Conducting the Future: Jade Empire Composer Jack Wall Makes “Video Games Live” a Reality, Part 2

Interviews

“We've got 42 classics. Pong, Missile Command, Joust, Robotron, Defender, Space Invaders, all the classic arcade games.”

Game composer Jack Wall continues to spread joy and anticipation with more Video Games Live excitement.

You said that getting publisher support wasn't easy. Who was harder to get: American or Japanese publishers?

JW: “Japanese. To date, the only publisher we don't have on board is Japanese. We're still working on it but I'm not going to tell you who it is [laughs].”

Good luck. I hope whoever it is you get 'em. It'd be great to have everyone on board.

JW: “Totally. They're the only publisher. We met with them at GDC and they were like, "Yeah, it sounds great!" So it's just a matter of getting through to the right person. That's what it's been these past years.

“It's always been our hope that once we got through first year we could continue to do this every year, and it'd be much easier because everyone will know what this is.”

You said you have support from all the American developers – do you have support from LucasArts? Are you going to be doing Star Wars now or at some point in the future?

JW: “For the most part we have shied away from licensed titles. The reason is because we want to focus on video games that are just video game licenses. The only real "license" we have in the entire show is Tron. That came from a movie, but it was a movie about a video game. We thought it would make a really interesting addition to the show.

“All the rest of 'em: [Jack lists the games he previously mentioned], Advent Rising (that's a new one, it's Tommy's game which is great), Maximo, Ghosts 'N' Goblins.”

Cool! I love that!

JW: “We've got 42 classics. Pong, Missile Command, Joust, Robotron, Defender, Space Invaders, all the classic arcade games. They all had their little tunes. We're creating an orchestration for all of that for one segment. It's going to be amazing.”

Will touring be a big change for you? Have you ever been on the road before?

JW: “I've not been on the road before. I'm really looking forward to it. I've always wanted to do it, I just never have. I've always been in the studio working, never working live. I've been in bands before, but never on the road like this. So yeah, it's going to be a huge change for me and Tommy.”

Which songs are you looking forward to conducting the most?

JW: “There's not one that I'm not [looking forward to conducting], so it's hard to say. I think Halo is going to be amazing.”

Yeah, that's going to be huge.

JW: “Warcraft, Medal of Honor. The classic stuff is going to be a lot of fun in a wholly different way. It shows us how different all this music is, like the Mario pieces, Sonic and Zelda. Those are so different from Warcraft. It'll be fun to conduct my own music, but I think that's the hardest music at the show. Of course I'm nervous about my own music 'cause it's mine.”

The games that you're conducting: do you have the rights to every song from every game in each series?

JW: “The way music rights work, as long as it's registered anyone can play anything. But when it comes to video, that's a whole other thing. We got the rights to play the video from almost all the games at the show. We only have one or two that won't [have video].”

Let's use Metal Gear Solid as an example then: which songs are you covering from that series?

JW: “That's a surprise.”

Which do you think is more significant to game players: the music in online games or offline games? When you play a game by yourself you're into that solitary experience: the story, the characters, the sights, the sounds. But if you're playing online, you might be thinking about what your friend is doing, who's attacking, things like that.

JW: “Halo 2 is a great game to play online, but when you first get the game you just play the single-player mode to learn how to play it. You beat the game, then you go online. When you go online I don't even think the music plays in Halo because it's such an expansive universe that you could play forever online. The music would get really tiring, so it's pulled back in most multiplayer games.”

In terms of composing, have there been any games that you were working on and thought, "I could do even more, but they're only asking for this."

JW: “That happens to me every single game I do. To me it's all about my experience as a composer more than a content thing. My feeling is – if the team is excited -- that rubs off on me really fast. I always do more than I ever thought I could do.

“I did MYST IV last year and I did so much extra work for that. It was insane. It's not that I had to do it – nobody was saying, "You have to do this." I just did it 'cause it was in me.

