Cody Matthew Johnson is a musician, audio producer and composer for games, film and other media.  Most notably, he composed songs for Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5.  He is also the founder and CEO of Emperia Group,  a full-stack audio solutions company specialized in interactive media like video games.

Cody walks through the music composition process of his songs, "Subhuman" (Devil May Cry 5) and "Saudade" (Resident Evil 2), and we definitely get in our feels unpacking the poetic lyrics in those two songs.   We also talk about Cody's desire to drive innovation in the music industry, and his thoughts about the future of AI tools for creating music. 

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Substack: https://gameoflifepod.substack.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophdeng

Email: [email protected]

"Game of Life Podcast" is produced by ⁠Sophia Deng⁠; visuals by Alonzo Felix; music is from Anchor.

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Timestamps

(02:46) Cody's musical journey

(05:22) Songs vs. scores

(09:10) Songwriting process for "Subhuman" on Devil May Cry 5

(17:04) Songwriting process for "Saudade" on Resident Evil 2

(27:35) Composing for video games compared to other media

(32:02) Why Cody started Emperia Group

(36:05) Future of music and music technology

(45:57) 2 final questions

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Cody's recommendations

Nintendo Switch (console)

Overcooked (game) on the Nintendo Switch

Cult of the Lamb OST by River Boy 

A Plague Tale: Requiem OST

Finishing Move Inc. (electronic artist)