It’s a very different way of approaching songwriting. I tried to use lyrics from those songs to blend in with the stuff that we were writing. “Samurai is actually in the Cyberpunk book – and I think ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Chippin’ in’ are songs that exist in the mythology. Pouring over the companion books for the original tabletop game that inspired CD Projekt Red’s game, he was determined to do this fictional band justice. While Refused has licensed its songs for films and other media before, it was working with the fictional element of Cyberpunk 2077’s world that Lyxzén most enjoyed. But from what I understand, the actual game is pretty amazing.” I guess it is more of a bummer for CD Projekt Red because I know how much work they put into it. There's nothing really we can do about that. “I hear the actual game is great though … there are just a lot of bugs. “I mean, it's a bit of a bummer,” Lxyzen says. (Despite the rocky launch, the game still sold 13 million copies just 10 days after release.) While CD Projekt Red’s hugely anticipated release features some excellent storytelling and voice acting, a litany of bugs and performance issues prompted an outpouring of online derision and even prompted Sony to take the unprecedented step of removing the game from the PlayStation digital storefront. He is, of course, referring to Cyberpunk 2077’s remarkably disastrous launch. “I guess 's been getting … mixed reviews,” Lyxzén offers, carefully. Years after attracting the bile of the hardcore scene for daring to experiment with the genre, Refused find themselves once again watching the internet redetermine a piece of art’s fate. Then they asked, ‘do you think you can do this with Refused?’” “I am not a gamer.” The original idea was for them to create music, and then for me to sing it. So I just kind of passed it on to my management and they were like, ’Holy shit - this is big time!’ It turned out that both the director of the game and the whole team were huge fans. Initially, he was nonplussed by the offer. The developers reached out to Lyxzén via the suitably dystopian medium of Instagram DM. For the Refused megafans making Cyberpunk 2077, there was only one band who could do the anarchist Johnny Silverhand justice. By 2006, the Swedish punks had become legends to many - including a few Polish guys who founded a game studio called CD Projekt Red.įollowing the huge success of 2015’s The Witcher 3, which had sold more than 50 million copies as of May 2020, the developer shifted focus to a new project with a gritty, futuristic setting. With the music press and MTV belatedly discovering “New Noise,” Refused fever slowly spread across the globe. Thanks to dismal audience reactions, the band threw in the towel just months after the release of The Shape of Punk to Come. Turns out, the kids of 1998 didn’t want new noise. Back in 2010, Pitchfork lovingly described it as having 'the sound of a world-class hardcore band deciding that they're done with hardcore.' It was a record as likely to hit you with a radio-ready hook as it was to bombard you with glitchy electronic instrumentation or distorted jazz breaks.Īs Lyxzén cries on the blisteringly brilliant “New Noise,” “How can we expect anyone to listen if we are using the same old voice? We need new noise!” Where their contemporaries still churned out the same old breakdowns, Refused’s third album orbited another planet. Refused 101Īfter making a name for themselves tearing up sweat-soaked basements in the mid-’90s, Refused grew tired of the cliquey bullshit permeating the hardcore scene. Lyxzén spoke with Inverse about how the project allowed Refused to craft an alt-future version of themselves, the game's rocky release, and the moment he learned about the involvement of one of Hollywood's biggest actors. The collaboration marks the latest phase on a wild journey that's seen the band oscillate between the hardcore punk scene and mainstream popularity.

They also lent their talents to Keanu Reeves’ fictional rock band, Samurai, in the blockbuster video game Cyberpunk 2077.Īn outspoken anti-capitalist, Lyxzén tells Inverse that “being in a multi-million dollar computer game is a bit weird.” But 22 years after its release, Refused tops festival bills and plays to audiences of thousands. Now heralded as musical heroes, when the Swedish punks released their futuristic-sounding 1998 classic, The Shape of Punk to Come, the world vehemently rejected it. If anyone understands the life-changing power of the internet, it’s Refused frontman Dennis Lyxzén.

Cyberpunk 2077 voice actors