Macabre Daily Talks Music, Manson, and More With Composer Paul Leonard-Morgan (INTERVIEW)

Paul Leonard-Morgan in studio.

To coincide with Netflix’s release of the true-crime documentary “CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS,” MacabreDaily had the opportunity to sit down with the film’s composer, Paul Leonard-Morgan (DREDD, LIMITLESS). We discussed his musical influences, his favorite documentaries, and the enduring fascination with Charles Manson and his so-called “Family” that keeps us revisiting the case more than 50 years later. Read on for the full interview.

Music is a powerful force in storytelling, and composer Paul Leonard-Morgan understands this better than most. Over the past decade, he has crafted some of the most gripping scores in film and gaming, from the adrenaline-pumping soundtrack of “DREDD” (2012) to the immersive soundscapes of “Cyberpunk 2077” (2020). With a signature blend of fuzzed-out instrumentation and mesmerizing synth progressions, his compositions don’t just complement the visuals—they pull audiences in, heightening every moment.

His latest work on “CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS”, which premiered on Netflix on March 7th, is no exception. The film’s haunting score amplifies its unsettling themes, adding yet another layer to Leonard-Morgan’s already impressive repertoire. We had the chance to chat with the composer about his influences, his approach to scoring true crime, and how music shapes our perception of a story.

This interview has been transcribed from audio, some grammatical errors may exist.

MacabreDaily: “CHAOS: The Manson Murders” is a weighty story, and it's been 56 years since the events happened. What made you pay attention to this specific documentary? I know you've worked with director Errol Morris in the past on “Wormwood.” Was it an easy transition to work with him again on something like this incredibly tough subject matter?

Paul Leonard-Morgan: “Yeah, and I think when you watch this kind of stuff as a composer, you either get caught up in the drama put there, or you score it from trying to follow the story. So I think you try and follow the story as much as possible. But yeah, I've worked with Errol multiple times previously, and with Stephen, his wonderful editor, but I think for me, what draws me to it… I didn't know that much about the story, and when I started finding out about his crazy collaborations with Dennis Wilson for the Beach Boys, his whole musical background, and the whole fact that Cielo Drive was supposed to be Terry Melcher’s house. Now, Terry Melcher was the producer that nearly signed Manson but didn't. So Manson had this whole vendetta against Melcher. This is one of the theories anyway, was that he thought that Manson sent them off to go and kill him. He hasn't lived there for a long while though. So it's like, straight off. It's like, whoa. This is what the music industry does to a person.”

MD: I noticed that right from the very beginning of the soundtrack and the first scene in the documentary, it's almost like a ticking time bomb because the music in the background is very slow and deliberate. It has a driving beat behind it. Is that something that you consciously wanted to bring, like a looming dread for the documentary?

PLM: “Yeah! I love that you spotted that. Yeah, totally, it is like for me, a lot of the stuff I have done with Errol in the past has been orchestral-based. But for me, I said to Stephen, specifically, I see this as a band soundtrack, he was still going to have the orchestra. That's all fine. That always goes with their old stuff. But for me, it's about Manson, about his music, and because it's inter-cropped amongst Manson's actual tracks, and how he obsessed with the lyrics from The Beatles’ song “Blackbird”, he thought, I'm going to start a race war. So for me, I was like, how can we make this about Manson's mindset? So I thought, ‘Well, look, let's have this band, which is the year’s first draft, right?’ Then that starts with that, the whole thing, with this pump organ underneath, and then you just get the kick. And for me, there's then the percussive of the wood blocks used. Did you notice this?”

MD: Yes, we heard the wood block being used as sort of a ticking downward in the documentary. It made the scenes it used very striking.

PLM: “I don't like using traditional percussion as far as, like, electronic stuff, because I think it dates, whereas you suddenly got the use of, like, these just wood blocks because it's quite 70s as well. and that for me, was the ticking. We got the band, we got the kick drum, and then we got this, and you'll hear it in different versions along the way. That whole ticking thing, for me was like Manson's mind and as it goes along in the soundtrack, this ticking gradually comes out of alignment with each other. So it starts off on the right BPM, and then gradually, just starts going away, drifting from the rest of it. That, for me, was Manson's mind gradually losing it. Especially when it comes to the scenes where he loses the record deal with Terry Melcher.”

WATCH THE TRAILER FOR “CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS” BELOW

MD: I think in a sense that it perfectly encompasses the manic behind Manson. As you mentioned, it goes to almost a fever pitch when that ticking comes in predominantly, I love the fact that you use fuzzed-out tones too. I'm a big fuzz guy. I'm a musician myself, and I love the old “Big Muff” pedals for guitars or anything that's a little bit more distorted I gravitate to. Your blending of electronics with the fuzz tone sound and the driving force had my attention. I was listening to the documentary more than I was watching it.

