Steve Horner String Cover of Harry Styles Featured on Bridgerton Season 2 Soundtrack

The Netflix series Bridgerton, from executive producer Shonda Rhimes, is known for featuring string covers of popular, well-known songs, and season two of the hit series will be no different. Ahead of the March 25, 2022 premiere of Bridgerton season 2, Netflix’s Tudum announced the track listing of the soundtrack of string covers, being released on Capitol Records, and among the many covers is a string cover of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” by Spectra client Steve Horner!

The cover was commissioned and released by Angry Mob Music as part of Steve’s latest album Parallel Lines, which also features string covers of hits like “Diamonds”, “Royals”, and “Seven Nation Army”. Steve’s cover of “Sign of the Times” ended up being one of the toughest covers to clear, as the show’s music supervisor Justin Kamps has shared in this interview with Tudum.

Today, Variety has released an article about how this placement came to be, where both Justin Kamps and Steve Horner are interviewed about the creation and placement process.

Says Kamps: “It’s really a dazzling arrangement. Harry Styles’ original song immediately hooked me. Hearing the way we use it in the show, that moment went through a lot of permutations, and I’m happy they landed on this one. It ended up being a perfect song for the moment that it is in.” (Variety)

Steve talks about his process of creating string covers, and specifically this one:

For each potential cover, Horner first listens to the melody of the original, imagining it translated to being played specifically on the cello. Says Horner, “In my thinking, cello is the lead because it’s such a rich instrument, and it can have such a great range. I would imagine the melody being played on a cello pretty simply. If it felt awkward, I would pull up a cello sound, play it and see what it sounded like.

“If the song passed that test,” he continues, “I would think about if I can really capture the emotion of the song. We’re picking really iconic, big pop songs. If I honestly don’t think we can do them justice, there’s no point. We’ve got to be able to feel the song with strings and without lyrics.”

For his cover of “Sign of the Times,” Horner used a combination of shorter sampled strings and longer played strings, which he performed, as it were, using a breath controller, “blowing the notes rather than bowing them.” This is an organic and expressive way of creating the string versions in the box that have a lot of character. It is a perfect match for the Regency period sounds of “Bridgerton.” (Variety)

To read the full Variety feature, click here.

To read about the Bridgerton Season 2 soundtrack from Capitol Records, click here.

LIsten to Steve Horner’s Parallel Lines album, including his cover of “Sign of the Times”, below.