It was sort of an audition, I guess, because there wasn’t much information other than Jonathan liked the piano as a main instrument. That was kind of all I had to go on. Fortunately, the team picked me over whoever else was going up for it and the rest is history.
AF: Was there any temp music involved at this point?
Lewis: Nothing. No, absolutely nothing, especially for the audition part. Once I got the gig, there was temp stuff. I don’t even remember what the temp was when I started doing the first episode. I think a lot of it was from my previous shows, a lot of a lot of stuff from ‘Kaleidoscope’ and then just some odd bits of piano music. I don’t remember what they were.
AF: How honored are you that the main title theme was nominated for an Emmy?
Lewis: Oh, I still can’t quite believe it. I didn’t even think it. I submitted it thinking, Oh, I should submit it. But I never in my wildest dreams thought it would get picked to be nominated so it’s a real honor. Yeah, it’s a really lovely special thing.
AF: As far as composing goes, do you prefer to start as soon as you read the script or do you wait to see the footage?
Lewis: Oh, it depends, really, because I’ve done both. I’ve had success and not so much success doing both. Oh, sorry. When I’ve read the script, I have had success just kind of jumping into ideas and getting involved in it. I did that on ‘Bullet Train’ and it was amazing. David was playing the music on set for the actors. We tried it again on ‘The Fall Guy’ and it wasn’t quite as successful. I think my mad scientist’s brain just went off in the wrong direction. So yeah, I think with certain things, it’s just, if there’s a very specific color and a very specific tone that showrunners or directors want, it’s probably better to wait for footage rather than just jump in willy nilly after reading the script.
But yeah, after reading these scripts for ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ I had a very strong idea. That came out in the audition pieces, really. The theme I wrote for those three audition pieces is the theme. I didn’t change it. The instrumentation changed a little bit. And obviously, Jonathan and the team, we all talked and to really sculpt what everybody wanted. But essentially, it was that initial response that made the cut.
AF: So did it evolve much during the composing and recording process?
Lewis: I mean, with this show, that was the same time. Everything’s mostly in the box for ‘Your Friends & Neighbors.’ I do a lot of vocal stuff that I mess with and I play the cello now and again. But most of it is in Cubase. It’s in my rig. Other than the quartet in episode seven, we didn’t record any strings.
AF: The series balances the fine line between comedy and drama. What were you looking to do with the theme and did you get much direction from Jonathan Tropper?
Lewis: Oh yeah. Tons of direction from Jonathan. He was adamant that we didn’t want to go too serious. The quirk and the whimsical nature of the score was very important to keep that love of Coop because I think he thought that I was worried that if you go too dark, you wouldn’t really relate and want Coop to go around stealing stuff. You do—you want him to succeed, weirdly, but he’s actually breaking the law. You root for him and that was very important musically because I think, as I said, if we go too dark with it and maybe that alienates a lot of the audience. The whimsical nature of the score was really really important. That was achieved.
I mean, the piano is a very eclectic instrument. It does lots of things, especially when you get into messing with it with plugins and stuff. But yeah, the fig is written on the piano. The main theme is quite –it’s melancholy, but it also it’s very easy to make it whimsical, because it’s got that jump in the left hand. I was very lucky when it came out of my brain that I could mold it in so many different ways, which was great for this show. I was molding it in so many different ways. By the time we got to episode 6, Jonathan was like, I think you might need to come up with some different themes, because as much as we love this one, we’re getting a little tired of it. That’s what will be really exciting about season two is that I can just go off and write some new stuff. We’ve got new characters and still lots of comedy, still lots of drama. So yeah, it’s a really, really fun show to do.
AF: In addition to the series, you composed the scores for Love Hurts, Karate Kid: Legends, and Nobody 2. Were you working on these projects simultaneously or spread them out?
Lewis: Some of them overlapped. ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ was definitely finished by the time I’d started ‘Nobody 2.’ There was a little overlap with ‘Karate Kid’ and at the front side of it, ‘Love Hurts’ was going on. Sometimes, I do have to overlap stuff just because things push and you try and organize your schedule as well as you can. But with the nature of TV and film, reshoots and all sorts of different things going on, you do have to kind of be flexible and be ready to pull some long hours because things are doubling up.
AF: Is there a studio that you like to record at because of the way it sounds?