PLM: “If you’ll notice in the documentary, when Manson is in control, you hear more of the band elements than the orchestration but when he starts losing control and being more manic as it were, you’ll hear weird glitches and it blends the two together. If you combine a traditional orchestra with a traditional band, it all just sounds like a superhero movie to me. That’s been done a lot, but if you have the band drop out and give some space to the music then add in the orchestration it’s split into different layers and can be manipulated to give you the right feel. In regards to the fuzz you hear, I have this thing called a “Plasma Rack” which I put my sounds through to get me that distortion. There’s an area in the documentary where we use a two-and-a-half-minute “Shepard tone”, It’s a combination of all these sounds where sometimes there's some beautiful orchestral stuff in there, and you feel for the women that were at Spahn Ranch. By using the sounds of a Celeste, it brought out the innocence in these women but as they are corrupted, you hear more and more distortion. People don't probably notice this. But I think it's these things that you do to try and give the soundtrack a story, as far as musical stories, it's going on, so the orchestra suddenly doesn't sound like an orchestra by the end of it.”

MD: I really enjoyed that about the soundtrack. You can hear things falling apart for Manson with the tones and orchestration used. Speaking of bands, you’ve worked with some heavy hitters in the past like Mogwai, Snow Patrol, and even No Doubt. Is that difficult as a composer? You have your style and they have theirs, is it difficult to work with someone else’s creative style?

PLM: “No, I think that when you work with other people, you listen to their perspective, whether you bring in string arrangements for them or do drum programming or synths or whatever, you know, I think the way you work with other people, you're trying to find out what's in their mind and where you might take that track. First and foremost, they're coming to you as an artist. They come to you as an artist to go, ‘Well, what would you do with my song or in a director’s case, film?’, because, let’s be honest, there’s no right way to score a film. When a director shows you a rough cut of the film, you have to see where he wants certain cues and things like that but bringing a band into it, it adds something fresh to the dynamic. Ultimately, you can’t use bands for everything, it has to fit with the story. I think that's the main difference. It’s kind of like instead of trying to work with the band and work out all the sounds their songs are going to use, it's more a case of you working with the director, but first, you're coming up with your own ideas. This is your film. It doesn't mean that it's right, but this is how I've reacted to seeing it emotionally. Directors are typically not musicians, so they need to hear rough cuts of your score multiple times to determine if it flows well and aligns with their vision for the scene.”

Director Errol Morris & Paul Leonard-Morgan at the premier of “CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS” used by permission

MD: So, as a composer and a writer, predominantly yourself, what's the hardest area? Is it the beginning of the score to get that first section out, or the completion of the score at the end that matters more to you?

PLM: I have absolute terror at the start of a soundtrack. It's blank-page syndrome. So you start a soundtrack, ‘is this, right? Is it what you want? I don't know what I want.’ Other composers love that feeling and so do some editors. I kind of go through this process of, ‘oh shit, oh shit, oh shit… I got a thing. This is the best thing in the world. Oh shit, no, it's not.’ After about three weeks of this, you finally find where you want to go tonally with the soundtrack and truly find the color of the film. Then you can drill down into whether you need synths here or drums there or orchestration at this point. Then for me anyway, I go back to the beginning of the film and go over it again, deleting or changing things up to better suit the performances or scenes. That’s when the adrenaline kicks in and you finally find your stride with the music. I then get a bit bored, because it's now time for the tweaks. Director’s go ‘Oh, okay, well, I've taken out five frames here.’ You’re just like ‘Great…’ And it's not just five frames, because it totally screws up the tempo. It's a little frustrating because then your soundtrack was in really good shape, and the film was in really good shape. It's not that what they did was wrong. So this is the area where you see filmmaking really happen in the tweaks made from the original cut. So I really love the creative process, but I hate the creative process, but I love the creative process. (Laughs). Then you can move forward with recording once all those tweaks and changes happen, that’s fun because you can hear your score coming to life. Mixing is a bit boring as well to me but also exciting because you get to hear how you envisioned the sounds to be in your head. Something as simple as a three-minute cue, musically a three-minute cue is standard, but how many times have you listened to that cue before you get it right? A friend of mine was discussing it with me the other day and we reckon it’s like 500 to 800 times you hear the same bit on loop. Is the kick drum right? No? Okay let’s change that up and add this or that. It goes on and on like this. I have to ask some editors how they can even watch a film sometimes. How do they keep a clear head, ya know? By that stage, you're completely picture blind. That’s why I come up with the music first before I ever see a frame of the picture and then go back after watching it a few times to see where my score will fit. Doing this, you don’t have an attachment to a scene with a selected musical cue yet so it’s very fluid at first then gets more segmented as I go along.

Paul Leonard-Morgan At The Premier For “Chaos: The Manson Murders” used by permission.

MD: Well we want to thank you for your time and before we go we just wanted to say how much we love your score from the film “DREDD” (2017). We have it on a loop while we write a lot of the time and it’s just an amazing piece of work.

PLM: Aww, well thank you, I love you for that. Yeah, “Dredd” was very special to me. There are certain areas of the score that I feel really shine like “Ma Ma’s Requiem” I enjoyed working on that film immensely. When I worked on “Cyberpunk 2077” a few of the developers came to me and said that they would play the Dredd soundtrack while they worked. One called it “neutral” which kind of threw me off as an insult but then I had to take a step back and realize that that’s a good thing. You don’t want your score to overpower the movie but complement it. So I love hearing that people enjoy that soundtrack.

MD: Thank you again for your time and we look forward to hearing more from you, sir.

PLM: “Thank you for the chat, cheers!”

We’d like to thank Paul for spending some time with us and talking about his latest project, “CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS”, which is now streaming on Netflix. You can stay up to date with Paul by visiting his website found HERE.

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