AMANDA DYAR: How did you get involved on Tomb Raider?
JASON GRAVES: The game developer, Crystal Dynamics, reached out to me and we had a phone call. What was supposed to be a short, introductory chat turned into a detailed brainstorm of information that lasted a few hours. We just kept bouncing ideas off of each other. It seemed like a perfect match from the beginning. AMANDA: What were your main inspirations for scoring the reboot of Tomb Raider? Did you look back on any of the other titles in the series for inspiration?
JASON: We were all very keen on keeping things fresh and not revisiting any old material, whether it be story lines, characters or musical themes. The game was still in its infancy when I was brought on board, so there wasn’t a lot of actual gameplay yet. I always prefer to start working on a theme first, and that made even more sense for Tomb Raider.
My main inspiration for any project usually defaults to the story, more specifically the emotions of the story and its lead character. In this case, we had a young, inexperienced Lara Croft out on her very first adventure. I thought it was important for the main theme to be malleable, starting quiet and vulnerable at first and growing along with her character throughout the gameplay. I used a solo piano for the “quiet” main theme and the full orchestra, especially the brass, for the more heroic, “experienced” version of the main theme.
AMANDA: How did scoring a game like Tomb Raider differ from other projects you have worked on such as Dead Space?
JASON: The main difference was the sheer amount of music required. The most I had written for a single project before was two hours. Tomb Raider has three and a half hours of score in it, and that’s not even counting all of the trailers I composed for. Most of the score is also incredibly interactive, so in reality the three and a half hours I wrote are actually extrapolated out to about eight hours of unique, non-repeating music.
AMANDA: Tomb Raider has some scary/creepy elements specifically the underground caverns with hanging corpses that had obviously been tortured. How did you create this overall chilling effect in the soundtrack to match what the player was seeing on the screen?
JASON: Most of the creepy/spooky sounds came from a custom-built sculpture I commissioned solely for the purpose of performing and “extracting” new and eerie sounds. There were metal pipes, glass bowls and lots of metal spikes that were struck, bowed and tortured into submission. My whole idea was to create new, interesting sounds that put the player on edge for no other reason than they had no idea WHAT the sound was. It’s the whole “fear of the unknown” thing - I’ve been building and experimenting on that idea ever since the first Dead Space in 2008.
AMANDA: Tomb Raider received tons of praise from critics when it released, and it's not often that fans accept a reboot to a beloved series with open arms. Why do you think that Tomb Raider was the exception?
JASON: Crystal Dynamics really went out of their way to please the fans and still make an original, engaging storyline. They worked so hard, I mean HARD, on this title - things were scrapped or reworked if they weren’t lining up exactly with the point of the story. I think any good game has a good story at its heart and Tomb Raider is no exception.
AMANDA: What was one of your most challenging or rewarding experiences during your time scoring Tomb Raider?
JASON: The simple fact that I was working on an ACTUAL Tomb Raider game was probably the biggest challenge, at least psychologically speaking. It was a wonderful opportunity and I wanted to rise to the occasion, stretch myself out of my comfort zone and create something totally original and unique. As it turns out, what was the most challenging was also the most rewarding. Crystal really let me experiment and try different things...and then they kept it all in the game!
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AMANDA: Lastly, do you have any other projects you are working on and what do you have planned for the future?
JASON: Plenty of things I'm working on, but as usual nothing I can’t talk about them - isn't that the way it always is?! I can say I've been traveling a lot to music festivals and conducting selections from my game scores. There was a world premiere in Sweden of a new suite I arranged for Tomb Raider. I composed two pieces in the lineup and we had a 95-piece orchestra and sold out crowds - it was a fantastic show! There's another concert in Spain in September with 90 musicians and a 50 person choir. And another one in Cologne in October. It's great being part of these events, but what I love the most about them is the awareness they raise for game music!
To learn more, visit the official Tomb Raider and Jason Graves websites.
Jason Graves will be conducting his music from Tomb Raider at PlayFest in Malaga, Spain (Sept 5-8) and speaking at Game Music Connect in London on Sept 9.