The Labyrinth of Writing Mirrored Lyrics

This article centers around the lyric writing process (and some of the common writer’s block struggles). If you are most interested in the final lyrics, you can jump ahead.

Last August we dove back into work for Interference: Dead Air under the impression that we were writing synthesized instrumental compositions. Our first discovery, alongside developer Fear of Corn, was that symphonic additions to our compositional approach worked quite well juxtaposed against the soaring and often arpeggiated synthesis we started with. Given that push towards more classical ideologies, Jared & Brad (Fear of Corn) surprised us when suggesting we round out the score with two pop ballads — styled in the likes of Bonnie Tyler and Cyndi Lauper — complete with vocals. The creative brief suggested that either track will play as a result of different endgame player outcomes, the two tracks will mirror each other (both lyrically and musically, to some degree), and the lyrics will only relate to general themes within the greater story arc. We decided differing endgame outcomes likely required different moods; therefore, our first suggestion was to swap references with any of the spectacular songs from Peter Gabriel’s album, “So” (released in 1986), knowing we could hit a down, moody tone more effectively. They approved, and we got to work.

For those unfamiliar, Pat and I both have experience fronting bands as well as writing lyrically driven songs. The general musicality for both tracks bloomed instantly…and then we stumbled. Not even making it to the dreaded, “second verse curse,” we both struggled to write coherent lyrics that both tied to the game, but weren’t obviously pointing to certain game mechanics or micro-observations from the dialogue. After a few back and forth attempts (and our general type-A, “I can fix this” attitudes) we decided to try a new process for building our own themes to better serve the directives. A keyword mind-map was the simple and efficient tool we needed. 

Placing the word, “friendship” at the center, we then began branching out from there: soda pop, refreshing, fizz, sugar (thinking of my time spent with friends in my teen years, and also wow, we drank way too many non-diet sodas). Then there was: belonging, team, compromise, growth. Also: cassette tapes, nostalgia, warmth, cozy, fireplace…and so on. We were confident that even if many of these words didn’t make their way into either song, we had a new focus and could allow those branches to grow as we wrote.

As Pat continued work on the lighthearted variant (of the mirrored two), I latched on to one of his lines: long summer days, become silhouettes (which we later changed to “merging silhouettes” to punch up the mirrored quality). You can probably sense the mind-map working as Pat leaned towards ideas of compromise and becoming one, so to speak. Yet, a silhouette is inherently dark or at least typically black-and-white. As I focused on the moody, Peter Gabriel-esque song, I was inspired to use “silhouette” as our first mirror; “dark,” in its simplicity, would frame the refrain. I’m a sucker for alliteration, so “darkest dance” was the first bit of scratch vocal that came from my mouth as I continued to develop the vocal melody. As I had prior, Pat latched on to the idea of using “dance” as another theme. Sure enough, we had a foundation of friendship, darkness vs. light, and general dance motifs sprinkled throughout each set of lyrics. Mind you, these aren’t the most profound themes, but they suited some of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the 1980s and Interference: Dead Air.

Here are the final lyrics to “Sway” (the positive mirror) and “Darkest Dance” (the negative mirror). Let us know how you think the mirroring panned out! And stay tuned later this year for the Interference: Dead Air soundtrack release alongside the game.

Sway
‍Stick together, never alone. Radar, one single palindrome. Spin back, rewind the cassette. First position, together step. The light sways, unseen. Dance along the dopamine. Spinning up the love. Next door neighbors, locked in-step. Long summer days, merging silhouettes. Satisfied and free to roam. Curtain call, another go.‍

Darkest Dance
‍Waiting for the answer or the tolling of the bell? A pretense of order, and with the wrong step, the ankle swell. Something stuck to the feet, crawling behind the knee. Darkest dance, spinning down. Ripples in the daylight; divergent silhouettes. Solitary ribbons from unfurling cassettes.

As we continue to write more original works for our collection library, we plan on publishing process-specific articles closer to “real-time.” Whether that includes general mood boards, keywords, lyric snippets, or production notes, we hope some of our insights, shortcomings and/or successes drive your own creative potential. We’ll likely publish some partner highlights as well (as long as we’re permitted to do so).

What's your writing process like and where do you typically start? Let us know back on Instagram.