Neon Odyssey: How The Midnight’s Synthwave Sound Inspired a New D&D Space Opera

On October 3, 2024 Mikey Gilder was, successful his words, “on the edge.” The Avantris Co-Founder and CMO was heavy into creating the epic D&D fearfulness epic The Crooked Moon and was searching for inspiration to support the task going. Enter: fashionable synthwave set The Midnight.

“Being successful (The Crooked Moon’s) heavy acheronian fearfulness for truthful agelong creatively takes a toll connected you,” Gilder says. “There’s a batch of symptom successful that process. I was connected the cliff. I was acceptable to springiness up. I went to the (Midnight) performance and I ascended. I was injected with spiritual substance and that was capable to support maine going to get The Crooked Moon done.”

That jolt of inspiration led not lone to the occurrence of The Crooked Moon, but straight to Avantris’s caller task Neon Odyssey. Described arsenic “a 1,400+ page, three-book abstraction opera trilogy for Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E,” Neon Odyssey is “set successful the postulation of Stardust Rhapsody [and] gives players and Game Masters everything they request to tally cinematic adventures crossed unusual planets, neon megacities, abstraction stations, starships, and the acold reaches of outer space.”

As portion of the motorboat of Neon Odyssey, Avantris decided to enactment with The Midnight connected an archetypal opus for the project. The opus is featured successful Neon Odyssey’s motorboat trailer/music video and “helps present the tone, style, and vigor of Stardust Rhapsody.”

Along with Gilder, I spoke with The Midnight founding subordinate Tim McEwan astir the collaboration. McEwan, who grew up gaming connected the Sega Mega Drive successful Europe (otherwise known arsenic the Sega Genesis successful the US) says the songwriting process for Neon Odyssey was rooted successful emotion alternatively than worldbuilding.

“I don't callback [seeing] immoderate visuals. We didn't request to spot visuals successful bid to understand the emotions down [the] storytelling. As for the lyrics, that’s my bandmate Tyler Lyle. I built the way [and] came up with a small synth pluck thing. We sent a unsmooth demo implicit to the guys [at Avantris]. [They] truly [understood] the method broadside and knew precisely what [they] wanted, which makes our jobs mode easier. So, I would emotion to beryllium present and go, ‘Oh, we we we we worked truthful hard,’ but it was specified a fun, easygoing acquisition that it benignant of came unneurotic truly nicely.”

For his part, Gilder says bringing The Midnight connected arsenic a spouse played a immense portion successful creating the code and wide vibe of Neon Odyssey. “There [are] a tremendous fig of influences connected the committee successful this world,” Gilder says. "I ever accidental it's Star Wars meets Cowboy Bebop with a synthwave overgarment of paint. Star Wars is important due to the fact that it's the archetypical abstraction opera. With Star Wars, erstwhile you ticker it, it hits thing successful your soul. It’s playing connected the hero's travel that has existed for thousands of years.

“Cowboy Bebop has the important constituent of nostalgia, erstwhile you look backmost to the happier times. There's besides benignant of an inherent melancholy [and] wistfulness. It's not an evil galactic empire. They're not blowing up monolithic abstraction stations. It's dealing with the precise idiosyncratic problems of a radical of people. And sometimes they triumph and sometimes they lose.”

“It’s 1 of those large experiences – wherever idiosyncratic comes to you asking for the happening you truly similar to bash and you cognize are bully at,” McEwan adds. “You privation america to bash a opus about, you know, nostalgia and nonaccomplishment and the hero's journey? We tin bash that. We were kids successful a candy store. Nostalgia has a built-in sadness. It's that thought of this infinitesimal volition ne'er travel backmost and that's wherefore it's beautiful. Life is simply a bid of precious small moments successful betwixt the large moments. Usually [it’s] the smaller moments that you remember.”

For McEwan, moving with Avantris connected Neon Odyssey went beyond their shared appreciation for nostalgia. McEwan says it was an accidental to prosecute successful cinematic storytelling. “I'm inspired by cinematic things,” McEwan says. “So movies volition animate maine to evoke a feeling. If it’s [the 1982 Steven Spielberg film] ET, it's wonder, nonaccomplishment of innocence, and heavy heartbreak. I don't cognize what different radical are going to acquisition erstwhile they perceive to our music, but I'll I'll accidental this: the galore times that I've tried to evoke a circumstantial feeling successful a track, radical [will] marque fan-made video edits utilizing a movie and they volition usage the movies I had successful my caput erstwhile I was making the track.”

With the motorboat of Neon Odyssey, Gilder says that helium hopes radical volition admit not lone the massive, detailed, and unsocial communicative Avantris is trying to archer but besides the sheer effort that went into creating it.

“We person an unthinkable squad of incredibly talented folks,” Gilder says. “It's nary longer conscionable america successful a townhouse. [The communicative has] weird aliens. There's spaceships. There's abstraction whales and abstraction dolphins inspired by Ecco the Dolphin. We person implicit 30 folks crossed the satellite each contributing their unthinkable talent. We're getting amended astatine it each time and I deliberation that Neon Odyssey volition hopefully amusement that.”

Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment astatine IGN, starring amusement contented and sum of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He's spent 20 years moving successful the games and amusement industry, and his adventures person taken him everyplace from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him connected Bluesky @MichaelPeyton