“I wrote some of the best music Ive ever written for this game.”
But how do you create the sound of a fantasy world through music?
And what is the musical voice of Frey?
It begins with melody.
“And games often provide the opportunity to write melody, which I love.
And there’s nothing to recall, really.
“So that is a very dominant style right now in film and television, and games too.
Games don’t escape this.”
“I went more with a mysterious fantasy, action and combat music,” explains Schyman.
“It was triadic but with lots of added dissonance…to give the harmonies rich vocabulary.”
The vocalist is Black singer India Carney, whose singing becomes a sort of human anchor within the music.
“She sort of became the voice of Frey, the main character.
And she just did a fabulous [job].
I loved working with her.”
It’s this versatility Schyman was keen to utilise.
And she did some really beautiful improvisations over what I had written,” he says.
“It added so much character.
Carney’s voice also fits with Frey as a character.
“It just sounded right as soon as we heard her.
“We wanted her to sing what her authentic sound was and it just seemed to fit.
It’s an intuitive thing.”
Were there any particular challenges with creating music for an open world game?
Yet Schyman has only praise for his time working with Luminous Games and Square Enix.
“They were determined to make something really beautiful and really special,” he says.
“And so that was influential to me.
They cared, and I love that, that inspires me to do my best work.
“And of course, you have a beautiful world.
And there were these opportunities to write beautiful music.
I’ve certainly written a tonne of scary music in my life, but I love writing beautiful melodies.
“It could be intense and beautiful as well.
So some of the combat music has that opportunity as well, where the characters get heroic.
That is really fun.
