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Game Music Spotlight: God of War/Mass Effect 3 Composer Cris Velasco
Cris Velasco is a rapidly rising star in the world of video game scores, having composed music for blockbusters like Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, and the God of War series. We spoke to Velasco about his background, approach to creating game scores, and the future of the art form.
You have a degree in music composition at UCLA? Did you always study music as a kid? Were you originally a performer or did you always focus on composition?
No, music came rather late to me. I started playing guitar at around 17. I actually played in a death metal band in local clubs for a few years. I remember refusing to learn to read music for the first couple of years too! I was still playing in the band as I started out at the local community college. I never even considered music as a career initially. I just took classes in lots of different subjects, looking for something that was going to click. I happened to take a music appreciation course one semester though. Our instructor played Mozart's 40th Symphony during one class and I had an epiphany. I just knew that I should be composing. It was a crazy notion because I had no previous experience that would ever lead me to believe that I could actually do it! Nevertheless, I took all music courses the following semester – theory, ear training, piano lessons, private lessons from the music teachers, etc. I put together a score, clicked in one note at a time via a mouse into Finale, and sent it off to the music schools at UCLA and CalArts as my audition. I actually got into both schools but decided that UCLA was going to be a better fit for me.
A lot of people doing game soundtracks today came into it from other fields of music, be it film score, rock music, or electronic music production, what does your educational background allow you to bring to game scores?
My background as a classically trained composer really just gives me a nice foundation in orchestral composition. I’ve studied tons of scores from composers better than I to really figure out what works well together in an orchestral palette. It’s nice not to have to reinvent the wheel in this sense because I'm really just building on the backs of giants a lot of the time. My background as a lifelong gamer also helps out tremendously. I know what I'd like to hear in a game and what will annoy me. I think it's very important to love what you're working on.
Who were some of your musical influences coming up? Do you primarily listen to classical or do you have popular music influences as well?
I do listen primarily to classical music, unless I'm getting ready to play sports and then I revert back to my metal roots. For classical, I'm really into the Russian composers these days. Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Glière, and Stravinsky are some of my current favorites. For metal, I still like Slipknot and Five Finger Death Punch a lot. Occasionally, you can even catch me listening to Norah Jones, Carla Bruni, or Hot Club of San Francisco when I cook.
How did you come to be involved with video game soundtracks? Was that always a goal of yours?
I did decide fairly early on that I wanted to pursue video games as my career. While I was still in college, I started searching the mod communities online. I found a few very talented groups that were creating games based on the original Half-Life engine. The one I was most impressed with was called Gunman Chronicles. I chose wisely on this one too. The game was eventually picked up by Valve and released in stores! You can still find it on the shelves occasionally. I was hoping that this would be the thing that launched my career as a composer for games. Unfortunately, the team sort of went their separate ways and I was forced to find a new way in.
I then struggled for many years, using the time to get better and faster at writing music, until I finally got a call to demo for the Battlestar Galactica game. They eventually agreed to let me write one track for the game. I put everything I had into that track. It was well received and they gave me a couple more to do, and then more after that. I struck up a good relationship with the developer during this time and they brought me in on their next three titles too. I continued to make friends within the industry and was soon given the chance to demo for God of War. After my involvement on this one, the doors really opened for me.
When you sign on to a new game project, how do you begin the process? Do you sit down with the developer and learn what kind of direction they want?
Yes, there's always an initial “sit down” with the developer to trade ideas back and forth. Sometimes they already have a strong vision of how the music should be, other times they're more interested in hearing what my ideas are. All the available material is sent to me at this point too. Scripts, storyboards, concept art, screen shots, or even gameplay videos if they're far enough into the development. The more I can inundate myself with images from the game, the better I will understand it, and that will help ensure the score complements everything just right.
How much are the developers involved? Does that vary from project to project?
It definitely varies between projects. Some people are just naturally more hands-on than others I think. I had one project where someone actually came to my studio and sat beside me while I worked. After every note I played on the piano, I'd glance out of the corner of my eye to see if he was smiling or frowning. That was completely on the far right of “hands-on” though. Usually, I'm allowed to just do my thing, turning in MIDI mock-ups of each cue as I finish them to see if there's any additional feedback.
Do you work primarily with orchestras or electronic instruments, or both?
