Ben Starr's Debut Videogame Music Performance Was Recorded After "Far Too Many" Tequila Shots
Ben Starr and composer Lorien Testard explain how the actor's videogame music debut came to exist
Testard has his own memories of asking Starr to be involved, too. "I wrote the song Ben is singing, I think maybe a year before asking him to do that. It's a really important song for Verso and for the game, and we recorded it with the orchestra. It was an emblematic track with orchestra and voices, and Verso. I tell Guillaume [Broche, Sandfall Interactive CEO and creative director], 'It will be really cool if we can have the actors sing, so let's ask.' I met Ben at Christmas one year later, and I have the song in mind, and I asked him to listen to it, and if he wanted to sing on it. He said yes, and we recorded the morning after.
"It was really, really impressive to have a voice actor who is not a singer to do the singing parts. Honestly, I would never let the song on the soundtrack if I didn't like it. It could have been very hard for me to say, 'No Ben, it didn't work,' so I'm so glad that I really like the song, and I think it gives a lot to the soundtrack."
Starr then goes on to explain how, the night before recording the song and while visiting Montpellier with co-star Jennifer English, he got a little over-excited. "I think I introduced a large portion of the team to tequila shots just when the evening was dying down. I think I bought like 20 tequilas, and I was that annoying person at a party that's like, 'Do your tequila shot!'" he recalls.
"Clearly, they didn't want them, so I was left with far too many going, 'Fine, I'll do the tequila shots.' So, turning up the next morning and going into the studio and being like, 'Thank you, sir, teach me how to sing this beautiful song,' with Alice [Duport-Percier, vocalist]'s vocals already over it, and me contributing alongside it, it was really intimidating."
Those tequila shots never hampered Starr's performance, though. "Hopefully--I'm saying hopefully, I've heard it--I'm so proud of it. I'm so proud to be a part of this journey, and to explore different things. It isn't a stunt, it is narratively really intriguing and I think it adds a lot to the story."
While some thought the launch of the Oblivion Remaster just days beforehand could spell disaster for the indie game, Starr disagrees, saying that Clair Obscur can "exist alongside" the juggernaut.
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This story originally appeared on: GameSpot - Author:UK GAG
