Of all the games shown off during the PlayStation 5 reveal event, the one that has stuck in a lot of people’s heads is Bugsnax–not just because of its cute aesthetic or interesting-looking gameplay, but because of its theme song. Aside from all the critters shown off, the trailer’s most prominent bug was an earworm.
The game, which is also coming to PS4 and PC and is developed by Young Horses (Octodad: Dadliest Catch), enlisted indie band Kero Kero Bonito to compose the song. In a new post on the PlayStation Blog, song-writer Gus Lobban has talked about how the catchy tune was written.
The song, which is called It’s Bugsnax!, was recorded from home, and Lobban says that the starting point was “the D-Am chords the song rests on”. There’s a lot of technical discussion in this post, by Lobban also digs into the themes and mood he was going for. “The I-Vm chord change and the Mixolydian mode it implies conjure a ‘lost world’ atmosphere to me,” he says. “Positive, but with a definite note (pun intended) of mystical intrigue, much like Bugsnax itself.”
“We couldn’t meet up to record the vocals, so It’s Bugsnax! was the first KKB song to use our remote lockdown recording setup,” Lobban continues, noting that the band’s vocalist, Sarah Bonito, “nailed the vocals the first time.” The lyrics were written out by hand, and were heavily inspired by the theme song for Octodad.
Lobban said that he didn’t know that Bugsnax would be a part of the PS5 reveal when he was working on it, saying that he just knew it would be shown at what was being referred to as “the event”. The song’s reception has pleased the band, he says: “within days of the announcement I’d seen it soundtracking memes, covered by metal and folk artists and reacted to by toddlers. The latter was quite moving, since some of my giddiest childhood memories were fueled by the excitement of new video games, and contributing to someone else’s experience of that is really, really special.”
Bugsnax is due to release later this year. The game will have a mystery at its core, according to one of its developers.
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