‘The White Lotus’ Theme Song Composer Details Drama With Creator Mike White, Says He Quit The Show

Composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the man behind the theme song for the first three seasons of “The White Lotus,” says he quit ahead of season four amid drama with the show’s creator and director, Mike White.

The 51-year-old composer did a tell-all interview with The New York Times ahead of the season three’s highly anticipated finale, which airs on Sunday. It was just announced that the popular HBO comedy-drama has been renewed for another season.

Tapia de Veer told the outlet that he had “hysterical” discussions with producers about the theme music, which changes for each season to match the new location. The composer compared the drama to “a rock ’n’ roll band story” where “the guitar player doesn’t understand the singer at all.”

He said that he “announced to the team a few months ago” that he 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.”

Tapia de Veer also described some disputes over the music he’s been having with White over the years.

“I thought we could do some kind of ‘Hawaiian Hitchcock,’ and [White] really grabbed on that and he started laughing,” the composer said of season one’s music. “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 his original idea for season three’s music was altered. There has been a lot of discussion and feedback on social media about how the theme music was much different than the first two seasons, which he also blamed on White.

“I had TMZ calling me, even people from England and from France, because they wanted some kind of statement about the theme,” he told NYT. “People are furious about the change of the theme, and I thought that was interesting.”

That made Tapia de Veer want to share the “uncut ending” of the song publicly.

“I texted the producer and I told him that it would be great to, at some point, give them the longer version with the ooh-loo-loo-loos, because people will explode if they realize that it was going there anyway. He thought it was a good idea. But then Mike cut that — he wasn’t happy about that,” he said.

“I mean, at that point, [Mike and I] 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.

The composer said he’s “pretty proud” that he “never gave up” fighting for the music he envisioned.

“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. Tapia de Veer added, “it was worth all the tension and almost forcing the music into the show.”

When asked how White reacted to him leaving, Tapia de Veer said, “He says a lot of things, but I can’t really talk about that.”

He continued, “There was a French movie, ‘La Cage Aux Folles.’ You know how there’s Albin, which is like the star, and there’s Renato, who is the producer who is always taking care that Albin doesn’t lose his mind about something, because Albin is the diva and Renato is the guy who is trying to make everything work. To me, the show felt very much like that.”

A representative for HBO told Entertainment Weekly in a statement via email, “We’ve got nothing to add at this time (but can confirm only that Cristobal isn’t returning to the show).”

Tapia de Veer 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.