Scott Pilgrim, the series of pop culture-saturated graphic novels by Canadian author and comic book artist Bryan Lee O’Malley, has become a timeless epic about teenage insecurity, love and redemption, and the intersection of arrogance and self-esteem – as well as a Canadian interpretation of emo, indie rock and shōnen-style comic books. It is a coming-of-age tale about an initially unlikable teenage boy growing up in the 00s, who matures through six graphic novels that deftly reference everything from Japanese manga to western superheroes, video games and Tintin. It is also, of course, a hit movie, a 2022 Netflix anime series, and a 2010 video game – the last two of which were soundtracked by New York City-based indie rock band Anamanaguchi.
‘My favourite scene in the Scott Pilgrim anime is where Knives and Kim are just jamming in a room together, and almost nothing happens,” laughs Peter Berkman, one of the lead songwriters and guitarists in the band. “It’s just one of those slice-of-life moments where you remember why you love music in the first place. It really struck a chord with me. No pun intended.”
Sex Bob-Omb in Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Photograph: Album/Alamy
Anamanaguchi gained some notoriety for using video game hardware in their early, instrumental music, becoming one of the pioneering bands in the chiptune genre – all while they were still at college. During the band’s first self-funded tour, during which Berkman slept on the couch of the band he was supporting, he got amessage out of nowhere.
“I got an email from somebody working at Ubisoft about a video game for a universal IP tie-in, and they didn’t go any further than that. ‘Could that be the new Alien vs Predator game or something like that?’, I thought. But I knew that – no matter what – when I brought that back to the band, we would say yes to whatever it was … we had all grown up loving video game and movie soundtracks.” It turned out to be an invitation to compose music for the first Scott Pilgrim video game, which was released in 2010.
Now, Anamanaguchi is in the midst of a renaissance: in 2022, when the game was re-released as a Complete Edition, the band embarked on the Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game Soundtrack tour. Last year, the band wrote and performed music for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a Netflix spin-off that acts as a meta commentary on Scott’s life. Anamanaguchi supported Hatsune Miku in her Fortnite festival appearance this year, a perfect fit for a band whose identity has always rested at the intersection of video games and live music, and in August, they launched Anyway, their first record in six years, which trades in the band’s synth-based bleeps and blorps for something decidedly more alt-rock, though the 8-bit influences of its members still remain if you listen hard enough. And they’re also working on the soundtrack for a new Scott Pilgrim game, due out next year, another playful beat-’em-up.
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Peter Berkman of Anamanaguchi performing in 2015. Photograph: Gary Miller/Getty Images
As one arm of the band experiments with analogue sounds and alt-rock angst, the other is moving back to Scott Pilgrim. There is a direct link between Anamanaguchi’s return to the series and the new voice they’ve found on their records. “Doing the soundtrack for the new game, Scott Pilgrim EX, allowed us to see what it would be like to dampen that aspect in our own record world, knowing that we were going full in, soundtrack-style, on the game,” says Berkman.
Berkman says that in the 15 years between games, the band have matured when it comes to their approach to music. They have gained experience as producers, they have grown “as listeners of music”, and they have become even more excited by the range of styles that video game music represents.
“You need to feel that connection between what you’re experiencing as a player and – even in a beat-em-up! – what the story is trying to do at that moment,” says Berkman. “If a situation calls for a dark, gothic industrial thing, we can make that happen – and we can make it happen in a way it never has before… [Scott PilgrimEX developer Tribute Games] has let us be a hands-on with the audio mix. and with the musical cues we want. That freedom is extremely important to us. The flow of the music, the way it makes you feel… you can really feel the authorship in video game soundtracks.”
On the beach in Scott Pilgrim EX. Photograph: Tribute Games Inc
Having played a demo of Scott Pilgrim EX, it seems that Tribute Games’ trust in the band has paid off. The music is playful and toys with convention, setting up prompts or expectations, only to surprise you with how sound effects or motifs become part of a level’s texture. It actually reminds me of Sea Power’s work on Disco Elysium, strange as that comparison may seem to anyone who knows their music. Sea Power were given lot of creative control in adapting their sound to fit the morose world of Revachol, and Tribute Games has done the same here, even if the with pixel art, neon colours, and buoyant adolescence of it all deliver a completely different tone.
“Tribute Games has given us a level of freedom that can only be matched by a company just … not knowing what you’re doing,” laughs Berkman. “We’ve been able to be a part of the development process in a way that we weren’t in the last time, you know? We’re getting nightly builds, and we’re able to ask: ‘Is this stagnant? Do I need to add a part here?’ It really helps with the arrangement, and in understanding the feel. This is the soundtrack we’ve wanted to make.”
