Heartstopper creator Alice Oseman’s illustrations help set the tone of the coming-of-age series, thanks to the doodles that accompany the characters’ most important moments. You can literally see these British teenagers falling in love — and composer Adiescar Chase wants you to feel it, too. That’s why she’s created a sound that is “so vibrant and full of emotion” that you physically experience those same emotions alongside the characters. 

“You can feel the heartbeats punching, and you can feel the butterflies that rise and fall in your tummy when you see someone you like, and this momentum of moving forward, this momentum of growth,” Chase tells Tudum.

Season 2 of Heartstopper continues the journeys of Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie’s (Joe Locke) new relationship, Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy’s (Kizzy Edgell) unforeseen challenges, and Tao (William Gao) and Elle’s (Yasmin Finney) exploration of friendship turning into something more. Amid exams, a school trip to Paris, and prom preparations, the gang faces the next stages of life, love, and friendship. 

Below, Chase takes Tudum through some of the biggest musical moments of the season, from the romantic themes for each relationship to the gang’s trip to Paris. And scroll down for the playlist from Season 2, including major needle drops from Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Do you have themes for each character or couple in the show?
The main theme in Season 1 was Nick and Charlie’s theme. It’s the very first cue you hear on the soundtrack, and I wanted it to be really simple but really memorable. And every time you hear it, it makes you think back to when they first met and that first feeling. Every track after, if it was about Nick and Charlie or even about someone else with a similar feel to that first meeting, I could put that [sound] in there.

One of my other favorite themes is Ben’s theme, called “X” on the soundtrack. It’s very gritty [with] slapping sounds — almost like him as a person, the way he looks and how his attitude slaps you in the face. I love the punchiness to it in the music, and I’ve continued that theme throughout as well.

Tao and Elle have more of a theme in Season 2. I’d say theirs is more fluttery, but pure joy. It’s such a lovely thing. If you ever meet someone who’s got a partner and they say, “Oh, they’re my best friend,” that’s what a lot of great relationships [are made of].

Tara and Darcy have a really big moment in the finale. What’s their theme like? 
I love their theme. When I did Season 1 I wanted to put vocals in, but I didn’t want the vocals to really have any specific tie to gender. It’s not really about gender. People are people. People feel things, they all identify in different ways. As a female-identifying person, I have a female voice, and if I sing, then I will sound like a woman. So when I recorded it, I tried to make it sound more neutral so it can be for anyone.

But for Tara and Darcy’s theme, I felt like I really got to put my voice in it. It’s their voice, really. Their relationship is one of comfort. They’re really there for each other. It’s this support network that they have for each other. They’re still learning about how they feel and what they can trust with their friends and with each other, so their theme is yearning to understand about your partner and then learning to understand what’s going on and being there for them, and that comforting feeling.

The yearning, the butterflies — it’s fun to revisit that as an adult, but at the time it does feel like the worst possible thing to ever happen to you.
Yes. It’s that feeling where you’re just so captivated by someone and you almost burst. I guess as adults we have a little bit more of a level head on things, but I still think that no matter what age you are, you can absolutely fall head over heels for someone and really yearn to be next to that person, just to talk to them. It’s such a joy.

Teddy Cavendish/Netflix

We travel to Paris for a few episodes this season — did you include any Parisian or French influences? 
I had discussions with the director about this. I do have a Paris trip theme. It was actually quite a tricky track. The main goal for any cue is to make sure that piece of music ties into how everyone’s feeling at the time. So it’s that, “we’re on a French trip. It’s cool, it’s exciting, it’s full of energy.” And I did want to put some French things in there without going too overboard. So I did put something in there, but I’m wondering if anyone will notice! I’ll give a clue: It’s a specific instrumentation that runs along and it’s more prominent in certain sections, but it’s got a lot of processing on it as well. It sounds a bit like a synth, but really it’s something else. And that’s all I’ll say.

Ooh, an Easter egg. 
I didn’t want people to hear it and go, “Oh gosh, she’s done something French because they’re in France.” Music from around the world is beautiful to explore, and if you are in a place, it’s nice to feel that vibe. But I’m not going to pretend I’m a French composer.

What are some of the major moments you wanted to highlight this season? 
The season in general, we wanted it to feel fresh and new and evolved, but still sound like Heartstopper. So there’s a lot of themes that have been reused from Season 1, but in a new way. There’s nothing I’ve just copied and pasted. That’s not what I’m about as a composer. There are a lot of new pieces as well. 

