Mixtape, developer Beethoven & Dinosaur’s musical coming-of-age narrative adventure, is set to a curated playlist of mood-setting songs. When I sat down with creative director Johnny Galvatron and producer Woody Woodward, they said that the team picked songs they wanted to feature and worked backward, starting with the opening song, “That’s Good” by new wave band DEVO.
With music being so central to the game, I had to ask Galvatron and Woodward why they chose the songs they did, and we ended up going track-by-track across the entire game. Not every song had a huge story attached, and some were sought out to fill in gaps in the story, but by and large, Galvatron says protagonist Stacy Rockford’s titular mixtape is his “greatest hits of all time,” and that the game was built around the playlist. If you’re worried about spoilers, come back later, but for everyone else, here’s a breakdown of the team’s thinking behind each song and their accompanying setpieces.
“That’s Good” by Devo
“That’s Good” kicks Mixtape off as the soundtrack to lead trio Stacy, Slater, and Cassandra skating together to begin their last night of delinquency before they go their separate ways.
JG: I love Devo, I’m a big Devo fan. There seems to be this weird, Devo-shaped hole in my heart, and when I listen to Devo it just goes in and I feel complete. So I love that song and we started out and then we were like. “Well, what if we, what if we built a game around a mixtape with individual tracks?” [It’s] my favorite song of all time. I watched Devo the other day at Coachella, not at Coachella, in Melbourne on the broadcast at 10 a.m. in my underpants doing the dance. [Galvatron imitates Devo singer Gerald Casale] I know all the moves that he does when he’s on stage.
“Just Like Honey” by The Jesus and Mary Chain
Things slow down a bit when the group reaches their destination and hangs out in Stacy’s bedroom, set to the chill tones of “Just Like Honey.”
JG: The perfect bedroom hangout vibe, yeah, as Stacy Rockford says. It’s a classic scene song. It’s also in a couple of very famous films as well, so it veers off from that.
WW: It’s a real vibe setter, I think, after Devo pumping on the gas. It’s like, now you’re in.
JG: And there’s that big reverb on the drums.
WW: It’s like with Devo you’ve jumped off the diving board and then I think this song is like you’re under the water, you’ve just become the Nirvana baby.
JG: That’s perfect! I love it! You’re the Nirvana baby when that song comes on. That’s in the album.
“Galaxy In Turiya” by Alice Coltrane
“Galaxy In Turiya” has the dubious honor of accompanying Mixtape’s exceptionally grotesque makeout scene, juxtaposing the awful visual of two tongues slapping each other around.
JG: I wanted to find the most beautiful, romantic, ethereal song that I could play and that would then take you into the most gloriously horrible kissing scene. So I wanted a song that was as beautiful as that was hideous, and Alice Coltrane tiptoes across the sails.
WW: And like Rockford says, totally ruined it for her. Did I ruin it for you? That’s the question.
“Sensitive to Light” by Rainbow
As Stacy looks around and reminisces about her high school parties with Slater and Cassandra, we flash back to a scene in which the trio runs from the cops by dropping Cassandra’s passed-out ass in a shopping cart and rolling down the streets of their hometown. Stacy, knowing they need something energetic for the chase scene, puts on “Sensitive to Light.”
JG: With [vocalist Ronnie James] Dio on the box, famous rock and roll singer.
WW: The trolley, the party escape.
JG: Yep, the party escape. [The song is] just full of energy.
WW: A raucous rock and roll song.
JG: [The song is also] a great vibe. One of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time.
“Freak” by Silverchair
One of Mixtape’s earliest playable music video sections has the trio headbanging to “Freak” by Silverchair, with the player pressing buttons in rhythm with the song for each swing of the neck, tap on the side of the car, and obnoxious yells from the passenger’s seat.
JG: Headbanging level! Silverchair was my favorite band in high school. They’re from Australia, I love them. I remember running out of a university class because I heard they were hanging out on the street in Melbourne and I did catch Ben [Gillies, Silverchair drummer], spoke to him. When I was on a TV show in Australia, my “special subject” was Silverchair, and I got all the questions right. That needs to be noted. And then he walked out of a bathroom when I was in a recording studio one time, and I just could not believe it, and he’s like, do you want to come out and get shots, and we did. We went out and we went to the local bar and we did tequila shots. I love you, Daniel.
WW: It’s heavy, it’s Australian, it’s iconic.
JG: Heavy. Australian. Iconic.
“Remember When” by Mitch Murder
“Remember When” doesn’t accompany any of Mixtape’s various minigame vignettes, but instead a flashback to early on in Stacy and Cassandra’s friendship in which they talk about what music means to Stacy.
