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Composer Oleksa Lozowchuk Talks "Dead Rising 2"
Composer Oleksa Lozowchuk Talks "Dead Rising 2"
- Genre : More Music
- Type: News
- Author : Super Admin
- Date : Mon, 04 Oct 2010
Dead Rising 2 is one of the best games of the year, and one reason why it's so bloodlettingly awesome is the score. While roaming around Fortune City killing zombies, players get to experience Oleksa Lozowchuk's brooding, bombastic and brilliant score. The music sets the mood perfectly, pinpointing the precise power at the heart of Dead Rising 2. Oleksa incorporates a myriad of sonic textures and vibes in order to create the perfect video game soundtrack. It might just turn you into a zombie it's so damn good…
Composer Oleksa Lozowchuk sat down with ARTISTdirect.com editor and Dolor author Rick Florino for an exclusive interview about scoring Dead Rising 2, what's next on the horizon for him and so much more.
What was your favorite part of composing music for Dead Rising 2?
The most exciting thing about composing for DR2 was that I could wear so many different musical hats at the same time. Dead Rising has a certain ethos, unlike any other franchise...it’s actually quite invigorating, since anything is possible. You’re free to take iconic musical elements and push them to the edge. You try to invoke feelings in the user that puts a smile on their face, or makes them want to explore the world for golden Easter-eggs. Sometimes this comes through choice of instrumentation; other times, it’s by concentrating the music in areas where people naturally gravitate: anywhere you find food or alcohol. This could include: killing zombies while eating sausage, listening to Bratwurst Polka music full of loud yodeling, tubas, accordions, and crashing cymbals; listening to Poison-like glam rock while chugging back a bottle of whiskey in the Americana Casino; taking in ‘meowing’ pedal steel guitar and B4 rotary vibrato from an old jukebox in Rosie’s Diner; parodying old Italian restaurant music at Cucinna Italiana; using a Theramin squeak box, military snare drum and bassoon to summon magicians’ muses; and so forth...
What other type of game allows you to go to work and pull out a banjo, pan flute or accordion one moment, arrange a string session or remix some dub/club tracks the next, and then hammer out some heavy guitar riffs for a Gladiator meets Zombie kill fest? Fortune City is a thrill seeking world of pleasure for everyone, and this allowed for some truly delightful experimentation.
Another thing I really enjoyed was collaborating with different composers and artists to create a memorable soundtrack that was both exciting and accessible. For example, in one of the cheaper casinos, the Slot Barn, there’s a one-hit wonder Diva psycho you face. Our actress, Patricia Drake, sent in a demo mp3 of herself half talking/half singing her cinematic lines in character, and we all loved it so much that we hired her. I ended up taking her demo, and writing a song for the Diva based around the delivery of her performance, and fleshing out some additional banter lyric ideas with our in-house writer, Annie Reid. The vocal recording session with Patricia went so well, that we included 8 or 9 versions of her ‘hit’ song in the game, all themed differently (hunger, eros, inspiration, comeback tour, etc.) , and full of raunchy noises and hilarious commentary. Patricia’s a wonderful actress and backed by an 80’s type Casio-Disco track full of blasting horns, wah-guitar, slap bass, Moog synths, and A-M-O-R-E, you’d never know that the DR2 Diva was also a proud soccer mom. These kinds of opportunities made working on the DR2 Soundtrack truly memorable.
What has a greater influence on the score, the plot or the characters?
You always hope for a great marriage of both, an intriguing story that draws you in and provides plenty of motivation, mixed with a variety of characters and foes that bring out the best and the worst in each other. DR1 had this and DR2 takes it to the next level. Although I made sure there was always a musical connection between the main character themes, boss themes, cinematic score and ambient music, and that each echoed elements from the other, Chuck’s character influenced most of the score primarily , since the user assumes his point of view. Sometimes this took shape as his ‘everyday’ man theme; other times, it was his perspective as a protective father fighting for his life, or as a zombie killer/contestant in a Terror is Reality Show. Sometimes his theme would even weave its way into psycho boss intro cinematics, but would
Composer Oleksa Lozowchuk sat down with ARTISTdirect.com editor and Dolor author Rick Florino for an exclusive interview about scoring Dead Rising 2, what's next on the horizon for him and so much more.
What was your favorite part of composing music for Dead Rising 2?
The most exciting thing about composing for DR2 was that I could wear so many different musical hats at the same time. Dead Rising has a certain ethos, unlike any other franchise...it’s actually quite invigorating, since anything is possible. You’re free to take iconic musical elements and push them to the edge. You try to invoke feelings in the user that puts a smile on their face, or makes them want to explore the world for golden Easter-eggs. Sometimes this comes through choice of instrumentation; other times, it’s by concentrating the music in areas where people naturally gravitate: anywhere you find food or alcohol. This could include: killing zombies while eating sausage, listening to Bratwurst Polka music full of loud yodeling, tubas, accordions, and crashing cymbals; listening to Poison-like glam rock while chugging back a bottle of whiskey in the Americana Casino; taking in ‘meowing’ pedal steel guitar and B4 rotary vibrato from an old jukebox in Rosie’s Diner; parodying old Italian restaurant music at Cucinna Italiana; using a Theramin squeak box, military snare drum and bassoon to summon magicians’ muses; and so forth...
What other type of game allows you to go to work and pull out a banjo, pan flute or accordion one moment, arrange a string session or remix some dub/club tracks the next, and then hammer out some heavy guitar riffs for a Gladiator meets Zombie kill fest? Fortune City is a thrill seeking world of pleasure for everyone, and this allowed for some truly delightful experimentation.
Another thing I really enjoyed was collaborating with different composers and artists to create a memorable soundtrack that was both exciting and accessible. For example, in one of the cheaper casinos, the Slot Barn, there’s a one-hit wonder Diva psycho you face. Our actress, Patricia Drake, sent in a demo mp3 of herself half talking/half singing her cinematic lines in character, and we all loved it so much that we hired her. I ended up taking her demo, and writing a song for the Diva based around the delivery of her performance, and fleshing out some additional banter lyric ideas with our in-house writer, Annie Reid. The vocal recording session with Patricia went so well, that we included 8 or 9 versions of her ‘hit’ song in the game, all themed differently (hunger, eros, inspiration, comeback tour, etc.) , and full of raunchy noises and hilarious commentary. Patricia’s a wonderful actress and backed by an 80’s type Casio-Disco track full of blasting horns, wah-guitar, slap bass, Moog synths, and A-M-O-R-E, you’d never know that the DR2 Diva was also a proud soccer mom. These kinds of opportunities made working on the DR2 Soundtrack truly memorable.
What has a greater influence on the score, the plot or the characters?
You always hope for a great marriage of both, an intriguing story that draws you in and provides plenty of motivation, mixed with a variety of characters and foes that bring out the best and the worst in each other. DR1 had this and DR2 takes it to the next level. Although I made sure there was always a musical connection between the main character themes, boss themes, cinematic score and ambient music, and that each echoed elements from the other, Chuck’s character influenced most of the score primarily , since the user assumes his point of view. Sometimes this took shape as his ‘everyday’ man theme; other times, it was his perspective as a protective father fighting for his life, or as a zombie killer/contestant in a Terror is Reality Show. Sometimes his theme would even weave its way into psycho boss intro cinematics, but would
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