Video Games Live Q&A, Part Two

GameZone has released the second installment to their Q&A with Jade Empire composer Jack Wall about his new video game music tour, Video Games Live. Check it out:

Q: 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.”

A: (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.)