ArcaneThe secret of “s” has always been the soundtrack. There’s no better example of this than one of the early scenes in the first episode of season two, in which Caitlyn mourns the death of her mother. Instead of forcing mournful dialogue to express her feelings, the show relies on a completely unique animation style, with stylized black charcoal drawings draining the color from Caitlyn’s world.
But to complement Fortiche’s imaginative animation, the show needed a song that was as specific to Caitlyn’s emotional state as the imagery. So the show’s creative team turned to Freya Ridings to write a beautiful, haunting ballad that takes us inside Caitlyn’s head. This kind of decision is over Arcane – and according to showrunner Christian Linke, that will always be the case.
Ahead of the show’s second season premiere, Polygon had the opportunity to sit down with Linke to talk about how he and the team work with artists to create the perfect songs, and why he believes licensed music is in has no place in the series.
Polygon: Arcane often uses original songs to convey the emotions of its characters in a way that dialogue alone cannot. What is the process like composing these songs and finding the right artists for each moment?
Christian Left: Conceptually it’s just very important to me. I don’t think I’ll ever work with licensed music in my career, and I think that’s just because I was a musician. It’s really hard to have a career in music. The fact that so many franchises with so much money continue to write checks to Led Zeppelin, I think: Cool guys, I’m sure they need it. There are so many musicians who have difficulty making a career. It’s such a murderous world out there.
That’s why I love the fact that we only make original music. We work with artists from the ground up, we collaborate and we give them something – and some of these artists we work with don’t need the platform, they’re already big, but for others it’s really great for them. It really gets them talking. This is really important to me, this is a principle that has existed from the beginning. It’s a lot of work, but that’s what makes it great.
You start with a scene in an episode where you feel what you want to say and then you just look for the right artist and for that you need a good team. We have a great team [with] the Riot Music group, where I just say: I need an emotional song that’s about this and thator I need a really loud song that’s about the anger of this and that. And then they go, OKthey take that away and think about artists and come back to me with a list of artists that we then contact.
Then from there, meet with the artist and give them an idea of what they’re looking for?
Yes, I will inform you about it, Here’s what this moment is all about. For example, when I was working with Mike Shinoda, I thought: This is about Caitlyn’s legacy, the feeling of what it means to be a member of this distinguished family that was really important in Piltover, and the weight that comes with that. And then he wrote: “The crown is heavy.” And it’s something that if you put the right thoughts into the artist’s head, then you end up with these amazing pieces of music that you couldn’t even have imagined yourself.
What do you pay attention to when you receive the samples your team sent you?
I think the emotional connection, the lyrics have some kind of meaning. When the Sting song in season 1 starts and it says, “I am the monster you created.” I think: There it is. It’s just part of it and it fits. It engages itself in a creative way where it just feels connected. And that’s a big part of it. Other than that I think it’s just a piece of music that’s fun and feels like it has something to say. The obvious choice is sometimes necessary for a fight scene, but sometimes the real surprise that I liked about Season 1 was the fact that we had very different genres. “Our love“was a completely different genre than you would expect from a show like this Arcane. And we did the same thing again in Season 2. Very, very different, very diverse genres. But yeah, my job is mostly to make sure there’s a clear emotional connection to the story.
Is there a limiting factor to what kind of genre and what kind of music there is? Arcane and can feel like that?
No. I mean, if anything, people might say I took it a little too far. I like loud things, I like extreme things. I have to say that sometimes there are genres where it makes sense, but I’m not at home in those genres and I’m not always so confident in giving feedback and then I have to rely more on the team. Hip-Hop: I’m just a terrible person with terrible taste in this stuff. Guitar Music: I know what to do. So we have a team made up of musicians, composers who sometimes, let’s be honest, have to save my ass to make sure we get a certain piece right. So we have a very diverse group and I think what it’s done is we’ve represented a lot of different tastes that they can cater to if needed.
The first three episodes of Arcane Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. New batches of episodes appear every Saturday.
