How Respawn Entertainment Put Together the ‘Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’ In-Game Cantina Music
In a recently published article on The Loadout, Nick Laviers, music director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, discussed how the music played in the game’s cantina was compiled together. While players can listen to the music anytime within the game, the full album is also available to listen to on streaming services, called Sounds from the Galactic Skylanes (see links below). The album features returning Mongolian folk metal band The Hu and new-to-the-series Turkish psychedelic rock group Altin Gün.
A location that players will frequent often in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is Greeze’s cantina, Pyloon Saloon. As players progress through the game, they’ll be able to recruit new NPCs, like Ashe and their DJ droid DD-EC, to join them at the cantina who’ll offer their services. To liven up the cantina, an eclectic mix of in-universe music is incorporated into the game, including The Hu, who helped to provide music for Cal Kestis’ introduction in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, (provided below).
When asked about the initial process of putting together Jedi: Survivor’s cantina music, Nick Laviers commented that Respawn Entertainment, the developer of the game, “wanted to go wide.” But Laviers and the team at Respawn also wanted to make sure that the artists’ style would also remain intact:
“When we first started talking to the bands, we created this ‘Star Wars style guide’… But, the preface to that was ‘it’s just a guide, and we want you to be you – most importantly’ … That was [game composer] Stephen Barton’s big mantra, that the bands had to be them… he really drove that [home]”.
Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, the two composers for Jedi: Survivor, also insisted that “the bands have to be bands,” within the game and that “the bands have as much control as possible.”
Nick Laviers also commented on how the music was put together during the COVID-19 pandemic. Laviers said that he was unable to work with them in person but stated that they “did it all on Zoom” before switching to “mainly email communications.” However, it wasn’t without its issues, as Laviers also points out. While there was an initial Zoom call with everyone involved, and Laviers and the music composers stated they helped guide and provide direction on the project, everyone’s experience was different throughout the process:
“Some of the bands [had] nothing to begin with [while] some of the bands [brought] a ton of stuff, right off the bat.”
Yet according to Laviers’ comments about the project as a whole, it sounds like everyone who worked on the album enjoyed the process and the creative freedom:
“It was definitely fun. [The bands] all had their different ways of working and different approaches.”
Sounds From the Galactic Skylanes is now available to listen to on music streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
