Exclusive Interview: Composer Jason Graves talks video game soundtracks. Sean Wilson chats to the Tomb Raider and Far Cry composer about what makes a truly great score… Video game music has come on extraordinary leaps and bounds since the early days of 8-bit synths. Orchestral sophistication and symphonic power is now the order of the day, and at the forefront is acclaimed, award-winning artist Jason Graves. We caught up with Jason to discuss his work on the rebooted Tomb Raider series and other hit video game franchises, discussing his musical process and what it means to honour the musical legacy of console gaming. What you and your fellow soundtrack composers do is truly remarkable, adding further layers of emotion to our favourite games and films. How did you get into the industry to begin with? I started working in LA when I was still in school for a degree in Film and Television Music.
Jerry definitely ranks high among my favorites, as well as Bernard Herrmann and John Williams. Let’s talk about the process of composing for a game. Thanks a lot! 1. Interview: Jason Graves. Game audio composer known for 'Dead Space' and 'Tomb Raider' chats to Colby Ramsey about working with Oculus on 'Farlands', his first VR title. Known for creating the soundtracks to a number of top-selling video games, the composer chats to Colby Ramsey about working with Oculus on Farlands, his first VR title. How did the opportunity to work with Oculus first come about? The audio director for Oculus, a guy called Tom Smurdon, was formerly the audio director for another game I worked on about three years ago called Murdered Soul Suspect, and from what I understand defaulted to calling me when he required music for Farlands. Oculus was doing a lot of demos at conventions and I did some music for those first, probably around a year and a half before this game came about, so I’ve also been working with them in a smaller capacity to this extent.
Something I love the most about the games industry is the comradery and relationships that you form with these folk. The Music of Far Cry Primal with Composer Jason Graves. In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection video profile we feature Composer Jason Graves who created an emotionally provocative soundtrack made out of wood, bones, rocks and sweat – this is what a mammoth rushing at you would sound like! Jason’s music will put you in that visceral zone, leaving no choice but to survive and fight! Synopsis Welcome to the Stone Age, a time of extreme danger and limitless adventure, when giant mammoths and sabretooth tigers rule the Earth, and humanity is at the bottom of the food chain. As the last survivor of your hunting group, you will learn to craft a deadly arsenal, fend off fierce predators, and outsmart enemy tribes to conquer the land of Oros and become the apex predator.
You will play as Takkar, a seasoned hunter and the last surviving member of your group. You have one goal: survival in a world where you are the prey. This isn’t the Stone Age you thought you knew. Until Dawn Feature with Composer, Jason Graves & Audio Director, Barney Pratt | The Sound Architect. “When eight friends are trapped on a remote mountain retreat and things quickly turn sinister, they start to suspect they aren’t alone.” Until Dawn is the recent PS4 interactive horror release, that is a very unique twist on the traditional horror tropes that will excite horror fans around the world. We speak to Audio Director, Barney Pratt, and Composer, Jason Graves about the project. Thank you very much to both Barney and Jason for talking to us about the PS4 Exclusive horror title from Supermassive Games, Until Dawn.
We discuss in-depth, the audio for the project and the techniques involved in the process. Until Dawn strikes us as a very unique project, especially with regards to the sound. Barney: From Until Dawn’s inception the design was for an immersive, filmic soundtrack that flowed like a film for the player while seamlessly reacting to their individual choices. Jason: Barney and I definitely had a shared vision for the overall sound, even in the very beginning.
Related. The Art of Noise: Incorporating Aleatoric Techniques in Your Scores. Jason Graves on the art of game and movie soundtracking | Jason Graves. Over the last 20 or so years, Jason Graves has scored soundtracks for some of the games world's biggest names, from Star Wars and Star Trek to the re-booted Tomb Raider and Dead Space. The latter not only boasted sales of more than two million, but also netted Graves a prestigious DICE Award and a brace of BAFTAs, the games equivalent of a couple of Oscars! How many albums shift more than two million copies these days? Or win BAFTAs? "When we first started playing games 20 or 30 years ago, I don't think any of us knew how big this industry was going to get," says the ever-amiable Graves, a US Southerner by birth, and currently based in North Carolina. "That first generation of teenagers is now in its 40s and still buying games; but, each ten years, the audience gets a whole new generation.
