The Songs of ‘Excessive College’: Tegan & Sara Sequence Nods to ’90s Alt-Rock

The soundtrack to Freevee collection “Excessive College,” based mostly on the memoir by Canadian twin sister pop duo Tegan and Sara Quin higher often called Tegan and Sara, is a coming-of-age drama full of wall-to-wall ’90s needle drops.

Says showrunner, author and director Clea DuVall: “A variety of the needle drops had been within the writing of the script, and that grew to become an necessary constructing block.”

In all, some 70 songs seem within the present, a process dealt with deftly by music supervisor Brienne Rose.

Rose and DuVall choose their favorites from the primary season.

“Mindless Apprentice” by Nirvana

Rose: There have been quite a lot of conversations early on and we thought, “OK, we’re going to go after it and let’s hope we get these.” We talked lots about what the strategy was going to be. I feel what actually helped us get in was the work is great. So, we went out to the property and mentioned, we not solely wished to make use of the music however quite a lot of the music as a result of it was so informative and necessary for the women of their musical journey. Tegan and Sara put collectively a good looking letter, that had photographs of them in highschool, and that was necessary for Nirvana, and we went into depth about how integral the sound had been.

“The Waitress” by Tori Amos

Rose: It was a particular music as a result of we had been going into the mother’s world. It ended up being a beautiful negotiation. As quickly as we defined the place she was coming from and she or he’s singing alongside on this scene. We needed to have that one early and it’s this necessary piece, nevertheless it was simple to get.

DuVall: I like how this music begins that story. It has such great vitality to it. That’s additionally my favourite Tori Amos music, so it was enjoyable to have the ability to use it.

“Final Day of Our Acquaintance” by Sinead O’Connor

Rose: That was one other necessary one to clear early on. It doesn’t simply shut out that scene, it closes out all the present, weaves all the pieces collectively and builds the stress. It elevates all the pieces. Nevertheless it took a really very long time [to clear] and we pushed on that. Finally, they got here round and mentioned sure. I felt like we might breathe after that.

DuVall: That music spoke to what everybody was going by way of. We thought of different songs however “Final Day of Our Acquaintance” encapsulated all the pieces. It doesn’t matter what occurred on the finish of the episode, nobody would ever be the identical.

“Souvlaki House Station” by Slowdive

Rose: Slowdive had been such an awesome ‘90s band and disappeared for 20 years, and got here again with an awesome album. This performs within the first episode and it captures one thing isolating and disorienting about them going to a brand new college.

“At this time” by Smashing Pumpkins

Rose: The third episode begins with Sara taking part in Smashing Pumpkins and simply cuts to the music “At this time.” I grew up with that music and it was a giant a part of my expertise rising up.