How to Get Weezer to Write Soundtrack for Your Indie Game 101

Creating Soundtrack for Wave Break

We are very fortunate to have been able to partner with the music management company Crush Music, they manage amazing artists like Lorde, Fall Out Boy, Green Day, Weezer, etc.

With Wave Break being set in the 1980s, we wanted to pay homage to that iconic time period with great 80s-style synthwave music. When determining what synthwave artists to include in our soundtrack, our team compiled a "wishlist" of our dream synthwave artists that we would have loved to work with. Coincidentally, all the artists were under the NewRetroWave (NRW) label. We're able to work with Crush Music to formulate a deal with NRW and we’re very happy to say that Wave Break has one of the best (if not the absolute best) synthwave music soundtracks out there of any game!

Legal Aspects of Creating Original Game Soundtrack

The obvious advantage of having original music is simply the versatility of musicians, but the cons are definitely the costs as well as having to deal with multiple artists. Luckily for us, the synthwave artists were under the NewRetroWave label so we only had to engage with the record label itself. 
 
Also, without getting too deep into the details, we were able to position ourselves in a way that allowed the music to be streamed royalty-free, which allowed any streamer or content creator to be able to play our game with the music without any restrictions. Streamers often complain about videos or streams being taken down due to music so we wanted to make sure we avoided all of the potential complaints and allowed all content creators to use our game and music freely.

Collaborating with Weezer

The Weezer opportunity was brought to us through our relationship with Crush Music. I have personally been a fan of Weezer ever since I was a young kid, and when this opportunity arose, it was a no-brainer to collaborate. To be a small game studio collaborating with a huge band like Weezer is an indie developer's dream!
 
With Weezer being such a prominent megaband, we felt that having the music exist only as a single in-game song would not do justice. Instead, we decided to develop the experience further by creating a custom original level that featured the music and visuals from Weezer. 

Wave Break's Musical Inspiration

We took a lot of inspiration from the old classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, which was well known for its musical playlists which featured an assortment of great artists. It was so seminal to that experience that when you think of THPS, you can almost hear the soundtrack playing in your head. We wanted to pay homage to that playlist aesthetic by gathering up our own cast of favorite musicians.
 
It was important for us to not simply use already-released tracks, we wanted to bring forth new original synthwave music through our game as a platform. Of course, bringing an original track is more costly, but we feel strongly that having new original music in Wave Break will elevate the experience significantly.

Soundtrack as Part of the Gaming Experience

Traditionally, music has taken a backseat role in video games. However, in our studio, we believe that the soundtrack colors the experience so significantly that it needs to be considered a first-class citizen of any experience. Even from a young age, I realized that a strong soundtrack can really bring forth an emotional tone to the entire experience that cannot be achieved simply through visuals or gameplay mechanics. And especially in Wave Break, which was set in the 1980s, synthwave music was so iconic of the era. We felt that you cannot make a proper Miami Beach 1980s-inspired experience without proper music from that era.

Regarding Weezer’s track, it was great to see how excited fans were to see Weezer’s track in the game. To connect our game with Weezer brings a lot of eyes and legitimacy to the experience itself, and we are stoked to be able to have them be a part of our experience.

Eddie Lee, Founder of Funktronic Labs 

Interview conducted by Kseniya Serebrennikova