Arcane was always going to have a banger Season 2 soundtrack

Arcane‘s secret sauce has always been the soundtrack. There’s no better example of this than one of the opening scenes of the first episode of season 2, in which Caitlyn mourns the death of her mother. Instead of forcing grief-stricken dialogue to communicate how she’s feeling, it turns to a completely unique animation style, with stylized black charcoal sketches that take the color out of Caitlyn’s world.

But to underline Fortiche’s inventive animation, the show needed a song that was as specifically tailored to Caitlyn’s emotional state as the visuals, so the show’s creative team turned to Freya Ridings to create a beautiful, poignant ballad writing that let us see inside Caitlyn’s mind. These kinds of decisions are over Arcane – and according to showrunner Christian Linke, it will always remain that way.

Ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere, Polygon had the chance to chat with Linke about how he and the team work with artists to create the perfect songs, and why he feels like licensed music has no place in the series .

Polygon: Arcane often uses original songs to convey the characters’ feelings in a way that dialogue alone could not. What’s the process of creating those songs and finding the right artists for each moment?

Christian Linke: Conceptually, it’s just really important to me. I don’t think I’ll ever work with licensed music in my career and I think it just comes from having been a musician. It’s really hard to have a career in music. The fact that so many franchises with so much money keep cutting checks for Led Zeppelin, I think: Cool guys, I’m sure they need it. There are so many musicians who struggle to have a career. It’s such a cutthroat world out there.

I think it’s great that we only do original music. We work with artists from the ground up, we collaborate and we give them – and some of these artists we work with don’t need a platform, they’re already big, but for others it’s really great. It really gets them to speak. That is very important to me, that is a principle that has held true from the beginning. It’s a lot of work, but that’s what makes it so great.

You start with a scene in an episode where they feel what you’re trying to say, and then you just look for the right artist and you need a good team there. We have a great team (with) the Riot Music group, where I just say: I need an emotional song that’s all about this and thator I need a really loud song about the anger of this and that. And then they go, OKthey take that away and think about artists and come back to me with a list of artists that we then contact.

Do you then kind of meet the artist and give him an idea of ​​what he’s looking for?

Yes, I’ll inform them This is what the moment is about. For example, when I was working with Mike Shinoda, it was something I thought of: This is about Caitlyn’s legacy, the sense of what it means to be a member of this esteemed family that has been very important in Piltover, and the weight that comes with that.. And then he wrote: “Heavy is the crown.” And it’s something when you put the right thoughts in the artist’s head, then you end up with these amazing pieces of music that you couldn’t even have imagined yourself.

What do you listen for when you get the samples your team sends you?

I think the emotional connection, the lyrics, have meaning. When the Sting song from season 1 starts and it’s like, ‘I’m the monster you created,’ I’m like, There it is. It’s just part of it and it settles down. It settles down in a creative way where it just feels connected. And so that’s a big part of it. Other than that, I just think it’s a piece of music that is fun and that feels like it says something. The obvious choice is sometimes necessary for a fight scene, but sometimes the real surprise I liked about Season 1 is that we had very different genres. “Our lovewas such a different genre than you would expect from a show like Arcane. And we did the same thing again in season 2. Very, very different, very eclectic genres. But yes, my job is mainly to ensure that there is a clear emotional connection to the story.

Is there a limiting factor on what kind of genre and what kind of music can be in it? Arcane and can it feel that way?

No. I mean, people might say I went a little too far. I like loud things, I like extreme things. I will say that sometimes there are genres where it makes sense, but I’m not versed in those genres and I don’t always feel as confident in giving feedback and then I have to rely more on the team. Hip-hop: I’m just a terrible person with terrible taste in that regard. Guitar music: I know what to do. So we have a team made up of musicians, composers who sometimes have to save me, let’s be honest, to ensure that we get a certain piece. So we have a very eclectic group and I think what’s made it is that we have a lot of different tastes that they can tap into when they need to.

The first three episodes of Arcane season 2 is now streaming on Netflix. New episode batches are released every Saturday.