Game On!: LDS Composers Writing Video Game Music Soundtracks
Grid of six pixilated images of composers, top row, left to right: Jeff Broadbent, Lance Montgomery, and Joshua Aker; bottom row, left to right: Ron Saltmarsh, Chance Thomas, and Benjamin Dean Taylor.
By Benjamin Dean Taylor
I’m not a writer or a journalist. I’m a freelance composer who supports my wife and six children writing concert music, primarily for orchestras and wind bands. I get commissions from ensembles and performers all over the world to write original music—my career is a dream come true!—but today I’m not wrestling with quarter notes, eighth notes, and treble clefs, I’m arranging words on a page.
I’ve always been curious about the video game music industry. As an avid gamer myself (who stopped keeping up with games in my late teens around the time of SimCity 2000 and World of Warcraft), I recognize the importance of a good video game soundtrack to the overall gaming experience. Let’s face it: Super Mario Bros would not be nearly so cool without its incredible music and sound design. Or Contra, or Dr. Mario, Tetris, Donkey Kong, Zelda (one of my favs) or Sonic. You can probably hear the music of those games in your head right now. So how does a video game soundtrack get made? How does a composer get into that profession? What role are LDS composers playing in that industry?
It turns out that LDS composers are leaders in the field of video game music. I had the pleasure of speaking with five LDS video game composers as I wrote this article. They very generously gave me a behind-the-scenes look into their careers and art form. I was shocked (pleasantly) to find out that each of them has a full-blown career, has been recognized with awards such as Oscars, Emmys, and G.A.N.G. awards (Game Audio Network Guild) and has created the music for some of the highest profile games in the world, including Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil, Transformers, Lego Chima, Infinity Blade, The Lord of the Rings, X-Men, and Dungeons and Dragons Online. I’ll share with you what I learned about the business of video game music, how the creative process works, how these composers balance family with work, and what role their religious faith plays in their music and career. Here we go.
Let me first introduce you to Jeff Broadbent. Back in 2006 or so, Jeff and I were BYU classmates both studying music composition. While we shared the same major and completed the same assignments (primarily writing music for live performers), we were both headed in very different directions with regard to our careers. I can remember Jeff spending hours in the ALMA computer lab on BYU campus studying scores by the likes of John Williams and Hans Zimmer analyzing their use of melody, harmony, orchestration and counterpoint. Jeff says, "I loved my time at BYU studying modern art music. I learned so much there, in terms of the fundamentals of music composing, and an appreciation of many art forms. I think the world is richer for the many art forms we have. I love to go to art museums, and look at visual art also. To me, it is all connected (literature, music, art). They speak to the human experience, and have something of eternity in them. These kinds of things help give life meaning and purpose." After BYU, Jeff studied at the UCLA film/tv/video game scoring program before launching out on his career as a freelance composer. Jeff now lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and five children. He recently returned from the Hollywood Music in Media awards where he was recognized as a winner in the category of Video Game Trailer Score with his music for League of Legends: Wild Rift.
Another buddy of mine who was also my BYU colleague is Lance Montgomery. Lance told me how he originally set out to be a “Hollywood” composer. But after learning what that entails, including expensive schools just to make connections, years of underpaid work, hard hours that make family life difficult, living in LA, etc., he says, “The game industry has been much more sustainable as a career for me. Many, many more games get made than films.” Lance now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where he runs his own company focused primarily on music and sound design.
Joshua Aker also studied music at BYU after switching from getting a law degree; however, he did not pursue the usual music composition degree. He remarks that, “I didn’t make it into the BYU comp program. But maybe for the better as I wasn’t very interested in the emphasis on atonal music and 12 tone rows, you know, John Cage heady stuff.” He remembers writing the music for Infinity Blade in his bedroom studio, which included recording sound samples of banging on sheet metal he had found in the HVAC department of Home Depot. When Infinity Blade hit 100 million downloads and became the “fastest-grossing app ever for iOS,” he was ecstatic! He went on to score Infinity Blade II and Infinity Blade III. He is now running his own boutique production company based in Utah called SomaKat which specializes in telling stories through sound.
Ron Saltmarsh is a composer and professor at BYU in the commercial music area. In our conversation he recalled programming early video game chips to make sounds, including music, from simple oscillators (we hear those early game soundtracks as bleeps and bloops—think music from Super Nintendo or Atari). Ron actually helped code some of the first software to facilitate composers writing music for the early video games. You’ll also recognize the game Guitar Hero, for which he served as a consultant. He now lives and works out of his home studio in Utah.
And finally, I had the opportunity to chat with Chance Thomas, who some call the father of game music. He wrote one of the world’s first live orchestral scores for a video game in 1996 called Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire. He has since gone on to write for dozens of well known games including The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Marvel, and Warhammer. Chance is also a product of BYU having started as a business major but then was able to transfer his scholarship to the music school. Chance recently officially retired from composing in February of 2022.