Lewis: Oh, lots. I’m English so Abbey Road is a favorite of mine. Obviously, I’m a huge Beatles fan so Studio Two is very close to my heart, but I love One as well. Not that I don’t love AIR Lyndhurst, but Abbey Road is it’s probably my favorite sound. And then out here, I work at Sunset Sound a lot. I love Capital B, which has been shut for a long time because of earthquake reconstruction protection stuff. But I think that’s opening up again next year so I’m excited to be able to get back into Capital B because that room is very special.
AF: I’m going to assume when you said out here that you are referring to Los Angeles.
Lewis: Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m in L.A.
AF: If not for The Beatles Anthology, I wouldn’t have bought my first two CDs or pick up a guitar.
Lewis: Yeah. I have Beatles albums on my arm. I’m fully Beatles-obsessed. I agree with you. If it wasn’t for the Beatles, I wouldn’t be in music for sure.
AF: I was hoping to see Paul when he comes here in November, but the cheaper tickets sold out almost as soon as the pre-sale went live.
Lewis: I don’t doubt it. Yeah, that’s the really crappy thing now about going to see live music is the cost of it’s going up and up and up and up. I wanted to see Oasis when they come out and do the Rose Bowl in LA. The cheapest ticket right at the nosebleed is like $500 bucks on resale. That’s just ridiculous.
AF: Yeah. I remember years ago when everything—compared to today—seemed more affordable and then cost of living, inflation, everything goes up.
Lewis: It’s some wild times right now. It’s very wild times.
AF: Outside of The Beatles, do you have any particular influences?
Lewis: Oh, so many. A lot of them are on my arm. David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel. And then classically, Richard Strauss is my ultimate fave. It’s weird, last night I couldn’t sleep and I hadn’t actually listened to classical music for a long, long time. I normally just listen to it all the time. I put on ‘Metamorphosen’ by Richard Strauss and it’s just magical. It’s unbelievable, just of a different world.
So yeah—Debussy and Ravel. There’s so many influences and I think that’s why my music is somewhat eclectic and all kind of all over the place. I can do lots of genres because I just love everything of all different shapes and sizes and genres. It’s really hard to pin it down to just one or two.
AF: Are there any composers in general that you’ve looked up to as a mentor?
Lewis: Oh, yeah, I’ve been very, very lucky. As a teenager, Rupert Gregson-Williams took me under his wing and was so giving and generous to me. Eventually, he helped me move out to Los Angeles and I met John Powell, Hans Zimmer, Henry Jackman, and Ramin Djawadi. I’ve been really lucky with mentors and people that have have just been very generous with their time. I can’t thank them all enough because doing this job is a dream.
AF: How did you first become interested in film and TV composing?
Lewis: I was in bands, I was writing songs, and then I would sort of do arrangements and strings like quartet and maybe some brass and stuff. It was never really big enough. I wanted to write for bigger ensembles.
At the same time, my dad, who was a cellist, he was in the Medici String Quartet—he started doing a lot of film sessions in London recording Abbey Road and AIR Lyndhurst so that sort of sparked my interest. And then off the back of that, I was at school with Rupert’s step-daughter, Sadie.
It was all kind of this perfect storm of me watching movies, really getting into movie music, and also writing music. It spiraled into this, Oh, maybe this movie music thing is for me. And then as I said, Rupert was incredible and took me under his wing. But the main inspirations to me are when I really noticed film music was ‘E.T.,’ ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Hook,’ and so many John Williams scores. That was when my ears were like, Oh, this is really cool. I think I want to do this. So, yeah, I was a young teenager when I knew.
AF: Yeah, I feel like John Williams scored so many people’s childhoods, myself included.
Lewis: Yeah, it’s funny, actually. I was going through my mum’s time capsule two days ago. She kept all my stuff from the Royal Academy of Music and from way back when I was tiny, like 4-6. I was reading the program of the Royal Academy of Music concert that we did. It had my bio and I clearly didn’t write it. I think it was my orchestration teacher. There’s a line in there that says, “It’s very obvious that John Williams is Lewis’s main inspiration. Some may call him a John Williams nut.”
So yeah, I think if you ask every film composer what their first inspiration was, it’s probably him. The term GOAT is slung around in sports and he would definitely be the GOAT of film music, I think.
AF: Yeah, he either has the most Oscar nominations or he’s second only to Walt Disney. It’s one of the two.
Lewis: Yeah, I don’t know the answer to that either but it’s definitely one of the two. Yeah, he’s incredible. He’s given us so many wonderful themes and so much magic in movies.
AF: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure getting to chat with you and I look forward to hearing the ‘Nobody 2’ score in the next few weeks.
Lewis: Oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, lovely to meet you.