{"id":208917,"date":"2022-07-22T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/?p=208917"},"modified":"2023-08-09T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T14:54:21","slug":"film-composer-showcase-ray-nissen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/film-composer-showcase-ray-nissen\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Composer Showcase: Ray Nissen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;HERO SECTION&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#333333&#8243; use_background_color_gradient=&#8221;on&#8221; background_color_gradient_type=&#8221;elliptical&#8221; background_color_gradient_stops=&#8221;#333333 74%|#34d6b7 99%&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;||7px|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;60px||60px|||&#8221; box_shadow_style=&#8221;preset3&#8243; box_shadow_horizontal=&#8221;-26px&#8221; box_shadow_blur=&#8221;36px&#8221; box_shadow_spread=&#8221;-28px&#8221; box_shadow_color=&#8221;#686868&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row column_structure=&#8221;2_5,3_5&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;Hero&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;2_5&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_image src=&#8221;https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Film-Composer-Ray-Nissen-150&#215;150.jpeg&#8221; alt=&#8221;Film Composer Ray Nissen Headshot&#8221; title_text=&#8221;Film Composer Ray Nissen&#8221; align=&#8221;center&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;IMAGE: Add profile image here&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; animation_style=&#8221;slide&#8221; border_radii=&#8221;on|100px|100px|100px|100px&#8221; border_width_all=&#8221;5px&#8221; border_color_all=&#8221;#FFFFFF&#8221; box_shadow_style=&#8221;preset1&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=&#8221;3_5&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_post_title title=&#8221;off&#8221; author=&#8221;off&#8221; date=&#8221;off&#8221; comments=&#8221;off&#8221; featured_image=&#8221;off&#8221; text_color=&#8221;light&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; meta_font=&#8221;|700|||||||&#8221; meta_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; meta_font_size=&#8221;16px&#8221; animation_style=&#8221;slide&#8221; meta_text_align_tablet=&#8221;left&#8221; meta_text_align_phone=&#8221;center&#8221; meta_text_align_last_edited=&#8221;on|phone&#8221; meta_text_shadow_style=&#8221;preset1&#8243; text_shadow_style=&#8221;preset2&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][\/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;TEXT: Add Composer Name Here&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_text_color=&#8221;#FFFFFF&#8221; header_font=&#8221;|800|||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_text_color=&#8221;#FFFFFF&#8221; header_font_size=&#8221;62px&#8221; header_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; background_layout=&#8221;dark&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;-14px||25px|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;0px|||||&#8221; animation_style=&#8221;slide&#8221; header_text_align_tablet=&#8221;left&#8221; header_text_align_phone=&#8221;center&#8221; header_text_align_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; header_text_shadow_style=&#8221;preset1&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h1>Ray Nissen<\/h1>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_url=&#8221;https:\/\/compozly.com\/RayNissen&#8221; button_text=&#8221;View Profile&#8221; button_alignment=&#8221;left&#8221; button_alignment_tablet=&#8221;left&#8221; button_alignment_phone=&#8221;center&#8221; button_alignment_last_edited=&#8221;on|phone&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;BUTTON: Add link to Compozly profile here&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; custom_button=&#8221;on&#8221; button_text_color=&#8221;#FFFFFF&#8221; button_border_radius=&#8221;23px&#8221; button_font=&#8221;|700|||||||&#8221; button_icon=&#8221;&#x24;||divi||400&#8243; button_icon_color=&#8221;#34D6B7&#8243; background_layout=&#8221;dark&#8221; animation_style=&#8221;slide&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; button_text_size__hover_enabled=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; button_text_color__hover_enabled=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; button_text_color__hover=&#8221;#34D6B7&#8243;][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;SECTION: Q&#038;A 1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row admin_label=&#8221;Q&#038;A (1\/3)&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text content_tablet=&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=%22https:\/\/anchor.fm\/compozly\/embed\/episodes\/EP04-Composer-Interview---Raymond-Nissen-e1l9ia8%22 height=%22150px%22 width=%22100%%22 frameborder=%220%22 scrolling=%22no%22><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8221; content_phone=&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=%22https:\/\/anchor.fm\/compozly\/embed\/episodes\/EP04-Composer-Interview---Raymond-Nissen-e1l9ia8%22 height=%22150px%22 width=%22100%%22 frameborder=%220%22 scrolling=%22no%22><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8221; content_last_edited=&#8221;on|desktop&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;Podcast Episode&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/compozly\/embed\/episodes\/EP04-Composer-Interview---Raymond-Nissen-e1l9ia8\" height=\"150px\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Question 1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;28px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>How did you first get into film composing?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve been a musician for most of my life, playing one instrument or <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">another since the 4th grade. I always liked film music, even from <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when I was a kid. My first memory of film music is the original <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0047034\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Godzilla<\/em><\/a>&#8216;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. and that music just stuck with me. I loved monster <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">movies and horror, and I still do, but I remember that music.To <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">me it was scary and sad at the same time. Such a huge <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">component of the film.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I did not go to school for music and was pretty much self taught <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from my teenage years on. But I started trying to learn as much<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as I could on my own. I got books and dove in to learn everything <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I could about orchestration and arrangement. I would go to the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">open rehearsals of the New York Philharmonic and sit there with <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the score and follow along. Eventually, I started writing my own <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201ccinematic\u201d music at home. I even played a solo show once at a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rock club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-208919 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Film-Composer-Ray-Nissen.jpeg\" alt=\"Film Composer Ray Nissen Headshot\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Film-Composer-Ray-Nissen.