Unsurprisingly, 2015 has already shaped up to be a musically busy and high-profile year for Graves, with music for two A-list games, The Order: 1886 and Evolve. "I love it! "Out there, man. "Yeah. SoundWorks Collection Interview Series - Composer Jason Graves. This week we spoke with Academy Award-winning (BAFTA) composer Jason Graves who has brought his passion for music to such game titles as THE ORDER: 1886 , EVOLVE, TOMB RAIDER and DEAD SPACE. We discuss how his diverse musical background as a classically-trained composer, drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and world percussionist allow him to compose many different genres of music. Jason recently finished work on THE ORDER: 1886 (SONY), EVOLVE (2k GAMES) and we talk about how he manages the long production timelines spanning several years and how both these games incorporate his music into the players experience.
Jason Graves is an Academy Award-winning (BAFTA) composer who has brought his passion for music to projects such as THE ORDER: 1886 (SONY), EVOLVE (2k GAMES), TOMB RAIDER (SQUARE ENIX) and DEAD SPACE (EA). He is particularly enthusiastic about illustrating a project’s story and character arcs through the power of music. Episode #224: Evolve with Jason Graves | Top Score. If you’re assembling an orchestra to play Evolve’s soundtrack, you will need the following: pencils, bongos, a pizza box, a pencil can, the tray at the bottom of a bird cage, a roller chair… and a lot of imagination. Evolve posed a challenge for composer Jason Graves. Most games include “reactive music,” or a soundtrack that can adjust, in real time, according to what’s on screen. Evolve, on the other hand, features five players working simultaneously – four cooperative hunters (presumably the good guys) and one monster (see also: bad guy).
The soundtrack needs to seamlessly react to five different stories at once. How did Jason adjust? Stingers. These short pieces of music, between 5 and 30 seconds long, momentarily react to what’s on screen. Evolve’s sound is undeniably digital, but Jason believes in using real-life sources for music. We’re also interviewing Jason about The Order: 1886, which should be coming soon. The Music of Order 1866 by Composer Jason Graves. Official Site of Evolve the Game | Turtle Rock Studios | 2K. Composer Interview: Jason Graves. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Jason. You scored the video game “Murdered: Soul Suspect” from Airtight Games and Square Enix, which has won a number of awards. Talk us through how you combined live string textures and themes with the more experimental percussion to create the overall sound we hear. What were some unique challenges you came across when scoring the game? The game takes place in a parallel world called Dusk and you are a ghost attempting to solve your own murder.
So what would music in this universe sound like? I was interested in exploring the ideas of “ghostly sounds,” which sounds really obvious and cliché when I say it like that, but it’s the truth! So I put my collection of trusty bows to bear on everything I could find in the studio. The percussion was really more just an extension of what I do naturally, being a percussionist who is easily bored and always looking for something new to hit. That’s very kind of you to say! Graves...Jason Graves: The Man Behind The Musical Voice Of Murdered:Soul Suspect - New York NY.
Games have become a major outlet for composers showcasing their immense and at times, severely underappreciated talents. There are many that deserve great attention and then there are others that have really thrived and become the best in this genre. Jason Graves, the BFTA award winning composer is definitely a case of being one of the best. Jason is a multitalented composer who's gifts for melody and memorable thematic work have really brought out the best in what these video games have to offer its die hard players.
Creating a musical world that is both compelling and also thematically fascinating, Jason has really gone beyond the call of duty to make his own personal masterpiece for Square Enix's Murdered: Soul Suspect. Hi Jason, how are you and thank you very much for granting me the time to conduct this interview with you today. JG: Totally my pleasure! Let’s talk about your recent work on the Airtight Games and SQUARE ENIX supernatural mystery thriller, Murdered: Soul Suspect. Interview with Professional Composer, Jason Graves. The Sound Architect speaks with incredible composer Jason Graves. Jason is an Academy Award-winning (BAFTA) composer who has brought his passion for music to franchises such as TOMB RAIDER (SQUARE ENIX) and DEAD SPACE (EA).
He is particularly enthusiastic about illustrating a project’s story and character arcs through the power of music. His sophisticated composition style has made his music synonymous with unique musical textures and cinematic orchestral writing. Jason also composes for film and television, including the upcoming feature films ADRENALINE and UNKNOWN CALLER. His music has been licensed for television shows such as AMERICAN IDOL and THE AMAZING RACE.
In addition to two BAFTA’s, Jason’s music has been honored with three Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Award (AIAS) nominations, winning “Outstanding Achievement in Audio” for DEAD SPACE. How did your journey into composition begin? I was “composing” back in high school. Did you always want to work in games? Rinse. Jason Graves Interview 2013 (Tomb Raider) Deconstructing "Tomb Raider" with Composer Jason Graves. April 19, 2013 Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this audio onto your web page. Audio player code: ST. PAUL, Minn. — There have been several Tomb Raider games since the first came out in 1996, and several composers wrote music for the series. But when developer Crystal Dynamics approached composer Jason Graves for their newest Tomb Raider game, they told him to start from scratch.
