In an era where TV theme songs are often brief or non-existent, Outlander set itself apart with its haunting version of the Scottish folk piece “The Skye Boat Song.”
Arranged by the show’s composer, Bear McCreary, the original series features a now iconic version of the Gaelic song as sung by Raya Yarbourgh (and re-recorded by the late Sinead O’Connor). So when it came time to create a prequel series, creator Matthew B. Roberts knew they had a lot to live up to.
“We told Bear, ‘We want something that feels different, but the same,” Roberts tells Entertainment Weekly. “Initially, I thought maybe it would just be an instrumental, but then we thought, ‘No, let’s, let’s go with a song.’ But we want it to feel different.
STARZ
Sam Retford as Dougal MacKenzie and Seamus McLean Ross as Colum MacKenzie on ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’
“We wanted it to have two parts because there’s two couples,” he continues, “so we wanted to feel like there was two parts to it.”
Rather than turning to another classic folk song, this time composer Bear McCreary and his brother wrote “For My Love That’s Lost,” which plays over the stirring opening titles.
Sanne Gault/Starz
Harriet Slater as Ellen MacKenzie and Jamie Roy as Brian Fraser on ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’
It was important to Roberts and his co-showrunner and executive producer, Maril Davis, that this song also capture more of the warfare and action present in Blood of My Blood. “We wanted a romantic part,” she tells EW. “Because obviously, the Skye Boat song is very romantic from start to finish. But this time we wanted something that had some energy to it, with the drums and everything, going back to Clanadonia, which is this street band in Glasgow that we’ve always loved.”
Adds Roberts, “I said, ‘I want drums in this. I want to feel that beat. And boy, he delivered, didn’t he?”
The new song also has a fun connection to the world of Scottish storytelling. Julie Fowlis, who provided the singing voice for Merida in Pixar’s Brave, does the vocals here.
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Fans can watch the opening titles and hear the new song on YouTube now or wait to see it in context when Outlander: Blood of My Blood premieres Friday, Aug. 8, on the Starz app. The series will also air on the network at 8 p.m ET/PT.
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