Composer Code

Steven Melin is no stranger to the podcast. He’s a good friend and a great composer, and he’s been quite busy for the past several months… writing a book!

In this episode, we chat about the “why” behind Steven’s new book, Family-First Composer.

He shares some practical tips for building a career in media composition without sacrificing the most important things in life like health, faith, and family.

If you’re interested in reading the book, you can check it out on Amazon.

Thanks for listening!

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In other news, Composer Code now has a Patreon!! If you’d like to help support the show or just learn about my goals for the future, check out my Patreon here.

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Cajsa Larsson is a composer based in Karlshamn, Sweden that’s got a refreshingly unique approach to scoring games.

Sometimes, it can feel like all of my peers in game audio are in one of two camps concerning their musical background or training: jazz or classical.

It’s also a pleasure to meet someone who is influenced by a lot of the same non-video game music as me, and it was cool to see how those influences make their way into Cajsa’s music.

We talk about Cajsa’s unique approach to starting a song, how she founded a game company with friends from her university (Forgotten Key), and how she uses a very cool sound-stretching plugin to create banjo soundscapes.

Thanks for listening!

Listen to Cajsa’s music and see her credits on her website.

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In other news, Composer Code now has a Patreon!! If you’d like to help support the show or just learn about my goals for the future, check out my Patreon here.

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Grant Kirkhope is a man who needs no introduction. He’s the talented composer behind some of the most beloved classics on the N64 like Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, Goldeneye 007, and Perfect Dark.

He’s also composed for several modern games including Kingdom of Amalur, Yooka-Laylee, and Viva Pinata.

We talked about his work at Rare, the pros, and cons of working as a freelancer vs. full-time, and some practical tips for crafting melodies.

In this post, I’ll explore eight of the most notable things he taught me when I interviewed him for the podcast. I highly recommend listening to the entire episode, which you can do on this page or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Grant currently lives L.A., which has a reputation for being a bit of a magnet for vain, egotistical artists seeking to climb the ladder of fame and fortune. While there certainly are some jerks out there, he said that the humblest creatives are often the most talented, and the most obnoxious ones aren’t all that great.

There’s something to be said for staying humble and letting your work (and your credits list) speak for you. It may seem counterintuitive, but Grant credits that mindset to a lot of his relational success in the highly competitive composer landscape.

Growing up, Grant was a classically-trained trumpet player. It wasn’t until later in his teenage and young adult years that he got immersed in the world of ’80s metal. He picked up a guitar, grew his hair out long, and started learning the solo from Queen’s Killer Queen.

While the two genres (classical and metal) seem diametrically opposed, Grant said, “having the classical thing over here where I’d be playing in symphony orchestras and the metal thing over here really sculpted the way I write.”

I often hear composers asking how to find “their own voice” when it comes to composition. I think that Grant (and other great composers) accomplished it by simply listening across the entire spectrum of music and synthesizing those influences in their own work.

Most video game music doesn’t include lyrics, but that doesn’t mean it can’t tell a story. Composers just have to try a little harder and think a bit more outside the box.

When Grant was writing the Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack, he started out just writing what he referred to as “jolly platformer tracks.” It wasn’t until later in the game that he wanted to explore some dark harmony. But how do you explore dark harmony in a kids’ game? Grant discovered that when he kept the melody and rhythm “bouncy,” he could get away with throwing in some off-the-wall chords (an idea he admittedly nicked from Beetlejuice and Danny Elfman).

Grant wanted to somehow communicate the contrasting personalities of the two main characters. Banjo was a dull, carefree bear, while Kazooie was a wise-cracking, shrewd bird. Their personalities couldn’t be further apart.

Then it hit him: use a tritone.

For those who don’t know, a tritone is an interval that divides an octave perfectly in half. In other words, in a given key, a tritone represents the two notes that are the farthest apart from each other. For example, C and F# (which are the very pitches he used). You can hear this most prominently in the “call and response” portion of the game’s main title music.

As Grant continued to explore interesting harmony in Banjo-Kazooie (and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie), he started “composing himself into a corner.” He’d see how far off the beaten path he could get harmonically, and then challenge himself to find his way back to the home key.

Side note: if you’re interested in learning about how to modulate like this, I have a few lessons discussing the circle of fifths and ii – V – I modulations in my course, Making Game Music: The Fundamentals of Composition. Definitely check it out if you’re interested. 🙂

In the same vein of harmonic exploration, Grant discovered that when you have a reasonably singable melody, you put almost whatever you want underneath it harmony-wise and it will still work.

The melody is what most players “remember,” while the harmony is what most players “feel.” When you have a solid melody, you have more leeway to play with oddball harmony without distracting the player.

When Grant was preparing to write an orchestral score, he listened to the Harry Potter soundtrack every day on his commute, back and forth. The continual immersion in John Williams’ scores began to change his subconscious and give him ideas he never would’ve otherwise had.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it many times again: we are all products of our influences. When we immerse ourselves in the reference tracks or source material of what we’re writing, it fills up our creative reservoir. That way, when we finally do sit down at the piano or DAW to write, we’re bursting at the seams with ideas.

