For decades, some of the most prestigious jobs in the music industry were linked to the biggest blockbusters or cult movies by auteur film directors: everyone knows the soundtrack to “Jaws” or “Pirates of the Caribbean”; “Time of My Life” is the song from “Dirty Dancing”, and spaghetti westerns cannot exist without Ennio Morricone’s music. While Oscars for the best original scores are still discussed on the news, the most coveted composing jobs, as of 2022, can be found somewhere else- in the gaming industry.
Despite the reputation of being a teenage form of entertainment, the reality of the gaming industry has been remarkably different. In 2019, the total global video game revenue was 162 billion USD; it is now projected that the video gaming industry will almost double this figure by 2026. You don’t get these money from 14-year-old boys alone. In comparison, the 2019 global box office hit its highest number ever with $42.5 billion USD before being almost annihilated by the pandemic and ‘recovering’ to 21.4 billion USD last year. While the public opinion is still catching up with the idea of video games as a universal form of entertainment, music composers have followed the zeitgeist and embraced the benefits of this growing field.
To gain some inside information on how musicians are treated in the gaming industry, we have decided to talk to an acclaimed LA-based composer Javier Busquet, who has been enjoying all the creative freedoms that video games can give to a composer.
Javier Busquet is an acclaimed musician from Argentina who for the past few years has been working in the US and established himself as a talented live performer, recording artist, and composer. In the past, Javier Busquet has released several solo EPs, including “Side Note” and “Sierra Vista”, worked with Jesse Mendez, recorded for the FineTune Music Library that provides music for major Hollywood blockbusters and unscripted TV shows, and composed music for the award-winning film “Beyond the Border.” Recently, he has been composing music for the video game developing company Dynamic Media Triad and received praise for his work on the games “Broken Reality” and “Astrodogs”.
- Javier, throughout your career your worked on composing music for many acclaimed movies and telenovelas, including the Guldbagge Award-winning Swedish movie “Beyond the Border”, and wrote a lot for music libraries. Recently, you have been successfully working in the video games industry with Dynamic Media Triad, an innovative video game developing company, composing the soundtrack for their games “Broken Reality” and “Astrodogs”. Could you please tell us about the aspects you like when composing music for video games? How is it different from composing music for films or even live music?
With any piece of media, music is one of the most critical elements that highlights the emotional impact and influences the consumption of any media content. However, in the movie and TV industries, you normally receive a finished production and then you work on the music on that piece. There is not much potential for change at that stage and music rarely affects the direction of a movie production. Normally, a movie or show producer comes to you and explains that they need, maybe, 4 groups of tunes – sad, melancholic, happy, and excited. Based on this description, you have to make several tracks that match this task and have the required feelings. The production will choose what they like best and we will have the final result mixed for them. As you can see, musicians don’t have much influence as to what happens during production and are normally invited to provide their services at the post-production stage. When working in the music industry and recording songs for live music artists, you have to highlight the song itself, put the focus on the artist – this music is flashy and more upfront than when it is more of a support medium.
In the video game industry, composers work on the music component alongside the visual teams of designers and developers; we have these bi-monthly meetings where we discuss new storylines or additions to the maps. Based on these additions, we, the composers, work on new drafts and then we send them back to the visual team to get their feedback. Constant communication between our departments is critical to the immersive experience of the game. We do focus on the original message we receive from the visual artists and reinforce their message with music, but there is also a lot of creative freedom in this work.
- Could you please talk more about your work process when you compose music for video games?
When it comes to the gaming industry and you are writing for video games, you have to find ways of conveying what’s happening on the screen and how music can complement the mode of this media production. For video games specifically, you need to compose a bed of music, because the gamer has control of the areas they are trying to explore and the game can change momentarily in several directions. As a composer, you need to ensure that your music meets the objectives of the visual part at any point of the game and this makes the composing process more interactive, flexible, and open to transformations.
Wherever the player goes, music is supposed to change with them and you need to find this balanced sound that changes subtly and keeps the player interested while they get to the next level or the next objective.
- What was your task as a musician when composing music for “Astrodogs” and “Broken Reality”? Would you say that your music had an effect on the overall direction of these games?
These games were heavily influenced by the 90s and 2000s aesthetics and we had to create a lot of tunes similar to the music and sounds from that era to make sure that the players can easily immerse themselves into the worlds of these video games. Sometimes we would also use sounds that evoke certain emotions or visuals (for instance, jungle sounds and music) and our choice of music and background sounds has inspired the developers to add several jungle sequences to the game.
- Were you playing games as a kid and has this experience influenced how you approach this composing work? Was your work on “Astrodogs” and “Broken Reality” influenced by the fact that you grew up in the 90s, played the games in that period and listened a lot of the 90s music?
Of course, I played a lot of games as a kid, can relate to the experience of the gamers we are working for and I have definitely absorbed all the classic 90s sounds – something as iconic as scores for SuperMario, StarFox. Looking back at my work for the games with Dynamic Media Triad, I can see that subconsciously I was channeling that mood and sound into my recent work to make sure that the players can have the most immersive and authentic experience.
- Will you be working on more games in the future?
Of course, this industry continues to grow and it offers unique opportunities for composers like me to work with little creative constraints while also having an immense effect on these visual media productions I am working on. There is more originality in the video game industry and the sound is designed with the on-going development of the game in mind and we try to make it both unique and matching the objectives of our projects. This is a rarity for musicians who like to work on soundtracks and I will definitely continue exploring this new field.
After the success and multiple positive reviews for both “Broken Reality” and “Astrodogs”, I have already started working with Dynamic Media Triad on the sequel to “Broken Reality” – “Broken Reality 2”; it is currently slated for release in the fall of next year and we are back to the intense back-and-forth with their video game developers and designers.
- Shall we expect more live music and solo recordings from you or are you solely dedicated to the video games industry?
While I enjoy composing music for video games, I will also continue working on my own solo projects. My solo projects, including my latest single “Side Note”, showed me how much creative freedom can come from my own solo projects and how gratifying it is to see my own creative vision realized as close to what I envisioned as possible. One producer I’ve recently worked with, Nick Belvis, has been helping me find my own team for the upcoming releases: I am good at composing, recording, and producing, but I am excited to work with other professionals who are helping me to reach new levels in mixing, mastering, and engineering. My next live show is scheduled for November 20 at Harvard and Stone in Hollywood and I can’t wait to share this new music with my fans.