Interviews
Winifred Phillips Discusses Her Journey to Composing the Music for God of War
“God of War is angry, brutal and merciless – which is why it is so striking how human it all feels.”
Up until recently, Sony’s most successful and most critically acclaimed video games were Gran Turismo and Crash Bandicoot (when they were still in charge of the series). The change came when Sony released God of War, their first adult-geared action game that has the power to compete with all the big games from their third-party competitors.
The gameplay is surprising and incredibly fluid, but if you step away from the game and watch someone else play, two things stand out: the graphics and the music. Never before has a first-party action game looked this good. Never before has a PS2 action game sounded as good as God of War.
The music is moody, memorable, and is worthy of a separate purchase should Sony choose to release the soundtrack. Anyone who listens to the music will be very surprised to learn that it was the composer’s (Winifred Phillips) first video game project. Having worked on a number of radio projects, Winifred brings more experience to the industry than most. Nothing could have prepared her for the journey she was about to embark on when she walked through the doors of the LA Convention Center at last year’s E3. Nothing will be able to prepare gamers for the journey they’ll embark on when they play God of War.
Astonished by her amazing work, GameZone Online couldn’t just sit around playing God of War all day. We had to turn our eyes away from the screen, get up off our $12,000 Lay-Z-Boy chairs, and interview the woman who helped bring God of War’s sound to life.
Winifred Phillips
God of War is your biggest and most critically acclaimed video game title yet. Tell us how things got started, what was expected, how closely you worked with the developers, etc.
Winifred Phillips: God of War was a huge project, and has become an enormous success. I’m so pleased for David Jaffe – the genius who designed the game. He poured three years of blood, sweat and tears into the game, and he really deserves this success. God of War was my first game – I was brought into the project about a year ago by Sony Computer Entertainment America’s music supervisor, Victor Rodriguez. He’d heard some of my demo music, and we’d talked on the phone about the possibility of working together on a video game project.
We met in person for the first time at E3 2004. It was my first E3, so I was pretty awestruck by the whole experience. Victor and I met on the exhibit floor of E3, right in the middle of all the huge projection screens, the massive displays and the noise. He said he wanted to show me something, and he took me over to the Sony booth, and showed me God of War. There was Kratos, the Spartan warrior – all muscle and attitude – running through a gorgeous ruined city.
Victor told me some of Kratos’ story of epic revenge, set in a savage world governed by the whims of all-powerful gods. He asked me if I’d be interested in writing music for God of War. I was so incredibly interested! But I didn’t have the job right away – Victor asked me to create some demo music for the project, to show what I could do. I returned to my studio after E3 and wrote two tracks as fast as I could – I was so pumped to be a part of the project. I sent them off to Victor, and he hired me to compose music for God of War.
All during development I worked very closely with both Victor and Clint Bajakian, senior music supervisor for SCEA. Clint and I would have these long intense phone conversations about the music, tossing ideas back and forth about how to create the best musical atmosphere for the game. Clint was wonderfully generous with his time and his expertise, and I’m so grateful to him for guiding me through the process of creating music for this epic game. I also periodically received notes from David himself, either by e-mail or through Clint. David’s notes were always very specific – he knew precisely what he wanted to hear.
“Hey! Get off my machine!”
God of War is a very dark and brutal game. What did it take to get inside the experience and compose a sound that was fitting to the premise? Was it a specific thing that the developers said, or a game-related item that they gave you (like artwork)?
WP: In the promotional posters for God of War, at the top, you’ll see a quote from an ancient Greek playwright named Euripides – “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” I saw that poster at E3. Sony was giving them away at their booth – I remember that I took a whole bunch of them and hung them around my music studio while I was working. That quote is powerful, especially when you think for a while about what is really being said. If the gods have decided that they want to utterly obliterate you, first they’ll crush your mind. In other words, the path to oblivion begins on the inside, where all the worst nightmares live.
When I was writing the demo tracks, I contacted a translator and had him translate that quote into ancient Greek, and used it as a lyric to be sung by a full chorus. Then I went and read more of the works of Euripides – particularly the play Medea, which I think also captures that feeling of brutality and madness very well. The concept of the hero in Greek mythology is very different from the way we think of heroism today. A modern day hero does what is right, charitable and honorable – but an ancient Greek hero acts more often out of self-interest than altruism, and he is heroic because he is successful, not because he is good. Kratos performs many brutal and despicable acts, but he is effective, and that makes him a hero in the world of Greek myth. It was important to get into that mind set, to understand why Kratos is such an iconic figure, why he would be favored by the gods… and ultimately why his road to damnation and madness is ultimately his road to heroism and greatness as well.
Do you play video games? You've worked on a lot of movies – did you ever expect to work on a game like God of War?
WP: I’ve been a gamer for a long time. My favorites tend to be RPGs like Knights of the Old Republic, Icewind Dale and Final Fantasy X, but I really loved the first Tomb Raider, and ICO has recently brought me back to the world of puzzles and platforms. I’ve also tried my hand at some strategy games like Warcraft III.
