When we originally looked at the D23 schedule, we were surprised to see that one of the first panels listed was the ironically named “The Music and Sounds of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.” The lack of a land-wide background music loop is one of the fiercest criticisms of the new Star Wars land, so this was a panel we definitely didn’t want to miss. While that lack of music wasn’t covered during this panel, what they did end up talking about was surprisingly interesting.
Imagineering’s Matt Walker began the panel saying “That music, when you came in, that says it all.” What had been playing was the Docking Bay 7 patio loop and John Williams’ Galaxy’s Edge suite. “Music lets us experience other worlds,” Walker said. Williams’ suite was the main topic for the first set of panelists, composer Bill Ross and Imagineering’s John Dennis. They spoke briefly on the early development of the soundscape, which required evoking emotion purely out of concept artwork.
Launching into an intensely personal discussion for all the panelists about how important John Williams was to them, they spent time talking about the importance of Williams’ involvement in the project. They even went as far as to quote Mark Hamill from an article in Variety, stating “Aside from George Lucas, nobody deserves more credit for the success of ‘Star Wars’ than John Williams.” For what it’s worth, full agreement here from the MiceChat staff, Mark.
Considering the one place in Galaxy’s Edge that actually uses John Williams’ score extensively is Savi’s Workshop, the conversation quickly went there. The panelists stressed it was incredibly important that Savi’s went above and beyond in terms of music just based on the type of intimate experience that it is. They recalled experiencing an early rough version of it and being brought to tears during the scene at the end when the participants were to lift their lightsabers. What really sets that scene in the finished product is the perfect use of John Williams’ Yoda’s Theme from Empire Strikes Back, and that’s what the panelists were trying to hammer home. The scene, despite not specifically being in any previous body of Star Wars media, feels uniquely Star Wars because of John Williams’ music.
The MiceChat staff agreed with that statement when we originally did our coverage of Savi’s Workshop, it’s one of perhaps only two places in the new land that really feels like Star Wars, despite the overt retail purpose of the experience and it’s because Williams’ score is that powerful.
Since John Williams is deep into Star Wars Episode IX currently, he was unable to attend and had to be interviewed on video to be played at the panel. He had a surprising amount of profound things to say as well, starting with his first impression of the model and project scope of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. He felt, at least at the pre-production stage, that it was the Imagineer’s “wildest imagination set free.” What was most interesting is that when he was brought into the studio, he interpreted the project as writing music for “the entire park” (I’m assuming he meant entire Star Wars land). When Galaxy’s Edge was being revealed, that was the interpretation that the general public had as well, but that isn’t quite what happened with the finished product. Williams ended his interview with a thought on the purpose of music in Imagineering, saying that it’s to “excite the imagination, expanding worlds that have been imagined.”
The panel then moved on to a segment about the sound design of the atmosphere of Batuu, where Imagineer John Kestler was brought on stage. He described part of his job with Galaxy’s Edge was to make the guest feel as though they’re walking into an epic movie. One way they did that was with over 2,975 sound files created specifically for the land. An important reason as to why there are so many sound files is that the Imagineers created atmosphere elements for different times of the day, an ever changing soundscape from morning to night. The way I interpreted what he was saying was that essentially there’s a massive background track on Batuu of just sound effects.
Kestler played examples of some of the intricately detailed sound design files that are used during different times of the day at Galaxy’s Edge. Apparently, there’s an apartment of Wookies that live above Merchant Row and you might hear one singing in the shower or the family eating dinner. Kestler played a hilarious clip of that apartment where a Wookie was having band practice (their neighbors were not so happy about it) and another of a Wookie having a holo conversation (the whirring of the holo is pretty impressive). He also explained how doing it this way was important to making the Marketplace feel lived in compared to just playing a static “crowd noise” or something like that. It’s unfortunate that no one the MiceChat team has ever been able to hear much of these residential “scenes.” Although they did state that there are several layers to the sound of Merchant Row, these clips are just one piece.
