'This Is Us' composer Siddhartha Khosla credits 'constant creative spark' with creator Dan Fogelman for incredible music

If you have watched all the episodes of This Is Us, you are already in love with the music that elevates the show to new levels. Siddhartha Khosla is the desi name collaborating with Dan Fogelman behind the scene to find new ways to tug at your heartstrings.

Many of you know him as the founder of indie band Goldspot. With This Is Us, Khosla is now "exercising a different part" of his brain. He sees the show as Fogelman's vehicle for his art and his expression. "Dan Fogelman has created a beautiful show and it's emotional and cathartic. Writing music for it has been an incredible experience. It's really special. I feel like every episode I am writing a new album worth of material. I put a lot of love and energy in for the show."

One such beautiful moment in the show came in the sixteenth episode titled 'Memphis'. In the episode, Randall Pearson (Sterling K Brown) and his biological father, William Hill (Ron Cephas Jones) go on a road trip to Memphis, Tenessee, so that the dying father can show his son his roots and apologise to those he has hurt before he takes his last breath.

Just the story of that episode pierces your heart. But Khosla's creation, an original song called 'We Can Always Come Back to This,' gives your heart no chance of surviving the onslaught of emotions.  

When asked how the song came to be, Khosla said that Fogelman's script needed one song with the feel of soul and Motown. In collaboration with his friend Chris Pierce (who is also seen on guitar when William and his cover band, with cousin Ricky, are playing for the patrons of the bar) Khosla created the song. He said that apart from Fogelman, directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra loved the song. "It was one of those rare moments," recalls Khosla.

But this is it when it comes to writing original songs for the show. Khosla reveals that the season finale won't have another soul-tugging creation from him. "There is a lot of original score and the finale is score heavy so as not to distract from the dialogues. It's very emotional, incredibly beautiful finale," assures the composer.

There have been many amazing scenes in the first season of This Is Us and if you ask Khosla, he will tell you that not single one of them was hard for him to compose for. He gives the credit to his bond with the creator Fogelman. The duo went to college together at the University of Pennsylvania. "I have known him for a very long time. So there is a very deep friendship that is much bigger than what we do on the show together. I know him, I understand him. When you understand somebody, you have that kind of relationship with somebody, you have just a constant creative spark. I am so moved by his words and his characters that it has never been really difficult on this show. Music, the score, and the song have come pretty instantly to me. It's been pretty effortless. "

Khosla has his favourite moment, the one he is really proud of composing. It comes in the thirteenth episode, titled 'Three Sentences,' when in the pound class at fat camp, Kate (Chrissy Metz) takes out all the anguish inside her and screams murder as she recalls struggling with her body image and how her father (Milo Ventimiglia) was the one to pick her up all the time. We then cut to her father's funeral as a teenaged Kate mourns with her two siblings.

The pounding merges into sorrowful, yet strong music lead by a cello, which also has some Indian influence. Khosla recalls wanting to stay away from "yoga music". 

"I tried to achieve something transcendental. It was my proudest moment musically and the scene itself is so incredible. It was chilling and it was haunting because that's the beauty of the show."

"The show is not filled with bells and whistles of science-fiction or alien landing or explosion. It's all based on these characters. It's all based on emotions, it's based on people's lives. It's based on the humanity of these characters," he explains.

A fan of The Beatles, Khosla would kill to collaborate with Paul McCartney. "That will be the dream collaboration. The Beatles have always been one of the biggest influences on my music career.  And I think he is the greatest songwriter on the whole planet."

Speaking of his musical career, it has been almost four years since Goldspot's last album Aerogramme came out. But there won't be relief for the fans of the band any time soon with the founder/maestro having had a busy schedule with This Is Us and the show being renewed for a second season.

"On my next break, I am definitely thinking about it and I will write some new material. I don't know exactly when, but it will happen. I need that spark. So when that time comes, I will do it. I just don't know when," says Khosla.

The finale episode of This Is Us will air in India this Saturday, March 18, at 10 pm on Star World Premiere HD.