Hello Archfiends!
We have delightful news! Our Soundtrack OST is finally available on Steam! Composed by Michael Allen, the soundtrack is a compilation of the incredible, ambient music that echoes through Hell whilst you play Solium Infernum. This Soundtrack also includes the single "Eternal Nights" from Sarah Wolfe, written by Michael Allen, Xavier Dunn, and Sarah Wolfe!
You can buy the Soundtrack OST HERE!
You can also stream the Solium Infernum Soundtrack on all major audio platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify via our linktree.
To celebrate releasing the Soundtrack, we've conducted an interview with the esteemed and very-talented composer, Michael Allen. He has worked closely with League of Geeks over the years and is the mastermind behind Solium Infernum's composition (you might also recognise his work from Jumplight Odyssey)!
Anyway... Enough from us! Enjoy!
What has been your musical journey so far and how did it lead you into the world of video game soundtracks?
We had a piano at home when I grew up, so I started by goofing around on that. My Dad tried to teach me theory, I was a terrible student but loved playing. I had a few songbooks and learned chords by playing through them and it was around that time that I started writing my own music. Everything changed when I was 19 and a friend put a bass guitar in my hand. I fell in love and within six months joined a band. That band eventually became Things of Stone and Wood and we signed a record contract with Sony Records. We made Albums, had some hits and toured around the world. After several years of riding that crazy roller coaster I recorded a few solo albums, but I became very keen on composing music for films.
It took a few years to break into that industry, but I was lucky enough to land some feature films and a few TV series, which I loved doing, but I began looking longingly at games. I love the artwork and environments of games and thought writing music for them would be great fun, so I sent off some emails to a few companies and got asked by Torus Games to work on a game they were doing for DreamWorks. That went extremely well and has led to me working on dozens of games. I still get the odd film and TV gig but most of the time now I’m working on games.
When you come on board for a project like Solium Infernum, what are some of the first things you do when you start the process of composing?
The first thing I do is immerse myself in the world I’m writing for. I gather together the reference material the developer gives me to get a picture of their vision. I look at artwork, I find the artwork very inspiring, I listen to music that kind of fits the brief, I watch movies or games with a similar vibe. I fill my head with that world I’m trying to create and let it ruminate for a while. It doesn’t usually take very long for me to start getting ideas for the music. Depending on the deadline, I then spend several weeks recording ideas, experimenting with sounds, instruments, musical styles and themes. I usually record about 20 minutes of ideas and then send them off to the developer for feedback, see what touches a nerve. I adore that phase of the composing process because it’s a creative exploration, ideas are allowed to flow and I love it.
What were some of the references/tracks that inspired you the most when creating the SI soundtrack?
Wendy Carlos who was a pioneer of the Moog Synthesizer and composer of The Shining and Clockwork Orange was a big part of the brief I got from League of Geeks so I listened to some of her work. The music of Bach and Mozart’s Requiem played a big part. We wanted the music to feel religious and dark and I wanted the score to feel like it was cultured so leaning into the classical world felt right.
Talk us through the software you use and the recording/creating process you have?
Well I record on Cubase because when I was starting out Cubase was one of the best programs for using midi, which I heavily rely on. For Solium Infernum I used Arturia Mini Moog, 8Dio Requiem Choir, timpani and some drums and the first chair violin, viola and cello from LA Scoring Strings. I also did some singing myself using a plugin to detune my voice, so I sounded a little demonic. There are also a few moments when I’m reciting the John Milton poem Paradise Lost in Latin as atmosphere in the background. I’m pretty sure a lot of pronunciation crimes were committed. My creative process can vary. Sometimes I write the music in my head and just need to go to the computer to put it down and record it. Other times I sit at the keyboard or guitar and write that way. The advantage of the former process is you are playing the instrument, like it’s an instrument, which is good when using samples like solo violin because they tend to sound more realistic that way. When I have the music written in my head it can sometimes be a struggle to get the sample libraries to bend to my will. Either way, it’s one instrument at a time and I become so engrossed in what I’m doing that hours can go by without me realising it.
How does crafting music for a video game differ from a regular composition?