So Jason got to write a brand new theme for the series. In the new episode of Top Score, Jason talks about writing protagonist Lara Croft's theme. Much like the way Richard Wagner placed his leimotifs throughout his operas, Jason did so with his Tomb Raider themes. Thematic writing, as it's referred, isn't a new concept in entertainment - not even in video games.
Jason mentions that thematic scores don't often work in the horror genre, like his previous music for the Dead Space trilogy. We also talk about my favorite scene, one in which Lara is climbing a radio tower to send a signal. 'Tomb Raider’s' one-of-a-kind music, born in Raleigh | Music. RALEIGH — It’s an ordinary roll of chicken wire, just like you’d buy at a hardware store (which is, in fact, where it came from). But where most people would see something to enclose chickens, Jason Graves saw a music-making device. Placing it on a metal trashcan lid in his home studio, he took up a bow to demonstrate. “You get a lot of vibration and reverb,” Graves said. “Doing it on the lid gives it a whole other level of resonance. And if you bow this just right –” Graves paused to saw at it a bit. “– you get this,” he continued, raising his voice to be heard over the mesmerizing drone of a metallic screech that sounded like…well, something you’d hear as a sound effect in a movie score.
It’s been a 2-1/2-year odyssey to produce the 210 minutes of music in the game, which reboots the “Lara Croft” franchise that’s been around since the mid-1990s. The game’s visual imagery features jagged, rickety shantytowns constructed by the scavengers. “I’d use different kinds of mallets,” he said. Sound Byte: Meet the Composer Behind Dead Space 2 - Jason Graves. Most of you probably wouldn't have guessed it, but award-winning composer Jason Graves began his musical career as a jazz drummer. As a classically trained percussionist--who is also proficient with the guitar and piano--Jason found his calling when he worked on the video game, King Arthur. Previously known for his work with live orchestras extensively in film and television, Jason says that since then, he has never looked back because he prefers the creative freedom found working in games. Horror games rely heavily on atmosphere, sound design, and music to create a spine-tingling experience for the player. Dead Space did just that, and while some game soundtracks might not do much for your ears outside of their original purpose, the soundtrack to Dead Space and Dead Space 2 is worth listening to on its own.
While the harsh dissonant sounds may not be the most ear pleasing for someone looking to relax, the second album has some thematic elements that draw you into the music. Dead Space. Sound Byte: Meet the Composer Behind Dead Space 2 - Jason Graves. Dead Space 2 Meet the Composers: Jason Graves. Dead Space Composer Jason Graves on Top Score.
May 10, 2011 Copy and paste the HTML below to embed this audio onto your web page. Audio player code: St. Paul, Minn. — Let's just cut to the chase - Dead Space and its sequel, Dead Space 2, are way too scary for me to play. The music doesn't help, and that's what makes it so incredible. It seems that John Williams and Steven Spielberg realized while putting together the film "Jaws" that less is more. Jason Graves also learned that less is more. "I realized that, maybe on a psychological level, I could make the music sound bigger by making it sound smaller beforehand," Graves says. I realized that, maybe on a psychological level, I could make the music sound bigger by making it sound smaller beforehand. - Jason Graves, composer He accomplished the goal by using a string quartet for the bulk of the score.
"[The string quartet] lulls you into a false sense of security and that's what I loved," says Graves. The score for Dead Space 2 is percussive at times, quite effectively. Playlist. Tomb Raider JASON GRAVES Music Composer Official Dev Diary. Dead Space 2: Jason Graves interview. The Music of Dead Space: Interview with Jason Graves (January 2011) The newly released Dead Space 2 portrays protagonist Isaac's horrifying experiences battling the necromorphs and overcoming his dementia on the Sprawl.
Jason Graves returned to score the title, blending introspective avant-garde string quartets with high-octane orchestral tutti. In this interview, Jason Graves discusses the music for the Dead Space franchise in more detail. He reflects his diverse inspirations for the score, whether visual, musical, or personal, and demonstrates how he created the music to be appealing both in context and as a soundtrack release. He also discusses some other developments of his career since we last talked to him in March 2010, including the music for Alpha Protocol and City of Heroes: Going Rogue.
Interview Credits Interview Subject: Jason GravesInterviewer: Chris GreeningEditor: Chris GreeningCoordination: Greg O'Connor-Read Interview Content Chris: Jason Graves, it is a great honor to speak to you once again on the dawn of Dead Space 2's release. Interview With Composer Jason Graves. Interview with composer Jason Graves. Interview with Jason Graves.