JG: This song is from [2011]. This is a song that is completely out, but feels period appropriate, and I’ll tell you why I included this song. It just fills me with this strange feeling of victory, right? I signed The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur’s previous game) and I was really poor. How poor was I, Woody?
WW: They wouldn’t let him into the pub because his jeans had holes in them and not like fashion holes, like function holes.
JG: Huge holes! Woody’s heard that story so many times. Got the first check and I bought a new computer and everything to make Artful on, and I bought a new desk, and I had just found that song and I remember just sitting there in the glow of my new LEDs listening to that song and I’m like, “I did it! I did it!”
WW: “I have pants!”
JG: Yeah, I had my new pants on! And so that song’s always very special to me, and it fits perfectly, it’s one of my favorite scenes, which is just where they’re talking about why Rockford always listens to music.
“Witchi Tai To” by Harper’s Bizarre
“Witchi Tai To” plays when Stacy is looking through her sister’s room for booze. Instead, she finds a clue to where she can find it elsewhere.
JG: [This song was] discovered for the scene. It was just a beautiful song.
“Have You Seen Her” by The Chi-Lites
“Have You Seen Her” kicks in as Stacy finds a letter from her sister that tells her to make the most of her time in the fictional small town of Blue Moon Lagoon, and then also sends her on a scavenger hunt to try to find her booze stash.
JG: I had flagged that song for a previous idea for a game, which is often how I will make soundtracks. I had discovered that [song] during Artful Escape, and I knew it was gonna be this, like, sisterly love moment.
“Monochrome” by Lush
As the trio leaves Stacy’s home, they head to Cassandra’s. Stacy tells the audience about how Cassandra first joined her crew as a way of sticking it to her cop father, and now they skate together and throw up middle fingers at passersby.
WW: This is for skating to Cassandra’s house.
JG: One of the first bands to be called Shoegaze.
WW: Shoegazé!
JG: Shoegazé! Produced by the Cocteau Twins. It’s like riding a boogie board on a heavy wave. It’s relaxed, but it has force behind it. It’s a beautiful song, great for a skateboarding track.
WW: Similar vibes to “Just Like Honey,” I think. It pulls you back in and you’re like, all right, cool, re-centers you a bit.
“State of the Heart” by Mondo Rock
Cassandra’s room has a much different vibe than Stacy’s, but “State of the Heart” still keeps a laidback vibe going. Until her cop father shows up later.
JG: “State of the Heart,” Mondo Rock, which is in Cassandra’s room. “It matches the drapes,” according to the dialogue. Mikey [McCusker], 3D, artist and VFX technician, his dad [guitarist Eric McCusker] wrote it. His dad’s in a famous Australian rock band.
WW: We thought it was about his mum. He told us it was about his mum, like a love song for his mum, and we found out it wasn’t the case.
[Brief awkward silence]
JG: Next song!
“The Touch,” by Stan Bush
“The Touch” plays as Cassandra hits a bunch of baseballs and imagines a giant stadium forming around her. It’s an epic ‘80s rock song playing as Cassandra lets loose at one thing she knows she’s good at.
JG: From the 1986 animated Transformers soundtrack, the greatest song ever written. Better than any song by the Beatles. You can quote me on that.
WW: What are they gonna do, complain?
JG: Yeah, what, who’s gonna argue with me on that?
“Love” by Smashing Pumpkins
After Cassandra’s cop dad puts a wrecking ball through their plans, Stacy and Slater skateboard back through town and imagine blowing up obstacles with their minds. “Love’s” wall of sound captures her teenage rage.
JG: I was defined by Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. I remember my cousin gave it to me when I was in grade six, maybe? We wanted a song that was explosive, and “Love” is just a fucking wall of sound, start to finish. lf you look at the WAV, it’s just a block with Billy Corgan squealing over the top. I think the Smashing Pumpkins have the greatest guitar tone of any band, and I also think they have, well, for me, the greatest living drummer in rock and roll and for Woody the second best drummer in rock and roll.
KS: Who’s the first?
WW: Danny Carey from Tool.
JG: Yeah, acceptable.
“Shine” by David Gray
After taking their anger out on their skateboards, Stacy and Slater chill out and clean up at their secret hangout called the Ritz.
WW: When they’re hanging out at the Ritz, like cleaning up the Ritz and stuff.
JG: It’s just this beautiful acoustic [song], I think I found it at the time looking for a soundtrack song that I wasn’t previously aware of.
WW: Falling leaves, dappled sunlight, friends, a cool breeze in the woods.
