In a surprise appearance alongside UK indie band and Disco Elysium composers, Sea Power, voice actor and musician Mikee W. Goodman donned the green jacket and flared trousers of Disco Elysium protagonist Harry Du Bois to belt out a rendition of “The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns.” The melancholy song is the subject of Disco’s memorable and much-loved karaoke sidequest.
An audience video shared by Goodman on TikTok captured the beginning of his guest performance, where he dropped into the guttural register of the Ancient Reptilian Brian—one of many facets of protagonist Du Bois’ fractured psyche that speaks to him throughout the game, and one of eight characters voiced by Goodman in Disco Elysium’s original release.
@mikeegoodman
♬ original sound – Mikee
Goodman would later reprise his role one more time in the show, reciting the Ancient Reptilian Brian’s iconic opening lines to Disco as a spoken word intro to one of Sea Power’s songs.
In addition to videogame work, Goodman has been a longtime member of influential djent metal band SikTh, and has done similar spoken word performances as part of his music in the past.
This time, though, he characterized it as more of a theatrical performance, trying to sell the persona of Harry Du Bois rather than just himself as a performer:
“I just thought to myself man, do you know what? This is my first on stage acting performance, because even though I’m just singing a song, actually it’s theatrical.”
For the Harry Duobis cosplay, Goodman brought a pair of his own discotheque-ready flares to match the ones in the game, a screen-accurate Horrific Necktie (another character voiced by Goodman), and also borrowed an official Atelier ZA/UM green jacket from the studio to look the part.
In Disco itself, “The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns” is a depression/break-up favorite of Harry Du Bois. A side quest to perform it at a karaoke night can result in either a successful performance, where Du Bois sings in Goodman’s Ancient Reptilian Brain voice, or a “failure” where Harry falls into the sickly, scratchy falsetto of the Limbic System—also supplied by Goodman.
“The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns” is actually a cheeky, francophone twist on a pre-existing Sea Power song, “The Smallest Church in Sussex,” which I’ve been told by Sea Power guitarist Martin Noble is a real place you can visit. In addition to fresh compositions for the game, other tracks in Disco are similar riffs on older Sea Power tunes: Compare “Instrument of Surrender’ to the track “Red Rock Riviera” released in 2013.
In addition to SikTh and his work as a voice actor/director, Goodman has a new single, “Hermits Under Blankets” out with his project, The Sad Season. Goodman is also active on Cameo, offering personalized videos as his assorted Disco personas, and he has a Linktree with all of his projects in one place.
