‘White Lotus’ composer says he’s leaving show over feud with Mike White

The White Lotus always serves trouble in paradise, but theme song composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer has alleged that the sentiment carried true, at least for him, behind the scenes of the HBO drama as well.

After crafting signature music for the drama series’ first three seasons (including heavily praised theme music for the show’s opening credits sequences), Tapia de Veer told the New York Times he’s quitting the show ahead of season 4 due to creative differences and alleged clashes with creator-writer Mike White and the show’s producers.

Tapia de Veer told the outlet that he’s had “hysterical” discussions with producers about the direction of the show’s music, and likened the atmosphere to “a rock ’n’ roll band story” in which “the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all.”

He said that he “announced to the team a few months ago that I was not coming back,” and that he purposely “didn’t tell Mike for various reasons” and “wanted to tell him just at the end for the shock” of it all. Still, he claimed, White found out, which added tension to an already difficult situation, in his estimation.

When the publication asked him to confirm that he’s leaving after Sunday’s season 3 finale, Tapia de Veer replied, “Yeah, yeah. For sure,” and recounted some of the alleged disputes with White over the years, dating back to his work on the show’s memorable season 1 theme song and episodic music.

“I thought we could do some kind of ‘Hawaiian Hitchcock,’ and [White] really grabbed on that and he started laughing,” Tapia de Veer remembered, later adding: “I was on the phone with her [Heather Persons, one of the show’s producers] all the time, and she was trying to convince Mike about this theme, because he didn’t want the theme.”

Tapia de Veer said that disputes continued into season 3, the theme for which remixed and altered the previously established “‘ooh-loo-loo-loo’ melody,” as the Times described it.

“I mean, at that point, we already had our last fight forever, I think. So he was just saying no to anything. So I just uploaded that to my YouTube,” Tapia de Veer said.

Still, he said he’s “pretty proud” of the fact that he “never gave up” fighting for his vision for the show’s music. “Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn’t give him what he wanted. But what I gave him did this, you know — did those Emmys, people going crazy,” the musician said, adding that “it was worth all the tension and almost forcing the music into the show” despite, as he said, not having “that many allies in there” to back him up.

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Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for The White Lotus at HBO for comment from the network and White.

To date, The White Lotus‘ music has garnered significant praise for its unique, atmospheric qualities. Tapia de Veer has even won three Emmys for his work on the show’s music, including one for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music and two for Original Dramatic Score.

The White Lotus season 3 finale airs Sunday on HBO.