Dave Porter’s studio may seem cramped, but the electronics that clutter the walls have a particular purpose: providing the score for the fifth and final season of AMC’s acclaimed show “Breaking Bad,” which premieres Aug. 11. “In these final eight [episodes], I was able to revisit some things from past episodes that I wanted to bring back musically,” says Porter, who has scored the show since it started in 2008. “I didn’t hold anything back. We went in with barrels blazing.”
In the composer’s 3-year-old space, a converted garage behind his home in Los Angeles’ suburban Studio City neighborhood, Porter keeps an army of synthesizers at arm’s length. He most recently replaced an ARP 2600 from the 1970s with the wholly analog Cwejman S1 MK2. A John Bowen Synth Design Solaris keyboard is another recent addition that will be featured heavily in the final season’s score. “‘Breaking Bad’ provided me an opportunity to get very deep into synths in a way some other project wouldn’t,” he says. ?
Most of the synthesizers are analog. “For me, they’re all interesting and have their own colors,” Porter says. To demonstrate, he sits at his main keyboard controller, showing off the early New Order sounds of a rack-mounted Voyetra 8 synth and, as a tease, an ominous tone left over from the final episode of “Breaking Bad.”
?Despite its small size, Porter often records live instruments in the studio with a Neumann microphone, supplementing his electronic work with session players on renaissance and ethnic instruments, various percussion pieces and, as “Breaking Bad” has grown darker in tone, more guitar. “It’s about being spare in the grand scheme,” he says. “For those ‘walking in the desert’ shots you need [to leave] a significant amount of space. When we have these very intense confrontations, the actors and writing are so strong that my job is not to point out anything specific; it’s just to slowly ratchet up everything underneath these guys.”
?Porter wrapped the recording, mixing and editing of the “Breaking Bad” score in mid-July, and is expected to join a new series in the fall. His squad of synthesizers will inevitably have a big role in that score as well. “No matter what, technology will be a part of whatever I do as a composer,” he says. “Even if I were writing for a string quartet, I would find a way to involve technology—just because it’s my passion.”