THE MUSIC OF RANDOM

Creating a modern fairytale in video game form requires more than just a story that grips its players. It also requires the right soundscape and artistry to match the heart and feel of the narrative. Let’s start with the former.

Today, we got to chat with composer Blake Robinson and creative director Olov Redmalm about the sounds and music of Lost in Random to learn a little bit more about what makes them so special.

Hey, Blake! To start, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your experience with music?

Blake: Hey hey! My name’s Blake Robinson and I spend half my time composing and orchestrating music for video games. I originally started out writing jingles and themes for TV commercials, which led to writing music for video game trailers and spots, which then evolved into scoring full-length original soundtracks.

When I’m not composing music, I’m working as a music software developer, creating orchestral sample libraries that other musicians (and myself) use to create the music heard in movies, shows, and games. It’s the musical equivalent of being a kid in a candy store as I’ve had the opportunity to record some amazing London symphony orchestras, collaborate on projects with insanely talented composers such as Hans Zimmer and Eric Whitacre, and craft myself some bespoke tools and sounds for writing music while I’m at it.

Olov: Hi there! It’s me again, Olov, and when I’m not directing games I draw obscure comics, meditate, and watch Star Wars to death, sometimes all at the same time. While I’m an amateur, I absolutely love working with sound design and music. I also enjoy making funny voices and noises, and you may have already met me in the world of Random as Dicey, Royam, the Fourman, and some other more or less nasty fellows.

Thanks for answering some questions, you two! Sounds like you make quite the tag team.

Okay, let’s dig into your work on this game. Broadly, when it comes to creating music for a “dark fairytale,” did you need to do any sort of research? What did you learn during your preparations?

B: I’ve been writing dark, fairytale-like music for so long that I didn’t really need to do much research or preparation. I grew up watching classic Henry Selick and Tim Burton movies such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride and loved the melancholic yet whimsical soundtracks that went with them. I’ve always tried to recreate parts of that sound in my music whilst adding a bit of my own personal style and character.

Klaus Lyngeled (CEO at Zoink) and Olov Redmalm have quipped that they discovered me by searching the internet for “good music that resembles that of Danny Elfman,” but there’s actually been an abundance of comments on my work about its similarities to Elfman’s, which makes sense considering I taught myself to compose for orchestra by listening to his works and those of other composers such as James Newton Howard.

O: I remember that Klaus and I listened to your music together, went wide-eyed when our eyes met and we agreed that the demo song you made for us was almost too perfect a fit to be true. We tried some different approaches with other musicians, but in the end, we always came circling back to you. Of course it had to be Blake! And it’s been such a blast going forward with him.

There is something truly special about music that can so perfectly fit its storytelling. I see why those artists resonated with you!

More specifically to Lost in Random itself, then, were there any recurring musical styles that you found fit well with the game as a whole? Such as certain instruments used consistently, repeating melodies, or even a general tone you tried to capture.

B: Lost in Random really felt like such a perfect fit for me as a composer. I remember first chatting with Olov and hearing his grand vision of this world; how it looked and sounded, the motives behind the characters, the places you’d visit and what they were looking for in the musical score that would accompany it all. I quickly realised that I had to be involved as it felt like it was one of those rare opportunities you get as a musician where you’re not writing music ‘to a brief’—you’re just writing the kind of music that you love to write. I remember rushing back to my studio after the call, as I was so excited to start working on it.

O: I remember you sent us a town theme, a creepy theme, and an exploration theme that were just spot on! We ended up using the town as a theme for Two-Town, specifically for Seller Street where Even gets a culture shock from seeing the “big city” for the first time.

B: I guess it’s a long-winded way of saying that with Lost in Random, a lot of the score is just ‘Blake’ music. I’m a very melodic composer and part of what made Lost in Random so fun to score for is the rich ensemble of memorable characters. I took some time early on to sketch up themes for the main stars of the story; subtle reminders and cues to the player about what was happening and what could happen next. Certain characters lent themselves to specific instruments, too. For example, Dicey has his playful dice-themed pizzicatos; Seemore has his lovably big personality represented by low, throaty woodwinds; and the Queen has the sadness of the cello to juxtapose the horns and choir for her angrier moments.

Olov is also a big Star Wars nerd and we’re both huge fans of John William’s iconic music from the movies. Elements of what makes his score so great also seeped into the soundtrack here and there. There are these huge bombastic brass renditions of the Queen’s theme to accompany epic events and large sweeping strings to fit with the more emotional moments.

O: Erm, yes... [awkward laugh] I do refer to Star Wars quite a lot. But we wanted both the grounded, kind of folky and odd melodies and instruments for the exploration of the world, as well as the more epic notes for the overarching plot of Even, Odd, and the Queen. For the more grounded bits of Random, we looked at 19th-century composer Gustav Mahler, who would dance between dreamy folk music and epic orchestral music that would kind of twist and turn like the moods of a human being. I found Blake’s way of working similar to William’s as well as Mahler’s, with recurring character themes that sometimes “guest” each other. The music is telling its parallel story alongside the visuals and dialogue!

Very interesting! Let’s dive deeper into something that was mentioned by both of you: How did you go about creating themes for locations and characters in a way that made them feel unique while still familiar in the larger soundscape?

