Major Player

In the video game music world, composer GERARD MARINO is a breakout star

2006 was a big year for composer Gerard Marino. He won the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Best Music Award, for his music in God of War, a hugely popular game released for Playstation 2 in 2005. He then picked up the greatest number of awards at this year's Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) award show, garnering four awards including Music of the Year. In addition, he nabbed GANG's Rookie of the Year Award. While working on the music for God of War II, Marino stopped to talk to ASCAP's Shawn LeMone about his experience as a major player in a burgeoning industry.

Your score to God of War was terrific. How are you facing the challenge of writing the music for the sequel?
It's actually easier because we already hashed out the aesthetic universe on the first one. With no need to reinvent the wheel, we can focus on "improving the tires," if you will. Although we're not struggling with style creation, it is of course always challenging to come up with new themes. To that end, I am working with a Greek translator and using the unique rhythms of the Greek language as a motivic springboard into new melodic territory. Last time our only live score element was the choir. This time our recording budget has been generously increased to include large brass and string sections as well as a longer session with a bigger choir, which will allow me to produce an infinitely more expressive score. There are so many cool articulations like triple-tonguing or ricochet bowing that you just should not attempt with samples.

Your music from God Of War is also being featured across the country in the Video Games Live concert tour?
Yes. As a matter of fact, it was exactly one year ago today that the first Video Games Live concert debuted at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. It has since played in Seattle, Vancouver, San Jose, Philadelphia and Houston and will continue in Chicago, Indianapolis, Toronto, Brazil, London and Amsterdam.

That must be quite a blast for you to hear your music performed live by such great orchestras?
It is the shining end goal we all envision from the moment we decide to compose orchestral music! The recent VGL show in Philadelphia epitomized the very definition of "what it's all about." I was backstage this time, watching my piece play out. Jack Wall is the conductor and co-producer of the show, and a HUGE name in the game music industry. I'd never seen him conducting face-on like that before, and to see him, an industry titan and composer whom I hold in the highest esteem, leading the orchestra with such passion and intensity through my music, and seeing them give that great energy back to him was something special. I got misty. The crowd loved the piece, and kept a very raucous applause going for me after it was over when VGL co-producer Tommy Tallarico brought me out for my bow. It was so great to finally see the music connecting with its audience. Composing media music is such a solitary process. We all write in these dark rooms by ourselves, worrying the whole time that we might suck. The end user then experiences the music in a dark room by themselves while they're playing the game. The concert brings us together at last, and hearing a theater full of people send up a loud cheer for your music provides compelling evidence that you don't suck.

What other projects have you worked on recently?
I scored an Olympics commercial for NBC that played in constant rotation on NBC before the Winter Olympics in Torino. I also scored an indie film entitled Adventures of Johnny Tao which has just picked up foreign distribution. I continue to license music from my existing catalog to theatrical movie trailers, including Ice Age 2 and The Pink Panther. I have also written a handful of pick-up cues for lead composer Chris Lennertz on the CW series Supernatural.

What schooling and training did you have?
I hold a Bachelor of Music: Theory and Composition degree from Stetson University in Florida, and also completed the Advanced Studies in Scoring for Film and TV program at USC. I also participated in the Society of Composers and Lyricists Mentor program, and let's not forget the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop, where I think you and I first met.

When you were younger what attracted you to music?
Stereotypical as this may sound, it was Star Wars. I was in the fourth grade when Star Wars first came out, and it blew me away, movie and music. That was the first record I ever bought with my own allowance money, and I listened to it over and over, scrutinizing the instruments used, and thinking it might be cool to conduct an orchestra someday. Then in high school I discovered that a geeky, non-athletic guy like me could become a chickmagnet by performing rock music onstage, so I decided to be a rock star. Many dysfunctional bands later I came back to the idea of doing music for picture, which has expanded to include interactive media.

What are your biggest influences when approaching either a film or a game?
It's going to depend a lot on the film or the game. My general style might be described as if Elliot Goldenthal and John Williams had a baby and hired Hans Zimmer as the nanny. If it's a gritty, urban environment I'm going to draw more on my pop and rock background. If it's a historical epic then I will rely more on my classical training. Either way, my influences have been melded and fused over the years. If I'm doing something gritty and urban, I might mix beats and guitars with 20th-century composition techniques in the strings. Conversely, in an epic like God Of War some of my cello ostinatos would be equally at home in a Metallica song. I stay open to letting anything happen that could sound good.

With all the success you have had this year, what do you look forward to most?
My new daughter Olivia's first words!

—Shawn LeMone


TOP