Rovio Blog
Meet the man behind the Angry Birds theme
14.12.2011
Angry Birds wouldn't be Angry Birds without its unique soundscape and theme music. So what’s the story behind it? In the summer of 2009, Rovio challenged Ari Pulkkinen, a talented Finnish game composer and sound designer, to create something completely original for an upcoming casual game about some furious avians.Ari found his main inspiration for the Angry Birds Theme in birdsong: short flights of cheerful melodies. He captured the game’s whole storyline in the theme, which starts with light-hearted tones, and builds tension and conflict as it progresses."It was definitely one of the most enjoyable pieces I've been commissioned for," Ari says. "It had just the right mixture of uplifting melodies, with a taste of complete mayhem and chaos bubbling under the surface, pretty much like many of the levels in the game.”SQUAWK! - making the sound effects
The Rovio team was caught by surprise when Ari said that he was coming to the studio to record the sound effects with the developers. The team didn't know what to expect, and everybody was pretty nervous about their performance.
"I briefed the dev team to make as quirky, crazy, and just plain weird bird sounds as they could imagine. After a couple of practice rounds, everybody was relaxed, and we got a great recording session going on," Ari remembers. "Somehow, they had more of a knack for the pig sounds!"
Angry Birds Seasons
Ari has also created a number of the themes for Angry Birds Seasons, for example for the first Halloween and Christmas tunes. The variations of the original theme give each Angry Birds season a traditional, but thoroughly original makeover."With the Halloween Theme, I wanted to create something that would capture the essence of the festival without being too scary," Ari says. "Something quirky like The Simpsons Halloween Special, yet classical like something from Tales From The Crypt." For the Christmas theme, Aki drew inspiration from Finnish and American Christmas songs, and created some contrast by adding background noises of the pigs jeering ominously. "It can't be all cheery and happy, or it isn't really Angry Birds, is it?" Ari says.Finnish Game Developer Of The Year 2011Ari is an acclaimed composer, and he is responsible for the soundtracks and sound design of many well known titles, such as Super Stardust HD, Trine and Dead Nation. In 2011, Ari found more success with great titles like Outland, and was named the Finnish Game Developer Of The Year - a great achievement for all his hard work. Most recently, Ari’s work can be heard in Trine 2 from Finnish developer Frozenbyte.Check out more fantastic music from Ari on www.aritunes.com!
