As we head into Interview with the Vampire season three, a season that follows main character Lestat’s ascent into rock star status, the music of The Vampire Lestat will, of course, be a key component of the story. At a press conference at San Diego Comic Con, Interview with the Vampire season three showrunner Rolin Jones and composer Daniel Hart gave us a deep dive into the music we can expect from The Vampire Lestat.
Composer Daniel Hart shares of the music of season three of Interview with the Vampire, “It’s been a whole different thing that we’ve been exploring this year, that we haven’t done before. And I’ve been in the writer’s room and at production on set, which I also haven’t done before, because the music is such a huge part of season three. So we’ve been talking a lot about the music that we want to be inspired by. Rolin and I have shared playlists back and forth since the very beginning of the writer’s room. We have a lot of artists in mind who have inspired us over the years.”
And in the end, parts of the sound they settled on were almost fated for Hart, who reveals, “As a kid, I grew up listening to rock and roll mostly, when my older brother brought home Led Zeppelin IV, that was the end for me. And then I also found out not long after that Robert Plant and I had the same birthday, and so I felt like there was some kind of mystical connection for me and that kind of rock and roll. That was our starting point for what we wanted out of the music in season three.”
But don’t expect The Vampire Lestat’s music to be any one thing or genre, Hart shares, “because Lestat contains multitudes. He’s not going to be limited to one specific genre or style. We tried to span time. In the way that Lestat has lived for so long, you would think he would be influenced by more music than anybody alive now because he’s seen it all first-hand. So from classical music through the Romantic era in France, and then moving into the US—early jazz, ragtime that he would’ve seen in New Orleans, and then coming through the fifties, sixties, the beginnings of rock and roll, all the way up until now, and being influenced by people that are doing stuff now. We wanted it all to be represented. That’s what we tried for.”
Of course, many of Lestat’s songs will feature a very obvious subject matter, Louis. “He’s the love of his life,” Hart notes. But “There are other songs about many other subjects. Lestat has many thoughts and feelings.” We can’t wait to hear his diss tracks.
Interview with the Vampire season three did have a great freedom with its music though, in that the music did not necessarily have to move the plot along. Instead, it could function more as music does in our world, serving as a helpful lens into the mind of The Vampire Lestat. Hart notes, “When we were working on the songs at the beginning, I think the thing we found was the most helpful in trying to find music that would embody the spirit of Lesat was to try and avoid doing what most musicals are required to do, which is to further the plot in their lyrics.”
He goes on to say, “That was very tough to do and still get at the rawest, most vulnerable, fragile kind of emotional expression that Lestat is so good at conveying, as we’ve seen for two years now. And it was hard to do that in songs while trying to move the plot forward, specifically with the lyrics. So lyrically, we tried to stay very raw, emotional, vulnerable, and then musically explore as many styles as we possibly could to get at all the parts of Lestat that we want to show.”
As for who might be a good opening act for The Vampire Lestat, Hart muses, “I think The Vampire Lestat would be obsessed with Jay Paul. Jay Paul, British artist, mostly better known about 10 years ago than now. He’s very reclusive. But I thought that his music would particularly appeal to Lestat, both because it feels very fresh and new and original, but also obviously calls back to the eighties. And our Lestat in the book is a rock and roll star in the eighties. So that felt to me like Lestat would desperately want Jay Paul to open for him and Jay Paul would absolutely refuse.”
And after that refusal, the whole tour would take a turn. Rolin Jones offers, “And then, if that happened, then he would say, I’m never letting a musician open for me. So I would say Joey Chestnut would eat a bunch of hot dogs before, and then the lights would go down…”
Sounds like an evening we’d like to attend. To check out everything discussed at the Interview with the Vampire season three press conference, check out our article here. Interview with the Vampire season three/The Vampire Lestat releases in 2026.
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