Music lies at the heart of any film, carrying the powerful responsibility of reinforcing the narrative and conveying emotions that visuals alone often cannot express. The composer, therefore, plays a vital role—serving as a kind of invisible translator, transforming story into sound. In documentary filmmaking, this task becomes even more nuanced, as the music must not only support the storytelling but also ensure that authenticity is at the heart of any piece of work. Few are more trusted with such a responsibility than Nainita Desai, world-renowned film composer with almost 200 composition credits to her name. Her acclaimed work spans some of the most impactful documentaries of recent years, including The Deepest Breath, The Reason I Jump, 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible and What Jennifer Did  for Netflix.

I spoke with Nainita Desai from her home studio in South East London, where she reflected on her recent projects, the key figures who have shaped her artistic journey, and what she's anticipating at this year’s Sheffield DocFest. Her insights into the creative process and the distinct approach she takes with each film offered a compelling glimpse into the craft of one of documentary cinema’s most sought-after composers.

It looks like you’re in your studio, which looks very professional. Have you got vocal/sound booths for recording? 

No, I mean it's something I learned when working with Peter Gabriel, when I first started out in the industry. He devised this system of breaking down the barriers between musicians and producers or engineers. So, when I'm writing, and most composers over the last 20 years have a very similar setup, I’m in one room. I have space so I can bring people in, I could just about fit in a string quartet if I wanted. We all wear headphones and we're really quiet when we're recording; It’s fantastic, because I think it's important to have face to face, eye level contact. I’m in the room with the musicians and we can just communicate and get instant feedback really easily.

Peter Gabriel was the first to resist these big, fancy studios that have a physical barrier between the control room and recording area.. Of course, if you’re recording a large ensemble it’s different, but with the band in an intimate space,  you're jamming, you have great rapport, and that's really important to me.

What was it like working with Peter Gabriel? 

It was fantastic, I learned so much. He was my first mentor, if you like. I was his assistant music engineer at Real World and we were in these legendary studios near Bath where I got to work with incredible musicians. Coming through the doors were the likes of Nigel Kennedy, Papa Wemba, Billy Cobham. Sinead O'Connor came in to do some backing vocals. All these amazing engineers and producers like Daniel Lanois, who I was a big fan of.

That really kick started my career. I also learnt a lot from Peter about how to work with musicians. He's very good with people and knows how to nurture and bring out the best in musicians by creating an environment that's warm with a relaxed vibe.

It's so interesting thinking about where creativity and inspiration comes from. What are your earliest memories of music and has it always been a career goal of yours to make music? 

I learned the violin and the piano at school and was self-taught on the guitar. I wanted to be a singer and had a band playing 80s Hits such as covers of Sade and Duran Duran. All these amazing singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell etc. But then I also loved Musical Theatre and was performing in the school orchestra and singing in choirs from a young age.

But, for me, watching movies and listening to film scores was my form of escapism. That would transport me to another world. I never thought that being a composer and making a living out of composing music or writing film music was a thing that I could do, so I pursued music production and sound design as I was really into synths and technology. I got into the Film/TV industry as a sound designer initially then segue from film into music production and engineering with Peter Gabriel, and then finally into composing.

My first break was writing music for a Channel 4 show. A music supervisor asked whether I would be interested in writing the music for an episode of this new Travel, Adventure show called The Lonely Planet. And that was it.

That's amazing! And what’s your process like, do you have specific things that you do when you're starting to think about music for a film? 

So, I like to come on board as early as possible, but of course that's not always possible. Sometimes I get brought on right at the beginning of the edit or halfway through. I'm working on a feature doc for Netflix at the moment and they've been editing for seven months before I got brought on board; fairly late in the process. Sometimes when I'm working on feature docs, I'm on board for well over a year. On a film like For Sama, I was on that for a year and a half- two years;  I'm on that journey with the filmmakers. Especially when it comes to documentaries, you're finding the tone of the music as they're editing the film.I love to be able to conceptualize the score and find the sound palette from early on.

I see myself as a storyteller through music and the music is this hidden character in a project. So, you're telling the story through the music as well. And it can be, if you're given the freedom, a really strong character in the film.

So, to compare something like For Sama, where the music is fairly sparse in comparison to a film like 14 Peaks, or the Boyzone doc you recently scored, where music acts as more of a driving force. Did you feel that with For Sama you didn't want the music to do too much in telling the audience how to feel? 

Well actually, it was the opposite. For the first three months of the edit, the initial brief that I got from the directors was that they wanted it to sound like a Middle Eastern/Hollywood action/tension kind of score. I wrote about 80 tracks that were quite big and it felt quite cinematic; kind of a hybrid between Western and Middle Eastern sounds. But then there was a pause in the edit and they realized that the film wasn't quite working for them editorially and nobody could put their finger on why. The whole narrative approach of the film changed.

They realized that at the true heart of the film is the intimate relationship between a mother and her daughter. And of course, it's set during the Syrian revolution and you've got this epic, cinematic backdrop of the whole country in turmoil during  the revolution and the war.

When the film changed its narrative, the music that I had written up to that point no longer worked because it was just too rich and leading, so we went back to the drawing board.

The film is very raw and rough around the edges. It's all shot on a mobile phone on a home video camera and you've got 500 hours worth of footage being shaped and sculpted into this film. So we cracked the tone of the music by stripping it right back where it's very minimalist. We had to support the images and the storytelling in a very minimal way, and by doing that it actually draws the audience into the story by making you lean in, in a quieter way,  and therefore makes it a more immersive experience.