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/compozly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Film-Composer-Ray-Nissen-480x480.jpeg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 800px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Question 2&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;15px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>Are there any musicians or film scores that influenced your film composing career?<\/h3>\n<p>There\u2019s definitely composers and certain scores that I love and always come back to. I\u2019m a big fan of the Golden Age composers \u2014 my favorites are probably Bernard Hermann and Elmer Bernstein. \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0056592\/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em><\/a>\u2018 is still my favorite film score of all time. As for contemporary composers, I would say Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gabriel Yared and Abel Korzeniowski.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Question 3&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;16px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>What is your film composing process?<\/h3>\n<p>My composing process generally starts with sitting down at the keyboard and messing about, which is probably true of most composers. Something will hopefully fall out like a chord progression or a line. I usually don\u2019t set out to try to write something in a particular mood. Whatever happens, happens! <\/p>\n<p>With film composing, it\u2019s not about what I want or what I feel. You have to talk to the directors, writers or editors and find out what they are after. That\u2019s the job. What I\u2019ve really tried to do is to make as much impact as I can in a short amount of time. What\u2019s been a big influence on me over the past several years is television music. I think some of the best music is coming out of television now. I love a good opening theme. Creating something impactful in less than two minutes. I love that.<\/p>\n<p>So most of the work that I do now for myself, I try to keep under two minutes. I gotta hook someone\u2019s attention in a short time because people\u2019s attention spans are pretty short. In my mind, I\u2019m trying to keep you from hitting that \u201cskip intro\u201d button on your remote!<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;SECTION: QUOTE 1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#f2f2f2&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;40px||40px|||&#8221; box_shadow_style=&#8221;preset3&#8243; box_shadow_horizontal=&#8221;-26px&#8221; box_shadow_blur=&#8221;36px&#8221; box_shadow_spread=&#8221;-28px&#8221; box_shadow_color=&#8221;#686868&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row admin_label=&#8221;ROW: Quote 1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;RGBA(255,255,255,0)&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;TEXT QUOTE 1: Add quote text here&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||on||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;center&#8221; header_font_size=&#8221;50px&#8221; header_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h1><em>&#8221; I try to make as much impact as I can in a short amount of time.&#8221;<\/em><\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>&#8211; Ray Nissen | Film Composer<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;SECTION: Q&#038;A 2&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; background_color=&#8221;#ffffff&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;||21px|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row admin_label=&#8221;TEXT: Q&#038;A (2\/3)&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Question 4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;10px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>What has been your favorite music collaboration so far?<\/h3>\n<p>The collaborations that have been successful are the ones where filmmakers have a real sense of what they\u2019re trying to achieve with music, even if they don\u2019t know how you\u2019re gonna get there.<\/p>\n<p>Most filmmakers have a pretty complete vision of their project, but sometimes the music can be an afterthought. So, it does really help when a filmmaker has an idea of music\u2019s place in the film.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of film work, I\u2019ve been very fortunate to work on a number of recordings as an arranger, whether strings, brass or orchestral. I\u2019ve got more talented friends than any man has a right to and I\u2019m grateful if they call me to collaborate! And stepping away from the DAW and into the studio with real players is always the best.<\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Question 6&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;18px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>What are your career goals as music composer?<\/h3>\n<p>I was going hard trying to crack into composing about 20 years ago. As any composer will tell you, it\u2019s a tough nut to crack. I was living in New York, and had some friends in the industry who made introductions for me in Los Angeles, but I couldn\u2019t get past the gate. I managed to get some smaller composing projects in New York which was great experience.<\/p>\n<p>The past two years through the pandemic has been the most creatively fertile period of my life. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I think back to 25 years ago when I was really trying to crack in, and I don\u2019t think I was good enough. Do I think I\u2019m good enough now? Yeah, I do. But it\u2019s probably harder now than it was then! But you learn a lot over time and hone your craft and you get better. And you never stop.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m certainly not quitting! I\u2019ll keep composing even if it\u2019s not for film. As any artist would say, you do it because you have to \u2014 you can\u2019t not do it!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Composer Interview: Ray Nissen - The Compozly Podcast\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OrrlicGAJlg?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=&#8221;Resources&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; text_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; text_line_height=&#8221;2em&#8221; header_font=&#8221;||||||||&#8221; header_text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; header_3_line_height=&#8221;1.5em&#8221; custom_margin=&#8221;|||&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;19px||||false|false&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h3>Resources<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/compozly.com\/RayNissen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raymond&#8217;s Compozly Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; admin_label=&#8221;Q&#038;A 3&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;14px|||||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row admin_label=&#8221;TEXT: Q&#038;A (3\/3)&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; background_size=&#8221;initial&#8221; background_position=&#8221;top_left&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;repeat&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.16&#8243; custom_padding=&#8221;|||&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; custom_padding__hover=&#8221;|||&#8221;][et_pb_social_media_follow follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; text_orientation=&#8221;center&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=&#8221;facebook&#8221; url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/compozly&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#3b5998&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; url_new_window=&#8221;on&#8221;]facebook[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=&#8221;instagram&#8221; url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/compozly\/&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#ea2c59&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; url_new_window=&#8221;on&#8221;]instagram[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=&#8221;twitter&#8221; url=&#8221;https:\/\/twitter.com\/compozly\/&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#00aced&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; url_new_window=&#8221;on&#8221;]twitter[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=&#8221;linkedin&#8221; url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/compozly\/&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#007bb6&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; url_new_window=&#8221;on&#8221;]linkedin[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=&#8221;youtube&#8221; url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC_3eFSVrLj5cYWx6K9C5kkg\/featured&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#a82400&#8243; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221; follow_button=&#8221;on&#8221; url_new_window=&#8221;on&#8221;]youtube[\/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][\/et_pb_social_media_follow][et_pb_toggle title=&#8221;Full Audio Transcript&#8221; use_icon_font_size=&#8221;on&#8221; icon_font_size=&#8221;24px&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;TOGGLE: Add Audio Transcripts Here&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#f2f2f2&#8243; border_radii=&#8221;on|10px|10px|10px|10px&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><b>Can you talk to me about how you first got into composing or music?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I&#8217;ve been a musician for most of my life. Now, when I think about it, Since like the fourth grade, when they came around and were like, Hey, who wants to play an instrument?, I started with the drums and, you know, I stayed with the drums until I was like 13, but then there was summer music school and every summer it was a different instrument.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was like, let me try the clarinet. I&#8217;m gonna try the violin. I&#8217;m gonna try piano. And then at 13 I started playing guitar and that kind of changed everything because then that&#8217;s all I wanted to do was play guitar. I started doing that through my teenage years and then got into bands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then probably like 18 or 19 was when I discovered synthesizers. And this was the early eighties. So things were pretty new and exciting at that point. And I really got into that stuff and sequencers. And then I was still in the band and it was like, I&#8217;m gonna play guitar, but I&#8217;m also gonna play keys and we&#8217;re gonna have a sequencer and there&#8217;s gonna be a click track and we&#8217;re gonna have all this stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then my drummer hated me, but it was a lot of fun. And that&#8217;s when I really got into writing more and more. I was never a lyricist. It was always about just writing music and trying to write songs for the band and stuff. The more I did that, the more I wanted to write other stuff. And I always liked film music, even from when I was a kid, my first memory of film music is the original Godzilla and that music just stuck with me as a kid. As a kid, I loved monster movies and horrors, and I still do, but I remember that music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was kind of terrifying, kind of sad, and just how important it was to the movie. And that really was an early huge influence for me. And it stuck with me throughout. So I kind of kept doing the band thing, but on the side I was writing my own stuff, instrumental pieces, you know, that were kind of cinematic, but I wasn&#8217;t really thinking about film music so much, but once I got away from the band life, I really focused on that more and I&#8217;m self taught and I realized I needed to try to educate myself a little better.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wasn&#8217;t going to jump into music school at that point. I didn&#8217;t, but I started trying to learn as much as I could. And I would take CLA if I could audit a course at a college. And I did that at Mania, in Manhattan to learn orchestration. And I took the Scott Smalley class out in Los Angeles, and I got books and read books and dove in and wanted to learn everything I could about orchestration. I would go to the open rehearsals of the New York Philharmonic and sit there with the score and follow along and just looking back now, it&#8217;s like, I wish I just went to music school, but you know, I would&#8217;ve learned all this a little easier, but it was a fun way to, to dive into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And there&#8217;s always more to learn and I&#8217;m still doing. And then eventually I met some people along the way and I got hooked up with one guy who was a friend who was an editor and worked at A&amp;E and he was doing some stuff for different websites and creating web content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They need new music. So I started getting in, doing a bit of music that way. And then a friend of a friend told somebody, Hey, I know a guy who&#8217;s making a short film and needs some music and somebody else did that. So I got a couple of short films that way. And that&#8217;s how I got into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately for me, it&#8217;s not been a steady stream of film projects, which is common, but that&#8217;s how I got into it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Would love to learn more about your background in terms of your primary instrument, synthesizer and guitar?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, I would never call myself a piano player. I&#8217;ve been a keyboard player and, and a bunch of bands and I played bass as well. But I would say the guitar, although most of my composing doesn&#8217;t have any guitar in it. Occasionally I would use it, but it&#8217;s, I&#8217;m more interested in writing for the orchestra and smaller ensembles, that sort of thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do you have any sort of musical influences or film scores that really influenced you in your composing career thus far?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There&#8217;s definitely composers and certain scores that I love and always come back to. I&#8217;m still a big fan of some of the golden age composer<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s. I love Mikl\u00f3s R\u00f3zsa an<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">d Alfred Newman, but my favorites are probably Bernard Hermann and Elmer Bernstein. To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite film score.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I mean, everybody looks at John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry, so I really like them as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>I\u2019d love to understand how you go about writing a particular piece of music, whether it&#8217;s your own music for yourself, for your bands, like you&#8217;ve done previously in your career, as well as learn about how you score for film and in media and what that process looks like?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It generally starts with sitting down at the keyboard and messing about. Something will hopefully fall out, you know, a chord progression, a line or something and I&#8217;ll follow it from there. That&#8217;s if I&#8217;m just writing for myself, I usually don&#8217;t set out to try to write something scary, something happier, something sad, or when it just tends to just come when it comes, it frustrates the hell outta my wife, because when she listens to stuff, she&#8217;s like, where did this come from? What was your inspiration for this? It&#8217;s like, I don&#8217;t know, it was just there. And that&#8217;s how, what comes out, comes out. When I&#8217;ve had to work on film or other media stuff, I really try to talk to directors or anybody involved and find out, What are you looking for? What are you after? What&#8217;s the story about?