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“We call this music the ‘diegetic’ music. That’s the music that’s in the world and not, you know, breaking the fourth wall, so to speak,” Voillot said.

The game takes players to different planets and, as such, the artists took different approaches to the music, while still working under the electronic music umbrella.

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“Within that genre, there’s definitely some diversity. Some of it’s aggressive drum and bass, some of it’s tropical house, and we matched that with the esthetic of the world and the location we’re actually going to implement it in the game,” he said.

BioWare approached the DJs around the beginning of 2016 and, of the acts approached, Better Living DJs, Comaduster, Deep Six, Dr. Perceptron, KØBA, Nada Deva and Senseless Live all made it onto the soundtrack. Voillot has been DJ’ing in Alberta and British Columbia for more than 20 years, and used his contacts in the industry to scout potential talent.

The musicians were brought into BioWare and shown clips of gameplay and concept art to help get the juices flowing.

Kurtis Schultz of Better Living DJs played the first Mass Effect, but admits he’s fallen off playing video games in the past five years, focusing instead on making music.

Schultz and his DJ-partner Keith Walton finished their tracks around two months ago. Walton recalls this was done on a beach in Mexico, which they were visiting to meet with some friends and also to play a few gigs at BPM Festival.

The Edmonton-based duo are excited that they got the chance to have their music appear in the game.

“I think it’s only a positive thing. Kurtis and I have been at this for about five years, and, you know, it’s been a grind for sure … Anything like this is a huge opportunity. There’s the DJ side of it and producing music to play out, but then producing music for people to sit in their place and listen to and play in a game or a movie, I think it’s really going to push us forward,” Walton said.

“I think it gave us the ability to look a bit more big picture,” Schultz added.