Twenty One Pilots performed ‘The Line’, their song taken from the season 2 soundtrack of ‘Arcane: League Of Legends’, live at the 2024 Game Awards last night (December 12).
The performance was part of a special ‘Arcane’ medley at the show which also featured Royal & The Serpent with their track ‘Wasteland’ and d4vd who ran through their track ‘Remember Me’. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun then took to the stage for the debut performance of ‘The Line’, accompanied by an orchestra as footage from the show played out on a video backdrop.
Watch video of the medley below:
We recently caught up with Riot Games’ Global Head Of Music & Events Maria Egan to find out about how ‘The Line’, came together.
“First of all, I’m just a fan” she said. “What happens with Arcane is that we shall get sent some animatics or rough storyboards and there will be a temp track attached to it. I won’t say what the temp track was, but it was a song that immediately made me think that Tyler Joseph has to write this. The moment was designed for this band. We have great relationships with managers and labels, and we knew that Tyler was a fan of the show and that they wanted to do something with us. We went to their manager, Chris Woltman, and I just said, ‘Look, we have the perfect scene for him. Would he consider doing it?’ He never really writes for anything else, but he loves the show so they wanted to see it and we sent it over. Literally three days after he got the scene, we got the song back. In a lot of the cases, with ‘Arcane’, we have four or five artists try something and try a completely different energy. But when that one came in it was like, ‘Okay, well, that’s it’.”
“We were able to work really closely with them to create this moment. The visuals took shape over the next several months. I think it’s the best thing when the artist loves the IP. He’ll tell his own story about it, but he has his own investment in what the song means to him. But he really loves the show so he was so into being part of the world and trying to tell the story. He’s an exceptional songwriter, and he’s always been one of my favourite writers, lyrically. When we’re trying to do things with the story, you want great lyricists. You want great storytellers that can take these narratives and tell the story. I mean, Dan Reynolds is great at this too, where ‘Enemy’ tells the story of ‘Arcane’ but if you know nothing about it, it’s still a great pop song that anybody can relate to, and I think is one of the reasons it was such a big hit. That’s a very masterful skill; to take specific stories and make them universal. There’s a handful of writers at any given time on the planet that do that well, and Tyler’s definitely one of them.”
Read our full interview with Maria plus Royal & The Serpent, Mako, ZAND and more inside our new ‘Arcane’ special edition magazine. Featuring stunning artwork from the series, it explores the music behind the show and the role it plays in the storytelling.
Order your magazine alongside two deluxe poster prints at SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV
