“We’ll say, ‘You’re a master shredder. We want to hit this moment on screen with some type of arpeggio or shred lick’”: Polyphia's Tim Henson revealed as the virtuosic guitarist behind the fast-paced, flamenco-inspired piece in Cobra Kai's final season
Henson follows in the footsteps of Charlie Robbins, Myrone, and Andrew Synowiec, who were all featured in the blockbuster show's guitar-driven soundtrack
Cobra Kai has enlisted a series of stellar guitarists to soundtrack its all-out old-school brawls and action-packed sequences. Syncatto's Charlie Robbins contributed a flamenco-meets-classic-rock piece that accompanied the end of Season 6, Episode 6. Now, another contemporary guitar virtuoso has been revealed as part of the soundtrack: Polyphia's Tim Henson.
Armed with his signature Ibanez TOD10N guitar, Henson performed Furia de Panteras in Season 6, Episode 9 – another composition heavily influenced by flamenco guitar.
The piece’s name refers to the fictional Spanish world-class dojo competing in the Sekai Taikai, the show’s international karate tournament held on the world’s largest karate stage.
The show's scorers and soundtrack senseis, Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson, previously spoke to Guitar World about the lengths they go to in ensuring the perfect soundtrack.
“The process is pretty similar for each episode,” explained Birenberg. “We sit down with the showrunners and have a meeting – it’s called a spotting session – and we’ll watch episodes.
“We usually work on two at a time, so we watch them together and go through every scene with the editors and say, ‘Should there be music here? What’s the music going to be like?’”
Robinson continued, “We’ll work with amazing guitar players like Andrew Synowiec, a session player in Los Angeles, and Myrone – he calls himself a ‘soft shredder,‘ and he’s very video game-influenced – and we’ll say, ‘You’re a master shredder. We want to hit this moment on screen with some type of arpeggio or shred lick,’ or whatever.”
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This isn’t the first soundtrack Henson has been featured in. Earlier this year, the Polyphia virtuoso revealed himself as the guest guitar star shredding in Netflix's Ultraman: Rising.
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Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
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