The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Behind the Music: Unraveling 'The White Lotus' Composer's Dramatic Exit

• Molly McPherson

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In this episode the spotlight is on the unexpected exit of Cristobal Tapia de Vere, the brilliant mind behind the haunting score from the hit HBO series, The White Lotus. This episode examines the emotional and professional tensions that simmer beneath the surface of creative collaborations. Shifts in tone and style aren't just about art—they're about personal identity and control. When those elements clash, trust and communication often become the collateral damage.

Gain insight into how personal grievances can mutate into public challenges, especially in high-stakes environments. This episode serves a lesson about  defaulting to raw emotion in times of conflict while offering the key to maintaining strong, resilient relationships.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ego and Emotional Decisions: Personal emotions can heavily influence professional outcomes, especially in creative endeavors.
  • Private vs. Public Disputes: Addressing disagreements internally before they become public spats is crucial for maintaining professionalism.
  • Identity and Compromise: Balancing artistic integrity with audience expectations can lead to creative clashes and severed partnerships.

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© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Molly McPherson:

Did you catch the White Lotus finale this past weekend? No spoilers, I promised, but if you watched, you may have noticed something different, different in that season. It's not in the plot, not in the characters, but in the sound the music. Because just days before the finale aired music. Because just days before the finale aired Cristobal Tapia DeVere, the three-time Emmy winning composer behind the show's unforgettable score, announced he's leaving the show. Hey there, welcome back to the PR Breakdown. I'm your host, molly McPherson, and this past week it's all about the white lotus, the theme that I'm talking about. I can't play it because of copyright issues. You know what I'm talking about? The ooh-la-la-la-la-la music behind it. Is that even close? But it is part of popular culture. He's the guy behind that eerie, unhinged theme music that set the entire tone of the series and now he's out After a messy, creative fallout with showrunner creator director Mike White. There were interviews, metaphors, a leaked track on YouTube. But this wasn't just about a disagreement. It was an ego rupture and a masterclass in how standing your ground can sometimes mean lighting a match on your way out. So in this episode we're breaking it all down what happened behind the scenes, what it tells us about trust, creative identity and what the rest of us can learn from a very public, very musical PR split Late.

Molly McPherson:

Last week I happened to come across an article in the New York Times. The headline was screaming Composer of the White Lotus theme song won't return for season four. Subhead Cristobal Tapia DeVere's music was one of the breakout stars of HBO's Vacation Thriller, but in an exclusive interview the composer revealed that he had oohed his last Lulu. How can you not read with a headline and a subhead like that? I also knew that I had a live coming up on Substack and I thought I've just found my plot line for the live. This was an interview by Callie Holterman. They were originally supposed to speak about the upcoming finale and all about the music. However, tapia Devere took the opportunity to send that conversation a little sideways and he made a big bomb drop of an announcement. Now the composer. He's 51 years old, he was born in Chile. He joined a video call from his home in Quebec to discuss the score for season three, specifically how he reworked the main title theme, which did ignite somewhat of an online blowback fury among fans. When the season premiered in February, there were some people who felt that the season was a little slow. Now. Personally, I loved it, but the conversation that was supposed to be turned out to be something quite different because the composer was taking on the creative behind the show For this episode of the podcast.

Molly McPherson:

I'm going to pull some of the quotes behind the article and I'm going to share with you why this can be a rather destructive course of action when there is any type of disagreement which, hey, let's face, it isn't every crisis about some type of disagreement. This is what I say about most crises. They happen from within. It's usually a culture issue that seeps its way out and then collides with an external issue. So let's look at some of these quotes, the motivation perhaps behind them and a lesson that we can pull out from a communication point of view. And a lesson that we can pull out from a communication point of view and certainly from a life point of view. Here is one quote from Tapia Devere in the New York Times interview Quote this was like a rock band I've been in before where the guitar player doesn't understand the singer at all. That's not creative feedback, that's heartbreak. It signals that this wasn't a business disagreement, it was emotional.

