Nashville's video game music boom continues with EA Sports College Football 27
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Video game lovers across the nation will get a taste of Music City on Thursday when the latest edition of EA Sports College Football drops.
Why it matters: More than 100 Nashville musicians came together to create the soundtrack for EA Sports College Football 27, which includes college fight songs and marching band-style arrangements of pop hits.
- The project is one of several video game projects expanding the definition of Music City.
🎮 State of play: The College Football series has turned to Nashville for its music for a few years now, recording in local studios and venues that might host a country or Christian music project the following week.
- This year, the recording sessions took place at Belmont University's Fisher Center.
Zoom in: Saxophonist Ryan Middagh, the chair of jazz and global music at Vanderbilt University, has been part of the sessions for three consecutive installments of the College Football game.
- He recalled playing about 180 school fight songs during fast moving recording sessions. This year's soundtrack also includes pop hits like "Pink Pony Club" and "Since U Been Gone."
- Because of the large number of songs they have to get through, the musicians get only a couple of takes for each one, requiring constant precision and game-day energy.
- "There's not really a lot of time to think about it," Middagh tells Axios. "You're really just playing as hyped as you possibly can all the time."
By the numbers: Middagh says this year's sessions included about 18 musicians with ties to Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music. Some of his current students and co-workers were among them.
What he's saying: Seeing his students and Blair graduates with him on this project was "a nice glimpse into the future" for Middagh.
- "That's a little bit of almost passing the baton," Middagh says. "We're training our future peers."
The big picture: Nashville has quietly become a hub for video game soundtracks. Two nominees for last year's Grammy for best video game score recorded here with local musicians, Middagh says.
- "You never know what you're going to be getting into in a Nashville studio session," he says. "We're having kind of a moment on the video game front."
How to listen: The EA Sports College Football 27 "halftime" soundtrack is available on streaming platforms now.