News

​Autechre were supposed to score Nintendo’s Metroid Prime, says Sean Booth

The pair were reportedly tapped by Nintendo back in the noughties

Autechre’s Sean Booth has revealed that he and bandmate Rob Brown were asked to take on the soundtrack of Nintendo’s hit game Metroid Prime in the early noughties, per Video Games Chronicle.

Sharing details of the exchange via a Twitch AMA (Ask Me Anything) stream, Booth answered speculative questions about his and Brown’s appearance in the credits of the 2002-released video game.

“Well I can now [explain my mention in the Metroid Prime credits],” he told fans. “Even though I am violating an NDA technically by saying this, but basically we got asked to do the soundtrack,” he said, explaining that Retro Studios had first approached the pair.

Read this next: Decade-old unreleased Autechre and Gescom tracks leaked on YouTube

The electronic duo then met up with the game company in Austin, Texas, ahead of the game’s 2002-release. “They were really keen and we were really keen because it’s fucking Metroid… the best game ever. And then Nintendo borked it for some reason and wanted their guy to do it, so that was that really,” Booth said.

He also added that speculation over their contribution to the game’s soundtrack also came down to its sound, which fans have argued sounds similar to Autechre’s early music.

Read this next: The '90s had the best video game music, new study reveals

“I don’t know how much involvement they had in the sound of it, or whether they intentionally tried to make it sound a bit more us, but I don’t think so really. I’ve read people saying they think it sounds a bit like us, but I don’t think it does. But it’s subjective really.”

During Booth’s six-hour stream at the end of July which he titled a "quick AMA," the artist also touched on Autechre’s live setup, releasing music with vocals, David Lynch listening to Autechre, and ‘the two guy theory’.

Earlier last month, Booth also revealed that he was behind a catalogue of unreleased works leaked on YouTube. 11 never-before-heard tracks were confirmed to be the early workings of Autechre and Gescom.

[Via Video Games Chronicle]

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter