This discussion about music is a little different to the usual merry-go-round of subjects here.
I'm sure it's not the first, nor even the second time it's been the prominent topic, but it's definitely a nice change from the usual suspects.
Some quotes from DPC regarding his music:
"The topic of having a character theme is interesting. I've tried to match songs with characters already. The main character has acoustic guitar songs, Jill has piano themes, Quinn/Riona often get edgier soundtracks. But one specific theme song per character isn't really what I'm going for. I want to set the mood as good as possible for each scene in the game using music. And when/if something happens in the future, I may use songs from the past to bring back the same kind of emotions from before."
"I'm adding as many tracks with lyrics as possible, provided they fit. It's tricky because listening to songs with lyrics can make it hard to read the dialogue, so I'm being very careful when I add a song with lyrics to a scene."
"A lot of thought goes into selecting music. For instance, I tend to lean towards piano themes for Jill, acoustic songs for the MC, and big band songs for the diary scenes, since they make it feel like we're taking a trip back in time. Sometimes, songs are happy coincidences. For example, the last song you'll hear in episode 8 is named "Crossroads". I didn't know what to search for when finding it, so I typed the episode title and stumbled upon it. When I wrote episode 5, I had no clue what La casa del papel was (yes, I am living under a rock while doing this). A patron pointed it out to me, and to my surprise, "Bella ciao" now fits even better than I originally intended. If I had watched the series first, I would probably not have added that song to the game because it's iconic for that TV series, but I'm happy I did."
It's funny, I've heard some of the royalty free music that is so great in this game being used in other games, and it just falls flat. Typically it's just inappropriately timed. DPC's music and scene transitions are typically so fluid that it just works so well.
That comment of his regarding getting the lyrics to fit, the song "Mayday" that plays in episode 7 when Josy sleeps with the mc (like literally sleeps with him, not necessarily fucks him - of course that happens if you are on the M&J path), seemed so perfect given the trials and tribulations in Maya's and Josy's relationship.
Or when the DIK's go to the strip club with the mc for the first time. As they are standing outside you can hear the music from within the Pink Rose, but it's a little muffled, but when they walk in, it's cranking and the girls are all there on display, it just works so well!
The amount of thought that DPC puts into everything in this game is so obvious. Sure he fucks up from time to time (I'm not gonna mention the loan again - oh fuck I just did), so to simply bypass an entire aspect of the game without even sampling it once, especially something as mood inducing as the music, is to deprive one's self indeed!
Music is very powerful. It's not just icing on the cake, it's an important ingredient!
