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The band behind the catchy theme tune of Bugsnax has revealed that they weren’t aware their song would debut in the PlayStation 5 event.
One day, Gus Lobban, one of the three members of the band Kero Kero Bonito, got a call from developer Young Horses. “So, the game’s called Bugsnax, and it’s about this island where all the creatures are part bug, part snack, and when the Grumpuses eat them, their body parts transform into them. Let me know if you’ve got any questions!” said studio president Philip Tibitoski. Like all of us, Lobban did have questions. Tibitoski had reached out to Kero Kero Bonito because the form of their song Picture This was along the lines of what the studio wanted for Bugsnax.
Lobban divulged the process he went through to compose the theme tune for the game. “My starting point for ‘It’s Bugsnax!’ was the D-Am chords the song rests on. The I-Vm chord change and the Mixolydian mode it implies conjure a ‘lost world’ atmosphere to me; positive, but with a definite note (pun intended) of mystical intrigue, much like Bugsnax itself,” they explained, and used a Roland JV-1010 to produce the “evocative” sounds of the drums, pan flutes and kalimbas.
Regarding the lyrics, Lobban drew from the theme song for Octodad: Dadliest Catch, the previous game from Young Horses. “The catchiest songs are often the most obvious—that song’s chorus is basically just ‘Octodaa-aaad,’ and Bugsnax’s title ended up being our main hook too,” they said. “The lyrics mostly relay the experience of playing Bugsnax in a literal way (a classic KKB technique), while the line ‘talkin’ ’bout Bugsnax’ came to me in a flash of divine inspiration, for which I was a mere Vessel.”
And, it turns out that Kero Kero Bonito didn’t know that their song was to be used for a PlayStation 5 game. “We had no idea how Bugsnax was launching. Phil just referred cryptically to ‘the event,’” revealed Lobban. We should have put two and two together, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise when the PS5 reveal came around.” The response to the theme song has been heartwarming, and the band has loved seeing all of the reactions and listening to all the covers of the theme. “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,” said Lobban.
Bugsnax is on its way to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC.
