Full Spectrum Composition: Garry Schyman Talks About His Scores for “Ten Hammers” and “Destroy All Humans”

by Louis Bedigian 

Everybody knows that you can’t take over the world, attempting to destroy all humans, without a good soundtrack to back up the chaos. All the hellacious anarchy would be brutally silent without an appropriate theme to carry the destructive message.

Likewise, you might be a warrior, but you won’t be a full spectrum warrior if gunfire is all you hear. War games need a big, powerful, all-encompassing score that envelops the player in the moment. What I’m trying to say is: every good game needs a memorable soundtrack.

Destroy All Humans, whose stellar soundtrack was nominated for three Game Audio Network Guild Awards (Music of the Year 2005," "Best Live Performance Recording" and "Best Original Instrumental"), was scored by film and TV composer Garry Schyman. Garry started composing young, adding zest to The A-Team right out of college. He’s worked on cult classics like Magnum P.I. and The Greatest American Hero, but it wasn’t until the early 90s that he finally jumped into the world of interactive entertainment.

"In the early 90s I worked on a few games, including Voyeur 1 and Voyeur 2, which were for the Philips CD-I,” said Garry, giving us a brief history of his work. “Voyeur 1 had an orchestral score, it was one of the very first orchestral scores for video games.”

Garry said that he eventually ended up concentrating on film and TV, but then had the opportunity to score Destroy All humans. “It was a very cool game, especially from a compositional standpoint, because they wanted a 1950s orchestral sci-fi score.

"Soon afterward they [THQ and Pandemic Studios] hired me for Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers.”

Garry is working on other titles as well, but is unable to divulge any details. "I'm working on two other games right now, but because of the secretive nature of video games, I can't tell you what they are."

With E3 around the corner, we’re likely to hear more very soon.

Until then, Garry was kind enough to take the time to answer our questions about his known contributions to the game industry.
 

What made Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers an appetizing project?

Garry Schyman: It's a very interesting game. The first Full Spectrum Warrior was a very successful game. It was originally ordered by the military. It was a training game. Then the video game version was created. Ten Hammers is even more advanced than the first. It's all set in the middle-east, and [musically] it is a mixture of orchestral and middle-eastern instruments. Live instruments. It was a really exciting game to write music for.  

"It has a mellow, beautiful, sad quality."—Garry Schyman on his score for Ten Hammers

How did you come up with this sound? Did you envision it as being what

GS: Obviously music is always a cheat. There's never music that accompanies real life, unless you're at a concert or you're listening to your stereo or whatever. There's never a dramatic score to real life. If you're in a middle-eastern city and you want to create that flavor of that part of the world, then you want to use at least part of that instrumentation.

Tell us about the music transitions.

GS: If you are not in combat and you are on patrol, the ambient music will come in and out. It's not wall-to-wall music which is great. There are sounds in the city. There are all sorts of sounds emanating from the soldiers moving. If they have tanks, weapons, [or something else], you'll hear that. The ambient music is specific and tries to be unique to that part of the city. There's an area by the water, there’s a town by the water and you’ll hear [specific music there]. I tried to create music for each of the different parts of the game.

The music will come in at random, then kind of fade out and go away, then you’ll only hear the sounds of the city. If you enter combat and you’re not in the middle of the ambient music, the battle music will begin. If you are in the middle of an ambient piece there will be a cross-fade into the battle music.

Is there a main theme?

GS: Yes it does. You hear it in the beginning. It’s a military theme with drums and orchestral… And the main theme also has elements of middle-eastern as well including the vocalist. The thing that is the most identifiable would be a traditional melodic section with French horns and trumpets. I had six French horns and three trumpets and three trombones.  

Alien invasion! 

Does this theme set the tone for the rest of the game?

GS: It definitely sets the tone. And like I said, it also has middle-eastern sections to it as well. It kind of starts out sort of eerie and a little middle-eastern, then it goes into this military theme with military drums and brass. Then it goes back to middle-eastern. At one point it combines middle-eastern with the military sound.

How much music did this end up being?

GS: About 60 minutes.

Any plans to release a soundtrack?

GS: There is talk of it. It has not happened yet, but there is a possibility. I would kind of guess not. Game soundtracks have a relatively minor sales potential. Occasionally they do well, there’s one or two that have. So I would say probably not, but I’ve spoken with some people about it so we’ll see.

Have you thought about releasing it via iTunes?

GS: I’m not sure of the mechanics of actually doing that. I would have to look into that and see if it’s a possibility.

When did the music come into play? I played Ten Hammers at last year’s E3, but I don’t remember hearing any music. Were you on board then?

GS: No. I wasn’t involved until last September.

How long did it take you from that time?

GS: I think I had about two months. 

Going back to your previous project, Destroy All Humans, how did the experience of working on these two titles compare?

GS: Stylistically they’re very different. One was a middle-eastern, ethnic-flavored score, and one was sort of a strict old-fashioned, 50s sci-fi score. Each one was refreshing to work on. [But] in both cases you get up in the morning and work on music.

Where did you turn for inspiration for Destroy All Humans?

GS: I would have to say Bernard Herman’s scores. In particular his score for The Day The Earth Stood Still.

What kind of difficulties did you encounter while scoring these games?

GS: I don’t know that there was anything unusually difficult. You’re always, when you’re writing, trying to come up with just the right sound. With Destroy All Humans [which had a 1950s theme], you’re always checking yourself stylistically to make sure you haven’t gotten too modern. With Full Spectrum Warrior I didn’t have to worry about that. I didn’t have to think, “Is this too modern?” With Destroy All Humans I really put myself into the 1950s timeframe, writing very seriously. Destroy All Humans is a tongue-in-cheek game, but the music does not reflect that. The humor comes out of the music [when it’s paired with] the sometimes very comical dialogue, and visuals that are really funny.

On Full Spectrum Warrior I wanted to make sure that [I came up with pieces that] differentiated the levels. That was something I had to work on.

How involved were you with the developers?

GS: For Destroy All Humans they had already decided on a style. I gotta say, I did completely agree with the style chosen. It was the only way to go. So if I had designed it, the style, I would have done exactly the same thing.

Thank you for your time.