Hi Deana, thank you so much for joining us!  I’m excited to be speaking with you.  I’d love to start by hearing a bit about your background- how you got into music and composing and where it’s taken you thus far.

I’ve been lucky to grow up with music as a core aspect of my whole life. My dad, who is also a composer, never forced us to learn anything, but being surrounded by so much of it ended up leading us to engage with it somehow.

Composing has been a very different way for me to interact with music. I have a background in songwriting so using someone else’s art to guide the way the music sounds was and still is an illuminating experience.

You often co-compose with your family (and others including Gustavo Santaolalla)- what is that process like for you?  How does your style change when working solo vs. collaborating with others (or does it?)  What is something unique that you bring to the Kiner sound?

Co-composing is a constant learning experience. Having to interact and implement different perspectives helps me to constantly grow and think of new ways to do things, even when it’s with family members I’ve been collaborating with for years now.

We’re all unique, us Kiners, but I like to think my music has a kind of textural aspect that adds a certain character to our sound.

Season 3 of Dark Winds is currently streaming on AMC+! Can you tell us about the show and score, how it has changed over the 3 seasons, and what makes the music of S3 distinct to the season?

Dark Winds is about a Navajo detective named Joe Leaphorn having to balance his duty to his people, his relationships with the people he cares about, and being Native American in a position that isn’t taken seriously by white law.

We approach the music for it with a desire to play the humanity and story first and foremost. Organic instruments tend to play a crucial role, whether it’s guitar or a kind of percussion, it all serves to connect us to the characters and the emotions they grapple with.

Each season has a specific color to it depending on who the villain is. That’s always helpful when we want a way to expand the sound of the show, while keeping the main parts of the music consistent to our core characters. season 3 has gone into some interesting horror elements that weave in between emotional beats of trauma and family. It’s a joy to participate on the show.

I love your solo work under your artist name alas, i am myself. Your sax and guitar writing/playing is so tight! Can you tell us more about this project- where it came from, where it is going?

alas, i am myself came about as an outlet for me to create something with no strings attached. No need to serve my songwriter instincts of structure and lyrical form, and no need to serve picture. Just ideas that flowed out from my sax, which has become my most comfortable instrument to play.

I have an album in the process of being finished that expands into orchestral movements and simple duets that I’m very excited to complete and put into the world.

Recently you and your fellow Kiners scored House of David (Prime) which is also a great score but super different from the aforementioned Dark Winds. Can you speak to the sound of House of David- how y’all arrived at the sound and what the project was like to work on?

House of David ‘s score is the result of very close collaboration between us and Jon Gunn. he asked us to try to create something that bounces from the vastness of scope and destiny, to the intimate moments of human connection. We feel proud to have accomplished that in the score we created for the first season.

What are you excited by these days? Anything exciting or fun on the horizon? Life or work-wise?

These days the world of video games has some of the most interesting story telling, specifically by smaller studios that persevere in an industry that can tend to overlook them. I love seeing a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 catch fire because they really deserve to.

For myself I’m hoping that I can take a vacation soon, lol.

Interview by Connor Cook

Check Out Deana’s Directory page Here