EXCLUSIVE Q&A: Neophonic's PJ Bloom talks Cinemax's exciting series 'Banshee' and more on Music Supervision

Cinemax's hit show Banshee is one of the darkest, most exciting series on television today. The music of the show is clearly part of the draw and expression that keeps viewers coming back each week, resulting in a recent third season confirmation from Cinemax as well as a great second season. Songs heard on Banshee are chosen by some core members of the music supervision group Neophonic including PJ Bloom, Evyen Klean, and Janet Lopez. PJ Bloom took some time to answer a few of our questions about the show and his experience as a music supervisor.

How did you and your company Neophonic get involved with Banshee?

One of our long-term joint venture relationships is with HBO. We've been their de facto music department for the last 17-18 years, so we touch everything that they do. We do all of their films, all of their miniseries and a lot of their original programming as well, including Banshee. So when Cinemax was developing this property, Greg Yaitanes (who is the creator and executive producer of the show) was looking for a music supervisor, he had previously been working on House and was looking to potentially develop a new relationship. So HBO brought us into the process. We had extended creative conversations with Greg and came up with a soundtrack concept that he really fell in love with. Ultimately it's proven really affective in this show.

As one of the top Music Supervisors in the industry, how much freedom do you and your team have with choosing what music to put onto the show or is there some direction from the producers?

This process is always very collaborative. The fantastic thing about working with Greg is that he is really, really secure with his team so we have a lot of creative freedom to pitch him songs, pitch him ideas and concepts that ultimately he really likes. Based on the early concepts we came up with for the soundtrack he was just really attracted to running with the ideas that we have and the whole overall creative concept that we put forth ... Ultimately we've developed a great trust, which gives us quite a bit of creative freedom. But again it is an incredibly collaborative process and ultimately he is the decision maker.

Besides the collaboration and the creative freedom, what is your favorite part about working on Banshee?

I think I'm a pretty dark guy at heart so I definitely enjoy a lot of bloody violence and gratuitous sex. So that just for me and the creative concept of the show, I'm really attracted to. But for me and I think my partners on the show would agree that the greatest the greatest thing about it is Greg. He's such a giving executive producer. He's given us so much creative latitude and so much trust that it really allows us to go deep and explore some really interesting song approaches to the soundtrack. It's just his confidence and his trust that really allows us to do some incredible things on this show!

It sounds like you're a fan of the show. Does that help with the process? 

Absolutely! It definitely helps. I mean I'm really blessed to work on a lot of really fantastic material and I work a lot, but at the same time I don't know if it's the type of fair that I'd be watching in my free time, you know? So, Banshee is a show that, even if I weren't working on it, I would watch. It's right up my alley.

One of the exciting things about doing a second season of a television series is that you don't have to spend a lot of time in character development. Season one you're giving birth to a show so you have to develop those characters, you have to teach the audience who everyone really is and that takes a lot of show real estate. But in season two, we just were able to get right into all of the exciting action and exciting sex and relationships. To me it's always a really exciting prospect.

How does Neophonic go about getting the rights to specific songs to use in placement?

There's a variety of different ways. Being in the position of the Music Supervisor, we're buyers in a world of sellers. So everybody is looking for that exposure. Everyone wants their songs in television, movies, ads, trailers or video games. We get a ton of content that just flows to us on a daily basis. And when we're working with our producers on creative strategies we think of some artists we could reach out to to possibly do some original material for us or see how they want to be involved, if we can explore their catalog. It just happens in a variety of different ways but whatever the show's concept or however the production elements unfold we'll dictate how we'd execute.

What are some other projects you've worked on or are working on currently? 

Well we do a lot of work with HBO so Behind the Candelabra was one that my partner, Evyen, did. We do Enlightened and a lot of the Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones ... I also do Glee, American Horror Story, The Americans ...

(For more information on PJ and the rest of Neophonic's work, click here!)