Poe’s history with Alan Wake goes far beyond the games'

Eric Van Allen for Destructoid:

Before Alan Wake was released in May 2010, there was a book called House of Leaves, written by Mark Z. Danielewski, and published in March 2000.

The book follows several characters through a meta-textual journey: a tattoo apprentice named Johnny Truant discovers a manuscript from the strange author Zampanò. It follows a documentary about Will Navidson, a photojournalist who discovers his house is larger on the inside than the outside. The story twists and turns as you read through both the document itself and several different layers of footnotes, as the text and book itself feel like they start to warp too.

Alongside House of Leaves, there is Haunted by Poe. The musician happens to be Danielewski’s sister, and Haunted can be easily seen as a counterpart and companion work to House of Leaves, including tracks like “Exploration B,” “5&½ Minute Hallway,” “Dear Johnny,” and “House of Leaves” – all references to the novel.

Long story short (but you should definitely read the story), Remedy Creative Director Sam Lake was clearly a huge fan of House of Leaves and, by association, Poe’s music. So much so that her song Haunted was used in the first game.

Lake and the team at Remedy approached Poe during work on the Alan Wake Remaster about doing a new song for Alan Wake 2, which was also in production, and the rest is history.

This Road, an original song by Poe, appears in the game at the conclusion of chapter 9. What a great thread to tie all of this together. Like I needed another reason to love these games.