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Michael Stein
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Michael Stein is an American composer and electronic musician who works with Kyle Dixon. They began together in the electronic music scene of Austin, Texas. In 2009 they formed the synthesizer band Survive with Adam Jones and Mark Donica. That music is associated with analogue synthesizers, playing live on hardware and electronic compositions influenced by the music of horror and science-fiction films. Stein sees Survive as one part of a broader musical series, alongside the work for film and television that the duo makes under the name Short Hour.
Music and breakthrough
Their big breakthrough came with Stranger Things. The creators, the Duffer Brothers, discovered the music of Survive and used one of its tracks in an early pitch trailer. The duo was then commissioned to write the music for the series. Only the two of them did it, because the production could not afford the whole band. The music was released on several soundtrack albums on Lakeshore Records and Invada Records. Their title music won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2017, and the first two volumes received Grammy nominations.
Influence
Apart from Stranger Things they composed the music for the virtual reality series Spheres from 2018, the short film A Different Beyond, the British series Butterfly and films such as The Hole in the Fence and Lost in the Night. They also wrote music for the installation Convergence Station by Meow Wolf in Denver. In 2026 they toured Europe with Stranger Things music, in a show with light and sculpted fog. Their work shows how analogue synthesizers from the 1970s and 1980s could once again carry a major television series.
Listening
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 5NL Reader
- The Dream Factory: Film Reel 8NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Synthwave-revival Genre
Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the band S U R V I V E made the title music for the series Stranger Things (2016).
- Prestige TV and streaming Genre
Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein made Stranger Things (2016) with analogue synthesizers in the spirit of the 1980s.