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if it&#8217;s a five minute short film, like, okay, what&#8217;s it about, what do we want to try to achieve? I&#8217;d always love to be able to do motif writing if I could. And you can&#8217;t always get that across in a short little project, but if I can and hopefully, you know, some directors I&#8217;ve worked with are like, I don&#8217;t know what a clarinet is. You do what you want. And then just. I&#8217;ll tell you if I like it or not. And other people are much more, well, okay here, let me play this for you. I like something like this, which is great, you know, cuz then you know where their head&#8217;s at and you can try to give them what they want.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do you have any examples of a collaboration with a filmmaker or video producer that worked extremely well and why did it work so well you think?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think the ones that have been successful are they don&#8217;t have to be musicians and they don&#8217;t even have to understand what you&#8217;re doing. But when they have a sense of what they&#8217;re trying to achieve, what they&#8217;re hoping the music will achieve, even if they don&#8217;t know how you&#8217;re gonna get there, if it&#8217;s gonna be one instrument or a giant orchestra, a vibe, a mood or something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it certainly helps if they&#8217;ve heard something, and it&#8217;s like, I really like this, I can&#8217;t use this, but something like this, as long as they don&#8217;t want you to copy that entirely. You don&#8217;t do that, but if that&#8217;s the kind of vibe you&#8217;re going for, then that sets you up forever. I literally had a director say to me, I don&#8217;t know what a clarinet is. Cause I was asking them like, well, I&#8217;m thinking about using a clarinet for this part, and she was like, I don&#8217;t know what that is. So that&#8217;s kind of frustrating cuz you would like a little something.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So it does really help when someone has an idea. I&#8217;m happy to give somebody a couple of things to pick from. I don&#8217;t want to give them one thing and then be like, okay, back to the drawing board. I&#8217;d rather give them a few ideas and see if they&#8217;d want cherry pick from a couple, making sure we\u2019re going in the right direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>I<\/b><strong>n your experience so far working with directors and filmmakers, what the percentage is as far as like, this is the vibe I want and here&#8217;s a few reference tracks? Or has conveyed the type of mood or tone that or vibe that they want. And is it for a particular scene or the whole film?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my experience, I&#8217;ve not gotten as much as I would, like I would say it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s definitely the minority, especially if someone will give you an actual clip or a reference piece of music. I would love to get that more. But even just the general sense of what they&#8217;re after, or at least, like I said, what they want the music to achieve. Whether they just want it to sit quietly in the back and maybe not interfere, or if they really wanted to kind of push emotions forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>So given your experience and being a multi-instrumentalist, what makes you in your words sort of stand out or have a unique sound, compared to some of the other musicians, other composers, like what&#8217;s unique about the way that you write music?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think that, especially over the past couple of years, what I&#8217;ve really tried to do is to make as much impact as I can in a short amount of time by impact. I don&#8217;t mean, you know, volume or intensity, but just emotionally with the music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And I will say for the record, I bristle at the word epic, epic music is, is great, but it&#8217;s not. It&#8217;s not what I&#8217;m interested in writing at all. I get it, you know, it&#8217;s cool when it&#8217;s done really well. And there&#8217;s a lot of people who do that really well. That&#8217;s just not, for me. What&#8217;s been a big influence on me over the past several years is television music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And I think some of the best work is coming out of television now. And I love a good opening theme. Creating something impactful in less than two minutes. I love that. So most of the work that I do now, I really try to keep it under two minutes, say what I gotta say and try to hook someone&#8217;s attention in a short time, because people&#8217;s attention spans are short.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So especially when there&#8217;s no visual going on, you know, you just want them to listen to a piece of music. You&#8217;re not gonna sit there for five minutes, you know, or seven minutes or 10 minutes, as much as I might wanna explore something and really go out there right now. I&#8217;m really interested in trying to, in my mind, my fantasy, I&#8217;m trying to keep you from hitting the skip intro button.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Never hit the skip intro button. Let the music play, even though you hear it every time you&#8217;re watching it, let it play. Composition really is just, from the viewer&#8217;s perspective, I think so much we can get in our own heads with the minutiae of creating a piece of music, but it&#8217;s important to kind of put that front and center.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>So do you have any upcoming projects, anything that you&#8217;re excited about sharing?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No film composing projects. What has been happening a lot, really since the pandemic started was that a lot of people decided to make records. Everybody was getting into their home studio and recording.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I got to do some arranging for people which I do really like doing string arranging and brass arranging either for real players or for me to do virtually. So there&#8217;s been a bunch of that and there&#8217;s maybe another record that&#8217;s coming, but I&#8217;m not sure when I also sometimes work in theater doing music for plays, but I think the next one that I&#8217;m doing in that regard is not until next year I just found out about it. So I&#8217;ve done that before. I love doing that. Talk about short music. That&#8217;s even shorter, like 30 seconds, but that&#8217;s a great challenge, you know, trying not to interfere, but just a little something you can get in there. Yeah, that sounds interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What are your career goals? What are your composing goals?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point in your career, to be honest, like maybe 20 years ago, 25 years ago, I really was like going hard at it, trying to crack into composing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s a tough nut to crack, and I was living in New York, so it&#8217;s not like I was totally removed. I had some friends in the industry who made introductions for me, but couldn&#8217;t really get past the gate. I managed to get some stuff in New York, which was good.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That&#8217;s always the goal for any musician, any artist you want to do, what you love professionally. If I can&#8217;t, I&#8217;m gonna do it anyway the past two years or so, like through the pandemic&#8217;s been the most creatively fertile period of my life, like I wrote and wrote and wrote. A ton and it&#8217;s sort of like, okay, what am I gonna do with this?