Aside from creating 70 songs for the anime, Frieren composer Evan Call also arranged and produced the ending theme Anytime Anywhere.
In our recent exclusive interview with Call, he shared the story behind how the ending theme was created. After all, the process behind the song’s creation was a bit different from how the rest of the soundtrack was made.
Call shared that he had a lot of freedom in composing the show’s soundtrack, but the ending theme had him find a middle ground between various opinions.
How Did the Original Frieren Ending Demo Sound Like?
When asked about how the Frieren: Beyond Journey's End ending theme was made, Call explained that the production staff wanted the song to have a similar feel to the soundtrack while still having elements of a pop song.
Call didn’t write and produce the song from the ground up. Instead, the singer milet and her band wrote the song first.
“Because milet and her team wrote the song together, it came to me as a one-chorus band style demo. So it was essentially guitar, drums and vocals,” shared Call.
“From there, I discussed with, first of all, the anime production side about what kind of sound they were looking for.”
On top of having a band-style demo, Toho and Sony were also involved with the creative direction of the theme.
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So, there were lots of opinions about how the song will be. As Call was the arranger for the track, he mentioned in the interview how had to do quite the balancing act.
What’s more, he also had to ensure that the song would work in two parts, given that it was set to be used as the endings for both cours.
While it seemed to be quite a challenging process, Call didn’t seem to be fazed by this as he got to work on arranging the ending theme.
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Evan Call Explains His Production Process for Frieren’s Ending Song
Even though Call didn’t originally come up with the song, he did a lot of work to get the song to the final version that fans all over the world have heard. He explains the process as:
I arranged it with the goal of it functioning effectively for both endings while still being a complete pop song. I varied my orchestration in a way that I feel reflects the story as the show progresses.
It’s a bit lighter in the first cour, then in the second cour, the band is a bit more prominent.
I also did a lot of reharmonizing. The chords that were given to me when I received the data were more in the vein of pop-style writing, so I adjusted the chords to be more dramatic, to fit the world a bit more, and to match the overall feeling of the show.
By the end, the song still retained the original demo’s melody, though it matched the rest of the anime’s soundtrack more.
The complete Frieren original soundtrack is out now on major streaming platforms and digital music stores.
What did you think of the show’s ending theme? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
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