In The Vampire Lestat — an adaptation of Anne Rice’s book of the same name and a continuation of AMC series Interview With the Vampire — Lestat, played by a possessed Sam Reid, nearly wasn’t a rock star.

Instead, when season one of IWTV was in production, showrunner Rolin Jones had originally planned for modern-day Lestat to be an orchestra conductor. “It was a big discussion,” says composer Daniel Hart, the architect behind the show’s musical identity. Eventually it became clear that, for their grand plot designs, the vampire needed to perform a popular form of music — though not popular enough to draw the massive crowds of, say, Jelly Roll and Post Malone. Hence, the choice of rock ‘n’ roll.

The decision was also, of course, a tribute to Anne Rice’s vision for the Brat Prince’s music career: compared to 2002’s Queen of the Damned, which saw the greasy-haired immortal diva fronting a nu-metal band with tunes by Jonathan Davis of Korn, the show soundtrack is (arguably) a closer representation of the gothy glam-rock spirit of Rice’s 1985 novel.

Because of this new musical focus, Hart scored an invite into the writers’ room for season three. His playwriting degree was put to good use there: especially in earlier episodes, Lestat gets his fair share of criticism from unamused vamps, meaning it was often Hart’s job to send up — in various voices — the very same songs he was in the process of making.

Lestat’s music may have its haters, but the third episode, “Toronto,” features his best song yet. For all his centuries undead, it winds up being remarkably human, too, because as much as “The Loneliness” is a tale of uniquely vampiric solitude, there’s more than enough for us mere mortals to sink our teeth into. (Same goes for upcoming cuts “Stained Glass Eyes” and “Brutal Love,” each a gut punch in their own right.)

But the work didn’t end with writing. After a stint co-producing on set in Toronto, making sure Lestat’s ragtag band looked legit on camera, Hart returned home to write the score. Fast forward to this year, and the musician — wearing yet another of his many hats — backed a wolfishly in-character Sam Reid on the guitar as the Australian actor sashayed, live, around the Beacon Theater’s stage in New York at the premiere.

Below, Hart discusses these many pieces that went into making the soundtrack, taking Lestat’s lyrics less seriously than his own and which song from the season — besides “The Loneliness” — deserves a cake baked in its honor. Check out more influences in an exclusive playlist here.

Why did rock ‘n’ roll still feel right for Lestat in 2026?

It seemed like we needed some kind of popular music that’s on the back foot. It made it easier to make him an underdog of sorts, trying to climb a mountain that he’s never going to get to the top of.

[Early on], I asked Rolin, “Has this Lestat listened to Beyoncé? Does he like Beyoncé? Is he going to make music like Beyoncé?” And Rolin said, “Of course, he’s listened to Beyoncé, because everybody has listened to Beyoncé. Of course, he likes Beyoncé, because those songs are killer. Will his music show that it’s influenced by Beyoncé? No, not in any direct way, because he’s a 265-year-old French vampire.”

That just didn’t feel like the Lestat we knew from seasons one and two, either. To Rolin Jones, anyway. I would have loved to have put in some more Beyoncé into him. [Laughs.]

The characters make fun of Lestat’s lyrics… a lot. Was it fun to kind of ride that line between good and bad taste? 

Oh my god, so much fun. [My own] lyrics are always so serious, because I’m trying to go on my own journey of self-discovery. Anything cheesy or cliché — and I’m sure there’s plenty of that in the music I put out into the world — I was never trying to do that. So to be given the permission to not have to be earnest and heartfelt all the time, to be petty in lyrics… 

I wrote a bunch of that dialog [making fun of Lestat’s music]. Those were the writing assignments Rolin Jones gave me at the beginning of the writers’ room. He was like, “Can you write a review lambasting this song?” It was so much fun to make fun of lyrics that I’d written, to poke holes in them, to talk about how superficial they are, how derivative they feel.

It also relieved some of the pressure of having to write songs that were the best songs ever written, or that felt completely new in some way. We wanted Lestat to be vulnerable, to be able to be picked apart, for these songs to be ones that could get a bad review.

Anne Rice once said vampires can’t make good art because they’re set apart from the human experience. But, to me, it seems like Lestat’s music gets better as the season goes on, because he’s reconnecting to his own humanity in a way.

I think Anne Rice had a really good point. If you’re no longer human, why would you make art about the human experience? But there’s nothing that says we can’t be nostalgic for our past, even if we’re no longer alive.

It put us in this sort of purgatory. In the end, we decided that he was going to write music about the things that he cared about when he was a human, but mostly things that he’s cared about as a vampire. As it turns out, he still cares about things in ways that feel fairly human to me. And I was the one writing the songs, and I’m a human, so I had to write what I know.

I think “The Loneliness” is a great example of that, and it’s one of my favorites from the season.

