When Lena Dunham and Luis Felber first began relationship, playlists have been a giant a part of their love language.

“There have been moments once we weren’t collectively — you already know, life will get in the best way for mid-30-year-olds — so we’d make one another playlists,” says Felber, a musician in his personal proper because the frontman of U.Ok. band Attawalpa, over Zoom. “And that grew to become a extremely large a part of the form of flesh and bones of this TV present.”

The present in query is “Too A lot,” which the now-married Dunham and Felber co-created and debuted on Netflix Thursday. The rom-com sequence follows Jessica (“Hacks” standout Megan Stalter), a New Yorker who strikes to London after a devastating breakup, and Felix (“White Lotus” star Will Sharpe), a struggling musician who can also be scuffling with previous trauma. The soundtrack consists of unique music from Attawalpa, performed by Sharpe’s fictional band Felix and the Feelers, in addition to needle drops from all around the musical spectrum together with Fergie, Fiona Apple, Nicki Minaj, Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia, Miley Cyrus, Wednesday, John Cale, Fred Once more, Kacey Musgraves, Bob Dylan, Kendrick Lamar, the Dare and Taylor Swift — simply to call just a few. Many of the present’s music moments have been already penciled into the remedy when Dunham and Felber pitched Netflix the present, and plenty of of them got here from these preliminary playlists.

“Lena’s playlists to me have been attention-grabbing, as a result of it’s extra from the pop world. And my playlists have been very Americana, nation — I didn’t put any Slipknot or something on there,” Felber says with fun. “However you may see a divide … we have been each instructing one another issues. And that’s the great thing about a mixture CD, or these days a playlist, is you get to form of present somebody the way you’re feeling and likewise the place you come from.”

Although “Too A lot” is just not fully autobiographical of their romance, Dunham — who moved to London in 2021 — advised Selection in her digital cowl story this week: “It’s definitely not quote-unquote based mostly on a real story, however like every part I do, there is a component of my very own life that I can’t assist however inject.” The identical goes for Felber. When it got here time to determine the place Jess and Felix’s meet-cute ought to happen, Felber couldn’t assist however counsel a spot that’s a part of his “London musician DNA”: The Ivy Home in Peckham. It’s the place he performed his first acoustic present on the age of 17 on the pub’s “Easycome” open mic night time, and Felix is doing the identical when he first encounters Jess. Sporting smudged eyeliner, cherry-red lipstick and an identical guitar, Felix performs a moody, stripped-back model of Attawalpa’s “At all times the Ladies” (from the band’s new album “Expertise”), accompanied by piano and violin.

To craft the onstage persona of Sharpe’s Felix, Felber says he was impressed by Elliott Smith throughout his “XO” period in 1998 and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, particularly for that first efficiency at The Ivy Home. “I’m so boring and fundamental, however I at all times return to that ‘Unplugged’ in New York,” he says. “We reference that rather a lot, particularly the Meat Puppets songs [Cobain played] — the musicality within the cello, simply the glue of all that music to me is so excellent and so slacker-y. It’s the Beatles, however they’re slacking.”

When it comes to really performing the songs, Felber was fortunate in that Sharpe was already a musician himself, having been skilled on the piano and enjoying in bands as a youngster. However he hadn’t carried out dwell in over a decade. “That was one of many enjoyable challenges was working with Lu. I haven’t carried out music since actually I used to be like, I don’t know, 22 or one thing. So fairly some time,” Sharpe says. “I actually appreciated his songs, however a few of it was fairly scary.”

Felber helped Sharpe study six songs from “Expertise,” together with “No Limitations” and “True Love Trajectory.” “Will, bless him, from day dot he was like, ‘I need to have the ability to simply play these songs with out taking a look at a chord sheet, with out taking a look at lyrics. I wish to really feel them, I wish to be in these songs,’” Felber says. “So I used to be very pleased for him to only throw his character on it, or Felix’s character on it.”

Then, Felber needed to kind Felix’s band, the Feelers. He enlisted Prasanna Puwanarajah, who performs Felix’s housemate and finest good friend Auggie, because the drummer — regardless that he’d by no means performed earlier than. “He’s a pure drummer, little did we all know,” Felber says. The band is rounded out by true-blue musicians Carlos O’Connell (the guitarist for Irish rock band Fontaines D.C.) on bass and David Ashby (frontman of native London band Sleaze, who in reality first launched Felber to The Ivy Home) on keys. Felber even arrange a rehearsal area at 3 Mills Studios in East London, the place “Too A lot” was filmed, in order that Sharpe and the band might brush up in between scenes.

“In my head, Felix provides these songs a form of Echo and the Bunnymen vibe,” Felber says of Sharpe’s singing voice. “He’s an unbelievable learner, and I believe all you need to do is meet somebody at their place of style.”

Sharpe says he considered crafting a novel aptitude or signature transfer for Felix’s efficiency fashion — citing inspirations like Ian Curtis, Oasis, the Hives and Julian Casablancas — however in the long run he thought, “Simply play the tune man, simply fucking play it. After which no matter your factor is will occur if you’re not eager about it.”

As for his favourite needle drops from the soundtrack, on the high of Felber’s record is Musgraves’ “Butterflies,” which performs throughout a young second between Jess and Felix. “After we dropped the tune over the scene I like, cried as a result of it was so lovely,” he admits. Additionally up there may be “Farewell Transmission,” by the late Molina’s Songs: Ohia, which Felber says the staff used as filler music in edit earlier than the rating for the present was completed. “It simply labored as a result of it’s such an emotive tune,” he provides. “To me, [Molina is] like a contemporary Neil Younger or what a mid-40s Kurt Cobain [would have sounded like].” However there was one wishlist artist that Felber couldn’t get.

“At first, I put a number of Prince songs on this playlist. And he’s costly,” he says. “You already know, Season 2 may very well be filled with Prince.”

Although a second season of “Too A lot” hasn’t but been greenlit, Felber says he’d “like to see extra of Jess and Felix” however acknowledges that “we don’t management that, the universe does.” Nevertheless, he and Dunham do have “ideas on what that might appear like.”

Till then, the couple are laborious at work capturing Dunham’s upcoming movie “Good Intercourse,” starring Natalie Portman, which she’s writing and directing with Felber offering the music.

“There’s going to be numerous thrilling unique music in it, a extremely enjoyable rating and three cowl variations of an important tune, however I’m not going to say what it’s as a result of it’s a giant a part of the movie,” he teases, including: “Lena and I, we’re at all times as much as one thing. We’re raccoons within the garbage can of life.”