B: Olov had a very clear idea of the direction the music should go for certain locations. One thing we were both keen to do was introduce some slightly unusual instruments into the score. Two Town has a really distinctive hammered-dulcimer instrument and Fourburg has this cheap, slightly broken-sounding melodica/harmonica that both reinforce the lore behind their respective locations. As with the characters, one of the first things I did was to sketch out themes for each location. Because of their importance to the story, I wanted to have these key motifs as blueprints for the rest of the soundtrack. That way each town would have this distinctive feel that the player would associate with them, even if the music was a variation in mood or urgency.

I’m also quite old-fashioned when it comes to orchestration. I use a largely acoustic traditional orchestra you’d hear in classic 80s/90s movies. The blend of unusual instrumentation, location-specific motifs, and traditional orchestral sound meant that everything naturally gelled together and had a familiar, authentic sound.

O: That’s been so much fun—to discover the right instruments and feel for each area, from the militant, marching music of Threedom to the off the rails “oom-pah” sounds of Fourburg; it’s like a buffet where every course is different but fits so well together.

I want to take the opportunity and thank Blake for having been so patient with me when I didn’t know the name of an instrument, but rather described something as “baroque piano” or sent him a link to a very specific part of a song exclaiming “there, that plenk-ploink sound!”

B: That's the part I enjoy most when composing and the reason I approach things so lyrically and melodically—you're almost creating this extra character for the story that is the music itself, striking the balance between it sitting well with what's happening visually on-screen, but being unique and memorable enough to subtly notice and remember. That was what I was really excited about with the opportunity to write music for this game; it really allowed me to write these bold themes that wouldn't easily overshadow the action happening in the world that Olov and the gang had created. I’m also going to find it hard not to always call a Dulcimer “that baroque piano” now.

A classic feel to a fairytale’s music definitely made for a good fit! While playing, it feels like the game uses the sounds of the world and music as part of the storytelling. Sometimes, one was more present than the other, such as when the music would swell or fade to nothingness, and other times the world and music were in balance. How did the team go about crafting the game’s auditory experience?

O: Blake and I would start out with a rough list of how much unique music we’d need for each level, depending on its size. It would usually be two different combat and exploration themes per area. Drafts that we’d at first scrap we’d end up using as themes or even boss fight songs in other levels. And for some specific story beats, Blake would write very specific music. 

Lead Sound Designer Marcus Klang (another person I’d like to thank for their patience) put a lot of effort into placing out trigger boxes for the different scores I had in mind. I’d play the levels and have Blake’s already scored tracks in the back of my head and just feel my way forward. It just hits you when you realize a certain theme would fit somewhere and you try it out. I’d sketch these “music maps” where I’d mark out what music should play where and send it to Marcus for a first draft.

Then, of course, there are the “happy accidents.” There’s a point in the game where there’s some really sorrowful music that’s supposed to play, but for some reason, that music doesn’t play now and it’s dead quiet. Which, in the end, really fit the fateful mood of that scene. For those who’ve played the game, maybe you can guess which scene I’m referring to!

B: For me, having the opportunity to revisit all the motifs and themes I’d written later on in the project when scoring the cutscenes really helped with this. I spent the first half of my time largely writing looped music that Olov mentioned for each location and character, battle themes, and subtle exploration music. It wasn’t till the latter half of the score that I got to see the work of the amazingly talented artists and animators and sink my teeth into writing the music that accompanies the story being told on-screen in these big set-pieces.

A lot of this was taking the large library of existing themes, ideas, and motifs we’d developed and sculpting them to the action, getting feedback from Olov on how they fit, and figuring out when we needed to preserve those moments of nothingness you mention that really add to the story being told. Sometimes a good swell of an orchestra would tell much more to the audience than a big motif or action theme.

Did having a narrator influence how the game’s sounds and music were made? Or was it the other way around?

O: Again, Marcus Klang put even more effort into mixing the sounds of the game and tweaking the ducking of music and sound effects so that the player could make out what the narrator was saying at all times. One of his most important impacts on the project was establishing the different worlds to the player: “this was Onecroft,” “Even had set foot in Fivetropolis,” etc. That would always come with a new theme, something filled with anticipation and mystery. Just like how the narrator himself is mysterious and anticipating a whole lot of stuff!

Is there anything special about the game’s music or sounds that you’d love for the world to know about?

B: As I’d mentioned, Lost in Random has been one of those once-in-a-lifetime projects for me that Olov and the gang have allowed me to really put my all into. There’s a huge wealth of subtle details affectionately crafted into the score, from Dicey’s theme spectrally representing the faces of a die or the subtle blending of various character’s themes to reflect the events of the narrative, all the way up to the near-10-minute-long musical that tells the story of Random and it’s residents featured in the credits. I’m so thankful to Olov and Klaus for finding me randomly (editor’s note: no pun intended, but appreciated) via that internet search and giving me the opportunity to write the music for the world of Random. I hope everyone enjoys listening to the music as much as I enjoyed writing it.

O: I love how randomly fate brought us together, Blake, and we’ve been so lucky to have you along with us for the ride! Lost in Random just wouldn't have been the same without you. Where people call Star Wars a space opera, I like to call Lost in Random a “die opera!” The music breathes life into the story, but works also entirely on its own! So go ahead and immerse yourselves in the music of Random, be it over a cup of warm Zoopa Juice or an epic duel with fate itself.

What a wonderful idea! Thank you so much, Blake and Olov, for answering all these random questions (editor's note: pun intended). And to you, dear reader, if you’re interested in listening to the themes of a dark fairytale, look no further than the links below to our Spotify playlists!

Enjoy the game, enjoy the music, and remember: Random Rules!

Lost in Random, Volume 1 on Spotify

Lost in Random, Volume 2 on Spotify