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And I think back to 25 years ago when I was really trying to crack in, I don&#8217;t think I was good enough. Do I think I&#8217;m good enough now? Yeah, I do. You learn a lot, you know, over that time and you just hone your craft to get better and better. So I may have been working harder for it then, but I don&#8217;t think I was ready for it or good enough now I feel like.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I will keep trying to do it professionally, even if it&#8217;s not the only profession I have. I have a day job or a mortgage but I&#8217;m gonna keep writing. Whenever I can, I play a lot of musical theater gigs, so I&#8217;ll play in pit bands and stuff, and I love doing that. It&#8217;s great to play. It really focuses you. It makes you a better reader, cuz I&#8217;m not the best site reader. So having to work from charts is great. But yeah, I&#8217;ll do that as long as I am physically able.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_toggle][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; fullwidth=&#8221;on&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;CTA: Sign Up&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#06A59A&#8221; collapsed=&#8221;on&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=&#8221;Are you a music composer?&#8221; subhead=&#8221;Join the composer community by quickly creating your free Compozly profile&#8221; text_orientation=&#8221;center&#8221; button_one_text=&#8221;Create my account&#8221; button_one_url=&#8221;https:\/\/compozly.com\/register&#8221; title_tablet=&#8221;Join the Compozly Community&#8221; title_phone=&#8221;Join the Compozly Community&#8221; title_last_edited=&#8221;on|phone&#8221; admin_label=&#8221;BUTTON: Create my account&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.3&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; 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color: #000000;\">If you were ever a fan of the Nintendo 64, you most likely spent hours and hours listening to our spotlight composer\u2019s music on loop, whether in Goldeneye or Perfect Dark, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Banjo-Kazooie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banjo Kazooie<\/a> or Banjo Tooie, and even that infamous yellow cartridge, DK64. Grant Kirkhope is someone who defined the sound of my youth, and still today, going on 30 years old, I replay the above classics even if just to hear that iconic music and those Rare (now Playtonic Games) sound effects. In 2016 he scored the very popular Ghostbusters game, while the movie did not fare as well. In 2017, Grant scored the modern 3D platform and spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, Yooka-Laylee, along with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. Starting with a project of converting the music from the SNES Diddy Kong\u2019s Quest to the Gameboy game, Donkey Kong Land 2, then jumping right into the still-classic Goldeneye on N64. Kirkhope\u2019s first credits are among some of his most notable titles! He has had no trouble getting work as a composer for video games, as he rarely (haha, get it?) takes a break. Below are a mix of interview questions he\u2019s received and answered over the years to give you more insight into this musical genius!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Graeme Norgate asked Grant to finish scoring Goldeneye 007, so that Norgate could focus on the music for Blast Corps. In this process, Grant learned how to get the music and sound FX into the N64 hardware. After working on 007 for a bit, his work was noticed by Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles, who re-assigned him to work on Project Dream (also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Banjo-Kazooie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Banjo Kazooie<\/a>) with David Wise. After this he worked on Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, and more popular N64 titles! On July 14th, 2008, Grant, in frustration, resigned from Rare to become a freelance composer, as the company was bought out by Microsoft. This buyout led to much less love and care being put into their titles, as many members of the smaller teams that worked on those games from 1995-2000 had left previous to Kirkhope. He then ended up at Big Huge Games (acquired by 38 Studios) until May 24th, 2012 when the entire staff was laid off. This time off gave Grant the opportunity in June 2012 to play some live festivals with former band mates Little Angels. In August 2012, Grant moved to Los Angeles get deeper into film scoring, and less than a year after that \u00a0in June 2013, he signed with one of the top composer agency\u2019s Gorfaine\/Schwartz Agency. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Here are a handful of interesting questions compiled into one super interview. Enjoy!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: How did you become a video game music composer? Was it more by chance, or was it something you always aspired to do?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Definitely by chance! I'd been playing in lots of different kinds of bands for 10 years or so since leaving the RNCM. The last band I played for broke up and I was left with nothing to do. Robin Beanland was already working at Rare and suggested I might have a go at what he was doing. I was down to my last bit of money and he recommended a synth module, a keyboard, an Atari ST and a copy of Cubase. I started writing some pieces and sent five cassettes to Rare over the course of a year and heard nothing back. Then, out of the blue, I got an interview and they gave me the job!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: <\/b><b>What lessons did you take away from it that helped you on future projects?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I didn't really have time to think as I was moved from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GoldenEye<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before it finished and onto <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Project Dream<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which eventually turned into <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Banjo-Kazooie<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Have you collaborated with other composers on scores or do you work alone?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I do really prefer working alone for the most part, but it's just not possible today, the games are far too big to take it on alone.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What was the first week on the job like?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hehe! Tuff! When I first arrived I was given <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mobygames.com\/game\/donkey-kong-land-2-diddys-kong-quest\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donkey Kong [Land] 2<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/ocremix.org\/system\/gb\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game Boy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to do. I had to convert all of <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/ocremix.org\/composer\/id\/100\/dave-wise\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dave Wise<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">'s tunes from the <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/ocremix.org\/system\/snes\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SNES<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> version. He showed me how to do it but it was all in <\/span><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hexadecimal\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hex<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I hadn't a clue what he was talking about. I thought I was going to have to resign, as there was no way I would be able to do it!