Exclusive Interview: Penka Kouneva Talks A Warrior's Odyssey

Penka Kouneva’s  A Warrior’s Odyssey released this month featuring over 18 tracks of action-combat, drama, and fantasy themes composed in true modern cinematic style, with live orchestra, choir, and top Hollywood musicians. Amanda Dyar recently set down with Penka Kouneva to get an in-depth look at the new album and discuss how it all began! Read on to learn more.

AMANDA DYAR: You are one of the rare individuals to come from a very humble background and manage to achieve great success in your professional career later in life. Can you tell us a bit about how your music career began and how you began contributing to the gaming industry?

PENKA KOUNEVA: I began piano lessons as a child growing up in Bulgaria. Then I wrote incidental music for children’s theater when I was 12. After a conservatory degree, in 1990 I received a Duke University Graduate Fellowship in composition and in 1999 came to Hollywood to build a career as a film composer. Orchestrating for Steve Jablonsky on Gears of War 2 (2008) ignited my passion for games (and also coincided with getting an Xbox 360). I immersed myself in game scores, watching gameplay on YouTube for tons of other titles. It was a truly inspiring, energizing experience. I have composed 2 hours of interactive score for Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands; cues for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game (as additional composer to Steve Jablonsky) and have orchestrated on numerous Blizzard titles (WoW: Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, StartCraft II, Diablo III for Neal Acree), and on LOTR: War in the North, Dragon Age 2, RIFT for Inon Zur.

AMANDA: Your new album A Warrior's Odyssey isn't from any video game in particular, but it comes from your love of composing for the gaming industry. In what ways will A Warrior's Odyssey be similar to a video game soundtrack, and why will gamers be able to relate and appreciate the album more so than others?

PENKA: My goal was to grow as a game composer, to learn new techniques, and to adapt my skills specifically for game scoring. The initial impetus was to write a few action pieces building upon the sound of Gears of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Out of these few action pieces my album kept growing, loosely based on the archetypal hero’s journey – epic battle themes interspersed with personal moments of defeat, resilience, hope, and ultimately reaching victory in the end. The battle tracks are composed in a melodic action style and weave in modern percussion and synths arrangements.

AMANDA: A Warrior's Odyssey is inspired by the work you've done on other popular video game series such as Gears of War, Prince of Persia, Transformers and World of Warcraft, but what exactly were you able to take away from each of previous jobs and incorporate into the new album?

PENKA: I felt inspired to build upon the dark sci-fi / melodic style Steve Jablonsky created for Gears of War 2 and 3. This is one of my top favorite soundtracks and my tracks Soldier’s Odyssey and The Battle Must Go On come out of that sound. The pieces in Act 2 (Minotaur, Crete, Forgotten Steeples) come out of the ambient layers for Prince of Persia; Minotaur was also inspired by the Sorcery (Mark Mancina) game score. Another interactive score that inspired me was Fallout: New Vegas (Inon Zur) and its ambient environments layered with string quartet phrases (as you approach characters).

AMANDA: A Warrior's Odyssey is a concept album broken down into three sections. Can you tell us about the structure of the album and why you used this form to tell your musical story?

PENKA: Each battle track is programmatic, based on a “hero” (soldier, war pilot). My approach was to write epic themes, similarly to composing Level Themes for role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft. On another hand, if you have only battle music in a soundtrack, the unrelenting pounding action gets tiresome. So, I decided to intersperse quiet “aftermath interludes” for piano & string quartet dealing with personal feelings –defeat, resilience, hope, moving on ….The first “defeat” piece, Mission Fail 1, was inspired by the Objective Fail stinger from Gears of War 2. I admire Steve Jablonsky’s ability to rework the same heroic theme and make it subdued. Also, creating a contrast between “loud/fast/epic” and “quiet/slow/personal” was used in classical symphonies, where a turbulent first movement segues into a contemplative 2nd movement. More recently, Jason Graves’ fantastic score for Dead Space 2 had similar contrast between action-horror music and intimate themes for string quartet …. The three large sections on my album are The Battle Begins – Faraway Lands/Ancient Times–The Battle Must Go On. Overall, my artistic goal was to transform personal struggles into a universal and common human experience of fighting battles and ultimately prevailing.

AMANDA: We know A Warrior's Odyssey is your newest work, but a talented composer like yourself must stay in high demand, so what other works are you currently working on that we can we look forward to seeing in the near future?

PENKA: These days I am building relationships with game developers and film directors, while promoting A Warrior’s Odyssey. I have a few small games and indie films in progress (can’t quite discuss yet). My long-range goal is to score big action, sci-fi and fantasy games and films. I hope game fans will enjoy my passion project for the game biz, A Warrior’s Odyssey!

Credits:
Photo credit: Lisa Bevis
Art credit: Ognian Bonev