Montaigne Interview: Creating a Game Soundtrack
Jessica Alyssa Cerro, better known by her stage name Montaigne, is one of Australia’s most distinctive voices in contemporary music. A singer-songwriter and Twitch streamer, she first captured national attention with her debut album Glorious Heights, which soared to No. 4 on the ARIA charts and earned her the Breakthrough Artist award in 2016. Her versatility was further showcased as the featured vocalist on Hilltop Hoods’ hit single “1955.” Nearly a decade later, Montaigne continues to push creative boundaries—most recently with her independently produced fourth album, it’s hard to be a fish, released in June 2025. Today, she joins us to talk about her journey, her artistry, and what it means to create music on her own terms.
Welcome to Impulse Gamer, Montaigne!
You have been part of the ground-breaking project Stray Gods, a roleplaying musical where the player’s choices shape the story. To start us off, how did you approach writing music that could adapt and still feel emotionally authentic no matter which path players took?
I think the most important thing is always to understand how the character is feeling and what drives them. Once you’ve got that down, you just need to speak through their voice. That’s the nice thing about doing these sorts of projects—you’re writing lyrics already based on written dialogue and story, so you’ve got something to mould the work around.
When you look back at the soundtrack, is there a particular moment where the adaptive music surprised even you, maybe it shifted the mood of a scene in a way you didn’t expect?
Definitely! Depending on your approach—assertive, logical, empathic (at least that’s how I interpreted them)—choices could really determine the tone of the music that followed. Though for broad-scale surprises, it might be better to ask Tripod, who wrote the bulk of the soundtrack!
Thinking back to your childhood, were there any video games whose music really stuck with you and shaped your love for interactive soundtracks?
Yes, definitely. For me it was Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy X specifically. In terms of interactive music, I’m not sure I had much experience with that growing up, but those scores were—and still are—so important and formative to me.
And now, as an established composer, where do you find your creative spark? Is it more from other composers, outside art forms, or even unexpected everyday sounds?
It always depends on the project. When you’re a composer, your own personal tastes aren’t as important as the suggestions of the developers, I think. Right now I’m working on Wali Studios’ Wyrmspace Tactics, which had a specific style brief (Persona 5, Cowboy Bebop—Nu Jazz type stuff). Another game whose trailer I’m making a song for wanted something that felt like it was for kids and had slight funk influences.
I take that in, listen to as much as I can within those frames of reference, and decide where I’m going to take it based on the game’s atmosphere and aesthetic. I’m lucky enough that music in and of itself is always super exciting and inspiring to me, so all I have to do is listen to music to get the “spark” and then just begin with all the information in tow!
Your Grammy nomination for Stray Gods is such a milestone. What’s one behind-the-scenes moment from making the soundtrack that you’ll never forget?
Honestly, it was just cool to meet, work with, and then become friends with Austin Wintory—especially during pandemic times when everything was happening over Zoom. I’ve been so lucky to meet and collaborate with really exceptional people in my life, and it never gets boring to be communicating with world-famous creatives and then recording vocals with my SM58 microphone from my bed.
Working alongside Austin Wintory must have been a creative adventure. How did that collaboration influence your own musical voice?
Working with Austin was thought-provoking because his chord choices were very different from my usual ones, and they definitely opened my mind musically!
Finally, if you could score any non-musical game—say, a puzzle game or a farming sim—but secretly make it a musical, what wild twist would you add to surprise players?
I feel like there are two questions here, and I’m gonna answer one: I would love to score something like Tetris Effect: Connected. It would be so sick to do something like that. I don’t really know how you’d make a puzzle game or farming sim a “musical” unless you did something like TE:C that made the music aspect make sense…
About the Author
Andrew Bistak When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.
