Kyle Dixon met Michael Stein during his teens and the two bonded over the definitive sci-fi and horror film soundtracks of the '80s, the era they grew up in. The pair went on to co-found the synth-laden electronic outfit S U R V I V E in 2009, along with fellow musicians Mark Donica and Adam Jones. Concentrating on an updated take on vintage horror and sci-fi film scores as well as experimental ambient music and minimal wave, the band released its debut EP, LLR002, in 2010 before its eponymous full-length arrived in 2012. S U R V I V E went on to release the MF064 EP on Monofonus Press in 2014 and the RR7349 album on Relapse Records in 2016.
Dixon and Stein went on to compose the score for the hugely successful sci-fi/adventure series Stranger Things in 2016. Both musicians were recruited for the job after the show's creators began to use some of S U R V I V E's tracks as temp music for show pre-production. The score was commended for its innovative use of electronics and homage to the sound of artists such as John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream, and was released in two separate volumes later that year. The Stranger Things title theme went on to earn both composers the 2017 Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. They returned to deliver the score for the show's second season, which saw release under the heading Stranger Things 2 in October of that year. Also in 2017, Dixon and the rest of S U R V I V E contributed music to a multidimensional and interactive restaurant project at the Sugar Hill Mountain Festival in Melbourne, Australia. The band recorded a live album, RR7400, for Record Store Day that arrived on Relapse in April 2018, three months before the studio version, RR7400: LA041717. Two months later, a third Stranger Things soundtrack, Stranger Things: Halloween Sounds from the Upside Down, was issued by Lakeshore, with Stranger Things 3 (music from the third season) following on the label in mid-2019.
In the meantime, Dixon, along with Stein, found other scoring work on limited series and shorts, and collaborated on the 2018 documentary Spheres and on the independent features Native Son (2019), The Retaliators (2021), and The Hole in the Fence (2021). Stranger Things eventually returned for a fourth season in mid-2022; the companion soundtrack Stranger Things 4 saw release as the season wrapped up that July, when it was renewed for a fifth and final season. ~ Rob Wacey & Marcy Donelson, Rovi
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