X-Files superfan solves 25-year-old mystery about long-lost Dreamland song

Eliana Bollati
X-Files promotional imagery

Since 1998, X-Files fans have struggled to place the title and artist of a song played in the background of one of the show’s Season 6 episodes, now, thanks to Twitter, the mystery has finally been solved.

When it comes to atmospheric musical choices, the X-Files has rarely disappointed, featuring hits from the likes of Nick Cave and the Foo Fighters — to say nothing of the show’s iconic theme song.

But one track featured in an earlier episode has had folks scratching their heads about who wrote it for over two decades.

That’s when one Twitter user decided they were going to get to the bottom of things.

The song in question was featured in the episode Dreamland II, the fifth episode of the show’s sixth season.

And her sleuthing paid off, with the query eventually reaching the ears of composer, Rob Cairns, who happened to know the X-Files music editor at the time, he suggested tracking down the cue sheet.

Another user followed Cairns’ suggestion and tracked down the cue sheet from the episode.

The song “Staring at the Stars” was written by musician Dan Marfisi and Emmy award winner Glenn Jordan, specifically for the show, you can catch its appearance in the episode in the video below.

The recording was never publicly released, the reason fans of the show were left wondering about the origins all this time.

Marfisi and Jordan penned the tune in just four hours, Marfisi spoke with NPR about writing it, explaining: “We had a directive to write something that would fit both an alien and a human being… And we kind of looked up in the sky and said, what’s up there besides aliens? And we found stars … that was our brainstorming session.”

About The Author

Eliana was formerly a staff writer on the Australian Dexerto team. A freelance journalist for a decade, she earned her master’s in international journalism from the University of Western Australia. She has written for a range of outlets and most recently served as a founding member of the editorial team for esports news and leaks website, BLIX.GG. A lover of JRPGs and strategy MOBAs, when she’s not writing you’ll most likely find her playing Dota 2 or FFXIV.