One of the pieces that I was most excited about doing was when Nick and Charlie are in the hotel room together and they’re playing around, but they get more intimate. This is not a show about sex. This is not a show about getting raunchy. It’s about revealing different sides to yourself. If you have a partner, bit by bit you break down certain walls and you learn more about each other. And that’s beautiful, even when it does become more sexual. What Nick and Charlie have isn’t raunchy, but it’s more grown-up, and I wanted the music to feel more grown-up. 

Usually when I write music, I sit down and I’ve got all my instruments up on my computer, I’ve got instruments around me, and I start playing and producing as I go. But with this one, I got my keyboard out and I just played some chords. They’re quite mature, just nice chords. Then I went into my synthesizer and I tried it in some different sounds. There’s this warm synth that kind of evolves as you let the note play out. And then I added effects and things as well. The chord progression is the heart of the piece, but then the stuff around it is flipping around and evolving. It’s warm, but it’s expanding. Some of it I specifically did out of time because when you are doing that sort of stuff, no one knows what they're doing. It’s not perfect, but there’s beauty in imperfection. There’s a beauty in feeling a bit embarrassed or a bit worried that things aren’t going to be beautiful and amazing, but you’re not worried. You’re just in that moment. The piece just feels very natural, even though it’s made up of all these synths. I get very passionate talking about that piece! It really does mean a lot.

How does your score complement the amazing needle drops of the season, like the prom episode with Carly Rae Jepsen or the Taylor Swift moment with Tara and Darcy?
The commercial tracks that they put into the series, it all just fits really well. I think the team might have had a style of music in mind, but really, they wanted me to make something individual and new and specific to Heartstopper. But I guess because of the way that Alice [Oseman] wrote the comics and the way I spoke to the team, instinctively you start to get a vibe for what the atmosphere of the show would be and the sound of the show would be. In the first [season] particularly, I was always making sure that the music helped complement the commercial tracks. But that’s more about rhythm and pitch and timing. The actual timbre, the sound of the music, it just somehow fit together. And obviously, because of how well it worked in Season 1, we continue that in Season 2, but in a new, evolved way.

Listen to Chase’s Heartstopper Season 2 soundtrack here. Listen to the Heartstopper Official Mixtape on Apple Music and Spotify. And check out the Heartstopper Season 2 track listing below. 

1. “We Can Be Anything” - Baby Queen
2. “Shatter” - Maggie Rogers
3. “ur so pretty” - Wasia Project
4. “Fall in Love With a Girl” - Cavetown (feat. Orla Gartland)
5. “Crush Culture” - Conan Gray
6. “Never Be the Same” - Gabrielle Aplin
7. “Paradise” - Carmody
8. “seven” - Taylor Swift
9. “mona lisa” - mxmtoon
10. “The Beach” - Wolf Alice
11. “Colours of You” - Baby Queen
12. “Out of My League” - Fitz and the Tantrums
13. “Then It All Goes Away” - Dayglow
14. “You Wouldn't Like Me” - Tegan and Sara
15. “Deep End” - Holly Humberstone
16. “Pressure to Party” - Julia Jacklin
17. “Coming of Age” - mxmtoon
18. “Welcome to the Sidelines” - amy michelle
19. “Retrospect” - Vistas
20. “Things Will Be Fine (Bratty Remix)” - Metronomy
21. “The Sound” - The 1975
22. “I Think Ur Rlly Cool” - carpetgarden
23. “Le Temps de l'amour” - Françoise Hardy
24. “Kiss Ur Face Forever” - Orla Gartland
25. “Foreplay” - siouxxie sixxsta
26. “Miss U” - Bad Smith
27. “Lovesong” - beabadoobee
28. “Obsessed” - Hatchie
29. “Trésor” - Hervé
30. “Un peu plus souvent” - Alexia Gredy
31. “Freak Out” - Miya Folick
32. “Nobody Really Cares” - Baby Queen
33. “Doesn't Matter (voleur de soleil)” - Christine and the Queens
34. “On était beau” - Louane
35. “Bros” - Wolf Alice
36. “3D Feelings” - Alfie Templeman
37. “Hot & Heavy” - Lucy Dacus
38. “Pretty Girl Lie” - Baby Queen
39. “People Watching” - Conan Gray
40. “Cry!” - Caroline Rose
41. “I Wanna BeYour Girlfriend” - girl in red
42. “Skin” - Carmody
43. “Blush” - Wolf Alice
44. “Run Away With Me” - Carly Rae Jepsen
45. “Young” - Neon Capital
46. “Happy New Year” - Let’s Eat Grandma

Heartstopper is set to return for Season 3.