Behind the Beats of Civilization VI: The Lofi Sessions

To go behind the scenes of this project, we sat down with Dmytro Nabesh, Senior Sound Designer at Firaxis Games and the creative force behind the Civilization VI lofi album. We chatted about everything from transcribing iconic civilization themes completely by ear to capturing that perfect 4:30 coffee break mood…

Check out the full Q&A below to see how historical strategy meets lofi beats!

**Q. To start us off, can you tell us a bit about who you are and what your role involves at Firaxis Games? **

Dmytro: My name is Dmytro Nebesh and I am a sound designer at Firaxis Games. I started back in 2022 and helped ship Civ VII and continue to support it with any audio needs today. That work involves UI sounds, nuclear explosions, gunfire, ambiences, and sometimes I help on the music for a wonder. I grew up playing Civ Rev on my Nintendo DS - which was my very first intro to Civ as a franchise - and I have been a fan ever since! To this day, I still enjoy playing video games of all varieties, and usually that inspires me to write more music in my free time.

Q. How did this come about? What made you look at the complex, grand orchestral arrangements of Civilization VI—written by Geoff Knorr, Phill Boucher, and Roland Rizzo—and think, "This needs a lofi flip"?

Dmytro: The idea actually came from one of our former community specialists, Dashiell Sarnoff. He approached me with the concept of making lofi beat versions of civ music so people could just chill out and listen to themes from Civ while they study or something. I had some tracks from Civ VI I really liked and I recently got into listening to lofi versions of other video games and thought "This could be a fun thing to make". The video game community also always seems super receptive to lofi remixes and you can constantly see YouTube is full of them. Weirdly enough I didn't see many civ tracks so I also thought it would be cool to bring civ onto this scene.

Q. Civ VI music carries a lot of grand historical weight. How did you balance preserving the emotional integrity of the original themes with the relaxed, unhurried vibe that defines lofi?

Dmytro: Civ VI music carries a lot in general, including cultural identity. For me, I thought the most important aspect was making sure a Civ's identity remained the most important feature in these remixes. I did try to think about the emotional feeling of each track when I got to finalizing them, just to figure out what vibe you should be in when listening to it. For example, when I listen to the original Germany (Industrial Era) theme, I imagine a power hungry Barbarossa taking over all the city states with no care to the consequences of his actions. With the lofi version, I imagined a more isolated Barbarossa plotting his attacks on those city states.

Q. Civ VI features dynamic themes that evolve across four eras (Ancient, Medieval, Industrial, and Atomic). How did you choose which specific civilizational themes or era variations to adapt?

Dmytro: This is a great question! Personally, I listened to the industrial versions the most since the cultural melody is so explicit in those versions. I love the orchestration that went into those tracks and the clarity of the cultural folk song used for those themes. I did sometimes choose to listen to ancient tracks and focus on the solo instrument. Like the Mayan ancient track does such a good job of showing you the folk song played through pan flute. That was a clear melody that I could easily transcribe in quick time given how clear the solo instrument was in the ancient era.

Q. Did you work with official audio stems to isolate the original melodies, traditional instruments, and vocal motifs?

Dmytro: I actually did not! All of the music was recreated with virtual instruments that featured the traditional instruments. As a sound designer, we often have the job of recreating traditional/realistic sound effects without access to the original source. I took upon the remixing of these tracks the same way. It probably would have been easier to just take audio stems from the recordings, but this allows me to control all aspects of the remix. Tempo, performance, and key signature is harder to change when you are just taking a stem. It can be done and happens all the time, but I prefer recreating the traditional instruments and melodies by ear.

Q. Many Civ VI tracks feature regional scales and unique microtonal textures (like traditional Asian, Middle Eastern, or Indigenous instrumentation). How did you translate those non-Western melodies onto typical lofi synth or keys frameworks?

Dmytro: This is where the industrial versions of the track came into handy! I just took a look at how Geoff and Roland accomplished this situation in Civ VI. I mostly figured out the best way is to just find out what western chords work well with other regional scales. I mainly tried to play with tones that matched the instruments and blended well together to my ear. When I had doubts, I had Dashiell check them out for me. Sometimes you need a good second opinion.

Q. What specific processing techniques did you use to give the crisp orchestral elements that vintage warmth? (e.g., tape saturation, bitcrushing, vinyl crackle, or pitch warble/vibrato).

Dmytro: Lots of EQ and using Izotope's awesome vinyl plugin. Sometimes I would run things through a guitar amp if I thought it needed to get more distorted or have a lower fidelity character to it. It's a trick I use for music and sound design.

Q. Civilization games are famous for marathon playing sessions. Did you intentionally design these tracks to serve as background music for long gaming or studying sessions?

Dmytro: I was more imagining studying sessions, or office work sessions honestly haha. Sometimes there is lots of documentation to write at Firaxis, and that was what I imagined when writing these tracks. Sometimes I imagined these tracks playing when you first get in an office and have your coffee at your desk. Other times I imagined it's 4:30pm...and you have another cup of coffee.

Q. If you could adapt a soundtrack from another strategy or RPG game into a lofi project next, which one would it be?

Dmytro: I think it would be fun to get around to doing more Civ VI tracks, there are a bunch that I didn't get too and that would probably be my first choice. Sid Meier's pirates would be a blast to make a lofi version of as well, there are some super underrated compositions in there.

Q. Are there plans to do a lofi for Civ VII sometime in the future?

Dmytro: There are no current plans, but I would like to. I sometimes tinker around on the piano playing Si Vis Pacem and Nation against Nation because of how many times I've heard them. I think those tracks would be cool to make lofi versions of as well as the Mongolia theme. If people from the office want some different new lofi tracks, then maybe a civ vii version will happen.

Q. Where can people listen to and download this album?

Dmytro: I believe it is all streaming platforms! Apple, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Deezer, and of course YouTube Music! Check them all out here.