I wrote those lyrics in October 2024, so that would have been not long after I had joined the writers’ room. I made the demo and sent it to Rolin. He sent me [back] a cake. A cake showed up at my house that had “Loneliness” written on it in icing. He didn’t do that for any other song, so obviously it struck a chord with him, too. 

Is there another song from this season that you think also deserves a cake? 

I don’t know if the song itself deserves a cake, but “Stained Glass Eyes” was the hardest to write. It’s the song I spent the most time on, and rewrote from the ground up three times. I didn’t do that for any other song this season. I don’t really do that in my own songwriting, either. If there’s an idea and I don’t really like the way it’s going, then I will usually just abandon it and go work on a different song. But this was an assignment from Rolin, specific to a scene that needed to happen.

There’s a song that used “Good Luck, Babe!” as a template…

Same one.

Oh, really?

The first version that I made was… I don’t feel like it was plagiarizing that song in any way, but it felt very much, to me, in the same universe or even the same solar system. Like a moon orbiting “Good Luck, Babe!”

Some fans were really taken by the idea of Lestat listening to Chappell Roan.

I’m so glad. I know that people would like to have musical fingerprints on this show that are relatable to them. Even the people who don’t like the music for this show, who want to write about it online, where I can see it… The main category of those people is people who don’t like it because it doesn’t sound enough like Korn — it doesn’t sound enough like the Queen of the Damned soundtrack. I am kind of sorry to them, but that music already exists. I didn’t feel like there was a need for someone to redo that.

Were there other versions of songs — or full songs — that didn’t make it in, but you wish had?

I feel like Rolin did a really good job of finding homes for all the songs. There are a couple that didn’t go into the show, but — Rolin and I have discussed it since — it seems like those songs are not necessarily in the trash can. They’ll probably be used in some capacity at some point.

Sam Reid isn’t a musician in the same way that some of the other cast members are. How did he prepare for this role?

He was in a musical when he was younger, so it’s not like it’s totally foreign to him. But, yeah, he’s not a professional musician.

Being in the studio, recording the vocals for these songs, figuring out how to do it in a way that made sense for the character, for Lestat, was a challenge for all of us. How is he singing? With a French lilt? What is his accent? What is it influenced by? It’s such a puzzle to figure out. To think that he was doing all that work in his mind while also having to learn not only the lyrics but [also] the melodies that I had written…

I know Sam did a ton of research before he did his thing on camera. In Toronto, when we were filming, it was really something — but then to watch him at the premiere was just, like, consummate. He looked like he had done 200 concerts. It came so easily to him, or seemingly so easy to him. It was really, really impressive to watch.

“Your Biggest Fan” is about Lestat being held captive and turned into a vampire against his will, but the song is shot more like a cheesy music video. Was that always the plan?

It was not always the plan. I didn’t write it for that kind of scene. That was really Rolin Jones and a bit of Hannah Moscovitch — that’s their brainchild. I thought it was, like, the best idea that I’d ever seen executed, that I never would have thought to do myself in a million years.

I was there when they filmed it, and watching Damien Atkins transform into Magnus is, in itself, a revelation. It just seems like a pretty quiet, nice guy — and, all of a sudden, he’s a monster. That is really something to behold. Then, to put that monster into an ’80s power ballad music video with choreography… what a juxtaposition. What a breath of fresh air.

Were there any movie musicals on the moodboard? I might be biased, but there were a few scenes that really reminded me of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

It would make Rolin Jones very happy to hear you say that, because he’s a massive Hedwig and the Angry Inch fan. For Rolin, it was a huge touchstone, especially when we started.

My favorite movie musical is West Side Story — my favorite musical of all time. I don’t think there’s a lot of West Side Story in these songs or in the score, but I feel like Grease was an influence for the song “Big Boss.” It sort of feels like it triangulates [Toni Basil’s] “Mickey,” [Gwen Stefani’s] “Hollaback Girl” and a couple of different songs from Grease.

Is there a song on the soundtrack that you think Lestat would happily keep on his setlist for decades?

He’d probably get bored with all of them, right? He’s so mercurial.

But if there’s one he connects with the most, it’s probably “Brutal Love,” because it’s a love song. Even outside of this season, the thing that makes this anti-hero so compelling is that he seems to need love in his life.

I read that the shoot for “Brutal Love” made some of the crew members cry. Without spoiling too much, what can you say about making the song?

It’s one of the most straight-ahead pop songs that I wrote for season three. I mean, it’s not Taylor Swift. But it’s a ballad, and it’s heartfelt. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to move people, so I didn’t expect the reaction that we got when we filmed it.

Again, it wasn’t like I looked around and everybody had tissues at their eyes or anything. It was just three or four people. But still, I don’t remember any other thing that we did on season three — or really anything else I’ve ever worked on — where the crew was moved to tears while filming it.