Music Composer, Producer and Sound Designer, Manuel Marino talks about his most recent project and discusses the similarities between film scores and game soundtracks and the growing interest in music video games.
You recently worked on Crayola Colorful Journey
Manuel Marino: In Crayola Colorful Journey I created the ingame music soundtrack, an original jazz soundtrack. There was a previous musician for the project but after listening to my demos they totally agreed to give me the job. The reason was that my sound quality was impressive.
I can say that I focus a lot on the music melodies but also on how everything sounds. It is absolutely necessary that the recordings are state of the art. I wrote also an ebook about mixing, recording and audio mastering and you can buy it for just 2 dollars through my Weblog or my Studio page.
Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Wii Music, Samba de Amigo, there are so many music and rhythm games in the marketplace each with unique features and gameplay. Why do you think this genre has become so popular now?
MM: I think there’s an artist in everyone’s heart. Arts are the most important studies in the world, they make the societies shift between ages and new civilization structures. I am absolutely sure that without Arts we would still be primitives.
Arts create motion, create struggle and desire to change into a better world. Without Arts, we would simply adapt, which, while many consider it a positive word, I consider it a failure, since means the death of creativity and progress.
These games just awake the artist in your heart, pleasing your soul, relaxing and making you feel in harmony. I am sure also that many after playing as example Guitar Hero, would begin studying guitar playing for real.
Besides your personal work, do you have a favorite video game soundtrack? Why do you enjoy it?
MM: There are many video games soundtracks I love, considering I’m a fantasy and roleplaying games enthusiast, they come all from these kind of games. With an exception, the adventure series Gabriel Knight, music by Robert Holmes. Technically speaking, it has one of the best tension and release structures, tension and release is the fundamental harmony structure of music. As enthusiast, I can say that the music fits perfectly the game and the melodies are very creative and catchy.
Video game soundtracks are now becoming more elaborate and strikingly similar to movie scores. What similarities do you see in film and video games?
MM: I always believed that video games are important forms of Art, very similar to movies. Exactly, I could define them interactive movies. During these years, there has been a process in accepting this idea, and slowly video games have been considered like movies by all audience, enthusiasts or not, and of course by all people involved in games creation.
Both movies and video games are dreams machines, they help us relax and forget the daily problems, dreaming of distant lands and heroic adventures. But they are also works of Art, with original stories worthy of the best selling writers.
Can you describe your creative process behind creating music and soundtracks for games?
MM: Inspiration Muse, what a beautiful woman! She gently caress your face, sometimes she shakes firmly your body, often she just smiles from the distance.
Inspiration is difficult to explain, but it’s the foundation of every creative process. While there are rules in Music, and music notation has a very specific grammar, catchy melodies are hard to find without the Muse smiling at you.
Inspiration could start from the screens of a video game or from a screenplay, or just from a dream. Often I dream about music I create, music that I still have to create. So I wake up and write the music ideas on paper. Sometimes I also run to my piano and play the ideas on the fly, ideas that will be completely produced in the next days.
Visit Manuel Marino’s Blog ManuelMarino.com and his studio page MarinoSounds.com for more information. You can also view his 2009 demos here (Orchestra)and here (Astronaut and Funk).
Purchase Crayola Colorful Journey on Amazon.com
1 response so far ↓
1 carmen // Apr 13, 2009 at 9:08 am
Thanks Manuel for the great interview. I loved your perspective on music video games. We are all artists in one way or another!
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