Most of Chris Lambert’s inbox is flooded with questions regarding Kristin Smart—whose 1996 disappearance he documented in the popular true-crime podcast, Your Own Backyard, which currently sits at more than 4 million downloads worldwide. Aside from the case itself, another aspect of the podcast people frequently email Lambert about is the music.
For anyone who’s heard the soundtrack, it’s no surprise Lambert is nearly a lifelong musician. The Orcutt-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has released 11 albums between 2006 and 2018. On April 5, he released his 12th—Your Own Backyard (Original Soundtrack Highlights).
“Music is my real passion, and I knew that if I wanted to present this story in a way that was going to resonate with people, that the music had to be good,” Lambert told the Sun. “It sucks me out of a documentary when the music doesn’t match the tone. I started thinking about the music as soon as I knew that I wanted to tell this story.”
Lambert even went as far as to say that he felt trepidatious about releasing the podcast’s first episode before becoming confident in the score he composed. Those worries faded upon completion of the podcast’s memorable cello-driven main theme.
“As soon as I played back the finished version of the opening theme song, I knew I had a real podcast,” Lambert said. “Up until that point, I wasn’t really sure if I was ever going to actually put the podcast out, but once I heard that opening theme, I thought, ‘OK, now I want to show this to people.’”
While the soundtrack album includes a selection of highlights from the score—a total of 24 tracks, starting with the aforementioned opening theme—Lambert said he composed more than triple that amount overall. Lambert played guitar, bass, piano, glockenspiel, and other instruments on the score.
“I ended up recording new pieces for each episode in real time, to finish them the week they were supposed to come out,” Lambert said. “Overall, I think I recorded about 80 pieces.”
In one piece of the score, Lambert used wood blocks to mimic the sound of a ticking clock for dramatic tension. In terms of composing music that would best enhance the storytelling in Your Own Backyard, one of Lambert’s primary influences was Emmy Award-winning composer W.G. Snuffy Walden—famous for his work on The Wonder Years, The West Wing, and other shows.
“Just listening to how he approached each story and tried to capture it musically made me go back and write a bunch of new pieces centered around the acoustic guitar,” Lambert said.
One of the most time-consuming themes to compose was the ending suite, Lambert explained. The chilling, emotive end result, “In Absentia,” summed up the heartbreak the Smart family has had to endure over the last 24 years, and the piece became instantly memorable for fans of the podcast.
“I had read somewhere that whales mourn their dead for weeks, and when they lose one of their own calves, they grieve and sing these really sad whale songs,” Lambert said. “I used a cello to try to estimate that sound by sliding up the strings slowly. I think that’s the part of the piece that really got across the emotion I was looking for—grief and searching.”
Send music recommendations to Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 16-23, 2020.