How ‘Infinite Dungeon’ creates “cosmic cowboy vibes” with singer Lera Lynn

What do Infinite Dungeon and True Detective have in frequent? On paper, little or no. Whereas the latter is a gritty HBO crime drama, Infinite Dungeon is a sci-fi roguelike sport about serving to a bunch of heroes escape a monster-ridden house station. But each are united by the music of Nashville singer-songwriter Lera Lynn, whose folksy Americana uplifts any scene it’s in – whether or not that’s a frantic shootout with aliens, or Colin Farrell brooding over a cigarette.

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Talking to NME, Lynn acknowledges that her sound and Infinite Dungeon‘s futuristic setting “don’t appear to go collectively” on paper. But dig beneath the floor, and her “cinematic” folks rock and Americana-tinged pop are an excellent match for the sport’s “cosmic cowboy vibes”.

Moreover, builders at Infinite Dungeon creator Amplitude have been already followers of Lynn’s work – maybe via True Detective, she suggests. Once they approached her to make music for Infinite Dungeon, eager to maintain her “type and tonality intact,” she jumped in.

“I didn’t know lots in regards to the sport [at first],” says Lynn. “We began on the music virtually three years in the past, whereas the whole lot was nonetheless below growth. However they gave me a basic rundown of some folklore, and a few of the completely different tones and moods they needed to create with the songs – then reduce me unfastened to do what I do.”

4 tracks have sprung from this collaboration, although solely two of them have been launched up to now. The primary, ‘Free Once more’, is a ravishing but haunting monitor about feeling trapped in a cycle. “Been strolling this similar lifeless ends / Dying this similar dying repeatedly,” sings Lynn – relatable to anybody going via a tough patch in life, whereas additionally describing Infinite Dungeon‘s cycle of life and dying to a tee.

Her second tune ‘Backyard’ is extra upbeat and optimistic, however simply as literal. “I used Infinite Dungeon folklore as a scaffold to construct the lyrics,” explains Lynn. “From there, I needed to guarantee that the listener would be capable to relate to the songs, whether or not they have been taking part in the sport, or had no information of the sport in anyway. So the lyrics are fairly literal within the context of the sport, and whilst you’re taking part in you’ll perceive the whole lot, nevertheless it’s obscure sufficient for a non-gamer to use to common life.”

It’s not simply the lyrics which might be accessible. Although that is Lynn’s first time creating music for a sport, she approached it with the identical philosophy she applies to creating songs in movie and TV.

“I’m an artist first,” she says. “I need to guarantee that the whole lot I’m concerned in has a constant thread as I don’t need to lose any followers. I’m at all times interesting to the individuals who have been standing by my coronary heart for years and years.”

Working in video games introduced one other distinctive problem. In Infinite Dungeon, gamers are despatched again to the Saloon each time they die – a secure zone the place they’ll improve heroes and weapons, chat with the house station’s residents, and hearken to an in-game b and play Lynn’s music. As you play extra of the sport, extra band members and devices are unlocked for the Saloon, which implies Lynn’s songs change as the sport goes on. This made Infinite Dungeon “such a posh task,” says Lynn, as Amplitude wanted to have the ability to single out every musical ingredient of her songs.

Although the character who sings these songs now resembles the musician, that just about wasn’t the case. Lynn was initially pitched as a “mouthless octopus”, nevertheless it was “moved from lead singer to keyboard participant” as a result of one small subject: it didn’t have a mouth to sing. “So we’ve settled on a personality that appears much like me, and we designed her attire collectively,” she says.

Again in the true world, Lynn just lately performed a few of Infinite Dungeon’s music throughout a present at The Slaughtered Lamb in London – and with the sport simply weeks away from launching, Lynn is happy for gamers to listen to the songs she’s spent years engaged on.

“You develop to hate something whenever you’ve been engaged on it for a very long time. You get bored with it, disgusted, embarrassed, ashamed, all of these items,” she says, laughing. “You lose sight of the preliminary inspiration. However [with] time, and house, and revisiting the songs just lately to study them for the present, I’m pleased with them. I can’t anticipate folks to listen to them.”

Lera Lynn contributed to the soundtrack of Sega & Amplitude Studios’ Endless Dungeon, as a result of be launched on PC and console on October 19, 2023.