Lena Raine
Lena Raine | |
|---|---|
 Raine in 2018 | |
| Born | February 29, 1984 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | B.Mus |
| Alma mater | Cornish College of the Arts |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Years active | 2006 - present |
| Employer | Extremely OK Games |
| Known for | Celeste, Minecraft, Guild Wars 2 |
| Website |
lena |
Lena Raine is an American composer based primarily in Seattle. Also known under the pen names Lena Chappelle and Kuraine, she is best known for her work on various video game soundtracks, especially Celeste, but also Minecraft, Guild Wars 2 and several other titles. Apart from that, she also composes on her own, having released one album independently so far. Lena Raine is trans, and has continuously shown support for the trans community throughout Celeste's development and after since.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Raine was born on February 29, 1984. Raine was exposed to music early on due to participating in a choir at a young age. She had developed an interest in video games early on when she first started playing videogames on an NES; she was notably inspired by The Legend of Zelda, early Mario games, and Kingdom Hearts. Her father was also a violinist and had a music studio in his basement, further driving Raine's interest. Through a Sonic fan community she was introduced to MIDI arrangement, first making MIDI versions of songs she knew and then making original music, the latter allowing her to be admitted to the Cornish College of the Arts for a degree in music composition. At first struggling to land a job, she eventually was hired by ArenaNet, in quality assurance, and then moved on to compose for Guild Wars 2 there; she stayed there for six years, during which she wrote a few songs published on Bandcamp, and penned a book, City of Tigers (Under the Sunstone).
After quitting her job and releasing Singularity under the moniker "Kuraine," she was noticed by Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry. Maddy direct-messaged her on X (formerly known as Twitter), asking whether she was on board to compose for "a game that was six months in development"; she accepted. During the eighteen subsequent months, she moved to Montreal to work for Ubisoft (for their game Far Cry 5), moved back to Seattle after, and juggled Celeste's soundtrack in between as it was being composed.
Following Celeste's success, Lena Raine is now much more well known as a composer and has been invited to write for Minecraft
and many other games. She has also worked on Farewell, Celeste Classic 2: Lani's Trek, and Earthblade, another in-development game at Extremely OK Games.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Lena Raine's position at EXOK Games is "Melody Mage".
- Lena Raine has played Celeste quite extensively prior to its release, taking an active role in its development (aside from composing the Celeste OST).[1]
- She hates J.K. Rowling, primarily because of her transphobia.[2]
- She is lactose intolerant; this was revealed in a Reddit AMA.[3]
- Lena Raine has only celebrated 10 birthdays so far because she was born on February 29.
- ↑ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/lena-raine-celeste-oneknowing
- ↑ @kuraine (June 11, 2020). "btw absolutely fuck jk & any transphobic manifesto. I really don't want to see any more money or reverence go towards someone so dangerously wielding her status against trans women" (Tweet) – via X (Twitter).
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/7tuubc/hey_were_the_dev_team_behind_celeste_ask_us/dtfg6k7/