Fall Guys Interview with Jukio Kallio and Daniel Hagström

Interviews
Written By Guest User
Fall Guys OST

Fall Guys has taken the world by storm, selling over 7 million copies on Steam and becoming the most downloaded PS+ game in history, and it only takes a few minutes to realize what makes the game so universally appealing. From the moment you load the game, you are greeted by the energetic soundtrack composed by Jukio Kallio and Daniel Hagström. Despite being a relatively short soundtrack, the Fall Guys OST has inspired countless VGM artists to create their own arrangements, so I took it upon myself to ask the game composers about their inspirations, work process, and reaction to the game’s launch.

Had you worked with Mediatonic before Fall Guys?

Jukio: We hadn’t worked with Mediatonic before. Devolver contacted me about working on a “potentially cool” game as I’ve worked with them a lot before (they published Minit and Luftrausers for example). The “potentially cool” game turned out to be really cool, hah!

Working with Mediatonic was great. The team there knows how to give feedback, and I feel like we synced with our ideas from the get-go.

Daniel, you were primarily a mastering engineer before Fall Guys, so how did you and Jukio split composing duties? Did one of you arrange and the other handle production?

Daniel: Jukio composed the music, and I handled production! This means, in a nutshell, that my role was basically to turn Jukio’s compositions and initial demos into a final product.

Our workflow was such that Jukio would first compose the melodies and chords, creating placeholder sounds that would hit the ballpark and give a sense on the direction for the tracks. I would then take the Ableton sessions from Jukio and design the sounds for the instruments, synths, and drums, add some finer details and effects, and ultimately mix and master the soundtrack to the final product that it became. This process, of course, involved a lot of discussion and exchange of ideas with Jukio and the Mediatonic team, with demos sent back and forth!

Did the developers give you any references for developing the Fall Guys OST? Were they heavily involved in the music production process?

Jukio + Daniel: Initially, there were reference tracks that definitely set the high-energy synth-based music vibe, though we only listened to them in the beginning and let our brains work on the ideas after that. So while the references set the general direction where to go (so, you know, we’re not working on an ambient soundtrack, hah!), they weren’t heavily involved after that. 

We came up with this idea of channeling 70s and 80s TV sports themes and watched a lot of YouTube videos of those in the beginning too! In the end, we decided not to go that route with the Mediatonic team, though, and went with the more modern soundscape you can hear in the game.

Jukio Kallio

Jukio Kallio

Jukio, how did this OST compare to other game soundtracks that you've composed?

Jukio: The biggest and most important change from my usual work is definitely working as a team with Daniel! Before this, I’ve always done everything by myself. It was really great to work this way as it gave me a lot more room to concentrate on composition, melodies, and chords. My usual process of making music is that the composition and production goes hand in hand, developing at the same time. This was also a challenge sometimes because I had to blindly believe that my weird melodies could sound good after Daniel put his magic touch on them, hahah!

I can't help but notice a few musical influences while listening to this OST. For instance, I detected hints of Mario Kart Double Dash at the beginning of "Survive the Fall". Where did you both find your inspiration for this OST?

Jukio + Daniel: It’s so cool to hear people find connections to other music! Of course, all music comes from somewhere—a mix of influences (not just from music!) that gets mushed into something new in an artist’s brain. That said, we didn’t listen to any game music while working on Fall Guys. We’ve been compared to Splatoon’s music a lot, for example, but neither one of us ever played that game hah! Same with Mario Kart Double Dash. 

Jukio: Composition-wise, one of the big “themes” for me was modulations. You know the kind that usually comes in the last chorus of a pop song, going up a semitone. We call that “the Eurovision modulation”. I went full on with that idea, trying to squeeze as many modulations, up and down, in a track. It gives this fun feel of constant progress, even though the melodies might be the same throughout the track, and it was a fun puzzle to try to figure out how to modulate back to the original tune as the tracks had to loop seamlessly of course! So, I guess you could say Eurovision song structure was one of my big inspirations, hahaha!

Daniel: I think the general inspiration for sounds came from watching the Fall Guys world and characters themselves—they are so wobbly and bouncy and goofy, causing a hassle, yet still they want to be serious on winning! I think this is reflected on how the soundtrack sounds. It’s quirky and funny, yet somehow really cool and professional at the same time, but never too serious, yet serious enough. A jellybean’s still gotta win, right?! Hope this makes any sense, haha!

The Fall Guys OST is relatively short with only 6 full tracks and just under 18 minutes of music. Were you worried about reusing tracks or tracks becoming repetitive?

Jukio: It was actually such a blessing that we could do such a short soundtrack! It gave us enough time to make 6 super tight tracks. We didn’t have a lot of time to work on it, maybe 2-3 months at most, and we didn’t work 5 days a week on it either. Fall Guys’ game structure is such that rounds don't take too long, so that helps a lot with the music not feeling too repetitive. We listened to the tracks a lot while working on them, so we could get a feel of if it was getting too repetitive, hah!

Daniel Hagström

Daniel Hagström

Arguably, "Everybody Falls" is the most important track on the album since most players experience that song when they first load the game. Was it a difficult track to develop? Did you have any specific goals in mind when you composed it?

Jukio: Composition-wise, there were a few things to balance with “Everybody Falls”. It needed to be inviting and energetic so players would know what kind of game they’re getting into, but it was also a menu track (while you’re dressing your character, etc.), so it couldn’t be a full-on LET’S GO track. Also, of course, it needed to be memorable as it was the sonic identity of Fall Guys, the first thing the player hears. Also, you’ll be listening to it a LOT because you lose rounds easily, so it couldn’t be too annoying or repetitive either. I’m so so proud of how it came out, though. Hearing people being OK with servers being down around the game’s release because the menu track was so good was a blessing, hahaha!

Sound-wise, this was one of the biggest works, as it would be setting the tone for the entire soundtrack. We made “Everybody Falls” first with the goal of having a big enough sound palette that was interesting to use for everything that comes after it. This is where I made a lot of sound demos, and we went over them with Daniel a lot to really find the sound of Fall Guys. Daniel really outdid himself with the sound palette, and I’m super proud of our teamwork on this!

Can you describe the Fall Guys OST in a few words?

Jukio + Daniel: Someone on Twitter came up with a really good “genre name” for this—Bubblegum Electro! Sorry, wish we could remember who it was, (too many messages), but shoutout to them!

What do you think of the game's response, both critically and commercially?

Jukio + Daniel: It’s CRAZY how crazy people are going for the game. We never thought it’d be anything like this. We’re just so so so happy that people love the music!

In the VGM scene, there have been several remixes/covers of your soundtrack, including an album by Dacian Grada. Do you have any particular favorites?

Jukio + Daniel: It’s amazing how many remixes and covers there’s been! It’s so cool that people get so inspired by our music. The acapella one from Elspeth was super good.

Would you ever consider an officially remixed album a la Celeste B-Sides or something similar?

Jukio + Daniel: The release of Fall Guys has been so hectic that we haven’t had any time to really sit down and think about the future yet, hahaha! There’s definitely gonna be some plans, no idea what they are yet.

Do you plan on developing additional tracks for the game for future seasons or events?

Jukio + Daniel: That’d be amazing!

Jukio and Daniel
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