<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What is the process of converting the music from the SNES to the Game Boy like?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">It was tricky. In that time, Rare did all their Game Boy games in hex, no MIDI file or anything. I was like \u201chow the hell am I going to do this?\u201d So, Dave Wise came across and showed me how it worked (very quickly) on my first day, and it was really hard. I actually said to Robin \u201cI\u2019m going to have to resign, this is too hard, I can\u2019t actually do it\u201d. However, he said to ask Dave back tomorrow and write down every step that he tells you to do. So, I did this, wrote down every step-in order (like number 1, press Alt 4, number 2, type this, etc) in real parrot fashion and then I kind of understood it then. Heck, I quite enjoyed it in the end, and thought it was quite fun to get the music to work on the Game Boy. So yeah, I liked it in the end, but the start was super scary.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: To get the attention of Rare, you sent in five tapes to the company over the course of a year before you heard back. How close to quitting were you after tape four? Any advice for those who may be facing a similar situation?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Ha! I really had no idea whatsoever about trying to get a job. I'd never tried to do it before, I'd always been playing in bands, etc. Because Robin Beanland worked there and because we'd been in bands together, I didn't really consider trying to get a job anywhere else. He spoke so highly of Rare that I just wanted to be there so badly. I remember I did apply to Eurocom in Derby, but they turned me down flat! I was getting a bit worried by tape 4... hehe. They never replied at all... not even a \"thanks, but no thanks\" letter. I really was down to the last bit of money I'd saved up from touring. I was on unemployment benefit and I applied for work training at a tiny games company called Twilight Games in Harrogate. They took me on for the 6 weeks and actually did offer me a job at the end of it, but I'd literally just got the job offer from Rare.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I think breaking into the industry now is very hard. I guess the best way is to try and get onto some kind of intern job; we have two guys here at BHG who are very good indeed. Just trying to get a job as a composer is the hardest of all. I always tell people to make sure they are good sound designers as well. Despite the fact I'm known for being a composer, I have always done sound design on the games I've worked on. I like having the variety.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: One of the things you like to drill into aspiring composers is that they need to have range, they need to be able to produce pieces in all sorts of styles. You've spoken before on working within the technical limitations of older platforms, but have you had any particular challenges in embracing certain musical styles? How often have you been presented with opportunities that test your range?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I really can manage most styles of music, apart from dance music, I'm pretty terrible at that! I got asked to write in a lot of different styles for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pi\u00f1ata<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> games. It was great fun, getting to write 20 second snippets of music was just enough before I ran out of ideas (as Dave Clynickalways used to say!)... hehe! I think both of those games tested my range. When I was asked for some cool jazz for the Penguin (I think), I got Robin to do it. He did a great job, but I think I managed the rest!<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What were some ways you prepped for the <\/b><b><i>GoldenEye 007<\/i><\/b><b> score? Did you and Graeme Norgate study <\/b><b><i>GoldenEye<\/i><\/b><b>\u2019s film score or other 007 scores to get the style down?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nozzer (Mr. Norgate!) and me did listen to all the Bond theme songs constantly during composing for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GoldenEye<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. He started the game and was doing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blast Corps<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before I got the job, then, when I started, he asked me to take over from him on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GoldenEye<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as he was snowed under. I listened to the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GoldenEye<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> soundtrack quite a lot too, it was fantastic to get to use THE Bond theme. I didn't finish that game, so Nozzer returned to finish it off, as I got dragged off by Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles to start work on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dream<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I did do some sound design on that game, but I think it got replaced in the end.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What is your advice for writers block? What is your experience with it?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I've had it loads of times, but I really can't offer any advice. I've spent days looking out of my office window at Rare and not written a note. It's tough when you're an in-house audio guy. You just have to write and write and write like it's a conveyor belt. That's why I like to do sound design too; it's a nice break from composing and good fun. I think when it gets really bad, I try and listen to some music that I really like and let it get me going again.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What are your thoughts on the evolution of video game music going from 8-bit to full orchestral scores for some modern games?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I think it's a good thing, it has to evolve. I do agree that back then you had to write a good tune as you had very limited resources and the tune was everything. It's easy these days to write lots of big chords and ambiances without actually having much musical knowledge. For me it's all about the harmony and melody, people like John Williams are unbelievable. I mean, how many of his tunes can you sing back right now? Probably all of 'em... Incredible!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: What was the transition of going from playing in bands to working on video game projects like for you personally?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">It was amazing! I think I spent like 11 years of my life from 22 to 33 playing in bands. It\u2019s all I did. I never got a job. I lived with my mother thinking I was just going to be a failure playing in crappy bands forever. By the time I was 33, I was just playing in cover bands in my local area to make a living. So then my friend, Robin Beanland, he played in one of the bands I played in. He was putting together these little demos off of computer music. And he said, \u2018I\u2019m gonna try to get a job.\u2019 I just ignored it thinking it was nonsense. And then one day he announced that he got a job at this company called Rare in the UK. I never heard of them. About a year and a half went by and Robin said, \u2018You know, Grant, you\u2019ve been on unemployment benefit for about 11 years. Don\u2019t you think it\u2019s time to get a job?\u2019 I asked what I could even do, and he responded, \u2018Why not do what I do?\u2019 He recommended some gear for me to buy so as to write some tunes I thought would be appropriate for video games. I sent Rare five cassette tapes over the course of that year. I never got a reply. Then out of the blue, I got a letter asking me to come in for an interview. I sat down with David Wise and the general manager and I got the job. I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">To be working at a company that was so prestigious, it was\u2026 I mean, it made the news in the UK that Nintendo bought half the company. For me, going there was like doing to Disneyland. It was just incredible.