Low Roar
Don’t Be So Serious
(Once in a Long, Long While)

In 2016, “Sony” released a little game teaser in “E3” 2016, a yearly convention for big video game businesses to show the public their latest entertainment. It was called “Death Stranding,” one of the first games from “Hideo Kojima Productions” and directed by Hideo Kojima. The song that played to those millions of people at the convention was “Don’t Be So Serious” by Low Roar.
It seems odd that a song from 2011 is being rehatched in late 2019.
“He [Kojima] had been in Iceland, heard my music, and wanted to use it. I really respect his work so it’s been great for us,” Ryan Karazija, singer and composer for Low Roar said in an interview from AXS.
As a videogame designer, Kojima prefers to use fewer songs that are sensitive which is not the norm in the industry. For example, famous upbeat singers on the radio such as Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Maroon 5, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber perform songs with lyrics that have little or no meaning. Most current singers, including older generation singers, compose the same formula ranging from a relationship that ends or starts to what being famous is like.
After listeners heard “Don’t Be So Serious’, some concluded it was about a relationship ending so dramatically, sadly that’s not the case. Karazija, the composer/singer for Low Roar, had a massive panic attack and had to check himself into the hospital, and out of his experience, he wrote the song.
One of the things that works well with this song is the pitch from the singer. Karazija’s singing doesn’t change in volume, never pulling the audience with extravagant high or low vocals in the song. His intensity touches the audience’s heartstrings, comforting the listeners into a state of calmness but also remorse. Karazija’s tone of voice plays delicately, with the rhythm of the song.
“Don’t Be So Serious” is a 9.8/10. If interested in Death Stranding’s music, listeners can find it anywhere that has music.