Actors tend to wear many hats. While Patricia Summersett is arguably best-known today for portraying Princess Zelda inThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the WildandHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, she also has experience performing on the silver screen, television, stage, and radio, as well as doing motion capture, dubbing, screenwriting, and more. She says this drive to be diverse with one’s interests is common for artists because of what it takes to “cobble together a living.” However, Summersett feels music may be her most pure kind of joy, leading to her indie folk band - also called Summersett - being the most “enduring” project between herself and her creative partner Nick Carpenter.

The band began with songs created using love letters penned between Patricia and Carpenter from the time they were dating years ago. After they broke up, the duo intended to be creative partners forever if possible, according to Patricia, leading to endeavors in various genres from cabaret performances to an ice show in the Arctic. However, she said singing offers the “longest-reaching hand we have,” and songwriting is the “most pleasurable” kind of writing. Game Rant spoke to Patricia about Summersett and how her music career intersects with voice acting in games likeBreath of the Wild.

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When this interview was conducted, Patricia said she was working on new lyrics for a fresh set of songs for Summersett’s second album “Friends At The End Of The House.” Following its first album “Act One,” released in 2015, the second was intended to come out in 2020 beforethe COVID-19 pandemicdelayed things. In that time, the music has evolved, and there are plans for a new music video to be filmed this summer with a director who has prior video game-related credits. The album going to be entirely different as a result of the delay and reworking, she said, though one song she discussed is calledVideo Game Symphony.

“The song is the experience of what it felt like to be immersed in the video game and Comic-Con world while watching a lot of video game symphonies, because I love those and kept getting to see them. It’s kind of a love story gone wrong…the backdrop of having a relationship not go well while having one of the best experiences of your life.”

Patricia’s experiences atevents like Comic-Conwere not the only ones to have an impact on her music. She said there have been “amazing crossovers” with her voice acting, on top of singing helping to develop her range and strengthen her vocal chords. For example, after a motion capture session for Ubisoft’sGhost Reconseries alongside fellow actor Jon Bernthal and professional skateboarder Rodney Mullen, Summersett performed for crew members at a bar. This led another of the game’s actors Howard Bilerman, who is also a Grammy award-nominated sound engineer, to invite the band to record a live music video at his studio Hotel2Tango. This, in turn, led to additional music and acting collaborations.

Ubisoft feels “familial” because of how much Patricia enjoys working with the studio. She said she gets a warm feeling whenever she returns there, and is always “fortunate” for the opportunity. She plays Paula Madera inTom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpointas well asAsh inRainbow Six Siege, which is the role she finds to be the most recognized by fans outside of Princess Zelda. However, while she doesn’t expect there to be much crossover between her voice work and indie band, the overlap is “funny” to see.

Despite Summersett not having a lot of recent music, comments from video game fans appear under its songs. “It’s always really funny to me, because thefanbase forRainbow Sixhas nothing to do with the kind of music we make,” Patricia said, but even under “heartfelt love songs” that are “deep and intellectual,” she still finds comments about Ash having no hitbox.

That can be seen with the most recent upload on her YouTube channel, an April 2020 music video forMore Of The Worldthat is meant to preview Summersett’s “Friends At The End Of The House.” However, there are also plenty of comments praising both Patricia’s singing and voice work, with one comment from user rakim sayingdirector Hideo Kojimawould use the song for the end credits inBreath of the Wild,if he had made the game. Though Patricia says her two worlds have very different communities, there are fans excited to see whatever she produces next.

“It’s a huge passion in my life. Aside from the video game world, I’m excited to release the album.”

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis available now on Nintendo Switch.

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