Erin LeCount’s music has always been emotionally direct, rich in atmosphere and difficult to pin down. With her recent EP I Am Digital, I Am Divine, the singer-songwriter carved out a sound that feels both deeply human and surreal—blurring genres and pushing sonic boundaries. Now, LeCount brings that same raw energy and creative instinct to the stage with her first major theatrical score for Inter Alia at London’s National Theatre.
Written by Olivier Award-winner Suzie Miller (Prima Facie) and starring Rosamund Pike, Inter Alia is a bold and unsettling examination of modern masculinity, motherhood and the moral complexities surrounding justice. The story follows a senior judge who must confront her own beliefs as she oversees a high-stakes sexual assault case—set against a soundscape that deeply enhances the emotional intensity of the performances. Directed by Justin Martin, Inter Alia will also be broadcast live to cinemas across the UK on 4th September, with international screenings from 25th September (more information here).
For LeCount, joining the project was a welcome opportunity. Invited to compose after the creative team became familiar with her work via TikTok, she immediately engaged with the script with clarity. The result is a score that feels intimate yet theatrical—consistently attuned to the emotional core of each scene. We caught up with LeCount to discuss her transition from studio to stage, what it’s like to work alongside Rosamund Pike and Suzie Miller, and how maintaining emotional openness became a key strength in navigating new creative territory.
Inter Alia marks your first time composing for a major theatre production. What drew you to this project and how did it come to life?
Erin LeCount: It sort of fell out of the sky with no warning, and I’m a strong believer in things like that being fateful. The director, Justin, and the writer, Suzie, had heard my music and asked if I would compose, so I was sent a draft of the script and had such a visceral reaction. I went on a long walk after reading it and came straight back to start working on the soundtrack—feeling slightly heavy, but emotional and inspired.
What was it like collaborating with Suzie Miller and Rosamund Pike on a piece as emotionally charged as Inter Alia?
Erin LeCount: Watching both of them work is a privilege, actually. There’s an immense amount of pressure on both of them, and yet they just care about the art. Watching Suzie rework words and sentence order so carefully, with such intention, watching Rosamund literally transform in rehearsal rooms—she has the most amazing attention to detail. She needs to be in the brain and heart and body of her character. She wants to understand every train of thought. It’s inspiring, and it makes you pay closer attention to what you’re doing too.
If they are meticulous about the intention behind every choice they make, you are too. You hold yourself to the same standard in the music. What’s the purpose of this sound? Can it be better? How does that feel? Does it convey what it needs to? Refine the way the script writer does, explore and experiment the way an actor does.
Can you tell us about your collaboration with James Jacob on this score too? How would you describe your collaborative dynamic?
Erin LeCount: James is like my best friend. Genuinely one of the best people I know in my life—and the go-to person I trust the most musically and creatively. We’ve worked on stuff together across my own artist projects, and across his stuff as a composer for film and TV. We make independently and quietly, and then bring everything together to find all the alignments and crossovers in our ideas—and we just keep expanding what’s already there. It’s cliché, but it works because we trust each other. We also have a laugh which is necessary when working something as emotionally challenging as this show.
How does your creative approach shift when moving from solo composition to collaborating with actors, writers, and directors to shape sound for the stage?
Erin LeCount: I’m quite an introverted maker, I like to do things alone, and to hear myself think before anyone else speaks on what I’m doing. This world is new to me, this is the most collaboratively I’ve ever worked, and what would previously have been my idea of hell turned into something so beneficial and magical. The process of learning to constantly adapt, to let things go, to change, shift, recreate, always talking with Justin and Suzie and the cast, with the tech and sound department. Everyone listened and took things on board, but we all also felt comfortable enough to push back and challenge each other, or to stick by an idea we really believed in, even if it wasn’t working the first time. I feel lucky to have had a room full of people who knew that our shared goal was to make the best show we possibly could.
In theatre, timing is so important. How do you weave music into pivotal moments without overshadowing the actors or the audience’s imagination?
Erin LeCount: The music in this show feels like a supporting role. It’s a language between the characters, who are playing instruments live. It’s used for theatricality and literal scenes—like karaoke or big courtroom scenes that are like rock concerts—but there’s another side to it, which is a pretty constant underscore that’s quite dark.
