Welcome to the first in a series of behind-the-scenes Blog Posts, each focusing on one team or area of Last Epoch’s development!
Today the Lead Composer for Eleventh Hour Games, Erik Desiderio, is here answering questions about what went into creating the iconic Last Epoch Theme song, how they get in to the mindset to portray the very feeling of moving through Eterra and what goes in to getting the music game-ready!
Forging a path
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How are you doing today?
I’m doing great, thanks for asking!
Given your work on Movies like Immortals, how did you get into composing for Games?
I met a guy at a party… No really. I had worked on lots of film and TV projects, but had always wanted to work on games, but no one would give me a shot. When I score, I dig deep into the story to then elevate it through music. With games, there’s a direct connection to the audience, who are the main character. Writing music that can move them and emotionally enhance the choices they make in the game is a great deal of fun. So it was something I always wanted to do and this guy I met liked my work, and after a few projects together, he hired me to write music for an Adventure Time Virtual Reality game. I later gave a talk about the experience at the Game Developer’s Convention (GDC) and that jumpstarted my game music career and set me on a trajectory to work more in games the following years.
Is there much difference between the process for Movies and Games?
Yes, since video games are non-linear, the pacing is largely controlled by the player, you have to compose music in adaptable loops. Sometimes, I see the music as the heart of the player as it moves through the world and story. For some big boss battles, the music will get more intense and change sections as the battle progresses, based on the health of the boss. With Aberroth, the music had to transition to new musical styles based on the era of the timeline that was being presented.
Is there anything you’ve worked on, you’d say really impacted or influenced how you compose?
Composing music for the “Rise of the Necromancer” expansion for Diablo III really opened up my eyes to the joys of composing dark music in ways that I’ve never worked before. I’d light a candle, and turn all the lights off in the studio in order to channel the dark energy of the game. It’s a practice that I still use when working on Last Epoch.
Lute Drops and Finding Ffion
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So how many instruments do you play, and how many did you learn just for Last Epoch?
I play many instruments but for Last Epoch, I also took up the lute and the tagelharpa to give the Last Epoch soundtrack an ancient, archaic feeling. Those were new for me and they were exciting to learn.
How did you go about finding the right Vocalist and what made Ffion stand out?
She was brought to my attention through the magic of the YouTube algorithm! Her voice is evocative and otherworldly, and that’s what grabbed me. She had already done an album of music in Old Norse, with excellent pronunciation. It was masterfully done and made her the perfect voice for this project.
Why Old Norse? It’s amazing, Ffion does an amazing job, though what inspired that decision and how did they learn it?
We wanted to use a language that was no longer spoken today, that transported you to a forgotten time, and the gritty sound and rough texture of Old Norse pulled me into the Last Epoch landscape. The words have a powerful feeling, the accent is always on the first syllable, which gives it a very strong drive. I took phrases and individual words from Old Norse texts that that thematically banded together the melody I had composed with the story.
Currently it’s only used only used in the Main Theme, however across many other tracks found in game we have several talented vocalists who contributed to bringing that same epic feeling to our newest Boss fights.
Composing for Chaos
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So Harbingers and Aberroth, two big new inclusions! Was this a daunting challenge or an exciting one?
I love a good challenge, and especially one that involves writing angry music, so I jumped right in. Strong themes are very important throughout Last Epoch, so I made sure that each harbinger had a recognizable theme and instrumentation. The Brute Harbinger is large and intimidating, so I used a deep sounding male choir singing long tones, with the parts sung by Mason Lieberman to enhance the brutish feeling. The Agile Harbinger is more nimble and the music is faster paced with violins playing short notes throughout.
Given these fights can last a long time, how do you compose a track for that?
As you fight Aberroth, you transition through all of the different eras of the game, and the music had to match. So, the aboriginal chanting of the Ancient Era gives way to the elevated tones of the Divine Era to the distorted sounds of the Ruined Era, as the background imagery changes each time the fight escalates.
The music gives that perfect sense of ‘This is not an easy fight’, how do you go about grabbing that feeling and portraying it?
As the Monolith is the setting for this expansion, we decided to compose many new tracks to accompany the player on their journey through it. The music is similar in style to the music for the End of Time, but it differs in that it has an underlying sense of tension since you are about to do battle. This Monolith track features Rachel Hardy on vocals.
What is the process of ‘Mastering’ a track?
Mastering a track involves assembling and editing a track from its component parts. Since the game has to play the audio files so that they loop and react to what the player is doing, the music has to be written in a certain way and chopped up properly. Once the track has been reassembled, the individual sections have to be balanced and processed to maximize the volume and make all the tracks consistent in loudness so the listener doesn’t have to turn up and down the volume with each track.
When do you know or feel like you are ‘done’ with a track?
When I get chills from listening to it, and the audience is transported to another place and time.
Outro
Thank you for joining us today, and thank you Erik and Ffion for your time! Keep your eyes and ears open for our next Blog Post where we’ll be talking to one of the many great teams that help build the world of Last Epoch!
