Lena Dunham and Luis Felber talk us through the soundtrack to ‘Too Much’

As writers Lena Dunham and Luis Felber gear up to release the soundtrack to their latest show Too Much, both writers have exclusively told Rolling Stone UK about what each song means to the Netflix series, and how they connect to the idea of life in London.

That’s handy, really, given that the show follows Jessica (Megan Stalter) as she accepts a work transfer to the capital and navigates her way through life in London, before falling for indie musician Felix Remen (Will Sharpe).

With everything from Kacey Musgraves to Cate Le Bon, it’s a soundtrack that proves as consistently interesting as it is eclectic. You can read Lena and Luis’ full walkthrough below.

‘Always The Girls (Unplugged)’ – Attawalpa

Luis: We hear this song the 1st time Jess sees Will in Episode 1 at the Ivy house in Peckham. I first attended this venue when I was trying to get into an open mic at the tender age of 17. This venue was always in my mind as a great London location to see and hear music in the show. Its stage is very Lynchian, and the community run pub holds a very monumental place in my heart. In the mid 00’s, I was in a band called ‘The Eraserheads’, we would play to much frustration as it had a sound limiter which would switch off when you played at a certain volume. I would frequent the South London Easycomes (an open mic night held here) in the late 00’s – 2010’s. Playing with Misty Miller and seeing Hank Dog run his open mic was a lot of what the London Scene had to offer for years. It just felt like a cute and romantic place for Jessica and Will to meet.

‘Always the Girls’ felt like a great song to introduce Felix to the audience. It [‘Always the Girls’] was an observation of my tendency to want to be around women over men. My whole life I have felt like this, and Felix felt like this too. But from a stranger’s perspective this song could mean a few things so we thought that would be an interesting introduction to this character and also our 4th main character – London.

‘Are You With Me Now?’ – Cate Le Bon

Luis: This is one of my favourite episode closers. Lena is such a genius the way she literally creates a painting in this frame with the way Felix and Jess are absorbing the moment, themselves and this song. When we set out to make this, I wanted it to feel like a 90’s alt rom com with freaks instead of chiselled leading men and women. In this world of fast content, you rarely see a director holding a shot for this long.  It is everything to me. I think I put this on a 2nd or 3rd playlist when Lena and I were dating too so that was quite cocky.

‘Farewell Transmission’ – Songs: Ohia, Jason Molina

Luis: The 90’s answer to Neil Young. I love this songwriter and this record so much. When we started editing in post, we put a lot of this song in as temp score as I just loved the feeling of it. Felt like London with an Americana feel.

Lena: Lu put this on his first mix for me – I listened to it over and over again, just feeling all the various moments of the song – it’s very epic – and the power of them.

‘I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight’ – Richard and Linda Thompson

Luis: This song was also on our first playlist I believe. I love this album, and it just made me think of Lena. Again, that idea of dating an American during a pandemic and filling our listening times with these classic pre-covid pre-80’s good time songs was freeing.

Lena: This was also the song that came on right after we finished our wedding ceremony and everyone got up to party.

‘Sister You Said’ – Sarah Meth

Luis: Sarah is a fabulous London singer I’ve met once. I got into her music via her music videos. The one for Sister you Said is particularly compelling and cool. She’s got a modern country thing that I love. I love the lyrics, and we thought it would be cool to have this over Felix and his best friend/ex’s complicated conversations. We ended up putting it over the scene when he leaves Polly’s and goes back to Jessica’s. It’s a moment and I love it. 

Lena: To me, this really captured the feminine urge to self-flagellate after a man says something utterly inane and dismissive. It’s so easy to make someone else’s flippancy into your own problem, into an indictment of yourself. It was just right for us entering Polly’s POV, and understanding that Felix can be Jess’s dream boyfriend, but just as she is in pain over her ex, someone is in pain over Felix.

‘Falling Apart’ – Slow Pulp

Luis: I first heard this banger around 2020 and I just love the lyrics and the chorus. It’s a classic to me. Lena putting this over the end of episode 3 was pure magic. It’s so sad, intense and out of the blue to see Jessica sneak out and eat her cold noodles from the fridge. It says so much without any dialogue and this song perched over it is just a great moment. 

‘Butterflies’ – Kacey Musgraves

Luis: We shot this scene in one take at the end of a week of shooting the West London episode. Lena and I are hiding in the van on the street (you can see our lights flashing!) and it was literal butterflies shooting it. Lena played this song over it very early on and it was just one of those moments that I will cherish forever. I can’t imagine anything else playing over this. It’s such a great song and I love the live versions I have found on YouTube. Kacey is such a great singer and performer.

Lena: I listened to this album for the entire fall of 2019, in a pre-Covid innocent daze of walking around NYC and imagining a love affair that wasn’t happening. I love the line “now you’re lifting me up instead of holding me down, stealing my heart instead of stealing my crown.”

‘Praying’ – Misty Miller

Luis: Lena wanted to have a moment when Felix shares his love of making music with Jessica. Meg was incredible in this scene, so vulnerable. Originally Matt Allchin (my partner in composing the score and producing my albums) and I used a demo with Misty Miller (South London singer who features in the show and also in our music) singing for Meg to get a feel that was more acoustic, less like the original. We loved this demo so much we ended up using it as the outro to the episode. 

Lena: When this song came out, it rocked me. Kesha is such a powerful singer, and this was a reclamation that came at an incredibly intense time in her life. It makes me cry in the most sacred way.

‘Massachusetts’ – Jensen McRae

Lena: I’ve loved Jensen’s music for years, but she put this demo on TikTok and I was one of the first 100 people to watch it, and I was blown away- I immediately saw it blowing up, being covered, resonating so hard for people across gender and age. It’s about loving someone you don’t know anymore and knowing that you always will. She was kind enough to offer us her acoustic version, for a scene that needed her wise touch.

True Love Trajectory – Attawalpa

Luis: I wanted to write a love song which felt like a tribute to how hard love is to find and to hold onto. I had this song for a while before we even started this script. When we had the outline for episode 10 I brought this demo to Matt Allchin and we set out to write our sad and tender love song and referenced classics like Richard and Linda Thompson. It felt like since Felix met Jessica he had been brewing this song in his mind. He plays the melody of it on the piano at his parents old house in episode 7, as if it’s a little idea pinging around his brain, not yet formed.

Will Sharpe really gave that his all. He did like 5 straight live takes in a row and I think we ended up using the 2nd or 3rd. He really dedicated himself to being in the moment with these songs.

Lena decided that the show should end with the Attawalpa version of this song. It’s a moment and you can hear Lena saying “cut” and we go into super 8 footage at the end. Gives me shivers. What a joy.

You can buy the soundtrack to Too Much here.