There's a scene in the film where they're driving through Aleppo in an open top vehicle and you hear all these explosions and shelling going on. Initially I had this big, thumping, driving track as they're driving through the city. We then stripped it all away to have this sparse drum beat playing. So, when you're watching the scene, you're thinking, “am I listening to music or am I listening to a bomb going off?” But it's actually as if there's the heartbeat of a drum and that makes it a much more integrated, immersive experience, because it makes you lean in and listen as opposed to just slapping the music on top of the images.

Also, authenticity is really important to me. So, I found this amazing Syrian violinist who was living in Italy at the time. The Syrian violin is not this pure, clean western, classical violin sound. It's very dirty, raw, edgy and gritty, and the sound that he made from his violin perfectly mirrored the city of Aleppo which is crumbling as you're watching it.

There's so much power in well-placed silence and I think that music is so instrumental in conveying emotion in the characters or the subjects. But it’s not always a good thing when music is really noticeable, you want music to support but not to overshadow.

If you've got a great editor and a director who really knows how to use music as a storytelling tool, then it can be incredibly effective and to me, silence is music as well. So, if you have silence and then come in with something really bold and distinctive, it can really shake you to the core. It can play a huge role in the film and the storytelling experience.

But then again, I recently scored a fantasy, action-adventure series on Amazon UK called Nautilus (it's coming out on AMC+ in the US June 29th). I created a big orchestral score using otherworldly sounds. It's also pretty non-stop music, which is a challenge in its own right because you're really taking the viewer on highs and lows and through different worlds and places. I was recording across  eight months on this project with the Synchron Stage Orchestra in Vienna which was a lot of fun. But, writing something like that which is not only very in your face, but also really closely written to picture, where you guide the audience on an adventure rollercoaster with themes, melodies and leit motifs is the complete opposite of something like For Sama, which has to be paired back.

I can imagine working on such a diverse range of projects must be an incredibly exciting part of your job. Is it ever a challenge to move quickly from project to project if one is wildly different to the other?

Yeah, it's a challenge, I must admit. But I like taking myself out of my comfort zone. I also get bored very quickly musically. So every story is different and I love creating a unique sound and sonic world for every project, even if that means that I’m having to start from scratch every time. I know a lot of composers out there are known for a particular sound or style. Despite the diversity  I think at the heart of it, there is a common thread that runs through all my work, which is authenticity and soul, being true to the story and just treating the subject with care. I also like melodies and being thematic when I get the opportunity.

I feel a strong connection with documentaries that have one central figure or two people, like The Deepest Breath, which is basically a love story of these two incredible individuals on an amazing life journey.

I’ve always loved scoring wildlife films as well, and natural history is incredibly close to my heart. Right now, of course, they’re particularly important stories because of the issues that are affecting our planet and I’m grateful to be a part of it. It means a lot to me to be involved in these subjects and bring them to the world to a wide audience.

How do you represent through music, the polarity between the beauty of nature on one hand and the responsibility of the human race to do something about the destruction of the planet?

For example, with Secrets of the Penguins, which is a show for a family audience, there's an amazing scene where 1,000s of penguins jump off a 50 ft cliff into the water. You see Killer whales waiting to prey upon them and naturally, the initial idea for the music was full of tension and slightly scary.

But, the Exec Producer was hesitant and said, we don't want to be scaring the audience right now. These are children watching it with their parents and grandparents, so it’s important to minimize the tension and instead make it thrilling and exciting. So there's a language thing here, when you're communicating with filmmakers, and there's a fine line when you're trying to convey these emotions and translate that into music.

On the other hand, for The Wild Ones on Apple TV, we observe three explorers travelling to the most remote regions of the world, where they are finding the rarest of animals that are all under threat of extinction, and the music for that is very electronic and quite subtle with organic electronics. It’s pared back and puts you in the moment, exposed to this really rough terrain and harsh landscape.

So, we have lots of discussions about how we're going to engage the audience in fresh and innovative ways. People are now looking to tell these wildlife stories differently and music is a really powerful way of engaging a younger audience, who are used to watching high end TV Dramas. So, in terms of airspace, these documentaries and wildlife shows are sitting alongside big budget series, meaning you have to use the same production values in terms of music. Also, audience tastes have changed, and that's all a part of how we evolve musically through changing trends.

So, I finally want to ask you what you're looking forward to about Sheffield this year?

Well, there’ll be a panel on the Boyzone series I scored for SKY, and then a film that I scored, which just premiered at SXSW London - Love and Rage: Monroe Bergdorf. Monroe Bergdorf is going to be at Sheffield herself as part of a panel, so I'm excited to see that.

I always look forward to all the International film premieres and there’s a talk with Joanna Natasaguera, which I’ll definitely be at - she’s an amazing documentary producer, who I've had the privilege of working with recently. Also, David Blaine is going to be there, launching a new TV show on Nat Geo, so I’m looking forward to seeing him !

Oooh also, there’s a great film YANUNI, which I want to see. It's about an indigenous chief in the Amazon. Another film I want to see is called A Century in Sound; it's about the history of Japan, told through their unique music cafes. It's where audiophiles go to meet up and they listen to music that they love - they have these all over the country. So I’m sure it will be a great festival; I’m very excited!

Nainita is at Doc Fest this year with her latest documentary Boyzone: No Matter What, which released in February 2025 on Sky Documentaries.

Cressie Higginson - Music Supervisor