Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the award-winning composer who made waves with his work on HBO’s hit miniseries The White Lotus, is now departing from HBO. He composed the score and theme song for the series’ first three seasons. He pointed to creative differences with the series creator Mike White as the main reason for his decision to leave the job. Tapia de Veer won three Emmy Awards for his work on the series, including Outstanding Theme for season one. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he expressed his disappointment at having gone through it.
The quarrel erupted when Tapia de Veer asked show producers to make a full version of the season three opening available. This version was sung, which added to the drama. White refused to accommodate this request. As tensions increased, the creative collaborator would eventually make the call himself to not return for the show’s fourth season. He suggested that when Mike learned I wasn’t coming back for series four, instead of staying calm and professional, he overreacted. That’s why I chose to speak out about what happened.
Tapia de Veer’s career well predates The White Lotus. He’s a past winner of a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award. Whether he’s crafting a socially-conscious banger or a lullaby-like love song, his productions pervade the music world, constantly going viral. Yet for all of those honors, he was unhappy with the working relationship he built with White. He didn’t feel like he was respected, and he felt like his creative contributions were mostly ignored.
In an interview with BBC News, Tapia de Veer revealed that he was a regular listener to all of White’s extremely disturbing media statements. He’s especially concerned about the fallout between them. I can tell you, I honestly don’t know what happened and now, I’m reading his interviews because he’s launched a full on PR campaign around leaving the show. He emphasized that he did not want to kick off a turf war. Rather, he sought instead to just protect himself from White’s interpretation of their relationship.
White took issue with Tapia de Veer’s critiques. The rebuttal He claimed that Tapia de Veer did not grasp or fully appreciate the role that music plays in The White Lotus. Tapia de Veer vehemently countered, “Each comment about what the composer’s job is and the music was at that Stern concert just shows that he doesn’t understand how important the music is in The White Lotus. He underscored the music’s power and key role in the fabric of the series.
Amid a growing emergency, Tapia de Veer spoke to us about the process. He explained, “Musical decision making trust was not afforded to me, which you would expect would come with the success of the score. Which is why I’m not returning. He noted in particular his discomfort that this was the way he was getting feedback from White. As an example, he said, “It was literally just me workshopping it. I don’t think he liked to go through the process of getting notes from me or wanting revisions because he didn’t respect me.
Also, as Tapia de Veer’s order now reveals, White’s view of their professional relationship led him to the conclusion that Tapia de Veer was opposed to cooperation. By the time the third season came around, he’d already won a bunch of Emmys himself. To add to that, his song had just gone viral! “He didn’t want to go through the process with me. He didn’t want to go to sessions.”
Regardless of the public nature of their differences, both men have accepted that their relationship had seen no ugly blowup. White We never actually battled in the courtroom, although he likes to say we had a feud. I don’t think I ever had an actual war with him—maybe just a couple of emails. Tapia de Veer explained the steps that led to his firing. He added, “We already fought our last fight for ever, I believe.
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