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 and Teemu Brunila have been a key part of this. 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 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. We've been patiently waiting 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. We picked the artists and the writers pretty much upon after we had the talks with Sam and Ville. Basically interviewing them and knowing what they want. 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. 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. Yeah, that's good. The first pass is perfect as it is. And we can use stuff from the second round. 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." 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. And I've played Remedy Games since Death Rally, all the way from the first game So I didn't know what the song camp was for. 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. 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 inspiring and crazy. It was pretty nice. 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. 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 favorite 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. I'm really excited about the amount of art in different forms and mediums that we have inside Alan Wake 2. Music, especially. 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. 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.
