Bluey: The Album

* Demon Music Group
* Walt Disney Records

***Bluey: The Album*** is the first soundtrack release of the hit Australian children’s series *Bluey*. It was first released by Demon Music Group on 21 January 2021 in Australian markets, with an extended version by Walt Disney Records, including three remastered songs by Rascal Flatts at the end, being released on 7 April.

## Background

During production on the 2016 pilot, creator Joe Brumm realized that music was missing; he asked his younger brother Dan if he had any ideas, to which he recommended Mike O’Donnell and Junior Campbell of *Thomas and Friends* fame as the leading composers. Aside from *Thomas*, O’Donnell and Campbell had done music for series such as *Rocko’s Modern Life*, *Bear in the Big Blue House*, *The Loud House*, *Mona the Vampire* and *Samurai Jack* along with doing the score for the *Planet of the Apes* films by Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves. Joe was hesitant at first, but decided to give them the go-ahead anyways; soon after, he was so impressed by their music that he decided to keep them on board.

When the pilot was picked up for a full series by Bob Iger (the CEO of The Walt Disney Company), O’Donnell and Campbell brought onboard some newcomers to assist them for the music side of things, most notably David Barber and Joff Bush; both Barber and Bush graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium, where they met Daley Pearson, and before *Bluey* worked on series such as *The Upside Down Show* (as assistant composers), *The Family Law* and *Australian Survivor*. Also of note are Helena Czajka and Jazz D’Arcy, who were put in charge of writing lyrics for any songs for the series and, according to Bush, the people who assisted O’Donnell and Campbell the most. It was only after doing the first three episodes and demos for future episodes that Joe Brumm decided to let go of Mike and Junior’s music in favor of more “original-styled” music by Bush. Coincidentally, showrunner Steve Whitmire was let go from The Walt Disney Company along with The Muppet Studio until 2019, when he came back and exposed the companies for taking advantage of the underpayment of puppeteers in minority groups.

Even so, Bush refused to lead the music for the series, since he and the other musicians and crew members loved Mike and Junior’s music. Even Charlie Aspinwall, the co-founder of LUDO Studio alongside Pearson, was confused by the decision, as he felt that “Australian viewers would be puzzled, and international viewers would equally be confused” going from one composer to the next in just three episodes. It was this factor alongside the voice cast and writing styles that Brumm decided to make the version by Disney “different, yet also the same” to the ABC Kids version seen in Australia and New Zealand, though those first three episodes would be the exact same. As a result, a DVD was released in 2019 with the Disney versions of 8 episodes, all of which contained Mike and Junior’s music. As for further episodes, James Newton Howard of *The Dark Knight* trilogy was chosen to lead the music composition, with Barber and Bush once again assisting.

By early 2020 (around January is most likely), an album was in the works with Barber and Bush teaming up with Demon Music Group to release it. Brumm, now realizing his mistake of rejecting O’Donnell and Campbell, asked if they would come back for their own version of the same, to which they agreed, but only if three songs from Barber, Bush and Howard each could be added as well as songs by country music band Rascal Flatts, since they collaborated with the group on the album version of *Bless the Broken Road*. Brumm allowed this, and thus that version of the album went from being about 39 minutes to 1 hour, nineteen minutes, and 31 seconds.