Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney is flustered when he joins our Zoom call, pacing around under a clear blue sky. “I just realized I’m wearing an REM T-shirt to a Rolling Stone interview. That’s so on-the-nose!” he declares, gesturing at his gray concert T-shirt. It doesn’t take long for him to get over that and start gushing about Michael Stipe and Co., though. “I would actually physically fight somebody over them,” he adds, laughing. Good thing he has a whole pack of hot hockey players in his corner — or, at least, that’s what they play on TV.
Tierney’s HBO drama exploded at the end of 2025, an adaptation of a popular book series by Rachel Reid that follows a pair of hockey players as they go from rivals to something steamier — a secret romance. The show premiered on Canadian subscription service Crave in late November, and after getting picked up by Max, it barreled into the public consciousness like a hockey player… doing hockey player things. Stars Hudson Williams (who plays shy Canadian Shane Hollander) and Connor Storrie (in the role of brooding Russian Ilya Rozanov) were suddenly everywhere — a dizzying turn from waiting tables and sparse IMDB pages.
The show’s soundtrack — a mix of early-to-mid aughts nostalgia — has also found a foothold in the zeitgeist, giving artists like t.a.t.u and Wolf Parade sizable streaming bumps even decades after their songs originally dropped. And that’s largely due to Tierney’s vision. “I’ve never made TV the normal way,” he says. “Music is so important to me. [Wolf Parade’s 2005 track] ‘I’ll Believe in Anything’ was so built into the show — I wanted to clear it before we even started filming. That’s kind of like an indicator of how music is crucial to the way that I like to tell stories.”
Despite the fact that the show takes place from roughly 2008 to 2018, Tierney says the throwback soundtrack wasn’t intentional. “People always say to me, ‘You really tried to do this accurate to the period.’ No, the [songs] just happened to largely be from a playlist I made,” he says. “It’s the music of my early 20s.” His stars, who are currently in that age range, immersed themselves in the soundtrack, despite not really knowing any of the artists of Tierney’s youth.“They made me feel really old,” he says. “They were like, ‘What is a wolf and why is it on parade?’ And I was like, ‘I hate both of you.’ And I was like, ‘Feist? 1,2,3,4?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we watched that on Sesame Street.’ And I was like, ‘Again, I’d like to push you down a flight of stairs. Your youth enrages me.’”
Age matters aside, Tierney has been overwhelmed by musicians’ reactions to the show; artists like Miley Cyrus have already been vying to soundtrack season two. “It’s been crazy who has reached out, because there’s a bunch of people that I shouldn’t even say who have DMed to me,” Tierney says, sadly declining to elaborate. “I’m like, ‘Holy shit. I can’t believe I can even think about music like this. It’s like dreaming.’” But that doesn’t mean he’s abandoning those aughtie faves. His current writing soundtrack? TV on the Radio and the New Pornographers.
As the hype for Heated Rivalry continues to grow — composer Peter Peter dropped two tracks for the soundtrack, “Rivalry” and “It’s You” Friday — Tierney broke down his favorite needle drops from the cultural phenomenon.
Wolf Parade, “I’ll Believe in Anything”
Tierney sees this track as the theme song for hockey player Scott Hunter (François Arnaud) and his boyfriend, Kip (Robbie G.K.).
That was a big, hugely important needle drop for me, because I also wanted to use it multiple times. I wanted to make it like Scott’s subconscious. It’s just this big, romantic, beautiful song. That’s what I want for him and Kip. And I just love a love song. Needle drops, to me, are so important, because they do trigger a subconscious reaction. I mean, music in general, right? For me, if I can make three people feel the way I feel when I hear this song, then I’ll have accomplished what I want to share.
I’m also a big Wolf Parade fan. I was at an Arcade Fire show and they were the openers. Their first EP was out. I bought that EP that night, and was like, “Who the fuck is this? Oh, my God, I love this band so much.” In the early 2000s, I was talking to Spencer [Krug] on and off about scoring something else. So, this was kind of a big, “I’ll circle back to you.” Yes, I circled back. It just took a long time.
Feist, “My Moon, My Man” and “Sealion”
“My Moon, My Man” opens episode four when there’s a massive, long montage of the boys texting and fucking, being in love and being apart from each other. And “Sealion” is in episode one when Ilya is going to see Shane for the first time in the hotel, and he runs into his mother in the elevator.
“My Moon, My Man” is such a good song; it’s so poppy and smart and beautiful and all that shit. I loved it so much. We literally looped it and played it twice because my editor was like, “You know, this song is nowhere near long enough.” I was like, “Great, loop it. Just play it twice.” That’s how much I love this song.
And “Sealion” — I just felt like it had the right nervous energy song for that moment. Boys getting ready to meet for the first time. There’s something kind of propulsive about it. “My Moon, My Man” was in the script, but “Sealion” wasn’t, because I really wasn’t sure if I could afford it. And then I was like, “I can’t. The replacement song was not working.” So we went back to her people and we figured it out.
Satine, “C’est Toi”
This French track scores a scene in which Hollander dates actress Rose Landry (Sophie Nélisse).
I love that there’s this kind of female energy that is so exquisite to me. I love this for Rose, and I love this for that montage in episode four where Ilya is looking at all of this press coverage of Shane and his new girlfriend. It felt exactly like the right cheeky, cute, poppy earworm. I believe that my Apple Music told me it was the song I listened to the most last year.
t.a.t.u., “All the Things She Said” and the Harrison Remix
Heated Rivalry’s de facto “Running Up That Hill” moment, this mix of the original and remix serves to underscore the agony of hidden love.
I wanted some Russian in there. Even though I know that there’s controversy about the queerness of it, it was queerest Russian pop hit that I can think of. Other than “Rasputin” [by Boney M.]. I did not think I could afford it, but as soon as we put it in, I was like, “Oh, we need this.” I liked the idea of doing a song and then a cover of it, and then found that Harrison cover. And I was like, “Oh, God, we’ve got to make this work, because these two songs together are really doing the heavy lifting.” I don’t mind telling you, it took a lot of figuring out how to make that work, not just financially, but content-wise. I’m so grateful it did, because I had a feeling that it could be really iconic. Or, at least, iconoclastic.
Cailin Russo, “Bad Things”
The song ends the show. My friend Michelle Mylet, who was on Letterkenny, she sent me that song. What I loved about it for that moment was, it’s another love song, but it’s also horny and naughty. And I was like, “Yes, please.” I didn’t want to let people think we’ve forgotten about being horny.
The Who at Madison Square Garden in 2025.Sacha Lecca for Rolling Stone