The lead character has this constant inner monologue, and her values and beliefs are challenged throughout the show. Sometimes the underscore is telling us something that she isn’t. Sometimes it represents the women (her family, friends, colleagues) who aren’t physically played by actors, just alluded to. Sometimes it’s like this other character is subtly making her way into the story without us seeing her.
How do you hope audiences feel when they experience your music in this show?
Erin LeCount: There’s meant to be a level of discomfort in this show, and that’s definitely reflected in the music. I think a lot of people watching will be confronted by their own conflicts, beliefs, assumptions and stereotypes about the topics this show brings to light, and so the music is there to guide that discomfort. At the very last moment of the show, I do feel there’s this moment of musical catharsis, though. A song I wrote, mostly acapella, plays at a really divisive and emotional, morally challenging moment. The song is very up close, and the sound system in the room is incredible—you can hear every voice break and breath. James always said it felt like a lullaby, a kind of comfort at the ending, and I always found it incredibly confronting, like there’s nowhere in the theatre to hide.
What have been the biggest surprises, or challenges, in scoring for a live stage?
Erin LeCount: Live theatre is a totally different experience to composing for TV or film. It’s closer to doing a gig—but with a hundred more moving parts, and you’re not in control of any of them. There is a crew operating this every single night with intense precision and it’s a really technical show. I wish everyone could see what happens behind the scenes to make it all happen—at the desks, backstage. It can go really badly wrong, it’s live theatre, and that’s what makes it so thrilling but so terrifying too. We have actors playing instruments live on stage, who aren’t trained musicians. They’ve had lessons and they’ve done incredibly well. I have such respect for them.
Your recent EP I Am Digital, I Am Divine has been widely praised for its emotional and genre-blurring sound. How do you preserve that individual voice in theatrical compositions—or do you intentionally set it aside?
Erin LeCount: I feel very lucky that Justin encouraged me to bring everything I do with my own music into this show. When creating music for scenes, he would reference songs of mine—he even included “Silver Spoon” and “Marble Arch” in the show on the characters’ radios etc. Part of why they asked me to do this was because of my voice and my style of production, so I just got to explore it in a new way.
The title I Am Digital, I Am Divine is striking. What’s the spiritual or philosophical core of this project for you?
Erin LeCount: I always imagined it as this slightly satirical affirmation—something a robot would say in the mirror each morning with gritted teeth whilst malfunctioning. To be ‘digital’ for me is the part of myself that is overly obsessive, routine, computer like, detached and quite cold sometimes, and to be ‘divine’ is to be over-emotional, sensitive—all the qualities of being human turned up to the extreme. It’s also a nod to how I make music, which is all these huge orchestras, grand choirs and elements of renaissance music I love that are actually synthetic, made from computers and plastic keyboards and combined with these 808s and synthesisers.
The project has been described as ethereal, confessional and transformational. How did themes of emotional resilience and personal growth shape the overall sound and concept?
Erin LeCount: A lot of the initial themes all come about subconsciously. I think I just write and create and write and create, and then it’s only when I step back and look at a collection of songs together that I can see clearly what they’re all about, how they tie into each other. Suddenly it feels really clear what I’ve been experiencing, what time period of my life I’ve been processing, and then I know exactly what the project looks like, sounds like and feels like. You do have to work backwards a little bit to get there, though. You have to live it in real time and it’s not until six months or a year later that you write and realise what the fuck has happened.
What do you hope someone feels when they hear your music alone with headphones for the first time?
Erin LeCount: Attentive. Ideally, like a super present and sort of suspended in mid air, out-of-body kind of feeling. I like when people find little things in the production to entertain themselves with, little sounds to latch onto. Or when your ears find a lyric that says something you didn’t know you could say out loud. But really, as long as you’re not bored, I don’t care. Any reaction that provokes emotion is good with me.
What’s next for Erin LeCount? More theatre, another record, or something unexpected?!
Erin LeCount: I’ve learnt recently that just when you think you’ve got a plan, surprises seem to fall from the sky. I have lots of plans, and I’ve really got focus on something right now. But I like surprises and unexpected stuff too. So, never say never to a side quest.
Listen to ‘I Am Digital, I Am Divine’ below.