ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Some people have been waiting for this for a long time - the return of "The X-Files" to television. It happens on Sunday night, and the old gang is back - stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and the creator, Chris Carter. Tim Greiving says so is the guy who created the show's signature sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE X-FILES" THEME SONG)
TIM GREIVING, BYLINE: For nine years, that theme had an almost Pavlovian effect on TV junkies addicted to the paranormal adventures of FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. But in the beginning, it was just a job for composer Mark Snow.
MARK SNOW: So I get the assignment - you're doing "The X-Files." I said, fine. You know, it was just another pilot.
GREIVING: Snow was already an old pro when "X-Files" creator Chris Carter first approached him back in 1993.
CHRIS CARTER: I was looking for something that, you know, boy scouts could hum at the camp fire, you know, as a scary song and, you know, something akin to "The Twilight Zone."
GREIVING: The composer had scored plenty of detective shows, drama series, comedies and TV movies. He was born Martin Fulterman in Brooklyn just after World War II and graduated from Julliard, where the young drummer co-founded a band with his friend and fellow composer Michael Kamen called New York Rock AND Roll Ensemble.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEW YORK ROCK AND ROLL ENSEMBLE SONG)
GREIVING: But none of Mark Snow's previous experiences quite prepared him for "The X-Files." Chris Carter says find the right theme music took a few tries.
CARTER: Mark would send me things, and I'd say, not quite; no, I don't think so. I said to him, you know, there's a song that I love. I just love these guitars. Listen to this song, and see if it inspires something. And the song is by The Smiths, called "How Soon Is Now?".
(SOUNDBITE OF THE SMITHS SONG, "HOW SOON IS NOW?")
GREIVING: Snow listened to everything Carter sent him, but eventually had more luck just monkeying around.
SNOW: I put my elbow down on the keyboard, and I had this effect on the piano. It was an echo delay effect, which turned out to be the accompaniment figure in the theme that went (imitating "The X-Files" theme song) - that part. So I thought, oh that's a nice little accompaniment figure. What could be the other parts of it?
GREIVING: For the melody itself, he tried synthesized violin, flute, piano, but none of them were right.
SNOW: Then I found this whistle sound, and I tried it.
GREIVING: It was an old Proteus sample called "Whistling Joe."
SNOW: My wife heard it and says, well, that's pretty interesting; what's that? And I said, well, I'm just fooling around with this new theme. She said, you know, I'm a good whistler, too (laughter). Maybe I could beef it up a little bit.
GREIVING: Yes, that's Snow's wife beefing up the now-iconic theme.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE X-FILES" THEME SONG)
GREIVING: It wasn't exactly what "X-Files" creator Chris Carter had anticipated.
CARTER: It has none of those guitars in it. But what it has in it is that signature whistle.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE X-FILES" THEME SONG)
GREIVING: When Fox ordered six new episodes of "The X-Files," Chris Carter had Snow on speed dial for the music.
SNOW: I said, do we need to talk about this? And he said, no, just do what you think is right. You've been doing it for a long time. My idea was to incorporate some of the old, classic sound things that I did in the past that some fans might recall, plus a lot of more updated sounds and samples.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREIVING: But Snow didn't want to stray too far from that '90s synthetic sound, which was such an integral part of the original 200-plus episodes and two feature films. And Chris Carter says that sound was key.
CARTER: Oftentimes, what scares you most on "The X-Files" is not what you see, it's what you hear. And Mark helps to build those moments. He helps to, of course, emphasize the drama, set the mood and tone. But it really is essential to the scariness of the show.
GREIVING: And the show has been just as essential to Mark Snow's creative work.
SNOW: Other TV series I've done, you know, it's basically the same thing every week, same kind of sound, you know? And those are - they're certainly good gigs, but just in terms of the wonderful, open-ended, creative world of "The X-Files" for me has been, and hopefully continues to be, just pure magic.
GREIVING: Maybe the truth, to paraphrase a line from the show, is in the music. For NPR News, I'm Tim Greiving in Los Angeles.