It's about 50/50 these days. And it may not always be full orchestras when I record live either. My latest title, ZombiU, just had a string quintet that was recorded live. This was intentional though. I wanted the intimacy and the rawness that would come with such a small ensemble. A big orchestra would have sounded too polished for the real scary sound I was going for.
For Borderlands 2, I used a wide variety of acoustic and electric guitars, banjos, mandolin, harmonica, and oud. I recorded a bunch of weird percussion instruments too. An empty wine bottle came into play a few times.
Sometimes there's just no budget at all to record live. This is when I'll have to turn in a mostly MIDI score. I spend a lot of time tweaking the sounds to get the most realistic performance possible. But even on a score like this, I'll still try to add some live elements into the mix to help raise the overall sound quality. It's amazing how adding a solo string or strummed guitar can make a whole track feel live.
I know you work with Sascha Dikiciyan (a.k.a. Sonic Mayhem). How and why did that come about?
We started working together about 8 years ago. Sascha was looking for an orchestral composer to collaborate with on a new demo for an upcoming game. I had recently finished God of War and was looking for a new project. I just happened to be looking at a message board on a composers forum that I almost never looked at and saw his post. I emailed him (so did 80 other composers) and we found out that not only were our studios within 10 miles of each other, but we also had the same agent! So we teamed up for the demo and then continued to work together because it seemed like the smart thing to do. That hybrid style of writing music was just starting to get big and we felt that with each of us concentrating on what we did best, we could put out a superior product. As Sascha likes to say, "We complete each other.”
How does the process work with you and Sonic Mayhem in terms of collaborating on music?
It varies from project to project, but basically we each work on every track. One of us will start on a piece, leaving room for the other, and then hand it over for completion. We're each working on a different track simultaneously so there's rarely any downtime for either of us. Collaborating like this is also good because it allows for a fresh set of ears to listen objectively to each piece. Sometimes it's very easy to get too close to a track you're working on. You can lose sight of the big picture and not be able to successfully critique your own work. It's always good to get a second set of ears to listen to something before it goes off to the client. This is an oversimplification of how we work together, but hopefully gives you the general idea.
What are some of your game soundtracks that you are most proud of?
Two of my favorites have to be Prototype and Warhammer: Space Marine. To me, those scores just feel ingrained into their respective games. I'm also quite fond of God of War 3, Mass Effect 3, and Clive Barker's Jericho.
Did you ever do a soundtrack that you thought was great for a game that sold poorly? What's one project of yours you wish would have been heard by more people?
There are two games that come to mind. Beowulf and G.I. Joe. Neither of these games wound up doing very well. The unfortunate truth is that if a game gets bad reviews, no one will give the music a second thought. Both of these games had scores that were recorded live at Skywalker Sound. I'm still proud of them but there's nowhere to actually hear them outside the game. However, there are a few tracks from both scores on my website www.monarchaudio.com and I encourage people to visit and have a listen!
You've worked on the God of War games. They obviously demand very epic music, how has it been working on those projects?
The God of War games were dream projects for me. I initially got into composing music for games because I wanted the opportunity to write unabashedly epic music. God of War 1, 2, and 3 gave me that chance in spades! I always had so much fun on those. The best thing about it was that you could never get too epic. Ever.
What's some of your favorite pieces you've done in games?
Space Marine - A Hero's Legacy
God of War 3 - Brothers of Blood
Clive Barker's Jericho - Firstborn Theme
How do you see game music evolving in the future? There's always talk about how music will be more reactive and procedural to what's going on in the game...
I'm just not completely convinced that more reactive and procedural is the way to go. I've worked on titles where there was so much attention being paid to making the audio engine so overly complicated that in the end, it barely worked. I think that there are lots of ways to make the music feel more reactive without changing too much. Games aren't movies or television. The music doesn't have to create the illusion of a linear experience. This is a whole other topic though! I am very happy to see that game music is raising its own bar every year. It's definitely on its way to becoming a “legitimate” art. In fact, I firmly believe it is already. With game music concerts being performed all over the world, there is clearly a huge appreciation for it. I myself have had my music performed in concerts on five different continents! This is an amazing time to be writing music for games and I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of it.
What are the current projects you are working on?
This has been a pretty busy year so far. Sascha and I did Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan, and Borderlands 2 together. I also just wrapped up ZombiU and a couple of other titles I can't talk about yet. I did record a huge orchestra and choir for one though so I can't wait to share it! The only game I can talk about is Mass Effect 3: Omega. Sascha and I wrote the new score for the recent DLC.
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