The music of games is a delicate matter, and it takes special talent to compose for each and every game. Walz Music, the award-winning team behind the soundtracks of Aveyond, Aveyond 2 and now Yummy Drink Factory, shares a few secrets of game music design with us.

CR: Could you tell us a little bit about your background? Who are you, and how did you get started composing for video games?

AW: Sure! My name’s Aaron Walz and I’m the owner and lead composer and producer for Walz Music. I’ve been playing piano, singing, composing music and playing video games since I was one digit old. I got an NES as a Christmas present and I was obsessed, especially with RPG’s. I used to sit in one area of a game to listen to the music until I could sing it and go play it on the piano.Then I got a Gameboy and was fascinated with how beautiful the music sounded with headphones. It would bring me to tears at times. Before I knew it, I started writing music that sounded like video game music. I read books and played around with all sorts of computer programs to learn how to use my computer to write and orchestrate music.

I went to Sonoma State University to get a music degree and while I was there I started a website called Aaron Walz’s MIDI Home (now www.midishack.net) in 1998 to offer game music MIDI files. I sequenced a whole bunch of them by ear and wrote a tutorial about how to use and write MIDI. I also included some of my originals, and to my surprise, people started emailing and hiring me for freelance work! From then on it’s all been a continuous process of improving my musicianship as a performer, composer and producer though classes, experience and learning new programs and techniques. You are never done becoming a musician.

CR: What made you decide to give up your corporate day job to be a video game composer?

AW: Well, in college I fell into a Human Resources career. It is pretty unconventional to “make it” as a musician in our society, so after I earned my BA in music, I stayed at my non-musical job. It paid well and was social and interesting, but after a few years, I began to feel unfulfilled artistically. I had been working with Amaranth Games for awhile and began also receiving a lot of work from other clients. I almost turned down working on Aveyond 2 because I was too busy and then I had a wake up call! Why would I turn down something I love to do something that is only a chore? Actually, Eva, a Walz Music artist, was a major catalyst during one of our conversations about my frustrations with my job at the time. So I began saving up in early 2007 and preparing for the grand opening of Walz Music, which happened in September of 2007.

Honestly I never expected to give up the comfort of a day job and start my own company. But life is unexpected and you must follow your passion! It is a scary thing because all of a sudden you have no guidance or structure, no coworkers or resources. You have to create all that yourself from your own vision. It’s true that no one will write you up for being late or not approve a vacation request, but also no one will ever give you recognition or any financial security. Along with these lessons, you learn to do things yourself you may not have been comfortable with, like marketing and writing a business plan. But at least I will always be experienced in the areas of employment law and employee coaching and personal development, from my days of HR!

CR: How did you work with Amaranth Games to develop the soundtrack for Aveyond and Aveyond II? What was the process like?

AW: It is always a delight to work with Amanda and Amaranth Games. They send me a storyboard, images, list of characters and monsters found in various areas, etc. Then I organize the areas by mood and instrumentation. For example, for Candar, the city where everyone falls in love, I knew I’d have to have a romantic string melody and some harp accompaniment and elegant oboe and flute countermelodies. Plus I knew it had to have a regal sound, so I needed some orchestral percussion and brass. So I write rough ideas and send them for approval. When they are approved or I am asked to make some small changes, I start the recording process. As you may or may not know, the Aveyond games feature acoustic recordings in their scores! So I get the Walz Music artists into the studio. Then I mix these recordings with the other synth sounds and send it over for final approval and revisions from Amaranth. It takes a long time but it’s very rewarding to have a finished soundtrack and it is very exciting to hear when the players like it. To me personally, music has always been a major factor in whether I enjoy a game.

CR: Gametunnel calls your music in Aveyond “the best music I’ve heard to date”, and you just released a CD of your soundtracks called “From Another Shore: Aveyond and Beyond”. To what do you attribute the success of the Aveyond music?

AW: I was thrilled to read Game Tunnel’s review of Aveyond and also to receive the Best Sound of 2006 Award. I worked very hard creating that soundtrack and it is almost entirely orchestrated. It features recordings from over a dozen orchestral instruments and also vocals. I think that it is fairly unusual to feature acoustic recordings in video game music, especially casual games, and I would say that the live quality is significantly responsible for the success of the game and music. I am very excited about the completion of “From Another Shore: Aveyond & Beyond.” We took the best, most classically-oriented 20 pieces from Aveyond and other tracks and re-arranged, lengthened and improved them for the Music CD. Plus we did a cover from Suikoden and wrote a bonus track song. So far the work has gotten some great reviews from sites like www.rpgfan.com and Amaranth Games community members.

CR: What does your music for Yummy Drink Factory sound like? How is it different from your previous games?