Of course, now I’m playing God of War whenever I can. It’s great to see the way everything has come together in God of War – the art, the sound, the level design, and the game play mechanics – it is all very unified under David Jaffe’s artistic vision. David said that he wanted this game to enable the player to express rage – and it absolutely succeeds there! It’s great to go raging through the temples and cities of an ancient world. God of War has really sold me on the action adventure genre.
Before God of War, I’d wanted to create music for video games for a long time. I haven’t actually worked on a lot of movies, although my list of credits might make you think so. I’ve scored The Phantom of the Opera, Beowulf, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Time Machine, Homer’s Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, Arabian Nights, Fortress of Doom, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and so on. But those projects were dramas created originally for National Public Radio. You can still hear those programs broadcast every week on XM Satellite Radio, on the Sonic Theater channel (163). I wrote music for over a hundred of those programs, working alongside award-winning music producer Winnie Waldron. Now, Winnie works with me at Generations Productions. She produced all the music I wrote for God of War.
What was it like working with the God of War development team? I've heard the series creator can be a real stickler – he wants it his way or no way.
WP: When you’re working with a genius, you kind of want him to tell you what’s on his mind. This game wouldn’t exist without David Jaffe – the whole thing was his inspiration, his stroke of brilliance, his brainchild. So yes, he knew what he wanted. Thank goodness! I think it’s great to work with somebody who has real conviction. You’re not going to get anywhere near perfection unless your leader is something of a perfectionist. I was grateful that David knew what he wanted – I took it as a sign that the game was on the right track.
As for the rest of the audio development team, Victor Rodriguez and Clint Bajakian were fantastic supervisors and musical gurus, and Chuck Doud, the project’s audio lead, was a leveling hand in keeping everything on course. And of course, Winnie Waldron was my savior, overseeing the music production process and ensuring the high quality that SCEA demanded.
Something tells me he’s not here to play with my Revenge of the Sith action figures.
Since you've worked with both big game studios and big Hollywood studios, I'm curious to know: who is more demanding? Which one is the hardest to live up to?
WP: I’ve worked with big radio, not with big Hollywood quite yet. But my agent Bob Rice has often said, and very eloquently, that writing music for games is much harder than writing music for film because any film will have a beginning, a middle and an end, but a game has (and I quote), “one beginning, up to five endings and hundreds of middles!”
I think you have to have a real love for videogames and a hunger to contribute to the medium to really succeed as a game composer. If you’re a film composer walking into the field of video games and thinking that this will be just like what you’re used to doing, then you’re going to find out you’re wrong very fast and very painfully. Writing video game music is challenging! Fundamentally, it is an interactive art form, reliant on emerging technologies which are constantly evolving, and requiring an eagerness to learn and a willingness to embrace an entirely different way of thinking about music.
How many different sounds/instruments did you use for God of War? How many instruments do you play?
WP: I used an enormous array of sounds and instruments for God of War. The symphonic orchestra played a huge role, but I also used lots of more exotic instruments originating in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. As far as the instruments I play, I am principally a keyboardist and a classically-trained singer – although I did step in and contribute a reed performance for the project, and in my past I’ve played all manner of acoustic instruments in nearly every section of the orchestra. But my primary strength lies in keyboard and voice.
How long did it take you to complete the soundtrack? Were there any songs, or a particular time of the composing process, that was very difficult to complete?
WP: I was working on God of War from May of 2004 until the completion of the score in mid December. While I can’t say that there were any songs that were very difficult to complete, I can say there was one song that was particularly challenging, mostly because of its importance to the game. There’s a bit of back-story involved in the creation of this track. Right from the first demo tracks I created for the game, I’d been contributing my singing voice to the project. It always made sense for me to use my singing voice as an instrument for the score. The music in God of War is meant to feel dark, mysterious, primal in a dangerous way – so I sang Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired vocals tinged with a dark, menacing quality meant to evoke the atmosphere of an ancient world filled with arcane magic and horrible secrets. Some of these vocals were pitched low and infused with hateful contempt, as though the singer were embodying the essence of the nightmares that torture the main character, Kratos.
But in other tracks, the vocal performance is high and flowing, meant to evoke a sort of magical beauty that is present even in the ruins of past glory. Victor Rodriguez heard one of these performances and asked me to perform the singing voice of the Siren character in the game, and also write the song she sings to lure warriors across the desert to their doom.
Writing the Siren’s Song was both immensely simple and tremendously complicated at the same time. Her melody is sung without accompaniment. The melody is fairly straightforward, but it also flows subtly through an exotic scale. The vocal part is pitched very high, and without accompaniment it was quite difficult to sing. According to the myth, the Siren has a voice that men cannot help but follow until they find the source. Then, enchanted by her song, they are lured right to her, so that she can kill them and eat them. Within the context of the game, the song would be used as a vital part of the game play – the gamer would have to listen carefully and guide Kratos to follow the voice. So a lot hinged on the Siren’s Song!
I wrote the melody very carefully, keeping in mind that it needed to repeat many times naturally and smoothly. The recording session was one of the more difficult vocal sessions I’ve experienced. In the end, I think the song is a successful expression of what David Jaffe wanted. I was also really pleased to hear it used at the beginning of two of the game’s promotional trailers, which made it an important musical theme for the game. That was immensely gratifying.
