Recently I spoke with Ali (½ of Boxed Ape) about the music for The Casting of Frank Stone
How did you get into composing?
I think as a duo, we’re fortunate to have had quite varied routes into the composing world; Frankie comes
much more from a record background whereas my routes are based more in scores and orchestral music.
That said, there’s plenty of common ground in what we do especially when it comes our approach to
storytelling – whether that’s writing to picture, or designing and creating interactive music.
Composing for games specifically; Frankie and I both originally worked as in-house as composers for an
audio outfit so were able to cut our teeth on quite an array of different projects whilst working with a full
compliment of audio designers, directors, technical sound designers etc. Writing for games is a real world
unto itself, especially when compared to film and TV and we found ourselves really drawn to the impact that
music (when done right) can have on the player experience. Somewhere along the line we came up with the
name Boxed Ape and decided to take the plunge and set up independently.
What have been your biggest challenges and your greatest triumphs with the score?
Well the biggest challenge with The Casting of Frank Stone was definitely writing a score that could cover the
sheer quantity and complexity of the game’s narrative branches, all without compromising on quality of
course. With so many player choices, ways in which the outcomes could arrange and rearrange themselves,
in addition to the various locations across different time periods, we had to make sure the experience
remained cinematic and seamless regardless of where the story went.
As if this wasn’t challenge enough, we decided to somewhat deviate from the score production path that
games of this type often tread; that is a “suite and edit” based approach. Instead we wanted to make sure
the score felt absolutely attached and unique to each moment (in a way that wouldn’t be possible with music
purely written away from picture) as if it were a film and thus chose to both meticulously compose “linear”
score and develop a method for seamless “pseudo linear” music across a significant chunk of the games
cinematic content. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that to score each possible sequence individually would
mean writing tens if not hundreds of hours of music, which would simply not be possible or practical. This
ended up being a much… much more involved process than what we our naivety led us to believe at the
time, however we really feel that this has payed off not only in the games various set-pieces, but across the
more subtle and understated moments too.
All that said, I think our greatest triumph came from tackling those exact challenges. Hopefully the fruits of
our labour are that the score feels totally connected to the player’s journey, adapting to every twist and turn
while keeping the emotional weight and cinematic/narrative punctuation intact.
I’d definitely also say that we’ve ended up with a super unique sounding score which is not only a result of
our approach to musical sound design vs melody and light motif, but from designing a tonne of custom
instruments, playing around with glitchy synths, resampling old vinyl, and processing vocal recordings to
bring the story to life.
It was such a rewarding experience to push the boundaries and explore darker, more surreal musical
textures; with any luck, the score help’d to add a layer of depth and immersion to this terrifying world.
At what point in the process do you see any gameplay and how much information are you given at the
start?
It’s different with every project, but with this one we were lucky to be able to hit the ground running and
thanks to the way that Supermassive work after they shoot the performance capture, pretty quickly get a
sense for what the shape, tone, pacing etc. of each scene / gameplay section would be as well as what would
be needed score wise. This meant that we could really focus on nailing down the sound and feel of the score
with a degree of confidence that what we were working to wouldn’t be too far from the polished endproduct.
Of course there’s a trade off; the earlier you start the higher the likelihood of re-writes and re-edits, but
given the nature of this kind of branching narrative, we ended up constructing and delivering the score in
such a way that it could be (carefully) taken apart and put back together again to suit an edit as dynamic and
changing as this one.
Do you play the game to get any ideas for music or just to relax?
Absolutely, well we definitely play-test the game whilst in development for inspiration, to work out where to
put music, how the music should behave when playing, transitions, the list goes on. It’s really essential for
us to stay in touch with how the game feels from the player perspective and there’s no way to simulate that
other than to pick up a controller. That said, the game is far from finished when we come on board to write
the music so playing is… not exactly relaxing.
We do however make sure to play plenty of other games recreationally, we exist as both a main quest
beeliner (Frankie) and a abject completionist (Me)… all in the name of research of course!
What would you say is the biggest accomplishment you have had to date and what would you say are
your ultimate goals?
