Aivi & Surasshu Interview: Creating Ikenfell's OST
Aivi & Surasshu, the musical duo behind the Steven Universe soundtrack, produced their first video game OST last year—Ikenfell, a charming indie-RPG. Along with Sabrielle Augustin, aivi & surasshu composed 75 tracks of charming digital fusion, making waves in the VGM scene and inspiring dozens of cover artists to create their own arrangements. The album even made it on the GameGrooves Best of 2020 list! For the first interview of 2021, I thought it would be fun to dive into the world of Ikenfell with aivi & surasshu as our guides.
How did you get involved with Ikenfell? Did you know the developers before you started working on the soundtrack?
surasshu: Chevy Ray, the main developer, reached out to us via Twitter! We didn’t know each other before then, so it was a “cold call.”
aivi: The game gave me a thoughtful, “feminine” vibe because of its emphasis on characters and relationships. We’re pretty selective about which projects we choose to compose for, but I had a good feeling about Ikenfell.
How did Sabrielle Augustin become involved with the soundtrack?
aivi: Sabrielle and I have been mutual fans of each other’s work for about a decade. We finally started talking this year because of the pandemic, and we’ve been calling each other once a week since the summer. I’ve always wanted to collaborate with her, and she just happened to be available when we needed help finishing the Ikenfell soundtrack.
surasshu: When we played through the game to test our music implementation, after composing about 50 tracks, we found that we needed to write many more songs since the story has many twists and turns. That’s when we recruited Sabrielle Augustin to help us with some of the special moments in the game, and she did such a good job!
Did you have any guidance from the developers on the direction of the soundtrack or did they leave you to your own devices?
surasshu: We were hired specifically for our musical style, so in that sense we had total autonomy. However, Chevy talked to us at length about the themes and the concepts of the game, and we also took inspiration from music that Chevy showed us, like Canadian folk music from his childhood for the early tracks in the game. Because of this, we were able to capture the mood much more accurately.
Did you look to any other composers, musicians, or soundtracks for inspiration when writing Ikenfell’s OST?
surasshu: When we were working on cutscenes in Ikenfell, we approached them similarly to how we would score a scene in Steven Universe. This meant that in addition to “environment” and “battle” themes, we wrote many short songs to evoke a variety of emotions—we called them “mood themes.” For me, a big influence on this approach was the work of Masazaku Sugimori, the composer of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Ghost Trick. He is an expert at creating moods that fit each scene perfectly.
aivi: The Breath of the Wild soundtrack really inspired me because of the composers’ approaches to scoring. The music is more ambient and supportive than past Zelda soundtracks, which I thought was both brilliant and bold given the legacy of “catchy” Zelda melodies. It gave me a precedent to approach Ikenfell’s soundtrack in a supportive way, especially in moments when the player needs to read a lot of text or absorb heavy cutscenes. We still tried to write some memorable melodies, but overall being “catchy” wasn’t our primary goal. I think that composing for animation for so many years taught me to appreciate this way of scoring.
Artwork by Darcy Dee
Did you have any specific musical goals when you started composing?
surasshu: We wanted to take some of our experience with scoring animation and apply that to an RPG game soundtrack, within the confines of a game. As mentioned, it meant creating many mood themes and going through the entire game and meticulously planning when each song would play, stop, or be replaced by another theme to feel as “cinematic” as possible.
aivi: It was tricky to figure out a simple, but effective way to do that since, in a game, you can’t predict how long a player will roam around or sit on a dialog screen. But these technical challenges are what I really love about composing for games.
surasshu: We also really wanted to write vocal theme songs for the characters and plant their melodic motifs throughout the game whenever it made sense to do so. Getting to work with our great singers and rappers—Sammus, Renko, Rekcahdam and Adriana Figueroa—was a delight!
How did Ikenfell’s compositional process compare to other games that you’ve worked on?
surasshu: We were a lot more hands-on during the development of the game, for one. My experience working on games as a freelance contractor has mostly been handheld titles on the GBA and DS. For those projects, I wouldn’t always get to see the game in much detail and would just be expected to compose according to a game design document and a description.
In comparison, we were trusted with a lot more inside information and even played through the entire game in order to custom-fit the soundtrack to the gameplay.
Were there any unique challenges that you faced while working on Ikenfell?
surasshu: The biggest challenge was probably the sheer amount of music that was needed to fill out the game. Between me, aivi, Sabrielle, and our singers, we had 75 songs on the official soundtrack album and even more music files implemented into the actual game.
aivi: Both of my hands were injured between February to October which made composing especially difficult for us in the final months before the game’s release. I recruited help in order to type our music implementation documents and learned to delegate my musical ideas to surasshu in precise technical detail so he could execute them for me. I’d say things like, “In measure 32, 2nd note, turn the velocity of the note up to 76.” Things I used to do intuitively without thinking, I learned to put into words and vocalize.
Ikenfell strives to be an inclusive, diverse, and thought-provoking game. Do you feel like your music also includes those themes?
surasshu: We tried our best to make the music as thoughtful as the game itself. Whatever emotions the characters are going through, we treat it sincerely and try to reflect that in the music.
aivi: It was important to me to make a beautiful soundtrack. I really want people to feel comforted when listening to the music, especially if they can relate to any of the characters or scenarios in the game.
Can you explain the decision to include several featured artists on the album?
surasshu: The vocal songs were an opportunity to give the characters one more dimension with which to express their inner feelings. I worked on Gilda’s song, and in that song’s case, I also specifically wanted to create a surprising and memorable moment when it kicks in while Gilda’s attacking the player! I really like how Hiroyuki Sawano, composer of anime like Re:creators and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, uses vocal songs to make special moments stand out even more. I was hoping for a similar effect.
aivi: I originally wanted to write a vocal song for every character, and I even had a singer in mind for everyone! However, there didn’t end up being a good moment in the game for every character to have a vocal song. Between Renko, Adriana, Sammus, Rekcahdam, and Sabrielle, I feel like the Ikenfell soundtrack was an excuse for me to spotlight the work of my talented friends.
Have you had a chance to listen to any Ikenfell covers? Do you have any personal favorites?
surasshu: Yes! We’ve seen some incredible covers already, from FamilyJules’ metal/math rock version of “Rook’s Theme” to this metal version of “Rhythm of the Wild” by Ro Panuganti! As people who used to do covers of game music ourselves, it’s been really cool to see that kind of reception!
aivi: I also want to shout out to this orchestral/acoustic cover of “Forest of Secrets” by Isaac Schutz, this gorgeous orchestral/folk cover of “Yearn to Bloom” by Circlejourney, and this rondalla cover of “Roses are Black” by Fabian Fabro. And, of course, all of the musicians who participated in your Ikenfell Quick Fire Cover Challenge! It’s been really amazing to hear covers of Ikenfell’s music, and I’m grateful for each and every person who has taken the time to add their own creative touches to our songs.
Buy the Ikenfell OST today!
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Jayson Napolitano from Scarlet Moon Productions for helping to facilitate this interview.