Recently I spoke with Composer Ivan Linn. I van has worked on Final Fantasy, Kingdom hearts, and is the Conductor on the Assassins Creed World Tour. Aside from his musical work, Ivan is also
active in the developing field of Cryptocurrency.
How did you get into composing and what are some of the past games and projects you
have done?
The most recent project that I am working on is an existing and ongoing live concert
project: the “Assassin’s Creed Symphony” World Tour. We started this after doing
several similar projects in the past, including “Legend of Zelda”, “Final
Fantasy” Series, and “Kingdom Hearts”; since the video game live concerts are
getting quite popular nowadays. That’s what we are trying to do and going to do;
make more unforgettable live concert experiences for the franchise and for the
audience.
How does scoring a game compare and differ with other forms of composing and
which do you prefer?
Writing music for video games isn’t hugely different compared to writing music for films
or TV dramas because we are all telling stories. It’s about getting the music to
reflect different characters, different scenes, and different storylines. So
it’s about experiencing and interacting with the story. It’s not too different,
video gaming music writing can be a little longer, sometimes a lot longer than
writing for films because we are talking about 20-30 hours of gaming play
instead of 2 hours of a film.
Where do you find your inspiration when composing?
Inspiration comes from everywhere, it’s the people that I meet, the places that I go, the
food that I experience. Anything can be an inspiration. It’s becoming our job to
transform what we experience in our day to day lives to music.
How much leeway did you have with the creation of the score?
I am lucky enough to have been given a lot of freedom when writing music. A lot of
times I didn’t need to go back and forth between me and directors, because
whenever I am inspired, I started to write, and I am very lucky that I pleased
the director that I have worked with.
Did the game’s producers give you the framework that you had to work in or was
it more of a collaboration?
Of course, there is always a certain structure that you are going to go along with
because we are talking about writing music to fit certain storylines. Within
this framework, you can actually be as creative as you can in order to create a
score that fits the video game.
How did you get into cryptocurrency?
I remember the first time that I saw cryptocurrency was during a trip to Japan,
where I saw shops accepted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The more I dug into
it, the more interesting it became. I started to study what cryptocurrency is,
and if it’s got anything that can potentially be integrated into our project to
make it a better product.
There have been a lot of questions about the viability of cryptocurrency long
term. How would you respond to that?
It’s a brand new field for a lot of people to dig into; to get used to. Literally we
are talking about a new way to do transactions, and a new way to interact with
others. It’s as though when we are talking about when the car industry when the
automobile was first introduced. It was a struggle for a little while until the
general public got used to it, and eventually, it became something that we use
every day. So I believe for cryptocurrency it is the same thing that we are
experiencing now: the period of time where only time will prove if it’s
something that could improve the community or society. But we feel quite
positive about this.
How do you balance cryptocurrency work and composing?
We are talking about two different topics. Music is what I love, and whenever I do
music, I see myself in it. Cryptocurrency is also a passion that I have been
exploring especially the technology behind it. So I believe that there is a good
balance and I am not worried too much about being distracted by one or the
other.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to read, travel, see new things, and experience different cultures because
that’s where the inspirations are from and that’s where the new ideas, new
strategies, and new concepts were from.
What do you have coming up?
Currently, we are touring with Assassin’s Creed Symphony World Tour, and in the meantime,
we have launched our product, Folkspaper, a social journalism app that rewards
users for contributing valuable content to the community. We believe that music
is a powerful tool to make our lives better and that technology is even greater
tool that we could improve upon to make society better. This is what we enjoy
doing and what we will keep doing.
You can learn more at Folkspaper – https://www.folkspaper.com/
