Sega’s Endless Dungeon hits PlayStation, Xbox, and PC subsequent month, and forward of its launch, we spoke with singer-songwriter Lera Lynn, who wrote new unique songs that play throughout the sport. Lynn is a musician who has additionally appeared in issues like HBO’s True Detective collection, the place she performed an in-universe musician at a dive bar within the present’s second season. She has expertise engaged on music for TV, movie, and now, because of Endless Dungeon, video games.
We spoke with Lynn concerning the processes for creating music for these mediums, variations and similarities, the songs that seem in Endless Dungeon, and extra. Enjoy our interview under!
Game Informer: How did you get entangled with Endless Dungeon?
Lera Lynn: Honestly, I believe a number of the of us at [Amplitude Studios] had been simply natural followers, as unusual as that will sound. And they got here to me and mentioned, “We like your music. Would you be interested in working on the soundtrack?”
And that is the primary sport you have labored on, proper? How has that been?
Lynn: It’s been enjoyable. You know, there’s at all times a studying curve while you’re working in a brand new medium, however the Amplitude group has been extraordinarily amenable and versatile. They’ve mainly given me artistic rein over my contributions, and I am unable to ask for something greater than that.
Lera Lynn
As somebody who creates music on their very own, what’s it like coming onto a undertaking the place there are already themes and a world and a personality, and also you’re tasked with writing music to suit that?
Lynn: Honestly, it is a lot simpler. I do get pleasure from taking just a little bit extra time. This undertaking is clearly such a large enterprise, from begin to end. It’s the whole lot of making the sport. I’ve loved how the method has been longer and has allowed us extra time to make the music what we wish it to be.
When you joined this undertaking, what sort of steerage did you obtain?
Lynn: Initially, they wanted the track with a trailer, they usually kind of gave me the premise of the sport, they usually gave me a number of days. That was really probably the most speedy turnaround of the entire undertaking. I wrote like half of the track as a result of it solely wanted to suit the trailer, which was what, like, two minutes or so, turned that in after which went again and prolonged the track and made a full model. It’s been years within the making now, however one of many songs known as “The Garden,” and the immediate was “a call to action,” like a battle track, upbeat, excessive vitality. And I knew a number of the vernacular that they had given me from the sport in order that I might incorporate that into the lyrics.
But it was additionally actually necessary to me to make it possible for the music was nonetheless relevant outdoors of the sport as properly, for folks to only take heed to, as a result of I’m an artist first, and that is simply the place my thoughts goes. So I took the lore of the sport and tried to kind of work it into trendy life and make it so that somebody who is aware of nothing concerning the sport might additionally, I do not know, hopefully, relate to it in some way.
I used to be writing numerous this throughout the pandemic. So now, after I pay attention again to the lyrics, it’s totally a lot isolation and worry. And there are some political undertones. I believe all of that’s useful for the sport, but it surely’s simply fascinating to look again on it and see how that scenario influenced the music, too.
How do you are feeling about folks connecting your music to an expertise that they had elsewhere, like listening to a observe now and remembering it from True Detective, or, in the future, Endless Dungeon possibly?
Lynn: I believe each single track takes on a lifetime of its personal. Even if it is by no means related to a movie or TV, there’s simply such an artwork to the lifetime of songs, like the best way that I relate to it alone when I’m writing it versus how that modifications and grows with an viewers. And then clearly songs go locations on their very own, and find yourself in folks’s properties and automobiles. I do not know how folks relate to music and the way it makes its method to them, but it surely’s unbelievable. It’s actually an fascinating journey.
[Editor’s Note: Below is a clip from the first episode of HBO’s second season of True Detective featuring Lynn singing “My Least Favorite Life.”]
Endless Dungeon is years within the making, and also you wrote music for it years in the past. What’s it like as an artist at any time when you will have years to take a seat on a track? Do you look again on it later, like, “Oh, I wish I did this instead,” or something like that?
Lynn: That’s an fascinating query. When you are within the thick of constructing it, you are like, “Yeah, this is so good.” And then a few months go by, you are engaged on it, and also you’re analyzing each single element, and also you attain some extent the place you are like, “Ahhh, I f***ing hate this.” You put it to mattress for some time, and you do not take heed to it, after which come again possibly six months, or, you realize, a 12 months later, on this case, and I’m like, “This is actually pretty cool. I really do like this, I am proud of this work.” But that’s the cycle for me with all music. I believe there’s at all times hindsight. You at all times can hear areas the place you’ll have performed issues in a different way since you’re rising and studying and getting higher at what you do, hopefully, in order that’s at all times in there. But I undoubtedly really feel like I’m very pleased with this music and actually excited for folks to listen to it.