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Could you go into more detail about the 2010 transition from Rare to Microsoft? How did that affect you at the time?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">That\u2019s a tough question. I think at the time I was pretty pissed off. Tim and Chris (Stamper) left the company shortly before I left. I kinda felt that the magic had gone at that point. It was such a fantastic experience, and for me to see it not do as well for whatever reason was hugely upsetting to me. I never thought I would ever leave that place. I thought I\u2019d be there forever.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Microsoft bought Rare for a reason. They wanted to get broad appeal content onto the original Xbox. We couldn\u2019t possibly create enough games to completely champion the broad appeal content. We just didn\u2019t have enough staff to do that. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grabbed by the Ghoulies<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came out and there was a massive backlash from all the Nintendo guys who didn\u2019t want to hear from Rare anymore. It just went downhill from there.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">A lot of internal fighting started before Microsoft got interested. It was an undercurrent of unhappiness. I loved everything about Rare, and I couldn\u2019t believe people were speaking badly about it. I think Microsoft bought something that was on the way down and they didn\u2019t know it. Then they compounded the problem.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">On the walls, we had framed pictures of all the games we worked on. There was a huge Nintendo tapestry in the foyer, like 20 feet tall. But then Microsoft took it all down. They took all the pictures off the wall. They took the tapestry down. It was almost like they didn\u2019t want to be associated with what Rare did in the past.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">We were used to being an agile company. You might have a meeting to talk over what to do and just do it. With Microsoft, if you had an idea, then you would have to send it up the chain and wait a week. When you\u2019re dealing with a bunch of hippies, that production line way of doing things doesn\u2019t work.<\/span><\/p><p><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Q: You have stated that video game composers could do a movie score as well as any of the current film composers. Why haven\u2019t you jumped into the film scoring industry yet?<\/span><\/strong><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">No one has asked me! Part of the reason why I moved to Los Angeles was so as to try and get into the movie industry. I am actively doing that. I\u2019ve done quite a lot of short films so far.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Seeing that they\u2019re making a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mario<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> movie, I would love to do that. I kinda feel like I\u2019m the only guy in the Western world who has touched <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mario<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I had just done <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mario + Rabbids<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the past three years. I\u2019ve got all the cinematic sequences for it. If you put them together, it would be a movie.<\/span><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I would love to work on some movies, but at the same time, I do love working on video games. I wouldn\u2019t want to stop that. I\u2019d just like to do a bit of both. That would be great.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Some feel that video game music is underrated from a certain point of view. From your perspective do you think there's an issue with video game music recognition?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Video game music is getting bigger all the time. My son's 14 and an avid game player, but he doesn't really listen to anything apart from game music. His playlists are all game music. At his age you're normally getting into pop music or something like that, but he isn't. He loves Undertale, thankfully some of my stuff too! I think it's definitely changing. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">My generation has a lot of people that haven't really played a game, but once you go down a generation it gets less like that. Everyone you know my son's age or even into their 20s has played a game; it's seeping into culture everywhere. You get these live concert tours all the time, selling out venues all the time. It's a real big thing now; even Classic FM votes in stuff like Banjo-Kazooie! Game music is played on the radio, it's getting everywhere, so I think in some respects video games still do melodic themes very well. I think of movie music and it's not as prevalent as it used to be; I think of movies and the music can be very big and epic but not always memorable or remarkable. So it's exciting but you can't remember a note of it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">In video games you can usually remember the tunes, as you might be in a level a long time and hear it a lot. So you've got to make sure the music's not repetitive and getting on the player's nerves, and make it likeable. It's a hard task. I remember when I first worked at Rare, Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles constantly trooped out the Mario themes and said 'these tunes can play for three hours and you don't get bored of it.' You've got to do that, and it was hammered home day after day, so we had to learn that skill or get fired!<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Video game music is a wealth of diversity, and there's so much of it. People love it, too, it's everywhere. I think people still think it's a bit of an underground thing but I don't think it is. It's permeating everywhere, you hear GameBoy sounds in dance music, for example. It's completely embedded into the culture. I think it's super cool when you hear those references in pop, rap, whatever.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Game music goes from massive orchestras to chiptunes, right from top to bottom. It's all great. My son loves Undertale and that's chiptune stuff and he adores it, and he also loves orchestral parts in Super Mario Galaxy. I feel that video game music has re-introduced people to instrumental music, because people are so used to songs with vocalists. You remove that and you've just got the melody, no hook line to catch onto, so it has to be a good tune. Parents have 10-year-old kids saying they want to see a symphony orchestra, because they're playing game tunes. For me that's fantastic.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Did you work on any other games between GoldenEye and Banjo?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">No, that was it. I just worked on GoldenEye, then one day Tim Stamper (who was the boss of Rare) and Greg Mayles (who was the lead designer) showed up and just said \u201ccould you please play your GoldenEye music\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I was like \u201calright, I\u2019m gonna get fired because they think it\u2019s crap\u201d. So, they sat listening, I played the tunes and then they said \u201cright, you\u2019re gonna come work on Dream with us\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">To which I was like \u201cyeah, that\u2019s fine, just need to finish on GoldenEye\u201d and they were like \u201cno no, you\u2019re finishing GoldenEye right now\u201d.