“Roads” by Portishead
Tensions reach a new high after Cassandra and Stacy have a brutal falling out, and for once, Stacy doesn’t know what song to play, so she plays “Roads” because it’s “hollow” and “haunting.”
JG: A classic track from the nineties, vast, open.
WW: So sad.
JG: It’s a field of sorrow, which happens when the two characters fight. Just kind of perfectly floats in with that, with that organ over the score and her voice begins and oh, it’s a tragedy.
WW: I feel like it’s not cheap sorrow.
JG: Yeah, someone hurt this person.
WW: Yeah, this is an expensive, rich sorrow.
“Yesterday’s Hero” by John Paul Young
After Stacy realizes Cassandra’s dad is closing in on his daughter who’s day-drinking by a gas station, she sprints across the neighborhood to save her friend with “Yesterday’s Hero” blaring through her headphones.
JG: This is an Australian rock and roll song. It happens during the Ferris Bueller run-across scene. I think it’s one of the greatest unheard rock and roll songs, it fills me with great joy and energy. It’s one of those [songs] I could listen to any time. It’s like, top 10 choruses I wish I’d written.
WW: It’s a great chorus.
JG: And also as someone who is like a “failed” rockstar, where it’s like, you know, “am I just gonna be yesterday’s hero?” It breaks my heart.
“More Than This” by Roxy Music
After our heroes have successfully escaped the feds, they guide the other party patrons to the Ritz to salvage the gathering. On the way, Stacy sets off a fireworks show set to “More Than This.”
JG: A classic.
WW: Two of the greatest Brians.
JG: Two of the greatest Brians in the same band: Brian Eno and Brian Ferry. Although Brian Eno isn’t in the band at this stage, but I feel like there’s this—it’s very Bryan Ferry, the first half of the song, and then there’s, like, no singing in the second half of the song, the guitar kind of noodles away and the song just kind of floats through, and I feel like that was maybe like the ghost of Eno in Roxy Music kind of floating through.
“Candy” by Iggy Pop
With the party back on, Slater walks around the Ritz with a camcorder to “immortalize” the festivities. “Candy” by Iggy Pop plays off a stereo as folks socialize, drink, and dance.
JG: I just think [it’s] one of the funnest rock and roll songs, especially with Kate Pearson from the B-52s, just one of those unmistakable voices. I also love the B-52s. B-52s is one of the tracks we almost had.
WW: We flirted with some B-52s.
JG: Yeah, we flirted with the B-52s.
“Spellbound” by Siouxsie and the Banshees
After the party gets out of hand, the Ritz is set on fire, and Mixtape needs a tone setter for accidental arson.
JG: It’s the perfect soundtrack to a house on fire. That’s my thing for that.
“Atmosphere” by Joy Division
As the group gets ready to head home, they float over Blue Moon Lagoon to “Atmosphere” by Joy Division and say their goodbyes to the town before they leave in the morning.
JG: “Atmosphere” by Joy Division is just…
WW: It’s “Atmosphere” by Joy Division.
JG: I mean, isn’t it? Yeah, it’s colossal, and it has this drumbeat that is extremely heavy and simple, but when you listen to it underneath, there’s just so much happening on the toms. There’s so much, like, wrist in the toms, these little other kind of subrhythms that are playing and then Ian [Curtis, vocalist] is just wailing
WW: It’s like Ian’s voice shouldn’t work and make sense in that song, but it does. It just does.
JG: I mean that that’s Ian’s voice as a whole, isn’t it?
WW: [Does “terrible” Ian Curtis impression]
JG: And just, to be given that, and to have your characters float home on that song is unbelievable.
“Plainsong” by The Cure
Closing out the game is “Plainsong” by The Cure, which plays just as Stacy and Slater part for the last time and the credits begin.
WW: I mean, ending your game with Joy Division and The Cure is a pretty good combo.
JG: That hammer that comes down with “Plainsong” from The Cure as their hands break apart. Hammer of the song. It’s just one of those songs, too, that just floats along for almost a minute and a half I think before the singing comes in, and when the singing comes in, it just breaks your heart all over again. What I love about that, too, is that you go through the credits, and the song keeps playing, it comes back to the bench that was at the start of the game, and it’s gone and then the song just plays out, and when the song finishes, it just leads to ambience. There’s no more music. I loved implementing that, I think that was very cool.
Not listed:
- “Airwalker” by Bertrand Dolby
- “Deep Space Scan” by Curtis Dunn
- “Zebra Crossing” by The Eye Gougers
- “Moon Unit” by Wooden Sword
- “Drunk Flamingo” by Abrahams & Mole
- “Powder” – All Clear