Can you inform me about “Free Again?”
Lynn: Well, that was written in lockdown. Also, I had a new child child at the moment. So, to be sincere, it is a bit of a blur making that. We did it actually shortly. I believe they needed that track to kind of encapsulate the idea of the sport normally: that you simply’re making an attempt to get the house station powered and get again house and be free. You’re trapped, and also you’re being chased by these monsters – it was nearly making an attempt to place that into trendy grownup language lyrics. Being in a position to relate to that a lot, being in lockdown and being remoted and day by day, us waking up and doing the identical factor again and again. And for Americans, issues just like the Black Lives Matter motion, like every kind of issues, had been simply getting stirred up. And it was good, however numerous ugliness was being proven on the similar time. I attempted to only be a mirror and put that into music, and it is all in there. Also, I used to be going via postpartum despair, and it was a loopy time. There’s quite a bit in that track.
What’s it like not simply having songs in a sport but additionally having a personality in it as properly?
Lynn: I do not know what that is like but as a result of the sport’s not out. It’s going to be so fascinating to see. One facet of this that I believe is superb is that the music is diagetic. I realized this from the Amplitude group. That’s a part of why the music needed to be created thus far upfront as a result of the music is interactive with the gamers. I imagine they’ll have the totally different folks within the band play various things, [with] triggers for songs. I have not seen it in motion but, so I’m not precisely certain how that can perform. I am unable to wait to see that. That’s going to be unbelievable. And then clearly, to have an avatar like, yeah, I by no means, by no means dreamed that may occur. I do not know should you’ve seen the dwell efficiency movies which are for “Free Again” and “In The Garden,” however I’m carrying the avatar’s costume, so it’s fairly meta.
Is it a coincidence that in Endless Dungeon you are singing songs within the saloon, after which in True Detective, you’re singing songs within the dive bar in that season?
Lynn: Yeah, no, I solely do music in bars. That’s my factor. No stadiums allowed.
You’ve been typecasted.
Lynn: Yeah, they beloved that character in True Detective and needed to inject that into the sport, I believe. In some elements, yeah, you possibly can’t assist however join these dots.
Endless Dungeon has a really Western really feel to it, but it surely’s set in house. The two songs I’ve heard have a really Americana-style to them. Was that necessary to you, or did you toy round with the thought of including extra sci-fi parts to it? I can inform folks carried out these songs on devices, and it wasn’t a pc or synth or one thing like that.
Lynn: I believe that is what makes it fascinating, that kind of juxtaposition. As somebody who’s not a gamer, I’d anticipate music and video games to be extra synthesized and digital. So, I hope that that’s an fascinating juxtaposition. And then I’ll say that when the songs had been written and recorded with a dwell band in Nashville, we despatched them to Amplitude, after which [composer Arnaud Roy], who works on the music for Amplitude, additionally added numerous sport parts to tie it into that world, in order that’s an fascinating facet of the manufacturing. It’s humorous that you simply name it Americana as a result of, to me, it is not Americana; it is like indie rock, however you realize, I’m me, so I am unable to actually see.
Oh yeah, I can see indie rock. I believe possibly as a result of I’m seeing this sport that is a Western after which I’m listening to indie rock with it, my thoughts’s going, “Okay, this is very Americana,” you realize?
Lynn: Yeah, properly, there is no fallacious reply. It’s fascinating to listen to suggestions, and also you’re the primary individual that I’ve actually gotten suggestions from.
Well, it is nice. I legitimately get pleasure from what I’ve heard thus far.
Lynn: Thank you, thanks.
What do you hope gamers take away out of your involvement – your music – in Endless Dungeon?
Lynn: I hope the music is one thing that they crave outdoors of the sport as properly. I hope they’ll relate to it on a human stage and relate to it in their very own lives. That’s my job as a songwriter: to not simply be ambiance in a sport however to create one thing folks can sink their tooth into.
Awesome, in order that’s all my questions. Is there something I did not contact on that you simply wish to add?
Lynn: I do suppose it is nice how Amplitude is placing girls in positions of energy on this sport; not solely within the characters, however in hiring girls on the artistic aspect. I believe that is value mentioning as a result of there’s not a ton of ladies producing music, and there is not a ton of ladies producing music for video video games. That’s actually necessary.
Endless Dungeon hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 19.
While ready for its launch, learn Game Informer’s hands-on Endless Dungeon preview after checking the sport out finally 12 months’s Gamescom.
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