Let’s give him an “E”!
Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but come on. The prolific musical polymath, actor and activist FINNEAS O’Connell is already half of the way to an EGOT at the age of 28. Thanks primarily to his generational work with his sister, whom you may have heard of, FINNEAS is already the holder of 11 Grammys. And thanks to “No Time to Die” (from the James Bond film of the same name) and the exquisite “What Was I Made For?” (from Barbie), he and Billie Eilish are the youngest ever recipients of two Oscars.
He just might have his Emmy by 29.
As of this week, his hat should be considered to be in the Emmy ring, as the man behind the score to the voraciously awaited season two of BEEF, Netflix’s anthology dive into haves, have-nots and pretend-haves jockeying to get theirs in a time of late-stage capitalism. The series returns on Thursday (April 16) with an entirely new storyline and cast, led by Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny as couples from different generations facing financial, sexual and emotional challenges.
Like its debut season, BEEF uses one violent incident as a jumping-off point into a tale of secrets, scams, manipulations and revelations, culminating in a wild, action-packed finish in Korea. If it’s an all-new story, it’s no less fraught than its predecessor (and, at times, darkly comedic). It was FINNEAS’ job, through what he says were hundreds of hours spent with the series over the past year, to capture that agita in sound. The result is electronic, brooding, jagged and contemplative: 32 tracks make up the soundtrack album, released this week by A24.
It’s FINNEAS’ fourth score. In 2022 he took the musical reins on Megan Park’s The Fallout, followed by B.J. Novak’s directorial debut Vengeance — and, in 2024, Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple+ series Disclaimer. Each work, in its own way, told a story with tensions often dialed up to 11, and such is the case with BEEF.
The difference this time is that due to the success of the show’s first season, more ears than ever will be on FINNEAS’ score. Which is why you shouldn’t be surprised if, come September, he doesn’t have a winged woman to put on his shelf next to all those gramophones and a pair of naked men. (FINNEAS even dons his actor’s hat for a brief and funny BEEF cameo in a later episode of the season, as a blunt, jerky version himself.)
It’s hard not to root for him. Never mind his ridiculous talent, he’s one of those rarest of 21st century figures: a major musician under 30 who does not shrink from speaking out about socio-politics, the things that matter in dark times. Conspicuously refusing to heed the infamous suggestion once offered to the Chicks that they “shut up and sing,” FINNEAS is a refreshing reminder that you don’t have to be a septuagenarian icon (and God bless our national treasures Bruce Springsteen and Robert De Niro for doing what they do) to stand up and show out.
Little wonder that he’s drawn to a project like BEEF, which beneath the drama and the laughs, offers a trenchant critique of an “everyone for themselves” world steeped in inequity. The new season underscores injustice more than ever, including, in an especially affecting hospital sequence, the sorry state of health care in America.
Here’s what FINNEAS has to say about BEEF, awards and speaking out.
I have plenty to ask you about the music — but first, I want to ask about your cameo. Was that planned from the beginning, or did it come about later on in the process?
I act, so I think that’s on the table. But also, because this show takes place largely at this country club and it’s in California — and the show is largely about privilege and class differences — part of the way they are able to hammer home the environment of the country club is to have people that are in the entertainment industry pop up and make basically unlikable cameos. That was certainly what made it fun for me to do. It was like, “Do you want to play a really pompous, douche-y version of yourself?” and I was like, “Of course!”
There’s also Benny Blanco, Michael Phelps, and a couple of other cameos. But it’s all really callous versions of ourselves. A friend of mine was like, “Do you get uncomfortable playing a s–tty version of yourself?” And I was like, “No I feel awesome about it!” I would feel so much more self-conscious if I was playing an amazing version of myself. It would just feel weird to me, like, “Oh this guy is the best,” sort of like it was a vanity project. So to play a very unlikable version of myself was a treat.
With this show about to premiere along with your soundtrack, is it a different feeling than a pop album? The audience for a soundtrack is probably not the same people who would be interested in For Cryin’ Out Loud!, your 2024 solo LP. Is it a different feeling, in that sense?
I happen to be proud of this music even on its own, outside of the show. I enjoyed making it, I enjoy listening to it, so I am excited that other people get to listen to it. For me, I remember the Oppenheimer score coming out like a week before the film, and I didn’t listen to it on purpose until I had seen the film, in a weird way because I didn’t want to spoil it. I wanted to hear that piece of music during that scene, for the first time, and absorb it that way. And then when I listen to the soundtrack I’m able to see the movie in my head.
We put out one single [“Vicious Thoughts”] and I’m glad we chose that single. Though it is at the end of the show, it was a piece that I wrote while they were still filming, and I gave it to Sonny [BEEF creator Lee Sung Jin]. For Sonny it was a piece that he was able to write to and edit to, so I think that it made sense to give that little preview to people before the rest of it comes out. But you’re totally right, it’s a smaller base of an audience and it all hinges on, “Did you watch the show? Did you enjoy the show? Do you want to go listen to the music?”
