Three adult women dressed in jeans and jackets, and a fourth in a sleek gold robe who holds a hunting knife, all of them wearing masks and standing in a woodsy clearing at night; still from "Yellowjackets"
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How Tori Amos Became the Musical Muse of ‘Yellowjackets’ Season 2.

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No TV show has more or better needle drops than “Yellowjackets.” In the recently wrapped Season 2 alone, the Showtime drama featured a string of recognizable and iconic hits like Papa Roach’s “Last Resort,” Radiohead’s “Climbing Up the Walls,” and The Cranberries’ “Zombies.” Behind these choices is music supervisor Nora Felder, who selects and approves all the alt rock and 90s classics that soundtracked the Yellowjackets team’s descent into cannibalism.

“When I first spoke to the team, I had told them it was really important to me if possible if I could get the scripts early,” Felder said about his process during an interview with the IndieWire Awards. Editor, Crafts and Animation, Bill Desowitz at IndieWire’s Consider This event on June 3. “Whenever I have the stories and the characters in my head, it’s so much easier for me to start my process of listening to music… the lyrics suddenly jump out at me which can stick to the story when I know what the story is about .

Felder was one of three members of the “Yellowjackets” team to appear at the IndieWire Consider This event at NeueHouse Hollywood on June 3rd. Felder was also joined by series star Christina Ricci and executive producer Karyn Kusuma at the brunch event to discuss season two of the show, which premiered in March and concluded after the ninth episode went live. aired May 26.

Season 2 contains two prominent needle drops of songs from singer-songwriter Tori Amos’ popular 1994 album “Under the Pink”: “Cornflake Girl,” which plays at the end of the season premiere, and “Bells for Her,” which plays at the end of the third episode. In his interview with Desowitz, Felder explained that he didn’t intend to cast more songs than Amos, but felt that both fit perfectly with the scenes they scored: “Cornflake Girl,” with its lyrics about not fitting in a social mold, plays when Shauna (Sophie Nelisse) eats her dead friend Jackie’s (Ella Purnell) ear, while the spiritual “Bells for Her” plays during a significant moment for cult leader Lottie (Simone Kessell).

“I remember the publisher calling me and saying, ‘I assume you want this to hit on the bite,'” Felder said of the ‘Cornflake Girl’ needle drop.

Watch the full interview with Felder above. For more stories from IndieWire’s Consider This event, learn more about our panel with Felder, Ricci, and Kusama, watch it, and see photos here.

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