John Kestler did play some clips that we have heard, though. He played a clip of the unique sound of the Dianoga that lives near the Marketplace restrooms, describing the eyeball sound as “squishy.” Kestler then went on to explain the outpost’s radio broadcast. Rather than being a simulcast from the cantina, the purpose of the radio was to be what he called “source music.” The team wanted to bring music out to the rest of the land and this was the way they decided made the most sense. A few clips were played of the range of things on the radio, starting with a sports broadcast of a podrace. Then two radio advertisements were played, the first being a hysterical commercial for a shampoo for Wookies (I get the feeling the designers really like Wookies).
The second was an ad for “Taste of Tokodana,” the official name of Chef Cookie Tuggs’ restaurant inside Docking Bay 7. That one was particularly interesting because the voice acting was (likely) purposefully supposed to invoke Maz Kanata, almost like Maz herself was advertising her former Chef’s new mobile kitchen. Finally, Kestler played a clip that apparently only plays one time a day on Batuu, the full bore of the TIE Echelon making ready to take off. He explained that it was important that it sounded different depending on where you were standing around it, but also that it sounded evil. Indeed it does, and that clip was all the proof I need to know I wouldn’t want it to chase me.
Moving on, Imagineer Yaron Spiwak was brought on stage to explain how the cantina music was made. Here’s the secret sauce: mix African, Asian, and Middle Eastern music and instruments, then heavily digitally filter it.
To further the conversation about the cantina, singer Judith Hill, producer Jason mater, editor Matthew Wood, and producer Adam Dorn were brought on stage. While talking about starting the remix of the original Figrin D’an and the Modal Tones cantina track, the thought that came to Dorn originally was “no pressure, only a billion people know this song.” It’s interesting that everything seems to come full circle to how important John Williams’ score was to the project, especially when the next point was that Williams never liked any of the previous remixes of the cantina song. When the new remix, “Mad about Mad About Me” (also known as the cantina band song) was played for him he replied “oh, that was perfectly lovely.”
Oga’s Cantina is an interesting place in that it’s probably the only place in Galaxy’s Edge that’s meant to purposefully invoke a very specific place from the previous canon. That’s at least how I interpreted the statement from the panelists that the purpose of the cantina’s music was to take you back to that original time you saw and heard the Mos Eisley Cantina in the original Star Wars film.
Every song on DJ R-3X’s playlist was meant to sound like a hit from another planet. One song, Oola Shuka, was intended to essentially turn Judith Hill into a sort of cosmic Lady Gaga named Gaya. Indeed, the song is a sort of strange intergalactic pop-funk song sung in a completely made up alien language, and we learned that first hand as Hill donned her very best 70s sci-fi costume and played Oola Shuka live for us. I felt like I was watching some strange offshoot of Captain EO, but when she finished my reaction was that this sort of live entertainment is what is missing from Galaxy’s Edge.
Sometime in the middle of the panel, the First Order hijacked the stage and told us that we would be receiving data cards to decipher for them full of Resistance secrets. After Hill left the stage, Vi Moradi (Batuu’s Resistance spy) hijacked the stage again to tell us that she’s deleted everything on the cards and replaced them with her playlist, take that First Order!
On our way out we were handed “data cards.” They almost look like the card used to store the Death Star plans on during the original Star Wars film. The difference is that these had a QR code on the back to take us to the Apple Music listing for “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Oga’s Cantina: R3X’s Playlist #1.” Cue excitement, we’ve been asking for R-3X’s playlist since we first previewed Galaxy’s Edge several months ago. Matt Walker told us that this is just the beginning and to expect a more complete playlist soon.
The playlist should be available in your favorite music store or streaming service, not just Apple Music. For those who want to listen to it now, I’ve embedded the Spotify version below.
While we as a team are still pretty disappointed in the lack of real music in Galaxy’s Edge, the amount of effort that has gone into the Batuu soundscape is still a massive creative feat. The enthusiasm of all the Imagineers about even the minute details is infectious, it makes us want to go out and listen to some Wookie rock bands and strange ads for Wookie shampoo. And who knows how things will evolve, putting out this playlist is a step in the right direction towards listening to what the fans want. We certainly do like Star Wars music. . . we just wish the powers that be would allow all that great Star Wars music into the actual land.
Be sure to stay tuned to MiceChat for continued coverage, photos, and news throughout D23 Expo weekend! Find all of our D23 Expo coverage here:
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