I should add that there are other LDS composers making a name for themselves in video game music. Sam Cardon has scored several games including World of Warcraft - Mists of Pandaria, and Chad Cannon worked on a team of composers for Ghost of Tsushima.
Top row, left to right: Jeff Broadbent, Lance Montgomery, and Joshua Aker; bottom row, left to right: Ron Saltmarsh, Chance Thomas, and Benjamin Dean Taylor.
Each of the five composers I interviewed told a unique and fascinating story, though several themes emerged. First, many of them continue to be active performers on their principal instruments. Most grew up playing music in rock or jazz bands. Some had classical training on their instrument; some did not. Some own and play some very unusual instruments (like Jeff’s hurdy-gurdy and guitarviol). I found it fascinating that none of them live in LA (the Mecca for all film and video game music). Each of them went to BYU. Each of them is a freelance composer, like me, working on contract for specific projects as opposed to a salaried position with a specific company. Other than Ron who is now teaching at BYU, they all make their living solely off of their composing work. No small feat!
They all started writing music when they were young, and often they were on the cutting edge of technology. Infinity Blade, featuring the music of Josh Aker, was the first iOS game to run on an emerging 3D platform called Unreal Engine. Chance Thomas scored one of the first video games to use a live orchestra. Ron Saltmarsh made significant contributions to early video game music programming. Lance Montgomery is part of a community of composers pioneering new techniques in binaural spatial audio (a very cool specialized version of surround sound) as well as audio-only and blind accessible games. Josh may have said it best, “I just try to be a good service provider. My first scores prior to Infinity Blade were cringe-worthy. But I was rehired because I was malleable.”
When asked about their creative process, not a single one responded like I would have, “I start with a pencil and staff paper and sit at my piano…” Instead, they each use technology from the very start, employing synthesizers, pre-recorded samples, as well as live musicians. Chance said, “Every step of the music scoring process involves some degree of collaboration. My favorite steps involve collaborating with studio musicians during recording sessions and with the mixing artist during the music mix.” Ron and Jeff both clarified that for them, most projects are done almost entirely in the computer using virtual instruments that sound like real players. It is actually very rare for a composer to have a budget to be able to hire a full symphony orchestra for a video game. Sometimes a composer will hire a soloist or small ensemble of instruments to record some of the primary melodies, which gives the music a layer of human expression that no computer instruments can replicate.
Many of the composers noted that they will often record themselves playing guitar, piano, saxophone, etc., as the soloist when budgets are tight. Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Finale, Sibelius, Pro Tools: these are the names of the computer software programs that allow these composers to make their magic. I’ll note that I also use Finale to notate my music, as well as Logic Pro for creating my works for live instruments and electronic backing tracks, such as Techno Blade (a work for middle school band and audio track that has sounds of myself throwing knives I recorded—yes, I’m an amateur knife thrower) Lance also said he still composes everything on a grand staff in Sibelius before moving to Logic. “I still lay it out on a score. I don’t know how else I’d be able to formulate the progression of themes, timing of hits, key changes, seamless loops, etc.”
So what does a typical day look like for these composers? Jeff summarizes his work day as follows, “I usually start each day replying to client emails (music direction, requests for revisions, etc.). After that, I will generally proceed with composing music for the rest of the day. If I don't have any current projects to work on, I will spend my time following-up with prior clients, reaching out to new studios/people, etc., in order to look for new projects to work on (in addition to updating my composer website, possible music studio/equipment/software upgrades, etc.).”
Creativity is key for these composers. Josh recalls being told by a producer, “You do you.” He felt he had full creative reign when scoring Infinity Blade. “No one said, ‘you need to sound a certain way.’” Josh enjoys creating unique sounds from everyday objects that will give his music soundtracks a distinct and personal flair. “I go to Home Depot to explore new sounds. I just bang on random stuff, and when I find something I like, I bring it back to the studio to record it.” Josh recalls the excitement of hearing the sound of a piece of photography equipment unfurling one day and realizing that it would make a perfect addition to a track he was working on. And just like that, the sound of a photography reflector unfurling made its way into an Infinity Blade battle fight soundtrack.
When it comes to balancing work life with family, Lance remarked, “My daily schedule is all over the place. It's a balance I still have never struck. When workload is heavy and deadlines are pressing, I'm an emotional wreck from dawn until dawn. Not much different than the life of the ‘Hollywood composer’ I ran away from.” Chance added, “During my composing career, I found it essential to create boundaries to protect my health, my family, and my faith. I did not work on Sundays, as that was reserved for my faith and family. Friday nights were reserved for my wife. I kept an open door policy during the week so my kids could check in with me. I learned about and practiced good nutrition, exercise, water intake, and other essentials in order to preserve my primary creative asset (my brain).”
