Music has always been as important to the Life Is Strange video game series as the coming-of-age stories it explores. In fact, there are only three people that have worked across every title and two of them are responsible for the soundtracks.
For more than a decade, Music Supervisors Ben Sumner and Glenn Herweijer have brought together cult guitar classics and undiscovered gems from a new generation of bedroom pop stars to create the perfect mixtape for our in-game hero’s headphones. It also amplifies their fraught journey into adulthood and across seven titles, the pair have nailed that much-needed blend of sincerity, vulnerability, angst and optimism.
- READ MORE: ‘Life Is Strange’ announces full ‘Reunion’ soundtrack featuring Holly Humberstone, Foals and more
The original Life Is Strange was released in 2015 and followed 18-year-old Max Caulfield as she dealt with visions of a terrible storm destroying her suburban hometown of Arcadia Bay. Witnessing the death of childhood friend Chloe Price activated Max’s ability to rewind time, with the third-person adventure game then letting you choose what happened next – all soundtracked, of course, by emotionally evocative tracks such as Foals’ ‘Spanish Sahara’, Bright Eyes’ ‘Lua’ and Mogwai’s ‘Kids Will Be Skeletons’.
Life Is Strange 2 switched the focus to fugitive Sean and his telekinetic younger brother Daniel. As they trekked their way to Mexico, the siblings’ moving story was accompanied by Bloc Party, Phoenix, Sufjan Stevens and other alternative noughties heroes.
Later, in 2021, True Colors picked pop star and LIS megafan mxmtoon to provide the singing voice for wannabe rockstar and psychic empath Alex Chen, who set out to solve the murder of her estranged brother Gabe. The game also featured Radiohead, Phoebe Bridgers and Gabrielle Aplin needle drops.
“It’s really hard to explain what makes something perfect for Life Is Strange but I’ll know it as soon as I hear it,” Sumner tells NME from the west London studio of his and Herweijer’s acclaimed agency Feel For Music. “It’s pretty much always guitar-driven. It usually has a female vocal. And it has to be something emotional. It’s probably bittersweet, introspective and melancholic as well.”
Next week, Reunion will return to original protagonists Max and Chloe after each character went solo (Chloe in 2017 prequel Before The Storm and Max in 2024’s Double Exposure) – and show players the “end” of their story. “It’s a full circle thing,” explains Sumner, with more than a whiff of nostalgia. Alongside new music from Holly Humberstone and Etta Marcus, the Reunion soundtrack includes a couple of familiar tracks in “an ode to all of the Life Is Strange games.”
“The music is as much a lead character as Max, Chloe or any of the others,” Sumner continues. “There is a specific Life Is Strange sound and it’s one of the only common denominators across all the games.”
The game’s authenticity came from its music
French studio Dontnod Entertainment started working on Life Is Strange in early 2013 after their previous game Remember Me struggled to make back its budget. Hereijer and Sumner got involved a few months later. “They had really strong ideas about what they wanted, so our job was to help them realise that vision,” explains Sumner, who was told that music would be integral to the Life Is Strange experience. A dream come true for a music supervisor. Developers listened to the game’s work-in-progress soundtrack on a loop while they worked. “Life Is Strange has always been about difficult emotions – and the honesty of indie folk just felt like the right accompaniment for that.”
Angus & Julia Stone’s dreamy gem ‘Santa Monica Dream’ and José González’ acoustic ‘Crosses’ were early lock-ins for the soundtrack, which helped lay the blueprint for the game’s indie sound. “The guitar just feels authentic,” explains Tessa Rose Jackson, who’s behind a lot of the music for the three most recent Life Is Strange games. “It’s the instrument a teenager would have in their bedroom to pour their feelings into.”
It was an unlikely hit
Released in five chapters across 2015, Life Is Strange defied all expectations by selling more than one million copies in its first year. By 2023, more than 20million people had played through Max and Chloe’s story. “We literally had no idea that it would be so successful,” says Sumner. “We were doing a lot of work on Assassin’s Creed and other big games at the time. Life Is Strange was just this really interesting indie game that became a thing everyone was talking about.”
“It was just a special idea,” he continues. “The DontNod guys were very passionate and very enthusiastic. We can only make magic happen when we’ve got [people] who really understand the power of music.”
Still, getting the songs they wanted for the first Life Is Strange game was a “real struggle,” because it was a brand new game, says Herweijer. Luckily they had a secret weapon – DontNod’s co-director Raul Barbet. “Whenever there was a song they really wanted, they’d write a letter to the artist saying how much they loved the tune, where it would fit in the game and why it would be amazing. That really helped.”
