Even though the scene was cut from the final film, my favorite song on the REPO! Soundtrack is "Needle Through A Bug", a macabre duet between the Shilo and GraveRobber characters. I like the track because it operates well on multiple levels. It also was one of the last tracks composed for the film, so it has the benefit of remaining fresh in my mind.

Thematically: "Needle" features two completely different character types – Shilo (the innocent) and GraveRobber (the big, bad wolf) – using completely different tactics to achieve the same goal: TO GET OUT OF A BAD SITUATION. Shilo must venture beyond her comfort zone and do something that's completely gross and frightening to her – i.e. she must plunge a needle into the skull of a dead woman. GraveRobber, who's not used to having to rely on others, is immobilized in the scene and has to convince Shilo to do this horrible deed. Otherwise he's dead meat. The title of the song is in reference to GraveRobber's tactics; he's telling Shilo that sticking a needle into a cadaver is no different than sticking a "needle through a bug".

Musically: I love the changing meters in the song. One of my favorite challenges in writing REPO!'s music was to incorporate unconventional time signatures in such a way that it felt normal – i.e. make complicated music that a non-musician could sing along to and never realize that they were switching from say 5/4 to 6/4 as in the case of the verse sections of "Needle". I also like the dark, sexy tone of the music and the use of bug-like sounds in the musical programming. These sonic suggestions of fluttering insect wings and squirming maggots really put you in the mindset of "something isn't right here".

Vocally: the juxtaposition of Alexa Vega's (Shilo) youthful soprano voice against my dark GraveRobber baritone makes for a very dangerous, very wrong, yet very sexy performance. It's my favorite exchange between these two characters. My only regret is that we didn't have the time to expand the track into a longer stand-alone song. Maybe for REPO II…!