Interviewed by Ben and Aurora
Jasper Kyd the Music Composer for Hitman 2

What is your role in the creation of Hitman 2, and Brute Force?

I am the music composer on these 2 games. For Hitman 2 I am also responsible for implementing the music and making sure it is used in the best possible way. Figuring out when to play the music and when not to play the music is important. If there is too much music
in a game, people are going to turn it of, no matter how good the music is. For Hitman 2 I am also producing a soundtrack CD.

How did you get started in the gaming industry?

Well, when I was 13 I got a Commodore 128/64 and started composing music. Then I bought an Amiga 500 computer and started creating music with that. I was in several different demo groups, and we made some popular Amiga demos. I also played some concerts around Europe at some major demo conferences (back then they were called "copy parties" and often the police would show up and shut down the party. Imagine traveling from
Denmark to Holland in a bus full of crazy party people and then having the police show up after a few hours after getting there.
Then having to spend the night in the nearby bar with a couple of hundred people, sleeping on the floor. Those were the days…)

Anyway, so I started out doing music for some 50 demo productions and when I was 19 we created our game company Zyrinx, We did Subterrania, Red Zone & Scorcher. Hitman was later created by my old friends from Zyrinx.

Do you work on all your music, or do you have people helping you?

I compose all the music. When working on large orchestral projects I work with an orchestrator, lyric writer, producer etc.

What is your opinion of the progress of the two games?

I think they both look great. Both games are on the forefront of cutting edge technology and graphics. Hitman 1 & 2 are very advanced in terms of programming. You can drag people up stairs, shoot things and they will fall and break in realistic ways,
walk into sheets and they move realistically around your character etc. These things add lots of realism to the game environment.

In Brute Force the character design is amazing. The amount of polygons used for the characters really help show of the Xbox hardware. The alien environments also look great.

How do you decide on the type of music you use in the games?

This is done in different ways. On some projects you are asked to come up with music style ideas and other times the developers know what kind of music and atmosphere they want in their game.

Which games do you currently play, and on what console?

I am currently playing GTA3 on PC.

Where do you see your company in five years?

I am not sure. My dream has always been to score video games
and films, and that is what I'm currently doing. I am also starting my third orchestra score soon, and that is something I would like to do more of.

What do you most enjoy about your business field?

Well, in games you are often encouraged to experiment and come up with something unique. That has always been the very foundation of my music style, to experiment and come up with something different. So the gaming business is an excellent platform for pushing the limits of my music

What do you think people misunderstand the most about music in games?

I used to think that a big part of the misunderstanding came from the gaming press. Many times I have heard and read that "we don't know anything about music so how can we rate it" but it has gotten better lately.

Also, the press often looks at music from a perspective such as "a big orchestra was hired to perform the music and therefor we give the music an A". To me, anyone can work with a big orchestra, but making use of the orchestra in a good and original way is much more interesting.

Another misunderstanding is that game music is bad. I personally believe that 90% of all game music is bad music, so it's understandable that people believe game music is bad. I mean, if a non gamer has only seen are played a couple of games, chances are that the music he/she heard was bad. Strangely enough, the chances of good music in a AAA titles is often the same as a smaller independent title, even though the music budgets are much bigger. I used to think 98% of all game music was bad, so this has also improved lately.

If you could have chosen any other job, what would it have been?

I always wanted to be a filmmaker. That's the education I pursued in Copenhagen, but getting into a Danish film school
is very difficult. So I decided to keep doing what I was doing,
which was music. Still, I have directed an underground sci-fi/horror short here in NYC, and I'm involved with the independent film scene in Manhattan and Brooklyn

What can you tell us about Brute Force?

Well, the developers of Brute Force encouraged music experimentation, and I had a lot of fun writing the music.

What can you tell us about Hitman 2?

The Hitman 2 score was performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian Radio Choir. I have included a link for a TV show I did about the recording of the score at my web site. It's in Danish but it shows elements from the actual recording - www.jesperkyd.com

How difficult is game music compared to other areas of game design, like graphics?

I think it's harder to communicate music ideas and find out exactly what kind of music is needed. With graphics
you know right away if it looks good or not. Talking about music is also difficult, since music is more of a feeling and an atmosphere.

How do you feel about today's games and their music/sound?

I think it's slowly improving, but I still hear amazingly bad music in many games. I'd say one in 10 games has nice music,
but very few games have really great music.

Will Hitman 2 and Brute Force feature dynamic sound (where music and sound is decided depending on the situation in the game)?

Yep, the music changes depending on the situation in the game.

What other games have you worked on?

MDK2 & MDK2 Armageddon, The Nations, Messiah, Hitman Codename 47, Freedom: Battle for Liberty Island and many more.

What do you see in the future for the relationship between gaming and music?

Well, I think that game music is improving and I don't see any reason why this trend wouldn't continue. Developers are paying more attention to music and when you have a good score, it really adds an extra dimension to the game.

Thank you for talking to us!

 

When you are done reading please hop over to Jasper Kyd's site @ http://www.jesperkyd.com