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">So, I moved to the barn where the Dream team was and started working with them.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Speaking of Project Dream, could you dive more into that? Was Banjo originally going to be on the SNES?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Yeah, I never worked on the SNES, just the GameBoy and N64. So originally it was gonna be on the SNES, then just about when I switched to Dream it got switched to the N64. It was going to be a very Zelda like open world 3d exploration game, then I just changed to Banjo.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: How did you approach the sound and music palette for Banjo-Kazooie?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I thought that Banjo-Kazooie were very odd characters, being opposites (like Banjo\u2019s a bit dumb and Kazooie\u2019s a bit snazzy and sarcastic) so I tried to get the music to match that.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I hit on the idea of this tritone thing. It\u2019s the furthest point in a musical scale, so I wondered if I could work it in somehow.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">At the time, I\u2019d been listening to quite a bit of Danny Elfman, and so that kind of gave me the idea for the direction here. I just stumbled upon it really.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">And as it worked well, I just used it through both of the games.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: I love how when you venture into different parts of a level, the music changes in style but stays the same notes-wise. What was the inspiration behind that move?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Yeah, we did the whole channel fade thing. When I first got to Rare, Greg and Tim were very keen for me to play the Lucasarts games (especially Monkey Island) since they loved said games a whole lot. And in the early Secret of Monkey Island games, they had that channel fade thing working like in FM synthesis; not quite MIDI files but just using the FM chip on the sound card. They loved how it worked with the IMUSE system and said they\u2019d love that to work in Banjo. So, when you wander around, the music would change (same tune but a different arrangement based on the area).<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">That meant I had to work out how to make that happen, figured out how it\u2019d sound in my head and then have the coders figure out how to get the software to support it afterwards. Hence all the music for one level would be in one MIDI file, and different channels would play to change the feel of the song in different areas.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Donkey Kong 64 now. What was it like composing music for that game? Obviously, you had a lot to live up to given the great soundtracks in past games.<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Yeah for me I guess I was doing Banjo-Tooie, DK 64 and Perfect Dark at the same time\u2026<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">It was a hectic time that was.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">So, my main thing was to try and keep DK different from Banjo-Tooie. Wanted to make sure it didn\u2019t sound the same.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">And in general, I always thought DK was a darker sounding game. David Wise\u2019s Donkey Kong soundtracks are amazing, but they are quite dark. So, I felt I made DK 64 a bit darker than Banjo, with the toy factory level being quite haunting and the spooky level being quite haunting too. That and Gloomy Galleon.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Q: Could you talk about Perfect Dark? How did it compare to scoring for GoldenEye since it was a spiritual sequel?<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I thought that was different. It was more electronic. The X-Files was very big, and I kept thinking of that and Blade Runner when composing. I mixed orchestra and synth back then, and I tried to make it as good as I could. I really enjoyed working on it really.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Speaking of spiritual sequels, what was your thought process during the composing for Yooka-Laylee, the Banjo Kazooie cousin? You worked with David Wise as well on this correct?<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I think with Yooka-Laylee, the very first track I wrote (the jungle track which they put on Kickstarter), I wanted to make sure that had all the bits from Banjo-Kazooie rolled into one. For the rest of it\u2026 well hopefully I\u2019m a better composer than I was back then, so I tried to keep the best bits from 1 and 2 while adding some new stuff to mix it up.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">David Wise and I have been friends for a very long time, so it was very easy to divide up the music here, and it was obvious which bits would be Dave and which would be me here. Don\u2019t forget Steve Burke did music here too.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">So, we all had a bit of a chat about it, and it was just obvious that since it was in a Banjo style, I should handle the majority of the music. However, for the next games Playtonic do, Dave might do more or Steve might do more, depending on the type of game.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">But yeah, because it was a very Banjo like game, it was very easy to work out the bits I should do and the bits Dave should do there.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><b>Q: Who is your favorite composer? Video games or film.<\/b><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">I guess video game wise that\u2019s a tough one, but movie wise it\u2019s John Williams. He\u2019s a great one. Like, I\u2019ve listened to his three Harry Potter soundtracks over and over. They\u2019re my textbook that I learn from, he\u2019s such an amazing composer.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">Just for fun, here\u2019s a couple video interviews with Grant!<\/span><\/em><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AtaZ5csXxpc&list=WL&index=11&t=0s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AtaZ5csXxpc&list=WL&index=11&t=0s<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KuZadavWE1I&list=WL&index=10&t=0s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KuZadavWE1I&list=WL&index=10&t=0s<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #000000;\">INTERVIEW SOURCES:<\/span><\/em><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/ocremix.org\/info\/Composer_Interview:_Grant_Kirkhope\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/ocremix.org\/info\/Composer_Interview:_Grant_Kirkhope<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/gamingreinvented.com\/interview\/lets-interview-banjo-kazooie-and-mario-rabbids-composer-grant-kirkhope\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/gamingreinvented.com\/interview\/lets-interview-banjo-kazooie-and-mario-rabbids-composer-grant-kirkhope\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/07\/feature_ex-rare_composer_grant_kirkhope_on_breaking_mario_and_following_in_koji_kondos_footsteps\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/07\/feature_ex-rare_composer_grant_kirkhope_on_breaking_mario_and_following_in_koji_kondos_footsteps<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendoenthusiast.com\/2018\/12\/19\/interview-rare-grant-kirkhope\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.nintendoenthusiast.com\/2018\/12\/19\/interview-rare-grant-kirkhope\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[71,70,22,25,67,76],"class_list":["post-208917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-composer-showcase","tag-composer-showcase","tag-compozly","tag-film-composer","tag-film-composing","tag-music-composing","tag-ray-nissen"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - 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