Let's face it, nothing on Earth is bringing people joy as much as Crave's hockey romance series Heated Rivalry right now. That goes for all of its fans across the world, but also the people that worked on the series. Like Peter Peter, who wrote the original score for the show.
"It's so touching," he tells iHeartRadio's Ruby Carr. "At first the show was so naked. You can see the rough footage, so you see actors, and the more I worked on it the more genuinely touched I was by the characters. I became really attached to them."
Like most people, the 41-year-old musician from Québec City (real name Peter Roy) was surprised to see the series become the hottest thing on TV in such a short period of time. But he's been surprised ever since he was first asked to work on it.
"One morning I woke up and I had an unread message on Instagram. It was Jacob Tierney, the creator of the show who had adapted Heated Rivalry to the TV series from the books," he explains. "He wrote me and he was like, “Hi, I'm a fan of yours and I'm working on this screenplay right now. I'm listening to your latest album on a loop and I thought maybe it'd be cool if you would be part of this project. Or would you be interested in doing screen composition?' I said yes, so then he was like, 'Okay, if ever we find a network and if we move forward with the project, I'll let you know' And two months later, he messaged me again and he was like, 'Let's talk.'”
Despite having released five studio albums, Roy had never written an original score before. So he came into the project learning along the way.
"I didn't know what to expect," he continues. "I knew that he kind of liked my music. So I was like, 'Hey, at least he likes part of my DNA. So we'll see where it goes.' But I didn't know what to expect, that's for sure. Like, was it just that I write a bunch of songs and they adapt it to the screen? I didn't really know. It was way more work than that; it was a challenge."
So Roy changed up the process from his usual one, playing around with styles and genres until he could get a sense of what felt right. It wasn't until he started watching the show that things began to click for him.
"When I was reading the scripts, I had ideas. I started working on demos, everything from ambient music to hardcore EDM stuff," Roy says. "[Jacob] didn't impose me anything. I had no obligation. So I was really out there making music. One day I received the first footage of the show, and I was like, 'Ahh, so what I've done doesn't really match the energy I felt. Okay I'll start from scratch.' So I kept a few ideas, a few themes here and there, and I made synth patches that I thought could fit the show. I really I sat down with the images and was just looping them and just playing music, jamming on it until it became one at some point."
Like many of the hardcore fans, Roy has his favourite moments from the show. A lot of them bring back memories for him of all the hard work he put into the project over a relatively short period of time.
"The rooftop scene is great. The cottage obviously is great, at the lake. I really enjoyed making music for the song called ‘Inferno,’ where they're in in the penthouse," he admits, of the pulsating techno track. "It was just so fun to work on these scenes, [but] it's all blurry memories for me because it was tons of work. I was working for two months. When I received the footage, I had basically between seven to 10 days to compose and give the definitive versions of my production. So it was lots of bonding with the scene but lots of good moments. It's why people are so attached to the show. There's so much going on."
While Roy can't say he expected Heated Rivalry to become the global sensation that it is, he knew it was special from the start.
"When I started working on it I had faith in the show," he confesses. "When I hopped on the call with Jacob and he presented the project to me I was like, ‘This guy is great. He's very charismatic, he's got a great aura around him.’ So I trusted him right away. And I was like, ‘This will be a good project. This is something that will find its way into people's hearts.’ But I thought it would be more of a niche project. Because usually when I like something a lot it fails commercially. So I didn't really know what to expect. I knew that it would be good at some point, but nobody could plan [for it to be] such a hit."
Initially, he thought it would be a one-and-done gig. Now he's excited to see where it will go.
"[Originally I was like] ‘I'm going to do my first gig on TV. I'm going to be this kind of ghost writer, in my corner in the shadow and I will write music for the show," he says. "And then when I'll deliver the music that’s [the] end of the story. I thought that was what would happen. And it's become a bit of a full-time job right now. So it's great. I just had so much trust and faith in the project that I was like, ‘Ah, that'll be fun.’ But it became like something bigger."
As for what's next, Roy is tight-lipped about the show's future plans.
"I can't disclose anything, but we're talking and it's very positive," he explains. "I've been in the entertainment business for a while, so I don't take anything for granted. Even when something is signed, I'm so pessimistic that I'm always like, ‘Is it going to happen?’ But it's very positive right now."
Whatever happens, Roy knows his involvement with Heated Rivalry is a real game-changer for his career. Before he was a critically-acclaimed indie Francophone artist, and now his music is being heard every day by millions of people across the world.
"The internet is a hell of a thing," he says. "I've been releasing records for a few years but I’ve had never had so many messages to a point where I can't read them all. It's crazy. I read a lot of them but it just keeps coming. People are genuinely touched and I'm very happy that the music didn't interfere with their love they had for the show because it would have been my worst fear when scoring a show. Just to be intrusive and just to ruin it all. So I guess I'm very happy with what I accomplished because the fans, they look at the music like being part of the show. So it's cool."
Watch the full interview below.