Exploring the soundscape of LEGO Universe

February 24, 2021 0 By Brian Crecente

When LEGO® Universe died in 2012, it didn’t just shut off access to the imagined worlds of Avant Gardens, Gnarled Forest, and Forbidden Valley; it also took with it the brilliance of an epic soundtrack.

Composed by Brian Tyler with additional music by John Harman and Richard Dekkard, the LEGO Universe soundtrack was a gorgeous symphonic creation of orchestral arrangements designed to stand the test of time.

The LEGO Group was so taken with the music that the company used it at the entrance to LEGOLAND parks around the world.

But it wasn’t easily available to fans, at least not until the company decided to team up with Dekkard and Tyler to remaster and release the music in 2021.

Now anyone can purchase a digital copy of the official original game soundtrack or listen to the entire thing as a single continuous mix on any of your favorite streaming services as well as YouTube. And there are even talks about a potential limited run physical release of the album.

Tyler said in a recent episode of podcast Bits N’ Bricks that he decided to help out with the remaster because he always felt like the LEGO Universe soundtrack was the “one that got away.”

“I was so proud of it, and still am of this score,” he said. “I love it. And you know, I get asked about it all the time. ‘Is that going to be available?’ I mean, it’s 10 years of me fielding questions saying, ‘I don’t know, you know? I hope it is, you know?’ I was earnestly feeling like, ‘Dang, yeah, I hope it is, you know? I really want that for the fans and also for new people. I’m really proud of the music, and I’m proud of the game. So yeah, I was not going to miss a beat in terms of wanting to help out in and get this out there to the world.”

It was Dekkard who originally came up with the idea of bringing Tyler in on the project. At the time, Tyler was a well-established composer, musician, conductor, and producer, but mostly for movies and television. He had just come off work on a slew of movies, including Fast & Furious, The Final Destination, and Rambo. And he’d never worked on a video game before.

Dekkard, himself a multi-platinum selling composer and producer, was brought in to work with NetDevil on its previous game: Auto Assault. After he was finished with that game, Dekkard had moved on to work with Electronic Arts on the Need for Speed series and then on League of Legends with Riot Games. With LEGO Universe well into production, NetDevil asked Dekkard to come back and work on amping up the soundscape of LEGO Universe.

Dekkard said he knew he needed to bring someone in for the soundtrack who could create something that would live up to both the game and the LEGO brand.

“I knew from listening to Brian’s catalog of works that he was going to specifically be able to produce the type of music and themes that would be memorable for generations and iconic,” Dekkard said. “The same way movie themes for certain movies are iconic, like Indiana Jones or 2001: A Space Odyssey. But you see what I’m saying; you have to have a very specific skill set to craft the thematic content in music, to leave these memory impressions. And it’s a skill in itself versus just producing background music, for example.”

Tyler said about 85 percent of his work at the time was spent on film and the remaining on television. But that he grew up playing video games and with LEGO toys.

“Playing and creating it was the kind of my father’s influence, he’s an architect,” Tyler said. “I think you can see that I was a music guy, but at the same time, I really loved building. So, when I saw this project coming along, it seemed like this merging of these two things that I just happen to love. And it kind of got to that inner little boy, which occasionally happens. That even happened with the Marvel Universe – I was a comic book collector – and when I scored Star Trek or any of these things. I was lucky to work on things that I loved growing up, and LEGO was no different. The only difference was that there’s going to be a complete, immersive universe inside something so specifically that I knew as building blocks. So, it was a joy to even think about, but then when I got the opportunity to do it, I jumped on it.”

In creating the score back in 2010, Tyler said he set out to try and make something that would have a sort of timeless sound to it, which is why he decided to use an orchestra.

“I think the orchestra brings that heightened fun and emotion and just does coincide with that epic quality more than, for instance, like an electronic score would be or something that might be really appropriate for something else,” he said. “I think with this, it feels more classic and timeless and, and all the things that we kind of associate those classic scores with. So really, the vast majority of this score could have been recorded in like 1952, and those types of things tend to last longer because they’re not tied to a particular sonic trend of the time.”

To create the sound of the music, Tyler worked with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. Due to some scheduling constraints, he had to oversee the entire recording live from a studio in Los Angeles using video and audio streaming between the countries.

The team also signed Patrick Stewart as the narrator for the game.

Dekkard said that Stewart was at the top of his list, which included the likes of Morgan Freeman. Dekkard managed to grab recording time with him in London before Stewart was to launch a run of performances at theaters in China.

When the game came out in 2010, the soundtrack was called out specifically, a rare thing in a game review from the era.

Dekkard said he had always wanted to also release that soundtrack separately but didn’t get the chance before the game closed down. The remaster was that missed opportunity, returned.

“I made a promise to Brian a long time ago that we would release this soundtrack album,” he said. “And because of the way LEGO Universe died, there were a lot of political implications that prevented that from happening. Over the past 10 years, a lot of things have changed, a lot of people have changed, and this has created the opportunity for new life to be blown into the music.”

To listen to much more about LEGO Universe’s inception, creation, launch, and eventual death, make sure to check out the two-part episode of Bits N’ Bricks that delves into the game.

This article originally ran on LEGO.com as a summary of episode one of the weekly Bits N’ Bricks podcast, which you can listen to here.