Why is everyone so big? They must be drinking way too much milk.
What do you feel is the most striking thing about God of War, both the game itself and its soundtrack?
WP: God of War is angry, brutal and merciless – which is why it is so striking how human it all feels, and how significant an experience the game becomes once you immerse yourself in the world David Jaffe has created. There is a depth in this experience beyond what one expects from a game. If a critic were to analyze the game for symbolism and undercurrents of meaning, there would be rich territory to explore. All this lifts the game above its violence, gives it substance and a resonance that remains with the player. Jaffe approached video games as a serious art form, and it shows. All the other elements of the production reflect his artistic integrity and commitment. I think the music benefited from the depth of David’s vision. There is richness in David’s world, and the music reaped the rewards.
You lent your voice to the game as well – was this a natural thing for you? Or does using your own voice make even more of a challenge?
WP: I feel lucky to be able to contribute my voice to my work. It is very natural for me. I think there is nothing quite so eloquent as the human voice in speaking to the heart and soul of the player. The challenge was that, in addition to the solo work I performed, I also overdubbed my own voice into a sixteen voice mixed chorus (sopranos, altos, tenors and basses). I would sing through a song once, and then record my voice a second time, and then again, until I had performed all the voices of the chorus in their four part harmonies.
For the male parts I made use of a little pitch shifting, but only a little. Human ears are very sensitive to the sound of the human voice, so we know pretty well when something has been fiddled with. My aim was to produce as convincing a sound as possible. For the choral sections that used the ancient Greek text by Euripides, I had to learn how to pronounce some very unusual combinations of consonants and vowels. Ancient Greek has this great, alien sound to it, which fit really well into the context of the game.
Was it weird performing the "male chanting"?
WP: No, that wasn’t weird – that was fun! There really is something special about a bunch of angry men chanting in unison! I first created the effect for National Public Radio, for the Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves program. Whenever the forty thieves would show up, I’d have a big group of male voices performing a growly, menacing rhythmic chant, which was similar to a Turkish technique I’d heard in my research for the project.
To create the effect, I overdubbed my own voice in much the same way that I did for the choral parts – except for the chanting, I put as much rough, guttural quality into my voice as possible, and for each vocal performance I tried to imagine myself as a coarse, filthy, dangerous man. Then I just lowered the pitch a bit for all the voices. The effect worked really well, and it came to mind while I was working on the God of War score. I recorded the same basic technique, but in shorter enunciations and much punchier. It helped to accentuate the percussive quality of the music, and made everything feel more primal and violent.
In movies and in games, the composer writes the music and the director (or game designer) decides where it should go. Have you played the final game yet, and if so, are you happy with the way the music is presented?
WP: I’ve played the final game. In fact, I’m still playing it! I really like the choices that David and the audio team made in the placement and implementation of my music. Clint Bajakian made a lot of those strategic decisions regarding the placement of music, and it was his responsibility to ensure that the score knit well with the game and perfectly accentuated the game play. Whenever I’m playing the game I’ll always try to notice all the little audio details that go into the whole experience … but sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on that when I’m surrounded by gorgons, or getting pounded by a Cyclops.
Still, there are times when I’ll be running along a corridor, and the music will transition to a particular piece and I’ll think, “Hey, I remember when I wrote that! That really works here. Great choice, Clint!”
If they’re not big there’s three of ‘em. I just can’t win!
Music composing can be a long and grueling process. How much recovery time do you need after finishing a project? Does the amount that you need differ from the amount that you actually get?
WP: I don’t need much down time between projects. Sometimes I go directly from one project to another with no down time at all. My NPR schedule was absolutely brutal, so I’m used to working with really tight deadlines and going directly from one big project to the next. I love my work, so most of the time I’m really charged by the creative process.
You're doing music for War of the Worlds, correct? How much did you contribute to that film? Did you work alongside John Williams?
WP: Oh wow, wouldn’t that be fun – working with John Williams on the War of the Worlds movie! But no, my War of the Worlds credit was actually another project for National Public Radio. Coincidentally, the project I’m currently working on is a movie tie-in game that’ll be released this summer at the same time the movie premieres. It’s a highly anticipated movie too, and it is expected to be a summer blockbuster. But I can’t say anything more about it – the project is strictly under wraps until it is released.
What’s next for you? More games? More movies? Something else?
WP:
I’ll be wrapping up my current project pretty soon, and then I’ll be going to E3
2005, where I’ll be meeting with developers and discussing future projects. E3
is where my whole God of War journey began, so I’m very excited about
going this year. Also, I’m looking forward to all the spectacle and drama. E3
made my jaw drop to the floor last year, and I came away incredibly proud to be
a part of the creation of video games. I’m looking forward to being wowed again
this year.
Thanks Winifred for a great interview. I’m checking the summer movie list as we speak, trying to figure out which game soundtrack you could be working on :)
For more information on Winifred Phillips, visit her Official Web site:
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