White Lotus composer won't return to show, plugs "uncut" season 3 theme

But a lot of those people were apparently furious at the new tune. “When that came out, I had TMZ calling me, even people from England and from France, because they wanted some kind of statement about the theme,” Tapia de Veer says. “People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting. … At one point, people were like insulting me and sending me horrible things.” The composer says he wanted to release the full thing, but alleges he was blocked from doing so. “But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that,” he says about creator Mike White. Tapia de Veer has since released the full thing anyway.

This leads into the other main issue discussed in the interview: Tapia de Veer’s decision not to return for the fourth season. “It’s kind of weird right now because I announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back, that I was leaving. I didn’t tell Mike for various reasons,” he tells the Times. When asked if White said anything when he found out, Tapia de Veer responded, “He says a lot of things, but I can’t really talk about that.” However, even if the conditions behind the scenes were sometimes tense, it doesn’t sound like Tapia de Veer has regrets about his time. “Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn’t give him what he wanted,” he says. “But what I gave him did this, you know — did those Emmys, people going crazy.” 

You can listen to the uncut season 3 theme “Enlightenment” below, and read Tapia de Veer’s full interview here.