WildStar Wednesday: Creating the Music
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A very cool thing about the future-fantasy setting of our game is the musical opportunity to really play with tonality and colors. This is the first score where I actually have a great excuse and functional reason to use the Phrygian modal scale (You can click this link to learn more about the Phrygian mode, in case your music history classes started with The Beatles) and I get to use interesting spacey chords like a minor chord with a major 7th; I play around by putting automated bit-crushing effects on huge drums, custom whacky delays on guitar tracks, running violins through an electric guitar stack, and using a violin bow on acoustic and electric guitars. Again, because of the nature of our game, this approach really helps to bring out the experience everyone at Carbine has worked so hard to create. And best part of all, it is super fun to write and produce this kind of crazy space-adventure music.
The acoustic guitar is the heartbeat of the score. Using nylon string and steel string guitars, finger-picked, flat-picked - even bowed with a cello bow - the guitars bring out a pioneering spirit; a feeling that this world is vastly unknown to you and that there's a whole new landscape to explore. At times, there's even a dusty, outlaw feeling. Some zone music really features the guitar, and some zone music is more lush and orchestral with just a sprinkle of guitar work.
I'll never forget the first time I heard "Journey to Transylvania" by Alan Silvestri on the Van Helsing soundtrack. There is an acoustic guitar in there that just starts to drive and really take over the cue, sort of unexpectedly - and I remember thinking "This is awesome!" and realizing how versatile an acoustic guitar can be. The guitars (including banjo and mandolin) really give WildStar its roots. Then, by adding electronica elements to the score, we start to bring in a sci-fi, outer space element.
