Polygon spoke with Hazbin Hotel songwriters Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg about season 2’s music, what changed from season 1, and what it was like working with the performers. This is the first in a series of three pieces unpacking a single standout song from Hazbin Hotel season 2.
The song: Episode 5’s “Vox Populi.” Demon Overlord Vox (Christian Borle) leads a rally of demon supporters, whipping up sentiment against Heaven. Lucifer Morningstar (Jeremy Jordan) shows up to threaten and frighten him. Vox, unimpressed, pivots Lucifer’s rock-out moment into a rallying song where he promises to “make Hell great again.”
Polygon: I’ve read that you wrote some of season 1’s songs before you had any idea who would be singing them, or even what the characters would sound like. But you knew that cast members like Jeremy and Christian would be back for some of the biggest numbers of this season, and you know their range and strengths. How did that change the songwriting on numbers like “Vox Populi”?
Sam Haft: For Jeremy, the songwriting changed a lot during the process. For most of season one, we knew who the actors were before the songs got written. But for season 2, we really got to know these people, and that’s really the difference — having spent time directing them, spending time with them socially, and getting a clearer sense of their personalities, and what activates them, and makes them have a good time.
Jeremy is obviously a storied Broadway leading man, but he is also, deep in his soul, a rock star. That was a big part of Jeremy doing things the way he did them. There were components of the way he performed on “Vox Populi” that were very self-directed from him. It wasn’t just what was in the demo or what was on the page — he added a lot of very rock-y flourishes.
Andrew Underberg: He’s very comfortable ad-libbing, just going off the map, which is fantastic. He gave so many options, especially for any kind of goofy moment.
Haft: And “Vox Populi” was a real beast of a song, in part because Christian also does that. Jeremy and Christian are two performers who reliably will make different choices in take one than they do in take three than they do in take nine. They really have a comfortableness playing with the material.
Did they record that song together in the studio?
Haft: No. I don’t believe anyone’s recorded any songs together.
Underberg: That song, more than any other song [in season 2], is really two songs.
Haft: Yeah, that’s true. It’s two songs stitched together.
Underberg: I think the only reason it’s not [considered two songs] is that we’re only contracted for a specific number of songs. [Both laugh] It really stops — Jeremy finishes his portion and then Christian starts his, and it never goes back to [Jeremy], which is interesting.
Yeah, it’s fun to do all sorts of different song structures in this show. This season has continued that trend of just really letting the brief that [Hazbin Hotel creator Vivienne Medrano] gives us, and the character and story demands, dictate what the song structure is.
It’s always interesting in a musical to see where characters go from speaking to singing. Here, do you think Vox is expressing something through song that wouldn’t have the same effect on the crowds if he wasn’t singing?
Haft: I think so. This is a very musical world, and so if you are going to make the best pitch you can to the people of Hell — much like Vox does unsuccessfully in [the season 1 duet] “Stayed Gone” — you are going to pitch them with music. People respond to it better. People are moving along and tapping along before they even get a chance to second-guess what it is they’re moving and tapping along to.
This song feels like part of a big shift in this season, from more Broadway-esque showtunes to harder rock. Was there ever a big-picture conversation about changing the dynamics of Hazbin Hotel’s songs for season 2?
Haft: I think that was really just about what each song demanded. There wasn’t a sense of, “The whole season holistically should sound like this or that.” Generally, the way our process worked in season 2 wasn’t that different from season 1, in that stylistically, the style of each song is dictated by the characters participating in that song. And so I think just by virtue of having a different spread of characters and a different spread of story objectives, the songs ended up sounding more one way than the other.
New episodes of Hazbin Hotel arrive on Wednesdays on Prime Video.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
