I created the underscoring for Dead Air, building around the concept of the phrase itself. In the literal sense, “dead air” is a silence or break in transmission. In the metaphorical sense, it is emptiness, absence, or a space where something unnatural might creep in. I treated Steve and Owen as the literal presence on screen, and my score as the metaphorical current underneath.

The music begins with subtle textures that capture the uneasy quiet of night. Once the characters step out of their car, the soundscape fractures into static, distorted tones, and ghostly pulses that mirror the television’s demon creeping into their world. As the possession deepens, the score swells from sparse unease into oppressive waves of static-driven dread, embodying the slow erosion of human will by the spectral broadcast.