And that’s my relationship with soundtracks I love. I watch Stranger Things and I go, “Damn, this music is awesome!” and I watch White Lotus and it’s the same thing. I’m not like, “I’m just gonna listen to soundtracks right now!” I watch the show, and love it, and then I listen to the album.
One of the things included in “Vicious Thoughts” is this four-note progression that is throughout a lot of the soundtrack. It turns up in some pivotal and moving scenes. Can you talk about that little bit of music and why it’s recurring?
The short answer is I’m obsessed with melody. That to me is the great that score can do, this kind of seam. You think about all the John Williams themes, the Star Wars theme, the Indiana Jones theme, the Jurassic Park theme, the Harry Potter theme. It’s melody. It’s these little themes and it takes you somewhere, immediately. So there’s lots of pieces in this season that are synth pads and percussion layers, and sub bass and stuff. Where it made sense, there are these themes. There’s an “Ashley scheming” theme, there’s an Austin-Ashley relationship thing that you hear in the first and second episode, there’s these little moments.
So after The Fallout, Vengeance and Disclaimer, this is your fourth score. Have you changed the way that you do it? Are you more confident, like “I know how to drive this car” in a way that you didn’t six years ago?
Sure, of course. I’m very focused on not getting fired. I’m definitely not at a place yet where I’m picking fights with the filmmakers that I’m working with. If I disagree with something, I will say that, but I won’t be emotional about it. I’ll just be like, “I like this one better.” My experience so far is that each director-filmmaker has worked their own way.
How did you come to be a part of this? Did Sonny reach out to you?
Sonny and I took a meeting with each other in general, right around when we were on the Barbie awards circuit, and they were on the BEEF season one awards circuit. It’s mutual interest. I loved that season of BEEF and I think Sonny’s an awesome guy, and he really likes Billie’s music a lot. So we just had this really fun coffee. We talked about this and that. Months went by and somebody on my team was like, “Would you be interested in exploring maybe scoring the new season of BEEF?”
And at the time, off the back of Disclaimer, I had told my team, “I don’t wanna score anything for a while,” ‘cause it really does wipe you out. It’s so fun, but it’s so much work that when you finish, you want to be done. You don’t want to jump right into another project. So they said, “We know you said you’re kind of on a break, but would you like to do BEEF?” And I was like, “Yeah I’d love to,” ‘cause I loved that first season, and I knew this was gonna be a new season. It wasn’t continuing the characters from the previous thing, so I understood why they were even interested in a new composer.
I thought the music from season one [scored by Bobby Krlic of The Haxan Cloak] was great. But I thought, “Well, if everything is new, then that makes sense. It should all be this new thing.”
Was there any desire to differentiate it from the music in season one, or to in some way be consistent with that season?
There were abstracts that I could be inspired by. I thought there was a lot of momentum in that music, and a lot of anxiety, propulsion. So I wanted those things to be true for my music. But I thought when I watched season one, “Aww, man, that music is so perfect for these characters in these rooms with this story.” Season two, it’s totally different characters, a totally different story – what’s gonna be the perfect music for them?
Right off the bat, Oscar Isaac’s character has this vintage synth that he’s obsessed with in his man cave. I’m like, “Okay cool, so we know he’s gonna play that at some point. That’ll be funny. What if I use this vintage Moog synth more? What if I play it more throughout the rest of the score of the show?” Or “Okay, we’re at a country club.” When I’ve been to golf courses and country clubs in my life, there’s always water running. There’s always a sprinkler system going “ch-ch-ch-ch-ch.” I’m like, “Let me sample that, let me go record that, let me work that into the soundtrack of the show.” It’s less about repeating or differentiating and more about, “What in the show am I being inspired by?”
As you say, it’s a whole new story. This time, one centering these two couples who are pretty much a generation apart but both facing real challenges. As someone who’s been in a long-term relationship, did that appeal to you?
Yes, of course. I think that I’m a little bit between the couples, in some way, and then I’m more privileged than both couples in my career success. But I don’t know. We grew up broke, and I remember the constant anvil over your head. Everything I ever did, I had to be on scholarship or financial aid. Growing up, money was tight. So that resonated with me, and it seemed authentic and genuine.
I’m engaged now [to fiancée Claudia Sulewski], but we’ve been together for many, many years. The two couples are Josh and Lindsay, who are Oscar and Carey, have been together for many, many years, they’re in their forties and haven’t had kids. And then, Austin and Ashley, they’ve basically just gotten together. They’ve been in a relationship for a year and a half: they’re already engaged, the wedding is ahead of them, and they’re talking about having kids. I’m sort of between those two couples. So I understand and empathize with both. I think the show makes you empathize with both couples and also hate the actions that they take to get what they want.
I know that awards and such are not why you do this, or even interest you much…
Yeah.
