Jonathan Coulton on the Portal Song, ‘Still Alive’
We’re making a note here: Besides featuring a surprisingly deep story and addictively simple gameplay, Valve’s newly released Portal features the best end-game credit track we’ve heard in a very, very long time.
We caught up with the writer and creator of the song, geek troubadour extraordinaire Jonathan Coulton, who filled us in on conceptualizing ‘Still Alive,’ what it was like working with Valve, and his fine appreciation of cake.
Please note, some minors Portal spoilers are contained herein. We strongly recommend playing through the game before reading.
Primotech: First off, what’s it like to be the man responsible for creating the hottest videogame credit track this year? Do people stop you on the street? If nothing else, I know at least two of our editors have been listening to ‘Thing a Week’ constantly since first hearing ‘Still Alive.’
Jonathan Coulton: Well, it is a thing you enjoy by listening, so I don’t get recognized that often- maybe if I carried a ukulele around with me. But the response has certainly been great, I’ve been getting lots of emails and blog comments from people who are really excited about it. It’s fun when someone writes me to say that this was the first they’ve ever heard of me, and now they’re enjoying the rest of my stuff. But it’s even more fun when I hear from people who were already fans, and who could tell it was me the moment they heard it.
PT: Kindly tell us about how Valve tagged you to work on the song and what that moment was like for you.
JC: Last year I played a show in Seattle and a couple of the Portal developers came to see it. I was saying hello to everyone after the show and they introduced themselves and asked if I’d be interested in maybe writing music for Valve or something. We didn’t know what we were going to do at this point. I was a huge fan of Half-Life, so of course I said yes. Sometime later we got together at the Valve offices and tried to figure out what it was I was going to do - after playing an early version of the game and talking with the writers, we decided I should write a song in the voice of this character in Portal.
PT: You already said you were you a fan of Valve’s past offerings, but did you have to do much additional research into the Half-Life saga to write the song?
JC: I was pretty familiar with it, but of course there’s a lot of back story that doesn’t appear directly in the game- especially with Portal, which is sort of a new offshoot of that universe. So I spent a lot of time talking with the writer Erik Wolpaw about the character, who she was and what motivated her. And of course I played the game a lot. It was relatively easy for me to pick up on the character’s voice, because I’m always writing about that kind of character anyway- zombies, evil geniuses, all these passive-aggressive, monstrous personalities. And the dialog in the game is so well-written to gradually, but very clearly, create this strong personality, it didn’t take me long to feel like I really understood her.
PT: Aside from Portal and the Half-Life series, did you draw on any other sources for inspiration?
JC: Not specifically, just what’s in my head all the time. I’m always amazed how easy it is for me to slip into talking like an asshole, and a little worried about what that means about me.
PT: What was the actual recording process like?
JC: I recorded everything at my studio in Brooklyn, including my own vocals. Once we had a version we liked, we did a studio session in Seattle with Ellen McLean, the voice actress who plays the character in the game. I was surprised to hear her do the voice - it’s amazing how little of it is actually digital processing; she’s really great at sounding like a machine, albeit a crazy and secretly very angry one. And once we had that recorded they processed her voice the way they did for the game, and we put the elements together.
PT: Did you get the chance to play through the game prior to working on the song? Or did Valve provide you with the game’s script? How did that work exactly?
JC: I had the whole game, or at least the parts of it that were finished. I played it through several times and loved it.
PT: When working on ‘Still Alive,’ was it difficult to match that same dark yet ironically upbeat tone Valve set for the entirety of Portal?
JC: Not at all- it was such a great match-up of sensibilities, I felt like I immediately got all the jokes and understood what they were going for. The vibe inside Aperture Science is basically corporate culture gone insane, and I feel very much at home writing in that place.
PT: What was the reaction like when Valve first heard the finished track?
JC: They were very pleased. I heard reports that people were walking around humming the tune for days, which is always a good sign.
PT: I had a little debate going with our own Associate Content Editor, Trent Polack, as to whether or not the line “Now we’re out beta/We’re releasing on time” was a jab at Valve. Set the record straight for us?
JC: No, it’s more of a jab at all makers of software- when has anything ever released on time?
PT: Beats me. Were you at all surprised by how huge a reaction the gaming community had to ‘Still Alive’ after hearing it?
JC: I was pretty sure it was a good song by the time I was finished, but I had no idea the response was going to be so huge. I give a lot of credit to the people at Valve, not just for setting me up so beautifully to write it, but for the way they actually deployed it at the end. That whole sequence that happens right before the song, and the thing with the scrolling text and credits was done after the song was written, and I think it really adds a great deal. I think it’s to their credit that the song feels like a natural way to end the game- which of course is kind of an absurd idea that it would feel natural.
PT: If you could do a song that would appear in any upcoming game, what would you pick?
JC: A dance number, with a kick line, for Halo 4.
PT: We’ll be sure to tell Marty O’Donnell. Anymore videogame tracks in the pipeline now that ‘Still Alive’ was such a…HUGE SUCCESS?
JC: Nothing in the pipeline at the moment, but I’m certainly open to doing more of this sort of thing. For the most part I avoid this kind of music for hire thing, but in this case it was a very compelling character, and a really talented bunch of people, so I just couldn’t say no. The right project would most certainly tempt me again.
PT: Finally, we’d be remiss to not ask this: What is your favorite kind of cake?
JC: Chocolate- my mother makes a devil’s food cake that is so good it makes me cry.
For even more John Coulton, check out his official site for recordings, concert information, and more. We highly recommend sampling some of the tracks listed under ‘Thing A Week,’ in the Downloads section. They’re several kinds of awesome.
And that ain’t no lie.
