The soul of The Last of Us is in Gustavo Santaolalla’s music

When fans nervously tuned in to watch HBO’s adaptation of one of their favorite video games, there was one familiar presence that immediately calmed their nerves: the mournful guitar of Gustavo Santaolalla. As certain story beats changed and beloved polygonal faces were replaced with new actors, the beating heart of The Last of Us — its mesmerizing, tension-ridden score — survived the transition to TV intact.

“[Series creator] Neil Druckmann has said that my music is part of the DNA of The Last of Us,“ Santaolalla says. “I think the fact that we kept the sonic fabric — that we didn’t do an orchestral score for the series — has been instrumental in keeping those fans of the games fans of the series, too.”

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Santaolalla first started releasing music when he was 17. Loving both English rock bands and the traditional Argentine folk music that he was raised on, Santaolalla melded both into his own unique sound, part of a genre called rock nacional. Before he could fully make his mark, Santaolalla’s family fled the Argentine junta dictatorship in 1978, moving to Los Angeles, where his unique sound soon caught the attention of filmmakers. Snapped up to score the 2000 film Amores Perros and 2003’s 21 Grams, their success led to Santaolalla composing the soundtracks for Brokeback Mountain and Babel, both of which won him Oscars.

Santaolla’s sonic secret? Embracing the eloquence of silence. “I work so much with silence and space, because silences sometimes can be louder than a note that you’re playing,” says Santaolalla. “I remember on Brokeback Mountain when I first sent them the music, the producer said ‘I thought you were pulling my leg at first, because you wait so long to play the next note!’”

After winning two Oscars back to back, Santaolalla carefully considered his next career move. Despite being a self-professed “terrible gamer” Santaolalla tells me he always loved watching his son play, mesmerized by the on-screen kineticism. “I always thought that if somebody connects this at an emotional level with a player, it’s going to be a revolution.”

It turns out, the universe had picked up on Santaolalla’s newest interest. Post-Oscars, he was approached by several game companies to do music, but turned them down because “I’m very picky about the work that I do.” That includes a lucrative gaming project that he is careful not to name. “Everyone thought I was crazy!” he chuckles. Still, Santaolalla quietly hoped that a more emotionally-resonant project would materialize.

“So, I waited… and then Neil appeared,” Santaolalla says. “When Neil told his colleagues that he wanted me to do this, [his colleagues ] said, No, Gustavo is not going to be interested — he won two Oscars! But when Neil [told me] the story, and that he wanted to do a game that connects with people on an emotional level… I was sold.

What even Neil Druckmann wasn’t prepared for, however, was that Gustavo’s music would become just as crucial a presence as Ellie and Joel. In a post apocalyptic world where life is scarce and danger lurks around every corner, silence hangs in the air like a threat. Santaolalla’s scuffed notes, discordant melodies and screeching fret slides reverberate across the dilapidated city streets, feeling as unpredictable as the world Ellie and Joel inhabit.

“I love the use of imperfections, even errors or mistakes,” Santaolalla explains. “Any professional guitar player when they’re recording tend to avoid all kinds of noises; when you run your hand on the fretboard or little glitches in your playing. But sometimes, I’ll push those in my mix, and I think that humanizes it. That’s why many people have said that my music becomes like a character — a presence. It’s why I play things myself.”

In the second game, Gustavo’s music becomes a physical part of the fiction, with Ellie carrying a guitar throughout her quest for vengeance. She takes out the instrument during welcome moments of downtime, offering cathartic respite. And just like Gustavo’s score, these beautiful vignettes break up the harrowing silence, which carries through in the second season of the show.

“I love the TV series too,” says Santaolalla. “ For the show, Neil associated himself with another incredible talent, Craig Mazin — the guy that did Chernobyl — who knows that media and that language. I think it was a big, big challenge, because when you go from one media to another one, people say no, I like the original better! So, I think, once again, that the way we have used the music has been instrumental to keep that fan base attached.”

He adds that “I think that when a story is really great, like a theatrical piece — like Shakespeare — it doesn’t matter who plays the character. Obviously Pedro Pascal’s Joel is different than the Joel from the game, but the substance of the character is so powerful that those things are just superficial. They could have done this as a series, as a feature film, as a puppet theatre piece, or an animation and it will still land regardless — because it’s just great writing.”

Now as Santaolalla finds himself releasing his very own instrument — the Guitarocko — it feels like the culmination of the musical journey he started as a teen. Melding the traditional Bolivian 10 stringed ronroco with the form factor of a Fender Stratocaster, Gustavo feels a father-like pride for his musical creation: the 73-year-old is invigorated by what The Last Of Us has given him at this stage in his career.

“I’ve been blessed with the fact that I have connected with an audience since I was very young,” he says. “But the way I connect with the fans of The Last of Us and the way they connect with the music… here’s a special devotion that is really beautiful. I have this new audience which is fantastic, and I love that they didn’t know me as an artist or as a film composer! Now they look for my music, and they discover these things. It’s been a gift for me, at this point — after everything that I’ve been through — to be involved with a project like this.”