5 Songs With ‘Forever’ Music Supervisor Kier Lehman 

Music supervisor is a job that is part professional music nerd, part aural detective and part crate-digging business affairs exec. 5 Songs is a Deadline series that highlights the work of these below the line workers through songs and stories.

Forever is an adaptation of the 1975 Judy Blume novel, but set in Los Angeles rather than New Jersey. It tells the story of two young athletes, played by Justin Edwards and Keisha Clark, who reunite, after going to grade school together, and fall in love but face the pressure of sports, academics and college prep.

From Mara Brock Akil, the series, which has already been renewed for a second season, features a lot of music, particularly songs from L.A.-based artists that were on the scene in 2018.

“We’re making sure that we’re representing the key moments and key artists from that time period that really tell the story of that time and bring people back to the nostalgia of that time with songs people remember,” music supervisor Kier Lehman told Deadline.

Lehman has worked with Brock Akil before on series such as OWN’s Love Is_ and BET’s Being Mary Jane and said that all of her shows have a ton of songs in them. “That’s something that she’s always really thinking about and conceiving as a part of how she’s telling the story,” he added.

He noted that some songs such as Within by Daft Punk were in the script. “She has a pretty clear vision of the general style of music and probably a handful of artists and songs. Then I get to really build off of that and bring her new ideas, things that maybe she didn’t know and delve deeper into research, especially with a period piece,” he said.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST SONG YOU LICENSED FOR FOREVER?

The first song we licensed that actually ended up in the show, finally, was the Daft Punk song Within because that was scripted. It’s not that they say any lyrics or anything from it in the scene, but it was just really important that we knew we could have that song from the beginning.

We’re talking pre-production. I’m probably one of the early people that they hire on the show. We’re talking from the beginning about ideas and sending music back and forth, reading early versions of the scripts. I knew what this was going to entail, a lot of music. Those are exciting projects, because it means that the music is going to be a really important character in the show, and it’s going to be highlighted and upfront and featured. That’s exciting for me.

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SONG IN FOREVER?

That’s a tough one to answer because there’s so many songs in there. There are so many moments that where the songs really drive and help tell the story of the show. If I had to pick one, I’d have to go with Blessed by Daniel Caesar, which plays in episode five, when they finally kind of realized that they’re coming together. She’s searching for him on Martha’s Vineyard, and they finally connect and have that moment together. It continues to play through them connecting as a couple. From the reaction that I’ve seen from fans, that seems like one that really people are connecting with. Daniel Caesar became kind of a theme for them and that’s a really big moment for them.

I thought it might be Daniel Caesar or Frank Ocean’ Moon River, which plays at the end of the season.

That was the second one on my list. It’s the end credit. People have been responding to that one a lot too.

THE MOST UNEXPECTED CUE IN FOREVER?

We have a little bit of a range of genres in the show. It’s definitely heavily R&B and hip hop from that time but there were a couple of scenes, where it was important to include the parents’ music. I don’t how completely unexpected it is, but one song that I wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear in any kind of TV show was Charles Earland’s Brown Eyes, which was this great jazz piece that played as the parents are in Martha’s Vineyard hanging in the house, and it follows them as they walk through the house, looking for Justin while he’s making beats. That was one where I was really proud that we were able to use a piece of music like that. In a lot of cases, jazz music doesn’t get that kind of placement, doesn’t get featured that way, and it usually gets replaced by a cheaper version of something like that, so we really wanted to honor that music of the parents and make sure that we used the real, best, authentic version of what those people would be playing.

Is jazz any more of a challenge for you to license?

For the most part, it’s been pretty good. We worked on the show The Changeling, which is an Apple show, where we used Alice Coltrane, and that was a tricky clearance. At first, she didn’t want to approve the use and we had to work through that a little bit to explain the context and the way that it was used in the show and how meaningful that use was. We did eventually get the clearance, and the song is in the show. Sometimes there’s a little bit more gathering of information to make sure that the music is being presented in the best light. I think a lot of times people, especially jazz musicians, they’re excited.

How many artists need to know exactly how their song is going to be used?

I’d say it’s a pretty small number these days. When we approach, we explain what the show is about, generally, and tell them the scene and how the song is used. There’s some information that everybody gets, but I’d say it’s maybe 10% to 15% of artists that want to dig deeper and maybe want to see a clip of the use, or have a conversation to know a little bit deeper about the context, and are they going to be presented in a negative light. Sometimes there may be a scene where a character reacts to the music, and then you might have to explain the context of a scene. I had a film, Los Frikis, where we used Barry Manilow, and there was a moment where a character reacts negatively to Barry Manilow’s music, but then by the end, there’s an arc where Barry Manilow’s music comes back, and everybody appreciates it and talks about how cool he was.

THE HARDEST SONG TO LICENSE FOR FOREVER?

The hardest one in Forever was Travis Scott’s Butterfly Effect. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to approve the song or had any questions of how it was used, but really more he’s hard to get to, and he was hard to nail down the approval and get the response from his label. I was trying for weeks, months, probably. Through a mutual friend, I had to get to his manager, who still took a while to respond, and then they were very gracious about it. He was in the middle of doing a huge project and preparing for something, and didn’t have the time to focus on something like this, so we just kept at it and pushed the episode delivery as late as we could, so that we could give as much time to do this. Fortunately, with my friend’s help, we were able to finally get the approval for the use of that song, and it was really important to have his music in the show. It was important to Mara and important for these characters, because of how his music really resonated with the angst of young black boys. That’s something that our character was going through a really tough moment and feeling really bad and wanting to be angry and lash out., Travis Scott’s music really carries that emotion for a lot of young kids.