Molly McPherson:

When creatives stop collaborating and start clashing, the work suffers, but so does the trust. Think of one of your favorite bands that split due to a disagreement. I'm going to go with the obvious one John Lennon, paul McCartney. It may have looked like creative differences from the outside, after all. Look at their music. Look at the direction John Lennon was going around the time of Let it Be Paul, partnered up with Lind Eastman, john Lennon, yoko Ono. It really became like a breakup. A relationship breakdown Happens a lot with creatives, but it can also happen in the business place. When the clash happens, that's when the work suffers, that's when the product suffers, but so does the trust.

Molly McPherson:

And when someone starts using metaphors like this in a press interview, it's a tell that it wasn't about the product, it was about the person. From a crisis comms perspective, metaphors matter. Think about when you hear metaphors in an argument. I'll let you know I'm a metaphor person. I'm an allegory person. I am always throwing those out. And when do I do it? When it's personal. But in this case, he framed the disagreement as a band breakup, so he's already told the public this wasn't rational, it was personal.

Molly McPherson:

Here's another quote. The question was how are you feeling now about the decision to move on Quote. It is what it is. I was watching the Emmys and it's. There's one thing I'm pretty proud of and that is I feel like I never gave up. Maybe I was being unprofessional, and for sure Mike feels that I was always unprofessional to him because I didn't give him what he wanted. But what I gave him did this, did those Emmys people going crazy? People don't remember, but at first some people were complaining about the music.

Molly McPherson:

Again, this is a case where it is about the emotion, the personal emotion, and when he describes why he chose the New York Times as his vehicle for getting back at Mike White. Listen to this quote and it might give you a little bit more insight. Quote I didn't tell Mike for various reasons. I wanted to tell him just at the end, for the shock and whatever. That's not strategy, that's emotional retribution. When you save your resignation for shock value, you're not being honest. You're blowing up the bridge and calling it clarity and from a PR standpoint it's reckless. You've signaled to every future collaborator when I'm upset, I go public before I go private. It may have been satisfying at the moment, and come on. It may have been satisfying at the moment, and come on. Are we kidding here Venting Nothing feels better than a good vent. However, all venting episodes are emotionally driven and any of those emotionally driven exits that you have in life, whether it's personal or professional, tends to come with strategic costs, which also comes with a reputational consequence.

Molly McPherson:

Then, during the interview, tapia DeVere gets into the artistry behind it. Here's where we can see deeper levels, deeper meaning, into the creative clash. The season three theme, if you were paying attention took a big turn Out with the vocals, in with the Thai gongs and chill, as he calls it, ibiza-style beats. His extended version got chopped down and he did not like the version that was used for the program Quote. There's literally no edge to it, it's just nice background music. That's not just a critique, that's a values clash. They took his artistry and they stripped it down. They didn't value him. Because to Tapia Devere, weird is meaningful To White. Maybe it was too much. Maybe for HBO they said, no, this is too crazy.

Molly McPherson:

And that's where a lot of creative breakdowns begin. One person defends risk as identity, while the other just wants something that's more accessible. Let's go back to the Beatles reference. Compare John Lennon's music with Yoko Ono. Aside from Happy Christmas, war Is Over, that's a great song. It's an iconic song, classic song. But think about those earlier songs with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Compare the song Let it Be technically written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but it was a Paul McCartney composition and compare it to Dig it also Lennon and McCartney, but primarily written by John Lennon. Two very different creative styles, two very different values that eventually led to the breakup, which, for Beatle Lore they were already broken up by the time Let it Be came out, but from a comms lens.

Molly McPherson:

This is where it gets tricky. What happens when your creative vision is your brand and someone edits it out? This is where you can understand Tapia Devere's point of view. He did not want his identity stripped. When your identity is tangled in your output, every compromise feels like erasure, every edit feels like a betrayal. So it's understandable from an artistic point of view why that is so challenging. So it's also understandable when you're in a comp shop, when you're in an office and someone takes your work and they tell you it's not good. If you've been writing something for days, if you've been working on copy, if you've been working on social copy, if you've been writing a response, if you've been writing a strategic plan and someone says, eh no, it's a different tone. You might want to stand your ground there so you can understand it. It's a values clash. This is where we can see where things are going south. Now, what happens when there is that personal, emotional, catastrophic thinking behind a crisis and you're starting to light the match and self-sabotage Tapia Devere did when there was some pushback from the premiere back in February?

