Sam Haft is a platinum-certified music artist who contributes original music and lyrics for Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, and also provides the singing voice for the demos of the songs he has written for both series.
He is one of the two members that make up The Living Tombstone.
Background[]
Haft is best known as the lead singer of the music act group The Living Tombstone. Outside this, Haft has performed in the TV miniseries Bernie Sand Wars and the Audible original Letters From Camp.
He has also provided voices for Trollstopia, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Trivia[]
- On August 27, 2023, Sam made a tweet saying that after co-writing Klown Bitch with Andrew Underberg for the seventh episode of Helluva Boss Season 2 that was so well-received by the team they co-wrote together 6 more songs for Helluva Boss and the songs for the entire first season of Hazbin Hotel.[2][3]
- According to Sam, Andrew Underberg was the one who got Sam into music.[3]
- Haft explained later in an interview that he and Andrew had actually grew up together[4]
- In a tweet by Sam, he says that Stolas is the character he loves writing songs for the most because he understands Stolas so well emotionally and musically, but he also desperately wants to make more Verosika songs.[5]
- Sam later stated that the character he is most attached to writing songs for is Stolas, explaining that the song You Will Be Ok was very meaningful for him to write, and feels he and Stolas started the musical journey of Helluva Boss together so he is very invested in writing songs for him.[6]
- Sam Haft explained that the he finds a lot of fun writing for and would love to write more for Verosika, saying he loves making catchy pop songs and pop songs that are stupid on purpose, adding that Vacay to Bonetown is a hilariously filthy song that contains no swearing and he would love to continue to see how disgusting he can go while keeping it non-explicit.[7]
- When asked if Blitzo has good singing chops, Sam responded that he thinks because Blitzo was raised in a circus that he's a natural performer.[8]
- He thinks that if you cast Jack Black in a movie you have to make him sing a little song three quarters through the movie.[9]
- One of Sam's favorite movies is Nacho Libre.[9]
- In a tweet Sam made he says that if Jack Black were cast in Helluva Boss Sam would write a "Meat Loaf" type of throwback rock song where Jack gets to do "that weird scat thing" he does where he sings "flippidy floop de goo" nonsense syllables.[10]
- In a tweet, Sam Haft states that his favorite movie is MacGruber.[11]
- According to a tweet Sam made on August 27, 2023, two songs he had written have been scrapped; one song for Helluva Boss season 2 was scrapped and redone by someone else, and one song for Hazbin Hotel season 1 was thrown away and rewritten.[12]
- In the same tweet, Sam said he never has an issue with his songs being scrapped because it's never about whether a song is good, it's about whether it's right for its narrative context.[12]
- In a tweet by Sam, he says he would love to write a song for Loona since her voice actor is a great singer.[13]
- According to Sam, the version of "You Will Be Ok" used in "Loo Loo Land" is the full version of the song but he had originally written more than was needed when they were making the episode so he "whittled it down".[14]
- In a tweet Sam explains that making songs for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss has made him a faster, better songwriter in general, but also that working with these actors he learning their strengths and how to make them sound their best. He also says he's become a better director by getting to watch Richard Horvitz voice direct.[15]
- According to Sam he has a few songs that mean so much to him, which he tends to pick one to five songs, and he listens to them on repeat for hours. Some of these songs are "Love Ridden" by Fiona Apple, "A Pearl" by Mitski, "Happier Than Ever" by Billie Eilish, and "This Will Be Our Year" by The Zombies.[16]
- Sam considers heaven to be real, saying it is marinated feta cheese made by Meredith Dairy in Australia.[17]
- Sam is a fan of Minions, moreso than Shark Tale.[18]
- Sam's favorite kind of song is those that include a little bit of sketch comedy.[19]
- Sam's favorite genre of song to write is when he's asked to write in a genre he's never done before, but he also loves writing a good pop song.[20]
- According to Sam Haft the lyrics from the song, Look At This!, were made from the app, Duolingo,[21]
- Haft also said that the song uses a very specific copyright-safe riff on his favorite Italian song of all time, Amore Scusami.[22]
- In a tweet, Sam Haft stated that his favorite songs he has written for season 1 are either You Will Be Ok or Vacay to Bonetown, and for season 2 either Klown Bitch or an upcoming song involving Bryce Pinkham.[23]
- He also explains that his favorite song for season 3 that he has finished is the "filthiest yet" and is "very fun",[23] and adding that it is "the straight-up horniest most make-you-blush-listening-to-it song" he's written.[24]
- Sam Haft explained in an interview on December 10, 2023, that most of the songs he most liked making hadn't come out, but of the songs released, his favorite was Klown Bitch.[25]
- According to Haft, the most challenging song for him that had been released as of December 10, 2023 is Look At This! as it's a long song but it also deliberately and must mean nothing, and he needed to communicate zero information in it in quite a lot of time while keeping it interesting. He added that he was very nervous, terrified and stressed out about the song up until it released.[26]
- According to Sam, introducing Abe Goldfarb to the Hellaverse is one of his greatest contributions to Helluva Boss.[27]
- According to Sam, making music for Keith David is one of the great honors of his life.[28]
- In a tweet, Sam Haft explained that if he had to define Vivienne Medrano's writing style he'd call it "gay Broadway BoJack dramedy",[29] and that all her content does have one thing in common, and it's not saying "fuck shit ass balls", it focuses on misunderstood (mainly LGBT) characters learning how to let people in and create a found family.[30]
- According to Erika Henningsen in an interview, Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg capture the spirit of classic Disney animation songs even as they put a wicked spin on them.[31]
- According to Sam Haft, as of December 10, 2023, he has written on over 60 songs for Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss combined.[32][33]
- Sam Haft explained that his and Andrew Underberg's writing process for Hazbin Hotel first is figuring out where the song fits in an episode, including who is singing it and what the themes are, and what types of music is associated with the characters in the song. Then after figuring out what the song needs to be and it's purpose through a lot of conversation with Vivziepop, Haft and Underberg do a process Haft calls "doodling" wherein they play chords and come up with ideas, saying it's kind of "throwing spaghetti against the wall" not dissimilar to improv. They do this until they have a common idea and begin collaborating and moving in one direction where they stack ideas on top of each other until they have a song.[34]
- In an interview Sam Haft explained that in spite of the fact there is a really clear vision for what the songs will be in Hazbin Hotel, there is a lot of creative freedom when making the music.[35]
- Haft has the first four bars of his first platinum song, "My Ordinary Life", tattooed on his left arm.[36]
- Sam Haft is a massive The Muppets fanatic, stating that his favorite is Kermit, explaining that as he is anxious and a workaholic he feels reflected in Kermit.[37]
- Haft added that his favorite b-tier Muppet is Lew Zealand.[38]
- On December 11, 2023,[39] Sam Haft released a 7 hour class where he walks through writing songs for Helluva Boss, which with the permission of Vivienne Medrano and Adam Neylan[40] shows Haft write a song from assignment through to the demo for season 3.[41][42][43]
- Haft stated that the song is a gag song [44] that stays away from spoiler territory, but you will get to hear and watch a song made for Helluva Boss that probably won't be officially released for maybe a year.[45]
- Haft also explained in an interview that he only had four days to make the song for Helluva Boss season 3 as well as a song for another project, neither of which he prepared for because he wanted to make the process more real so he first learns about what the songs are on camera.[46]
- According to Haft, the contents of the song are very goofy and hysterical.[47]
External Links[]
- Official website
- Official YouTube
- Official Twitter
- Official Bluesky
- Official TikTok
- Official Spotify
References[]