

It’s really important to me that all the songs in the show aren’t superfluous. And that will often dovetail with the kind of song I want to write.īut the story has to come first. Oftentimes we’ll make an episode and build the story around that feeling I want to convey. Sometimes I’ll be thinking of a song in the back of my mind that I want to write that is related to this feeling of a type of story that I’d like to write. What is the process for coming up with songs for the show? Sugar discussed the soundtrack, Steven’s journey and writing the show’s music over the phone.
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I never thought it would be part of my professional life as an animator,” said Sugar. While Sugar’s musical background also includes playing banjolele in “a loud band” while in college, she did not expect music to play such a large part in her career. “I wanted to use the pedal on everything so it would sound pretty.” “I got in trouble because I liked to change the classical music,” Sugar said. Before switching to the “fun to play” ukulele as a teen she also dabbled a bit in piano. Sugar grew up playing the hammer dulcimer. Although the show has gradually introduced heavier themes including identity, unhealthy relationships and overcoming loss - often via song - “Steven Universe” has retained its positivity and hope even as it further explores these uncertainties of growing up. Since the show’s 2013 debut, Steven, with his ukulele, has sung about everything from friendship to tasty snacks and even accidentally creating an alternate timeline.
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The animated series stars Steven, a 14-year-old half-human, half-magic alien. Since its Friday release, the long-awaited soundtrack has peaked at No. The original music of “Steven Universe” is definitely a large part of the show’s appeal. “I write all the songs on the side because I’m always busy working,” said Sugar. The longer rendition of the title tune has a similar origin story: Sugar was inspired at the airport while traveling to a convention, coming up with lyrics even while taking her shoes off at security. And both versions are included in the “Steven Universe Soundtrack: Volume 1,” a 37-track digital album featuring songs from the show handpicked by Sugar and remastered by the show’s composers Aivi Tran and Steven “Surasshu” Velema. This rendition of “We Are the Crystal Gems” was the first song Sugar wrote for the show. “Not the full, long version,” Sugar clarified. “I had these hourlong commutes out to Culver City from my place and I was writing it in the car.” “I was working on ‘Hotel Transylvania’ at the time,” explained Sugar, the creator of the fan-favorite Cartoon Network series. It’s disarmingly charming, delightfully peculiar and perfectly captures the essence of the show. It’s the musical universe that listeners won’t ever want to leave.The theme song for “Steven Universe” is a whimsical, 30-second introduction to the complex but charismatic world of the Crystal Gems. In 2019, the show came to the big screen with Steven Universe: The Movie, and the songwriting got even more ambitious, thanks to input from Chance the Rapper, Aimee Mann, and Ted Leo, among others.

2, all five seasons’ scores are available as standalone volumes, and feature a vivid array of instrumentals that are by turns quirky, psychedelic, and sentimental. While individual songs were compiled on 2017’s Steven Universe, Vol.

Virtually every song featured on the series leads to a new world: “Steven and the Stevens” harnesses classic girl-group harmonies “Cookie Cat” is a Beastie Boys-style rap over 8-bit bleeps and “Big Fat Zucchini” is a surprisingly authentic take on vintage hardcore. The show’s musical universe is just as expansive as its imaginative one, thanks, in part, to the fact that Steven’s father is an ex-rock star himself. Launched in 2013 by ex-Adventure Time author Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe was the first Cartoon Network program created solely by a woman, and over its five-season run, it blazed trails for kids’ TV.

And thanks to the goodness of his heart, he might just save the world. As part of a band of benevolent aliens, the Crystal Gems, Steven has incredible powers: He can fly, heal injuries, and even fuse his body with another’s. There are cinematic universes, and then there’s Steven Universe, the Cartoon Network series named after its adolescent protagonist.
