Kian
is a professional Conductor who you may know from the Video Game Orchestra.
Some video games he has made some killer music that always set the mood are
Spec Ops: The Line, Dishonored and his latest Akaneiro: Demon Hunter. I’m eagerly
awaiting this game Akaneiro is a hand painted MMO and has a lot of Japanese art
and folklore influence. Be ready to loot till your hearts desire in this action
RPG by Spicy Horse. I was able to listen to three of Kian creating trakcs for Akaneiro and they are killer! I had a chance to talk to Kian and here’s the man himself…
How’s
life treating you?
Life is
great! I've had the opportunity to live in different cities around the world
doing what I do best and love: Audio for Games. I've recently relocated to where I'm currently based: Shanghai and
working in an exciting and dynamic game studio called Spicy Horse, making
bleeps and
bloops for its games. With life treating me this fine, what more can I
ask?
What
was your first major experience with music and how did you know it was for you?
My first
major experience with music happened when I was 18. I got a call from a friend
who's a studio engineer asking if I was interested in doing
some paid guitar session work for a local artist. I went in the studio, laid
down the tracks, got paid and felt an instant gratification. That's
when I knew music was the path for me. It didn't seem like a "job" at
all, and the idea of getting paid doing music is just simply awesome!
I loved the songs from Akaneiro: Demon Hunters
very beautiful! I loved The Rotten Temple, What was your inspiration when
creating these tracks?
Thanks,
I'm glad you liked it! I usually spend a fair amount of time mindlessly staring
at the artwork and/or the game itself to draw musical clues(not inspiration). Inspiration
has too much ambiguity to it and it feels like it's something that pops up only
at random moments. Not quite the reliable working partner I must say. The
game's artwork already contains within it fragments of musical clues, revealing
to me its style, pacing, mood and instrumentation. And all I have to do is piece all
the clues together and the end result is what you hear in the game.
Asian. Immersive. Dark.
What
are you most excited about in Akanerio: Demon Hunters?
The hand
painted world, definitely. It is one of the distinct aspects that sets Akeneiro
apart from other games in the same genre. Being a fan of Asian art myself, it
definitely is a dream come true being able to traverse and explore realms being
made in this style. Also, how can I forget the excitement of battling big bad
wolves clad in
samurai outfits?
When
you first get to create the soundtrack for a game what are the first steps you
take before composing the music?
The first
step would be to identify all the important aspects that makes the game what it
is, these can include: time period based upon, reality or fiction, story/plot,
art style and many more. It is
imperative to get the aforementioned right as the music is a sonic
representation of the visuals, and any misinterpretation can lead to an audio
visual detachment. Once I'm
done solidifying the general musical direction of the game, I proceed to
writing the first music track of the game: the main theme. The main theme
generally embodies
everything the player needs to know about the game prior to playing it, which
explains why main theme tracks usually sit in the main menu. The main theme
also serves as a master
music palette from which I draw fragments to compose the other music
tracks.
I
have to ask you’ve done such great work in video games are you a gamer?
Yes.
Absolutely.
Dishonored,
Assassins Creed III and Torch Light II for Macintosh.
You
are a man of many talents. Out of everything which would you say is your
passion?
Composing
music. As a composer, I'm able to write music that are timeless and memorable,
share them with the world and have a spot in the race to becoming the next
Beethoven/Mozart.
Most
memorable carrier moment?
My most
memorable career moment would definitely be during my time as co-producer of
the Boston-based VGO(Video Game Orchestra) back in 2009. We had our first sold
out show and
received
international press coverage. We were featured on television news, many major
video game related blogs/websites and newspaper interviews & coverage. Our
faces were literally everywhere within the video gaming community. It was
during that short 1 week period I could proudly say: I'm famous. =)
What
are some words of wisdom you would give a youth wanting to be a composer?
Realize
that this is an industry where supply and demand are greatly imbalanced.
There're almost no fulltime jobs, benefits or whatsoever. You will most likely
need to work multiple jobs to
keep
yourself afloat. You might even need to work for free or at minimum wage for a
period of time. But hey, if writing music is your passion, I'd say go against
the odds and give it
a shot,
you'll never know until you try it. The great composers became successful by
beating the odds and proving everybody wrong. If they can, why can't
you?
What’s coming up for you in the future?
There're
new exciting games being developed here at Spicy Horse at the moment, and I'm
definitely looking forward to putting some awesome audio into them. Also, I'm
currently working on
my own
music and looking to release an album sometime next year, something that I've
been procrastinating for many years and finally got to it. What can I say? I've
got a job and bills to pay!
Any
Last words anything you want to add?
Look out
for the release of Akeneiro: Demon Hunters, it will be out fairly soon so head
right on to www.angry-red.com and get yourself signed
up! For information about me and my music, more of those can be found on my website www.kianhow.com.
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