That’s a tough one. We’ve been lucky enough to have worked on amazing projects and scored some
awesome games. Singling any of them out as a no. 1 accomplishment would be nigh impossible. We
definitely feel like Frank Stone is some of our best work to date, without a doubt some of the most “out
there” music we’ve ever written in the best possible way. In terms of goals, It’s hard to say much more than
to keep pushing ourselves to write the best music we can (hopefully with ever increasing scope and budgets
of course…). We’re definitely both keen to do more work in the world of film and TV as well as games and
records, finding opportunities for all of our experience to inform new music as well as excuses collaborate
with, and bring people we admire into our process.
How long was the process of creating music for the game?
This was a very involved project for us with lots of music that needed writing so, whilst it’s not always full on
– full time, we were writing for well over a year.
If you had carte blanche, what would you say your dream project is?
Oh that’s a very good question. We’ve often asked ourselves this and, whilst it might seem obvious or cliche,
we always gravitate towards the kind of imaginary project that would let us really spread our wings and do
something totally new. It’s easy to say but it’d be the kind of project with the scope to book out Abbey Road
with a 100 piece orchestra for 6 weeks, or book sessions with the best musicians in the world. And also
“Dune”… we want to do a Dune game…
It’s funny, if you’d have asked me that question in 2017 I’d have said a Horizon game, not knowing that
that’s exactly what I’d be working on a few years down the line.
Where do you find your inspiration when composing?
I think if you’re on a great project, with a compelling story, great art and direction such as The Casting of
Frank Stone, inspiration really isn’t that hard to come by. Of course there are reference playlists at the start
and lots of adjectives being thrown around, but as soon as the score starts to materialise and feel like it’s
working, the music just snowballs from there really. Games are great in that regard, especially in this genre
where the setting and story are just so expansive; you can really push the music a lot further than you might
be able to in other mediums. When you have an idea, you don’t have to hold back when bringing it to fruition.
What sorts of composers inspire you? Are there any composers in particular you listen to when
preparing for a project?
When it comes to preparing for a project, it really depends. Often the audio director or in-house music team
will have an idea of what they want the music to sound like at the point we come onto a project, in which case
we’re very careful to absorb any references as well as bring our own ideas to the table. Sometimes (as with
this project) we’re working on a sequel or instalment within an existing franchise which comes with its own
challenges and opportunities. The importance of respecting the IP’s existing musical identity cannot be
overstated and there can be a fine line between parody and something that feels like an authentic extension.
Learning to work within briefs like this whilst imparting a unique identity or finding space to push the score in
a new direction is part of the job.
For this score we had to draw from a pretty expansive array of material to cover the various themes,
locations and time frames. Lots of classic Giallo horror such as the original “Suspiria” through to
psychological thrillers like Cristóbal Tapia de Veer’s score to “Smile”. It’s hard for me to approach any horror
project without going back to to Goldsmith, Horner, Elliot Goldenthal & Jed Kurzel’s Alien scores.
At a more macro level there are certainly composers that we’re inspired by. A recent example for me would
be Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab’s scores to Respawns Jedi games. I’m simply in awe of what they
managed to pull off from a musical, technical and gameplay perspective. Every time I go back to the games
or soundtrack I’m blown away!
How much leeway do you have with the creation of the score or did the game’s producers give you the
framework that you had to work in or was it more of a collaboration?
So with this project, we were fortunate to be able to work very closely with the audio director and music
design team right from the concepting stage through to the final mix of the game. Whilst there was a
reasonably clear brief in some respects, we were given a lot of freedom to write what we felt would work best
and then come back and present or pitch our concepts to the audio and development team. It’s absolutely
essential to us that we foster a collaborative relationship with the rest of the creative team where we are
afforded the creative freedom to run with ideas, be bold and fully form and explore the vision the score.
From a technical standpoint, we also like to be able to stay involved with the implementation side of things;
transitions, structure, behaviour, are all ultimately perceived as part of the musical experience so being able
to contribute to that has really helped us form a cohesive and compelling musical experience.
What do you like to do when you’re not composing?
Oh downtime is certainly a luxury for a composer, especially when you consider all the other jobs there are to
do in the studio besides putting the notes down. I probably eluded to it earlier but I really love playing games
and watching films, although when I feel my eyes going square and the weather is nice I’ll head out for a sail
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