I suppose it depends on what you mean by a regular composition. Game music is often modular so you sometimes need to consider the possibility that it needs to loop or will eventually need to work with musical stings that appear over the top. Because of this you do need to be wary of changing keys and modulating too much. I do relish it when I’m not constrained like that. For example, menu music or an environment without any restrictions. If I’m just composing regular music for the fun of it or writing a song, then it will probably reflect how I’m feeling. Girl leaves boy, boy writes sad song. In game composing I may have to write victory music the day after girl leaves boy. That’s much harder. Or I may need to write in a style totally foreign to me like some Dark Noir Jazz music or Japanese City Pop. When you’re writing to a brief you need to be a musical chameleon and it doesn’t necessarily reflect how you feel at the time.
Which track is your personal fave and why?
My personal favourite is Psalmus Solii Inferni IV. Paradise Lost. I sat at the keyboard with the intent of writing something that captured the heartfelt anguish of the fallen angel. I was still in the initial phase of the project and putting together ideas. My memory is that it came out very easily and quickly. I started with writing a chord sequence on the Moog Synth that felt right then added a solo violin, just one or two takes I think, then solo viola and finally cello. I sat back and listened, and I loved it. I decided to not finesse it at all, despite its imperfections. I didn’t want to mess with it. In this case I thought there was beauty in the imperfections. It was called Idea 15 and I immediately packed it up with the other ideas I’d written and sent them to Ty at League of Geeks to see what he thought. I needed to know if I was allowed to get excited about it. Fortunately for me he felt the same way about Idea 15. That was the last piece I wrote in the idea phase because from that point on we knew the direction we were going to take. A few months later I extended it and gave it a choir introduction but never touched the initial part of the idea.
Which track was the hardest to get right?
The hardest to get right was the start of Psalmus Solii Inferni XI. Infernal Throne which is the main menu music. Getting the choir to sound good and most importantly human, took a lot of finessing. There was also a period where I kept loading more Moog synths onto the start to make it sound huge but the more I added the smaller it sounded. After banging my head against that for a while I finally discovered sometimes less is more.
You've done an incredible job at making sure each track stands out on its own but also works together as one body of work - how do you strike that balance between keeping the music interesting whilst ensuring the player isn't overly distracted by it in game?
I wasn’t scared of making the music busy, I just wanted it to be enjoyable to listen to without insisting upon itself too much. I used to play chess with a friend of mine while listening to Mozart’s Requiem so this kind of music felt like a great fit to me. I think the key was making sure it wasn’t always doing something. The soundtrack in the game drifts along in a way so that you have something quite atmospheric then a more interesting piece of music will appear then it morphs into a more atmospheric vibe again. Hardly anything was writing to a click track so I think that also helps create flow and the feeling of drifting along, like time doesn’t matter. I wanted the music to feel like one body of work. I wanted it to feel like it all originated from the same place and had its own culture.
What kind of games do you play yourself, and what are your favourite video game soundtracks?
Well in the last few days I’ve been really enjoying the Planet of Lana OST but I tend to not listen to a lot of game soundtracks. I do try to keep an eye on what’s happening though because I am interested, and I try to catch the Meena Shamaly Game Show on the ABC every week. My taste in music is crazy eclectic. There is so much incredible music in so many different genres so I’m just as likely to be listening to Bach as I am to Miles Davis, Queen, Prince, Ice Cube or John Williams. I don’t game very often but I like strategy games or games with beautiful artwork or a beautiful feeling to it. It’s probably a little nerdy but the game I play the most is chess.
What does an average day look like for you?
An average day for me is essentially juggling being a Dad with composing music. That can take so many forms that no day is average but I’m very grateful whenever I have blocks of consecutive hours to immerse myself in work.
What advice would you give to a composer looking to get into the video game world?
Find a group of game developers who are also starting out and go on the journey together. You can work on many games a year while developers tend to be on the same game for years, so you have the opportunity and time to form partnerships with more than one group of developers. Turn up to game jams, places where game dev students hang out, and conferences, meet people. Learn how to implement audio into the game because it increases your value. Finally understand that it’s not your music, it’s the developers vision you’re trying to create so don’t take negative feedback personally.
If you haven't already, you can pick up the Soundtrack OST here!
See you in Hell…
<3 LoG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join the League of Geeks Discord community for all the infernal news and discussion.
P.S. You can support us and our re-imagining of Vic's "diamond in the dark" by purchasing Solium Infernum on Steam, if you haven't already. Purchasing tells the all-great Steam algorithm that people like what they’re seeing and gets us in front of more eyes.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893810/Solium_Infernum/