David Klotz (‘Dahmer,’ ‘House of the Dragon,’ ‘Stranger Things’ music editor) on 3 Emmy nominations for bringing these shows to life through music [Exclusive Video Interview]

“It never gets old! It’s very exciting,” declares music editor David Klotz about receiving three Emmy nominations this year for sound editing. For our recent webchat he adds, “I feel grateful. I feel lucky that I’ve had the opportunities I’ve had to work on such incredible shows, with such incredible sound teams. The best part of the whole process for me is being able to work with all these incredibly talented people as a team.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

SEE 2023 Emmys: Complete list of nominees

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The music editor had scored a staggering 19 career Emmy nominations, with eight wins to date for “Game of Thrones,” “American Horror Story” and “Stranger Things.” This year he adds an impressive three nominations to bring that total to 22, with nominations as part of the sound editing teams for the season finale episodes of three of the biggest hits of last season: “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” “House of the Dragon” and “Stranger Things.”

“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is the first iteration of the “Monster” anthology series from Emmy-winning co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, about the titular serial killer and sex offender (Emmy winner Evan Peters). While the show dramatizes the life and heinous crimes of the infamous mass murderer (who killed 17 boys and young men between 1978 and 1991) it also delves into the stories of some of his victims,  as well as into the police incompetence and apathy that allowed the nefarious psychopath to go on a multiyear killing spree.

“House of the Dragon” is the prequel series to HBO’s megahit “Game of Thrones,” created by author George R.R. Martin and writer/producer Ryan Condal, and starring Paddy Considine alongside Emmy nominee Matt Smith (“The Crown”) and Emma D’Arcy, among a sprawling cast that also includes Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint and Eve Best. The 10-episode first season is set two centuries before the events of “Game of Thrones,” 172 years before the birth of the now-iconic “Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), depicting the events leading up to and covering the bloody Targaryen civil war of succession known as the “Dance of the Dragons.”

Klotz’s third nomination this year is for the “Stranger Things” Season 4 finale “The Piggyback,” which was eligible for the 2023 Emmys under TV academy rules because the last two “orphaned” episodes (using TV academy parlance) of the Netflix blockbuster streamed on July 1, 2022 (a full month after the 2022 eligibility period ended). That was great news for many of the artisans working behind the scenes on the show, with Klotz contending once again for the same show and in the same category that he won last year, one of an impressive six nominations for the show’s super-sized season finale.

The big question that Klotz is often asked is what does the music editor contribute within the sound team and alongside the composer and music supervisor? “As a music editor I’m the person putting the music into the show. That’s the one easy way to describe what I’m doing,” he explains. “What goes along with that often is I’m working with the composer. We sit down at the beginning of a project and decide where music’s going to go into the movie or the show, where it’s going to start and where it’s going to stop. I create a set of blueprints that everyone on the project uses called spotting notes. The composer writes the music, delivers the music, we have scoring sessions and all that fun stuff and then we put the music into the show, and that’s where the fun part begins, because nothing ever stays the same anymore. Picture is constantly changing. Visual effects are constantly messing up scenes,” he smiles. “I have to continually adjust the music to make it work, which can be challenging because we’ve spent all this money scoring with this beautiful orchestra, and then they chop the scene in half, and you’ve got to figure out, how can I make the music still work in the scene?”

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