And I am not super well versed in the Emmys, which means I had to do a little research into exactly what category you might be up for. I found…
Well, dude, that means you know more about this stuff than I do. So educate me! I want to learn.
Outstanding music composition for a limited or anthology series. That’s the category it would be. Last year’s winner was Penguin, and the last few years have been Lessons In Chemistry, White Lotus, Queen’s Gambit. I’m just saying that I think you go to the head of the class in terms of consideration…
Aww.
Partly due to factors that maybe should not be factors. But the visibility of BEEF, it’s probably the most high-profile project you’ve done. And frankly, you having somewhat of a name, I am just saying that you might need to make room between the two naked gold men for a winged woman on your shelf come September.
Well listen, that means a lot. I think that my relationship, having been nominated for, not an Emmy, but some awards before, is that the real excuse of all of it is that I really am passionate about the work. I think any form of events you put on – any “for your consideration” stuff, just like talking to you right now – it’s just an excuse to talk to somebody about something that we’re both enthusiastic about and educated on, is an amazing excuse. I’ve won awards, I’ve lost awards, but being nominated in and of itself has been a real gift. That’s meaningful.
Also, winning or losing: when I’ve won, I don’t think, “Aha! This means I am better than the artists that I was nominated against.” If anything it makes me feel a little self-conscious, like, “I’m not better than….” They inspire me! And the same deal, when I’ve lost awards, I don’t think, “Well, there it is, that person’s better.”
You’re not yet 30 and could be three quarters of the way to an EGOT by 29. And I know there is Broadway in FINNEAS’ future.
[Laughs.] Well, I’ll tell you what, there’s Broadway in my future, fingers crossed, because I love musical theater. But the same deal with all of this, just working in these fields is the reward. Getting to write songs for a musical is the reward, in and of itself.
You have to remember how much luckier I’ve gotten than I hoped I would get in my life. I’m so lucky that to be anything but just shocked and grateful all the time is not in my nature. I really walk around and am like, “Damn!” Even when I went to the premiere of this show, I was like, “This is crazy!” On a show like BEEF that’s talking about what it’s like to be a young, struggling American person? In a country with no universal health care…
I love it that that comes up.
Yeah, the health care episode, to me – I read the first four episodes when I was being considered for the project and I was like, “Oh man.” I had an experience a couple of years ago. I obviously have health care, but I had an urgent care experience, and you walk into urgent care, they don’t care if you have health insurance, they’re like, “Sit down and shut up.” And I get it. But I don’t know. I thought the whole thing was reflective of our times.
The sadness of all of this is that it’s all layered on top of the complicated human experience of trying to navigate a relationship and navigate your life, and then you’re like, “Damn, I have an ovarian cyst, and I don’t have health care!” And that takes over your life when you were already perfectly busy before.
We could go on and on about issues, health care is just one thing. Do you think the default position of many young artists, which is just being quiet, is – at this moment in time – an acceptable choice for someone who has a platform reaching millions of people?
I’ll tell you my position of empathy toward other people. Much like this show, which is really dealing with people in a system that is challenging, and oppressive at times, and structured to benefit the rich and powerful. And you see these people, for better or worse, really adapt to their environment, and sometimes succumb to the same petty greediness that they resent at the beginning of it.
You’ve protested, you’ve spoken out on socials. And I know there are risks to it, and maybe I don’t even appreciate how real the risk is, ‘cause I’m just a writer.
I think that I probably do it in a way that I think, “This is just the right thing to say, everybody’s gotta say this.” And then you’re like, “Wow, some people really disagree with that and not only do they really disagree, but they’re furious that that’s being said!” And you know, so be it. We do still live in a country where we’re told we have free speech, and that is important to me.
And I’ll tell you what. I was talking to a person, Janelle Monáe, who I’m a huge fan of, and I’ve gotten to participate in a couple of her philanthropic endeavors. She does these things called Wondalunch, where she hands out food and supplies to people who face food insecurity, who need all the help they can get. I’ve gotten to participate in that. My feeling is that, for me, participating in events like that, protesting, going to an event where I am able to provide services to people – that makes me feel so good. I also am lucky to make music, and to give that music, to put that album on sale, and to go out on tour. I’m trying to do the best I can for the audience member, if that makes sense.
So those are the two divides in my life. Like, I feel very selfish in a positive way about how good I feel when I’m giving away food or money or providing awareness to something. It makes me feel good, and so I think that’s why I continue to do it.
Are you the kind of person that has the rest of 2026 all plotted out? Do you know what you’ll be doing every month?
Less so than most. The big-ticket items on my calendar are I am working with Billie on a bunch of new music, which I am very excited about. I’m getting married this year, which I’m excited about. Those are the two main things I am working on, and then I’ll play some shows toward the very end of the year that will be announced in a couple of weeks.
Is it too early to say a timeline for Billie’s record?
Yeah, not allowed to. But we’re making good progress, which is always exciting. We’re not stalling out!