“Jade Empire is another one that's like man, what a great opportunity. Everyone was looking forward to the game. I love working on original stuff, and that's another reason why there aren't any licensed songs in the show.

“To me, it's like John Williams already wrote a great theme for Star Wars. There's nobody that's going to write a better theme for the game version, it's just not going to happen no matter how good a composer they are. The signature for Star Wars is the Star Wars theme.

“So either you're going to re-use his theme or you have to hire someone to write similar themes. That person who writes similar themes isn't going to write too closely to John Williams did or else he's going to get sued. So he starts writing something that's similar, and similar is always worse than the original. It just doesn't cut it.

“This is not a to [put down] Jeremy Soule or anyone else who does Star Wars games 'cause they're all talented guys. It's just that you're up against not only Williams but 30 years of movie history. Forget it.

“Me working on Jade Empire – that's pretty sweet, because I get to make entirely new sounds. It's exciting, it's artistically challenging. It's great. That motivates me to go way beyond what's in the contract.”

Which composers do you admire the most?

JW: “Right now I'm really into Jason Hayes work on Warcraft. Howard Shore is great, but I swear to God I think Jason Hays is better. I love Howard Shore, I love The Lord of the Rings music. It's genius.

“But Jason, to me, there's something about the way he writes...he gets it. He kills me with his stuff. He's amazing, and he's a game composer. I've been doing this for [over] 15 years (not as a composer but as a music producer and in terms of being involved in the music industry). When something hits you right, that's good. I just love his stuff. I love the signature theme from Halo.

“I think John Williams is one of the finest composers we've ever seen. He's an absolute genius. I don't think there's anyone that can even come close to him in terms of writing ability.”

I agree. He's unbelievably diverse.

“I like a lot of film guys. I like a lot of film guys. Hans Zimmer – he's another one who's often imitated but never equaled.

“There's a new guy on the scene, Tom Salta. He kills me. He's great. He did the Ghost Recon main theme. It's now on the show. We're going to do a little Tom Clancy segment.”

That'll have people cheering.

JW: “Splinter Cell is kind of stealthy, then I go into the main theme from Rainbow Six, then boom, Ghost Recon theme brings down the house. What could be better than that?”

I can’t wait for this musical sequence!

Will there be surprise conductors?

JW: “We thought about doing that, but since we're going on tour that wouldn't be very easy. But you know what? I'm leaving that up in the air 'cause it's always a possibility. If we go to a city and somebody's available, why not? Come in?”

When you're not composing or planning game concerts, what do you do? Is there anything you enjoy doing in your spare time?

JW: “I play basketball. I love playing basketball. I spend a lot of time with my family. I travel. I play video games, especially with my kids.”

You had said that planning this concert is taking up all your time. Does this mean that you aren't working on any more games right now?

JW: “Not right now. I have cleared my schedule for the concert. I was going to do one game, then I said no. I would've ended up having to farm most of it out, and the thing for me is that I'm kind of a control freak. I'm working on this [the concert] full time. I've got games lined up for October [when the tour ends].”

Sounds good. Thanks Jack for an awesome interview!

More Info:

Video Games Live Dares to Redefine Interactive Entertainment (Part 1)

Video Games Live Dares to Redefine Interactive Entertainment (Part 2)

Video Games Live – Tour Dates (ADDITIONAL SHOWS ON SALE NOW!)

Wednesday, July 6 – Los Angeles , CA – Hollywood Bowl – 8:00 PM

Thursday, August 11 – Atlanta , GA – Chastain Park – 8:00 PM

Saturday, August 13 – Holmel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center – 8:00 PM

Sunday, August 14 – Camden , NJ – Tweeter Center – 8:00 PM

Wednesday, August 17 – Toronto , Ontario – Molson Amphitheatre – 8:00 PM

Friday, August 19 – Bristow , VA – Nissan Pavilion – 8:00 PM

Monday, August 22 – Boston , MA – B of A Pavilion – 8:00 PM