And what about their shared LDS faith and how does that play into their composing? Chance commented, “Early in my profession, I made a decision not to work on R-rated films or M-rated games. I think the sensitivity of the human spirit is something that should be carefully preserved, and I was unwilling to have it bludgeoned by graphic content. Finally, I would always pray before starting to work each day, typically asking for inspiration so that the music I composed would be fitting for its purpose, achieve a standard of excellence, and serve to entertain and inspire others.” Jeff added, “I have always felt guided by God in my career path. I will regularly pray for guidance and help in composing, as well as business and career decisions.” Lance elaborated that for him, his faith keeps him pushing forward during the hard times, “It’s a hard career as a freelancer. Ups and downs. Sticking to my career has seemed illogical at times, with the responsibility of supporting a family. As a core part of our faith, we’re charged with building the kingdom of God, beautifying the world with our talents, working at and improving those talents and not hiding them. Sometimes when I have felt like I am done and need to give up, other than the logical argument that I’ve already put so much time and money into this and it would be a waste to give it all up, the one thing that has driven me to keep at it is the notion and feeling that this is what I was meant to do and that someday it’ll amount to something even greater. Whether that greatness is for the actual benefit of mankind, or simply in the eyes of God, I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not allowing myself to hide my talents.”
In our conversations, each composer I interviewed expressed hope in a bright future for the video game industry. Jeff noted, “With Steam and the downloadable games market, as well as mobile phones, there is a great deal of opportunity for many developers to create games. I feel like over the past decade, a diversity of video games (including a re-emerging of retro video games) has occurred. It is no longer just the large video game companies that are dominating—there are many independent studios also, making great games.” And this means more need for rising talent to come to the foreground.
Lastly, there is the theme of the composers’ concern for their children. It came up in just about every interview. Josh noted that he often takes his kids to his studio (walking distance from his home) and that the kids will read books or play games quietly on the couch while dad composes. He does some of his best work when his kids are around. When I asked Lance about his dream project, he said he would love to be making “games for children—educational and joyful.” Ron also composes in his home studio, and while his children are now grown and gone from the home, he recalls with fondness the era of being hard at work and hearing the children on the other side of the studio door. I understand what they mean. I’ll speak for myself that I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without the encouragement and support of my family. There is something extra motivational and special when I sit down to work knowing that after two hours of composing I get to take a break and wrestle with my 4-year old Jeffrey and 2-year old Rose. I write better because I’m a father.
It is fascinating to me that these composers are at the center of such a dynamic entertainment industry. A report published by Grand View Research in 2021 described the global video game market to be valued at $195.65 billion. It is growing fast, too. The report projects annual growth of 12.9% through 2030. (For reference, the global market for movie and video production in 2021 was $90.92 billion, and the global publishing market is projected to be $112.5 billion in 2022.) A few factors are responsible for the growth of gaming: the popularity of massively multiplayer online, Free2Play, and multiplayer games. Around the world, advanced gaming consoles have altered the experience of gaming with record & share and cross-platform gameplay. Action, role play, simulation and strategy, e-sports tournaments, educational tools and cognitive learning: all are dramatically altering the terrain of leisure time and specifically of video gaming.
For old people—I’m sort of old—some of this vocabulary feels a little foreign, and I understand how people who did not grow up playing video games might think it all as unimportant. It’s just a game, they might say. But new forms of entertainment have always been dismissed in their infancy. Take television. Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Television: chewing gum for the eyes.” In 1939, The New York Times ran an editorial with this statement, “TV will never be a serious competitor for radio because people must sit and keep their eyes glued on a screen; the average American family hasn’t time for it.” Well, that was a little bit off the mark. The average person watches 141 hours of TV per month today.
I think of the history of media—from the inventions of sound and film technologies, to the TV, the computer, and beyond—and I marvel at the role of artists to turn technology into something meaningful and transformative for everybody. When you watch a movie, you might be unaware of the music, but you feel it. You would certainly know if it weren’t there. Gaming is exactly the same. It is paramount to the experience.
Thinking of the global influence of LDS media artists of the past, they include the innovators who went to Hollywood in the early 20th century, who worked with Disney, Cecil B. DeMille, the great westerns, who wrote the movie scores for hundreds of well-known films, who won Oscars, who made television transmission possible, who invented stereophonic sound, and so much more. The history of art is being created right now. Video games are a growing part of that world. These LDS composers are a prime example of pioneers in their field whose work is being experienced by millions, all over the world. When a full history of LDS art is written someday, let’s reserve a chapter for these gaming, composing pioneers.