AW: Ooh, glad you asked because I’m excited about this game. First of all, it’s really addictive and fun! I got a beta copy and can’t seem to stop playing for long! Each song is longer than those in the Aveyond series because the gameplay is different: you stay in the same area for longer. So for this reason, I did more extended forms and varied instrumentation to keep it interesting. Mood-wise, it is similar to Aveyond but it varies a lot from area to area. You have the classic lush forest sound in one area, and a creepy yet redeemingly cute swamp area theme. The soundtrack once again features live recordings of flute and strings. Meanwhile, we have been putting out lounge and jazz music for a mobile game client, Middlemind Games, so our music sounds sometimes quite different for each company. Amaranth Games hires Walz Music for a certain mood and sound, so in some way we stay true to that in each project we do with them. Same with Middlemind.

CR: Many of your listed musical influences are from Japanese video games (like Final Fantasy and Suikoden). How do these influences affect your work?

AW: Great question! I have always been a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Noriyuki Iwadare (Lunar & Grandia) and Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest), as well as Miki Higashino (Suikoden). Each has touched and influenced my work, and in fact in multiple cases I contacted these artists before this industry became so huge and had them critique my work and give me pointers! I’ll never forget Noriyuki’s response: “You try hard and make good melody from now.” So I actually learned Japanese in college to help me with my music career. It has been very helpful. The band I produce, nR Element, does some video game and anime theme covers and had a song signed to a record label called Akyr Music, which markets to mainly the Japanese market. I have yet to work for a Japanese video game company, but that possibility is certainly still out there.

CR: How did you meet the artists you feature in your music? Why did you decide to work with live artists instead of creating all the music yourself, and what’s it like to work with them?

AW: Another great question. All your questions are great, actually! I started with friends and people I had worked with personally. Eva and I met on a choir tour in Italy. She plays flute for all our tracks and also provides vocals. Krisha went to college with me, like a few of the other Walz Music artists, and provides most of the violin playing. Then as I needed more instruments, I asked for references from friends and also called up musicians who I’d worked with at various times. To find the other instrumentalists I needed, I recruited on Craigslist. I have met some wonderful people and forged fantastic relationships.

Even though I’ve composed on the computer for a long time, my style is to write, and hear in my head, something that would sound great and feasible played live. Being trained classically, I can’t help but think this way. Live music is much more organic and full of life than something a computer can generate, no matter how expensive your synthesizers are. So from the beginning, I had the idea in my head that I wanted to hear my music played by real instruments. Then the thought popped in my head to actually provide this service to Walz Music clients. Walz Music also began working with co-writers, engineers, arrangers and other artists of all kinds. Why? Because you simply cannot make it doing it all alone. One person cannot do everything, or at least not well. That’s why I started a company.

It is great fun to work with Walz Music artists in the studio. It is important to keep sessions light and fun, not like we are hanging from a cliff facing down! Stressful high-pressure situations don’t make relaxed recordings. We go out to lunch, walk, talk, have wine. Sometimes they have their own ideas or interpretations of the music, and that is a fantastic contribution. Of course there are always challenges, like someone staying in tune, something being too hard for an instrument, broken printers, or schedule difficulties. But it’s kinda fun to sort these out! Walz Music artists get the music in advance usually and have some time to practice before the session, plus we walk through everything first.

CR: Besides Yummy Drink Factory, what’s next for Walz Music?

AW: Hmm, well we are very excited about attending Casual Connect this July in Seattle. I am actually giving a game music composition presentation on Friday the 25th at 11am so I look forward to that. It is a huge honor. After that, in addition to working with our existing clients, we plan to continue marketing our new Soundtrack CD, “From Another Shore: Aveyond & Beyond,” and putting on some more live shows of our work and also starting work on another CD or two, including a new one from nR Element! Since we opened our doors last September, we are still in a growth and marketing phase, which is really exciting and full of opportunities. We are looking forward to getting out there during Casual Connect and broadening our client base to keep those new projects and challenges coming. I always thought that quitting my old full time career would give me more time to finally finish everything I want to accomplish – to complete all those unfinished projects. Not so! On the bright side, I always have a lot to do and I’m never bored.

CR: Is there anything else you’d like to add, or say to our readers?

AW: Just a heartfelt “Thank You” to all those who have supported me, Walz Music, and the games we have been involved with, and to our clients. Some of our newsletter recipients joined as fans about 10 years ago during the days of Aaron Walz’s MIDI Home! Wow! Some of them even grew up and became our clients! I am so grateful to have heard from so many people throughout the years, had so many folks buy my music, spread the word about Walz Music, etc. I would love to have all you who have not done so already to sign up to our newsletter, which goes out every other month or so with special insider info and free music downloads! You can sign up at the Walz Music website (www.walzmusic.com). We also have discussion forums, which we opened just a short time ago. Our music is available for purchase via our 4 CD’s on our website and also iTunes. This way you can hear the music without leaving the music on in the game, like I did when I was a kid! Finally, thanks very much, Casual Review, for the very enjoyable interview!