Chicory composer Lena Raine always wanted to write an RPG theme song

It’s hard to isolate Lena Raine’s compositions from the games they appear in; the pulsating electronics of Celeste is the core of my memory of pushing through the grueling platforming challenges, and the tender piano melodies in Chicory: a colorful story feel inherently connected to the story of artistic struggle. Raine’s work truly fits the worlds in which it appears, a testament to her songwriting prowess.

Polygon asked her a few questions about her process as part of Polygon FM, our theme week celebrating the intersection of music and games.

Polygon: Was there a game soundtrack or song that inspired you to start making game music? Can you paint the scene of what that felt like for you, and why the music was so effective?

Lena Rain: So much of my music really comes from discovering the soundtracks of Yasunori Mitsuda and Yoko Shimomura. They both had a bit of a parallel experience when I first discovered them through an SNES game (Chrono trigger for Mitsuda, and Super Mario RPG for Shimomura, although I could have heard her work while she was playing obsessively Adventures in the Magic Kingdom years earlier) and fell in love with their music and how it influenced the emotional journey of a game after it was further developed for a PS1 RPG.

In Mitsuda’s case it was Xenogears, and although I knew his music from Chrono trigger was incredible, Xenogears itself completely blew me away with its ability to push entire genres and unique styles and themes for its characters. I fell head over heels in love with the Xeno series and thankfully it never let me go. For Shimomura, it was the discovery of the two very different scores for Legend of Mana And Parasite Evatwo games that immediately took me into their world. In the latter case it showed me that even extremely electronic music can have a place in narrative games.

Can you break down one of your own songs and its influences? Was it inspired by game soundtracks, other music, or something else?

One of my favorite pieces I’ve had the pleasure of working on was “The Mountain Top” by Chicory: a colorful story.

It’s one of those rare opportunities where I’ve been able to work as a songwriter and collaborate with an incredibly talented singer, in this case the legendary Emi Evans (of NieR). When we were developing ChicoryI asked Greg Lobanov (the lead creator) if I could write a vocal credits track. It was always a dream of mine, ever since I played countless RPGs in the late 90s with the now traditional vocal theme as the icing on the cake. In this case it made perfect sense, because earlier in the game the two main characters sing on a mountaintop as part of the Wielder Trials. It’s a song that evokes the insecurity and doubt that you get as an artist, something I felt strongly about when writing the song. Greg wrote the lyrics and I worked with Emi and a very talented group of musicians to bring it to life.

One source of inspiration outside of games that I hold very close to my heart is the music of Yoko Kanno and her frequent collaborations with singer and actress Maaya Sakamoto. She wrote a lot of songs for one of my earliest obsessions, Escaflowne’s visionan anime about a girl who is magically whisked away to a hidden world. The details don’t really matter, but it was that style of songwriting that I tried to channel for the piece, and I’m just really happy with how it all turned out.

What are the main instruments used to create the soundtrack for Celeste? How did you choose those instruments?

Almost everything in Celeste can be narrowed down to two instruments: Native Instruments’ Massive digital synthesizer and Spitfire’s Felt Piano (though I’ve since moved on to a piano called Noire from Native Instruments). Each synth patch was something I designed using the fairly simple parameters in Massive, and I even wrote a fairly detailed article about some of the patches specifically. I also used a bunch of percussion samples and drum loops from Ableton Live and other loop packs (which also have a Medium article about)! The decision to use a combination of synths and piano came pretty organically from the first track I finished for the game, First Steps. The team didn’t have a specific sound they were going for, but I thought the descending piano arpeggio was a great start to capturing the falling snow of Celeste Mountain. The rest came from trying to find a sound that evoked NES-era platformers without trying to create a hyper-specific chiptune sound. Instead, I used simple waveforms to create leads, pads, and basses that felt modern, but were derived from the same waveforms used for classic console chipsets.

Is there anything else we should know about your approach to composing video game music?

Honestly, the biggest thing I always try to do when I’m writing new music is to do something new. The world is too big to close yourself off and write just one style. It’s hard when a client wants you to repeat yourself, but looking for new opportunities, new styles, new collaborations… That’s the energy that keeps me going. When I started writing music over 20 years ago, I never thought I’d write a pirate-themed ska song for a boss theme, or a Nine Inch Nails-inspired character theme. If I can keep finding projects that surprise me and make me think about how I write music, I’ll keep writing forever.