No one could’ve predicated how different Labrinth’s world would become when he and I first spoke on a Zoom call a few months ago. The musician was about to release his latest album Cosmic Opera Act I and was a couple months away from the season three premiere of Euphoria, the Sam Levinson-created HBO show that propelled him into mainstream success as his moody score became synonymous with the show.
Before the interview could publish, he would share that infamous, incendiary Instagram post calling out the show, his record label and the entertainment business as a whole. “I’m done with this industry. Fuck Columbia [Records]. Double fuck Euphoria,” Labrinth wrote in his since-deleted post, garnering some words of support from other musicians. “I’m out. Thank you and good night x.”
At the time of our original conversation, Labrinth was set to collaborate with Hans Zimmer for the third and final season of the show, which concluded this week. It was later revealed that he wouldn’t be involved in the season, and Zimmer was left to work on the score by himself. Before he’d thrown down the gauntlet, Labrinth already seemed to be of the mindset that composing wasn’t necessarily his long game.
“Do you know what? I didn’t ask to be a composer, I love making music,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Euphoria‘s been fun for me, and I’ve had offers to do other things for composition and stuff, and I found that I’m not Hans Zimmer, in that I can’t just work on any project. … With this season… I think they need Hans Zimmer’s structure and Hans Zimmer’s sensibility, and then wherever they need me, I can add. That’s how I see it.”
