Pet Shop Days by Eli Keszler

Eli Keszler’s original score for Pet Shop Days captures the charged atmosphere of a New York crime story reimagined through a fresh, unexpected lens. Set across two languages (English and Spanish) and two distinct geographies, the film follows a group of affluent youths in search of something more visceral—thrill-seekers chasing chaos not out of desperation, but from a need to feel something real.

Pet Shop Days directed by Olmo Schabel produced by Martin Scorsese and staring Dario Yazbek Bernal, Jack Irv Willem Dafoe, Peter Greene, Peter Sarsgaard and Abella Danger. 

Rather than centering on poverty or survival, Pet Shop Days explores the intersections of class, identity, sexuality, and violence. It paints a universal emotional landscape of longing and instability, underscored by raw desire and adolescent intensity.

In close collaboration with director Olmo Schnabel, producer Galen Core, editor Sophie Cora, Keszler was tasked with creating a score that mirrored the film’s dualities: innocence and depravity, love and narcissism, serenity and danger. The result is a narcotic, aggressive, and emotionally volatile sonic world that pulses with tension and dissonant beauty—music that feels both synthetic and deeply personal, echoing the teenage turbulence at the film’s core.

A Grammy-nominated composer, percussionist, and artist, Eli Keszler is known for his boundary-pushing solo recordings, large-scale sound installations, and collaborations with artists including Oneohtrix Point Never, Skrillex, Laurel Halo, and Kevin Beasley amongst many others. He has scored and performed on more than fifteen films including Bad Shabbos, Bunnylovr, The Scary of Sixty First, Harka, Percussion for Uncut Gems and many more. His work bridges contemporary composition, avant-garde electronics, and visual art, earning acclaim for its technical precision and emotional depth.