Do you have a favorite track in the game?
Matt: You know, if I had to pick, I tend to lean towards the ones that are just crazier or the ones that are faster or more chaotic, so I kind of like boss battles a lot in that regard. And, in fact, boss battles are my favorite tracks for writing games. So, "Combatants" is definitely one that I would say is up there--that's just the regular boss battle in the game.
Did you stay within chiptunes or did you feel like you had to expand past that for some parts of the music?
Matt: When I got the call to write this game as a Game Jam, it was just pure NES music, but when I got the call to do the full score, I knew I wanted to do something that was bigger than just chiptunes. So what I did was I wrote the NES music to be the center of my mix. After that, I ported everything from my tracker projects into my actual digital audio workstation, so I could start applying some of this gear I have surrounding me to try and take it to another level.
So, what I wanted to do--the protocol I came up with for Prison City--was I wanted to make sure the drums sounded way bigger than on the NES, because the NES drums, while I love them, some random guy that hasn't heard NES music since he played Contra when he was a kid, or even some young kid today, is probably gonna be like, "It sounds a little flat," you know? It's not really--it's just happening, so you have to apply those enhancements very carefully because, if you go too hard with it, you ruin all that nostalgia that people have. And if you don't go hard enough, then the people who have the HD memory won't really gel with it.
I started adding an extra layer on top of the NES music, so I wanted that NES music to stay in the middle, stay thick, stay nostalgic, and then start adding some extra layers so that people could really gel with the track--no matter the system they're listening on.
What advice or insight can you give composers who may be just starting their career creating gaming soundtracks, or just scoring in general?
Matt: If they're already writing music, they're already ahead of the curve. It's like a muscle--you have to keep working it out. You gotta get pumped; you gotta get jacked, so never ever stop writing, even if you're writing 30-second tracks. You know what a good technique for young composers is: Just try and finish that track, even if it's 30 seconds long. Just give it an ending or try and have it fade out. Like, try and just work that muscle out like finishing a track and the more you get used to doing that, the more you can have all these little bits and pieces that you can use later on, too. If you're just writing music on your own, especially if it has an ending, it's way harder to go back and write an ending into a track like, "Oh, I've moved computers, and I have a new operating system now." So, practice finishing your tracks, even if they're little bits there.
As for getting into the game industry, I think it was a bit of luck and a bit of just pure, raw, deranged perseverance. If you're that type of musician, it'll happen for you. The industry changes every week, and you have to actually watch and learn as much as you can about what developers are going through, and what the game industry is going through. As a composer, you need to be networking with absolutely everyone; network with streamers, network with developers. I would say create a spreadsheet right now of all the people that you could potentially contact, so that you can see it, because you need to start visualizing what that networking looks like and not just keep it in your head and be like, "I think it'll all work out." And one thing for sure that I learned is to have a social media presence and always be putting out content, even if it's not music. Then, make video content, as well.
I know that sounds very counterproductive, but if you're good at creating a thumbnail, that's one leg in the door, so you need to become kind of a jack-of-all-trades if you want to start promoting yourself and getting into this industry. For young composers, the good news is it's always changing and if you're young right now, you probably know more than I do. It's a struggle for me to figure out what the hell are people doing now on the internet. It's the price we must constantly pay.
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