Molly McPherson:

Some people were complaining that the episodes were a little slow. The plot was slow to come. People also had opinion about the theme music Because it was stripped down. It's understandable why he would feel the need to do this next move, which was this posting the entire extended version to YouTube. This is what he said in the New York Times article is that he had TMZ calling him. People were furious, so he uploaded it to his own channel, a channel where he has almost 7,000 subscribers. It was a great way to get the music out there. His YouTube blew up. He can monetize it. The fans got the real version.

Molly McPherson:

But let's be clear about this that move wasn't about transparency. It was about control. Transparency is when you let people in on information that impacts them. This was a move about him. It was about him controlling his reputation and his music. It was about using public sentiment as leverage. That is something that you are going to see in many of these emotional crises. Now, was that a powerful move, a petty one? Was that a powerful move, a petty one? Probably both, but it came with a cost. Any chance of keeping that creative partnership intact was gone. That was a breach. He went public before he went private, and that's the comms lesson when you go public before your team can go internal, you're not opening the conversation, you're ending it.

Molly McPherson:

Next, we can get some insight into what he was thinking, and this is the same type of emotion that you're going to see in a lot of these crises. This is an example of what I see all the time when I'm working with clients. So the question from the reporter was what direction were you given for the season three theme Enlightenment? Tapia Devere says there was no direction. When I started working on this, I had a collection of Thai gongs that were unrelated to the show, so I started experimenting with that, and then I started looking for someone to play the Saw you, which is a Thai violin, which in the theme happens in the beginning, and then his mom sent him an accordion, an Italian accordion, and then he goes on to explain it with great detail, how he brought that theme to life. There was a lot of thinking there.

Molly McPherson:

This type of explanation is the kind that justifies the act, the act of retaliation. And here he starts to explain that justification. Part of the quote was maybe I was being unprofessional, and this is his interactions with Mike White and also what he did with the theme music. But what I gave him those Emmys, people going crazy it was worth all the tension.

Molly McPherson:

Think about a time when you were in conflict with someone or where you witnessed conflict and someone blows it all up. And then they come back and they justify I had to do it, I had to say it, I had to be the person to do that. It is that big venting session where you have to get it all out and then you have to justify it. Now, in this case, for him it was the artist's dilemma. But when does conviction turn into sabotage and when does a bold move stop being brave and start being bitter? He felt misunderstood, he felt shut out and instead of staying silent, he let the music speak for itself. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it wrecks the bridge you're standing on.

Molly McPherson:

Just because something was popular, just because something worked, and, in his case, just because something wins awards doesn't mean it won't lose relationships, and sometimes both matter. Think about the cost Before you blow something up, before you allow someone in your leadership to blow something up, think about the cost. In this case, this wasn't just a composer leaving a show. It was a live performance of what happens when emotion drives the exit strategy. This is the case of a incredibly popular show and one that had its season finale on April 6, 2025. And a few days before the finale, this New York Times article drops. This was strategic.

Molly McPherson:

The composer didn't just leave the White Lotus. He made his departure a musical act of protest. Tapia DeVere wanted to leave with a mic drop. Yes, the music lives on YouTube and yes, it will live in seasons one, two and three, but it also lives in the headlines, and it also lives as a reminder that when collaboration turns into combat, the first thing to go is trust. You can be brilliant, you can be bold, but when you let ego narrate the exit, the message gets distorted and so does your legacy.

Molly McPherson:

For more PR breakdowns like this one every week on Substack, I dive deeper into the stories behind the headlines the PR misfires, the trust collapse and the brand defining moments that go big and go bomb. You'll get weekly episodes, bonus trainings, live Q and A's and a front row seat to how real strategy unfolds in real time. You can follow me at Molly McPherson and you can subscribe to my publication on Substack. That's the PR Breakdown. You can find that at prbreakdownmedia. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. I hope to see you back here next week. Bye for now.

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