One of the staples of the original Alan Wake was in its use of licensed music, which helped set the atmosphere and immerse the player into the world of Bright Falls. In addition to accompanying Pat Maine's Night Owl broadcasts, they also eased us into the episode's end break. Who could forget Roy Orbison's In Dreams as Alan discovers that Bird Leg Cabin was gone, or David Bowie's Space Oddity creeping in after "It's not a lake, it's an ocean"?
For Alan Wake 2, the chapter songs are returning once again... but with a twist. Remedy worked with Fried Music, to create a haunting soundtrack perfect for the experience. The list of artists involved includes Sanni, Costee, Teemu Brunila, ROOS + BERG, Paleface, Jurek, and RZY appear alongside international talents Rakel, Jean Castel, and Mougleta.
Alongside the announcement, we also got a unique view into the creation of the songs in a special standalone behind-the-scenes video. In the piece, we heard from Sam Lake (Creative Director), Jukka Immonen (Creative Director and Founder, Fried Music), Ville Sorsa (Principal Audio Designer), Jurek (Producer & Songwriter), RZY (Producer & Songwriter). Sanni (Singer, Songwriter & Producer), and costee (Singer & Songwriter). Check out their thoughts below...
Alan Wake 2: Chapter Songs — Making Of Transcript
Visual Description: "Alan Wake 2 Song Writing Camp, January 2023, Helsinki Finland."
Sam Lake: I wanted to be really ambitious with the storytelling in Alan Wake 2 and include music for the storytelling as well, with lyrics acting as an extension to the story. We have created a number of custom songs for the game, and the Fried Music with Jukka Immonen and Teemu Brunila have been a key part of this.
Jukka Immonen: Fried Music is a music production company. It was formed a bit over 20 years ago. We work with all the majors Sony, Universal, Warner, and our producers and our partners. We work with David Guetta, Flo Rida, internationally. Locally, pretty much all the A-list artists here in Finland. The first talks we had [were] probably four or five years ago. That didn't happen straight away at that time, but we've been in contact, we've been in talks, and now it came to happen, and we're really happy to be a part of this project.
Ville Sorsa: We've been patiently waiting for the right project and opportunity to do this, and because of the Scandinavian influence we have in the game, we were trying to find the right Scandinavian partners and artists to align with the vision and aesthetics of Alan Wake 2.
Jukka Immonen: We picked the artists and the writers pretty much upon after we had the talks with Sam [Lake] and Ville [Sorsa]. Basically, interviewing them and knowing what they want.
Sam Lake: I showed the game, talked about the themes and the story around each song that we needed, and provided poetry that I had written as a starting point for the lyrics. What I really really wanted is that the song camp is a songmaker's paradise. The only rule that we had was the lyrics need to be about the story.
[In-Game] Saga Anderson: You've been missing for thirteen years.
[In-Game] Alan Wake:...Thirteen?
Visual Description: "End of Chapter" appears on the screen.
[In-Game] Song: In the dark...
Jukka Immonen: Every single thing on those songs that we did is based on those poems and those visuals that we saw. So I can't see any tighter relationship of a song and a game. You know, at least we haven't done anything like this before.
Visual Description: An artist leans back from their microphone, and looks around for feedback.
[In Footage] Voice 1: Yeah, that's beautiful
[In Footage] Voice 2: The first pass is perfect as it is. And we can use stuff from the second round.
Jurek: We gather a bunch of people in a studio or a house or whatever, and then we form groups, and then they have the briefs, "This is what we're looking for."
[In-Game] Alan Wake: And monsters wear many faces.
Jurek: We kind of had five, six artists to write for all the different characters of the game and the different pivotal moments in the game.
[In Footage] Sam Lake: -different genres.
[In Footage] Voice 1: That's where we started this morning.
[In Footage] Voice 2: Woo, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[In Footage] Voice 1: Very different vibe!
Jurek: And I've played Remedy Games since Death Rally, really. All the way from the first game. So I didn't know what the song camp was for. They didn't- they wanted to kind of keep it really hush-hush. But when I saw Sam walking in the lobby, I felt starstruck. He was like, "That's Max Payne walking, walking in the lobby. And, oh shit, it's a Remedy Camp. I knew right away that we're doing something for a new Remedy game.
RZY: So we were supposed to have more decorations on the walls that will set the mood, but we didn't need that so much because the mood was just, like, inspiring and crazy. It was pretty nice.
[In-Game] Alan Wake: There's something... I'm forgetting.
Sanni: It was definitely something that I've never done before, going to the studio with all the Alan Wake scary pictures everywhere and being like, "Okay, let's get into the mood of darkness." We didn't have any genre suggestions at all. We just went there to the studio, "Let's do something that is not too pop." And we're all pop music makers. We have these structures in our heads already, and we had to kind of break everything and do something completely different. And that was very inspiring.
[In Footage] Song: When the writer is in doubt-
Costee: Yeah, it was easy to make the songs because of my own dark, dark vibes and stuff. So it was really me, the whole thing. My favourite one was "I Follow You Into the Dark" because I actually felt like it could be my own song. So, if it wouldn't go to the game, I would have done it by myself.
[In Footage] Song: I follow you into the dark, I follow you into the dark, dark, dark. I follow you into the dark. I follow you into the dark, dark, dark, dark.
Sam Lake: I'm really excited about the amount of art in different forms and mediums that we have inside Alan Wake 2. Music, especially.
Ville Sorsa: I'm most proud about this project is not the fact that we have so many great songs in this game but also how well these songs integrate into the story of Alan Wake 2.
Sam Lake: Now we have seven incredible songs elevating the whole game experience at the end of key episodes. There are these highlights in all of these game projects. Really, this whole thing, working with these artists and having these songs really, really crafted to be about the story. I'm sure that I will treasure the memory of the whole experience forever.
Visual Description: The full list of End of Chapter songs and their contributors.
"Follow You into the Dark featuring RAKEL". Writers: Teemu Javanainen, Jussi Tiainen, Sindri Már Sigfússon, and Sam Lake. Producers: Heviteemu, and Sindri Már Sigfússon
"Lost at Sea featuring Jean Castel". Writers: Jean Castel, Jurek Reunamäki, Jussi Tiainen, Pierre-Antoine Melki, and Sam Lake. Producers: Jurek and Nius.
"Superhero featuring Mougleta". Writers: Jurek Reunamäki, LenoxBeatmaker, Yasmeen Semaan, Sanni Kurkisuo, and Sam Lake. Producers: Jurek and LenoxBeatmaker.
"Dark, Twisted and Cruel featuring Paleface". Writers: Jean Castel, Jurek Reunamäki, Jussi Tiainen, Pierre-Antoine Melki, Sam LakeProducers: Jurek, Nius
"No One Left to Love featuring ROOS + BERG". Writers: Christel Roosberg, Jori Roosberg, Joalin Loukamaa, and Sam Lake. Producers: ROOS+BERG.
"Night Springs featuring KeiraWriters": Yasmeen Semaan, LenoxBeatmaker, Jurek Reunamäki, Sanni Kurkisuo, and Sam Lake. Producer: Jurek
"Wide Awake featuring Jaimes". Writers: Yasmeen Semaan, Teemu Brunila, Antti Riihimäki, and Sam Lake. Producer: RZY.
Chapter Songs. Alan Wake 2. Available October 27th on Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming platforms.