There are certain instruments that, for better or worse, evoke particular moods, environments, or scenarios.

Grant says that in all his years writing music for games, these ensembles reflexively come to mind for specific use-cases.

For example, when someone mentions an ice level, Grant immediately starts thinking in terms of celestes, glockenspiels, pizzicato strings, and other “sharp-sounding” instruments.

Another example might be how Koji Kondo uses the harp in his Fairy Fountain themes, leveraging its common association with angelic beings.

“Back in the ’90s, we didn’t have CD quality,” Grant told me. “All the guys I worked with could just write a great tune. Because that’s what you had to do, you had to write a great tune.”

There’s no doubt that the limitations of the N64 leave some soundtracks from that era sounding “quaint” by today’s standards. Oftentimes, what shines above any fancy production, plugin, or synth engine is just the ability to write a great piece of music.

That’s what makes Grant Kirkhope’s compositions some of the most well-loved and nostalgic pieces from the ’90s “golden era” of gaming.

This philosophy of starting with a great melody, harmony, and arrangement is what my course Making Game Music: The Fundamentals of Composition is all about.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can register and watch a few lessons for free.

I hope this small vignette of Grant’s wisdom is beneficial to all of us. He was such a joy to speak with, and I’m looking forward to when our paths cross again.

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Matthew Carl Earl is the talented composer for Hexany Audio, a one-stop video game audio shop in Los Angeles, California.

Matthew has worked on several AAA titles, including Kingdom Craft and Moonlight Blade (the largest MMORPG in China).

Check out this video where he and audio director Richard Ludlow talk about their experience writing for the game.

We talk about his work with Hexany and some of the benefits of full-time employment vs. freelancing, but also talk about some really organic, practical ways to build relationships and ultimately get paying work as a composer.

My favorite quote from our conversation:

“No one [would] hire me, but I never really understood why. Looking back, I realize you need to have the appearance of a professional working composer before anyone will hire you. It needs to be very easy for people to just click play and say ‘wow, this sounds awesome.’ You need to give off the aura that you’re a working, successful composer in order to become a working, successful composer.”

Some other great takeaways are:

In other news, Composer Code now has a Patreon!! If you’d like to help support the show or just learn about my goals for the future, check out my Patreon here.

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to give me a rating in iTunes, if you would be so kind. It helps a lot with visibility.

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Chase Bethea is a video game and film composer with a unique blend of styles and an intriguing creative philosophy.

We talked about how he got into video game music, how he practices “connecting” with his instrument, and he shared some incredible techniques for beating writer’s block. Seriously, every creative person needs to hear this.

He was also heavily influenced by a very obscure soundtrack on the Gameboy.

Here are the resources and links mentioned in our conversation:

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Happy new year! To kick off 2019’s schedule, I had the privilege of sitting down with orchestrator, composer, and all-around nice guy Tony Manfredonia.

We talked about his origin story, the indelible impact of games like Majora’s Mask, and how he approaches orchestrating a piano sketch (as well as a great resource for orchestration).

He walked me through his composition process, starting with good ol’ music notation (not the piano roll!).

We chatted about his current projects, and how he’s fused 8- and 16-bit sounds with the contrapuntal style of J.S. Bach.

Here are the resources and links mentioned in our conversation:

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to give me a rating in iTunes, if you would be so kind. It helps a lot with visibility. Or don’t! It’s your life.

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Welp, it’s been a minute since we’ve been on the airwaves (a busy season of life has befallen the Kenyon household), but I’m delighted to be back on with my good buddy 8-bit Music Theory.

This episode is a little special, as we actually analyze a few video game pieces in real time (download the transcriptions below to follow along) and talk more about the value of transcription.

If you want to see the master at his craft, come child, and sit at the feet of Mr. Bit.

Here are the resources mentioned in the video (including transcriptions of the songs we analyzed):

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to give me a rating in iTunes, if you would be so kind. It helps a lot with visibility. Or don’t! It’s your life.

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In this episode of Composer Code, I chat with composer and sound designer Emmanuel Lagumbay. Emmanuel is out there fighting the good fight; networking like crazy, working with game devs to fulfill their visions, and helping other composers.

We run in a lot of the same circles online, and I figured it was high time to have him on the show. Boy, did he bring the value.

I’m obsessed with his metaphor of the composer as a farmer. We plant seeds, we water, we prune, and we wait. That’s the only way to success in this saturated, highly-relational business.

We talk through Emmanuel’s composing process, his personal experience networking with game developers, and he shares some practical tips for building your career as a video game music composer. If you’re an up-and-coming composer, or want to hear firsthand what it’s like in the trenches as a working producer, you don’t want to miss this chat.

If you’d like to learn more about Emmanuel’s music or his work in sound design:

Check out LagumbayMusic.com

Drop him a line at [email protected]

Thanks for listening! Don’t forget to give me a rating in iTunes, if you would be so kind. It helps a lot with visibility. Or don’t! It’s your life.

Enter your email below to get future content delivered fresh to your inbox as soon as I release it.