I imagine one of the challenges with a soundtrack like this is there’s quite a lot of samples and different rights.

It’s definitely better than it was. I’ve been doing this for a while and worked on shows that used a lot of hip hop over the years, so I’ve dealt with a lot of those kind of situations with agreements not being finished, songs being brand new, and having those negotiations worked out. Depending on who’s making the show, some people are a little bit more willing to wait and get approvals, as long as those things get figured out. Some people a little bit more strict about that. Those things can go on for a very long time, into the future, after the show gets released. Some of those emails will pop up in my inbox every once in a while, but usually they get resolved over time. One of the benefits of this show being set in 2018 is that like the music has been around for a few years, at least by now, some of these songs have been licensed already, so a lot of that had already been worked out.

When I was working on Insecure, we were getting brand new music, fresh out of the studio, people creating for us, or wanting to get us their music immediately, because they wanted to be on the show and have it part of their release, and that was a huge amount of work dealing through clearing songs.

[With samples], the labels are really cautious of that but they also know that they have catalogs, and they want to be able to monetize those catalogs, and if something is held up by a tiny little sample that they may or may not know about, they have to weigh the risk of granting that approval or not. They’re obviously trying to work through how they can either fix those things, replace them, get them cleared, have somebody redo the tracks. Sometimes they just don’t want to know, because they would rather be able to license it and keep things moving as they have throughout the years. Music from the ‘80s and ‘90s, there was so much sampling, and there was like ten songs within one song so it’s just impossible to parse through all of that. People are obviously way more aware of that now. Newer things don’t have that going on, which makes things a little bit easier for us. But, of course, that’s always going to be something with hip hop and producers try to sneak things in and get it past everybody.

FAVORITE SONG ON FOREVER?

This was also very hard to choose because a lot of this music, I personally love. I think my favorite is Do 4 Love by Snoh Aalegra. It’s a cover of one of my favorite songs, Bobby Caldwell’s What You Won’t Do For Love. I love that song and her version is incredible. She’s just got an incredible voice and incredible style as an artist that I love, so I think I have to pick that one out of all of them. The way that it’s used in the show is also really significant. It plays twice in two different episodes, and kind of helps finish their relationship when they kind of decide, spoiler alert, that they’re going to separate at the end of the show.

Forever Track Listing:

Episode 1: Reunion
Prone by Masego
Painted on Canvas by Gregory Porter
Bad and Boujee by Migos
Within by Daft Punk
Might Be by Anderson .Paak
Time Moves Slow by BadBadNotGood feat. Sam Herring
Light and Soul by Foam Collective
Pretty Ugly by Tierra Whack

Episode 2: Ghosted
See You Again by Tyler, The Creator feat. Kali Uchis
Free (Re-Record) by Deniece Williams
Call Me by Neike
Drowning by A Boogie Wit A Hoodie (feat. Kodak Black)  
Love Scars 3 by Trippie Redd
Juice by Lady Leshurr
New Love by Victoria Monet
Butterfly Effect  by Travis Scott

Episode 3: Fourth Quarter
Imperfections by Starrah & Diplo  
Grinding All my Life by Nipsey Hussle  
Can’t by Naaz
Focus by H.E.R.
XO Tour Llif3 by Lil Uzi Vert
Plain Jane by A$AP Ferg
While We’re Young by Jhene Aiko  
Gangsta by Kehlani

Episode 4: Run It Back
Private Parts by J*Davey
Normal Girl by SZA
Money Longer by Lil Uzi Vert
Girls Need Love by Summer Walker
Tomorrow’s Interlude by Until Tomorrow

Episode 5: The Vineyard
This Feeling by Alabama Shakes
Make Me Feel by Janelle Monae
Brown Eyes by Charles Earland
Do 4 Love by Snoh Aalegra
Into The Ether by Leif Vollebekk
Burn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) by The Gap Band
Blessed by Daniel Caesar
Moonlight by XXXTentacion

Episode 6: The Honeymoon
Japanese Denim by Daniel Caesar
New Whip, Who Dis by Daz Rinko
8TEEN by Khalid
River by Leon Bridges
BITTA by Eskeerdo

Episode 7: Deep End
Tadow by Masego, FKJ
Hey Mr DJ by Zhané
One Wish (For Christmas) by Whitney Houston
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Leslie Odom Jr.
Feels Like Summer by Childish Gambino

Episode 8: Forever…
Cutie Pie by One Way
You’re the One by Kaytranada, Syd
I’m The One by DJ Khaled (feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo)
My Type (Remix) by Saweetie (feat. City Girls & Jhene Aiko)
Every Kind Of Way by H.E.R.
Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out by Mayer Hawthorne
I Don’t Mean To by Sabrina Claudio
Do 4 Love by Snoh Aalegra
You’re The Only Thing I’ve Got Going For Me by Bill Wright
Moon River by Frank Ocean