The music of Cuphead
The music of Cuphead.
Kris Maddigan, a Canadian orchestral musician, grew up playing video games with his childhood friends — brothers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. Years later, those friends would go on to create one of the most successful indie video games: Cuphead.
Inspired by the animation style of early Disney and Fleischer cartoons, the Moldenhauer brothers wanted the game to sound like it came out of the 1930s, too. As a first time video game composer, Maddigan reveals how he managed to write over three hours of big band and ragtime tunes — and apply them to the context of Cuphead.
“I really wanted to approach it as if the golden age of big band and the golden age of videogames maybe coexisted simultaneously,” Maddigan says. “Like, how would a big band composer write for that?”
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.