‘How can a TV show make you feel such emotions?’ The Bluey composer shares the trick to music that ‘hits you in the feels’

As the new Bluey album, Up Here, arrives – complete with chamber orchestra – Joff Bush describes how he ‘seeds’ musical elements to draw out powerful emotions Up Here is the fourth album from the team behind the beloved Australian TV show, and the first to feature a chamber orchestra. It’s something composer Joff Bush didn’t think would fly when they first started making the show. “They would have been like, ‘You want to hire hundreds of people and a chamber orchestra?’” says Bush. “It’s really ambitious, but having that many adults dedicate their craft to make this music as beautiful as it can be, for children? It was just wonderful.” Given the gargantuan success of Bluey music to date, it seems a good idea to just let Bush make whatever he wants. So far, the show’s music releases have reached more than 1bn audio streams globally. The bouncy theme song (you know the one) has been streamed 126m times – and the soundtrack debuted at number one on the Aria album charts – a first for a children’s album. It also won an Aria award, and hit the top spot on the Billboard US kids album charts. The show is astonishingly popular – Australians have watched