Ever since, Feel For Music have been constantly pitched tracks that label bosses and artists believe are perfect for future Life Is Strange games. It’s why Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Death With Dignity’ is in Life Is Strange 2 and Researcher’s ‘Slow Wave Pulse Code’ is part of the True Colours soundtrack. “We get most of the things we want now,” grins Sumner.
They’ve protected that musical identity carefully
Deck Nine took over developing the Life Is Strange franchise for 2021’s True Colors. “It was DontNod’s baby and there was definitely more pressure on us after that,” says Herweijer. There have been “little tiffs” between Feel For Music and franchise newcomers over the years but publishers Square Enix have put “real trust” in the team that they know what they’re doing.
“I’m a huge believer in games having an identity and I love it when people are brave. With all the commercial pressures of making games, it’s very easy to just copy what other people are doing but we really stuck our flag in the ground with the Life Is Strange music,” says Sumner. “Can you imagine Life Is Strange with a hip-hop or heavy rock music? It’d just be weird.”
See, most narrative driven games have an orchestral soundtrack but Life Is Strange has always stuck to its indie rock guns. “It still occupies a unique space and you don’t want to dilute that. We feel quite protective [of] it,” Sumner adds. “We know what is and isn’t a Life Is Strange song. I feel like we’re the guardians of that.”
The soundtrack focused on songs, not scores
The original Life Is Strange and its 2018 sequel featured licensed music alongside an original score composed by Jonathan Morali, who also fronts alternative rock group Syd Matters. Wanting to blur the musical lines even further, Feel For Music reached out to shoegaze trio Daughter about creating a whole album for prequel Before The Storm. “They weren’t familiar with the game but as soon as they understood the vibe of it, they were all over it,” says Sumner. “I’ve always felt Life Is Strange was more about the songs than the score and blurring those lines between the two helps with the immersion, which is the end goal, right?”
Daughter’s acclaimed ‘Music From Before The Storm’ album has racked up millions of streams and is still the “quintessential” Life Is Strange sound, according to Herweijer. “We still reference it all the time.”
“I hope some of that music makes it into the TV show,” adds Sumner though he “couldn’t possibly comment” if Feel For Music were involved in the upcoming Amazon Prime Video adaptation.
After that, more artists got involved
Angus & Julia Stone reunited to create a full soundtrack for True Colors, with Welsh ethereal rocker Novo Amor writing the main theme ‘Haven’. As the singing voice of main character Alex Chen, mxmtoon recorded covers of Radiohead and Violent Femmes. Alt pop artist Tessa Rose Jackson joined the team at Feel For Music to create the score for Double Exposure, while Dodie and Chloe Moriondo provided original songs. Reunion features new music from Jackson, NME cover star Holly Humberstone and Etta Marcus.
“Those artists just bring another layer of authenticity to the game. It’s the type of music the characters would be listening to,” explains Sumner. “Having those alternative, female voices represented is really important.”
“Especially in a very male dominated industry,” agrees Jackson. “Life Is Strange has female lead characters that aren’t designed around the male gaze, which feels really badass. It’s why it’s such a standout game for so many people.”
Reunion is the emotional end of an era
Like the name suggests, Life Is Strange: Reunion brings Max and Chloe back together for the first time since 2015’s debut.
“It’s partly about looking back, but there’s also an optimism about reuniting with someone that you really cared about – and all the emotional complexities that come with that,” says Sumner. It’s why old favourites Foals’ ‘Spanish Sahara’, Sparklehorse’s ‘Piano Fire’ (featuring PJ Harvey) and Lanterns On The Lake’s ‘A Fitting End’ are featured in the new game. “It’s about Max and Chloe’s journey – and we wanted to nod towards all the powerful musical moments that have come before.”
“It also felt like there was a lot of tenderness with the music. At the core of it, Reunion is a love story,” says Jackson, who leaned into the gritty, dark and psychedelic for Double Exposure while the music of True Colors came out poppier and more optimistic.
Reunion is a big deal for Life Is Strange fans, but the team at Feel For Music are sure they’ve got the final chapter of Max and Chloe’s story just right. “I didn’t see it as pressure, it was just really exciting” says Sumner, who has a massive playlist of potential tracks ready to go. “Glen and I both started out as DJs and curating game soundtracks is an extension of that – [it’s all about saying:] here’s an awesome piece of music that you might not have heard, but I know you’re going to love it.”
‘Life Is Strange: Reunion’ is out March 26 and you can check out every artist featured on the soundtrack here
The post How ‘Life Is Strange’s main character became its charming indie rock soundtrack appeared first on NME.