Graeme Revell Answers the Call of Duty; Writes Music For Both Sequels

by Louis Bedigian

 

“The action stuff is easy, but when you're dealing with specific emotions and you're not quite sure what they are it's quite difficult.”

 

 

Music makes a war game. It’s true – all the war games I love (Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and a few others) have RPG-caliber soundtracks.

 

Michael Giacchino composed early versions of both those games and has since moved onto one of the biggest TV series on the planet, Lost. He left Medal of Honor for Call of Duty, and now it seems he’s leaving Call of Duty behind for Hollywood. That may come as a surprise to some, and may worry those who wonder: can anyone possibly fill his shoes?

 

One man can: Graeme Revell. Most recently known for his awesome work on Sin City, Graeme Revell scored Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick (movie), and one of my personal favorites, Daredevil. He also wrote the music for CSI: Miami, The Craft and The Crow, and dozens of other films.

 

“I've been predominately a film composer for the past 15 years,” Graeme told me at the start of our interview. “I've done 85 movies and TV mini-series since 1989, and [this is] my first foray into the video game world.” 

 

 

 

How did you come to work on Call of Duty 2?

 

Graeme Revell: I wanted to branch out like a lot of film composers. My first movie was Dead Calm, which was Nicole Kidman's breakout movie, way back in 1989. Since then I've been doing way too many dark, fantasy and thriller kind of movies. I really wanted to get involved with something that was a little more uplifting, a little more exciting and heroic. A little more serious than the kind of fantasy that I end up doing.

 

Did you fight for this gig or did Activision approach you?

 

GR: They approached me. I also hired a manager, and he talked to Tim Riley over at Activision (he's in the music department there). They kind of cooked up the idea between them and it seemed like a really cool idea for me. Usually it's the other way around. A lot of people hope to jump to film composing from video games, but I like the genre and it helps me to go the other direction.

 

Is the soundtrack finished?

 

GR: Yes. Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. I composed them at the same time.

 

There are different soundtracks for each of those games?

 

GR: Yes.

 

How different are they? Will we notice some continuity? How many songs does that amount to?

 

GR: Something like...90.

 

I think you'll notice a difference but you'll also notice a strong continuity is there.

 

Going into this project, what was your vision for the sound of war? We see a lot of movies like Saving Private Ryan and then we get that sound in our head, but what is your idea? And have you done anything like this before?

 

GR: No, nothing like this. The first one, Call of Duty 2 involves British troops, American troops and Russian troops in various scenarios against the Germans. In that respect to fit the Russians it's clearly Russian-type music. [This music is] very grand, very— not heroic all the time of course because they're going through a deeply difficult situation. But the British, American and Russian [music] all have different nationality characteristics.

 

For Big Red One, you get to know the soldiers, you have your favorite, the dialogue between them, etc., it [the soundtrack] is more about the characters.

 

Was it hard working on these two related games at the same time? Most composers work on one at a time, or they might work on two completely unrelated projects simultaneously. Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One are similar games but for different platforms.

 

GR: It’s not difficult at all because I’m working on at least two, typically three movies at the same time. 

 

 

 

Were there any obstacles that you had to overcome in working on a game for the first time?

 

GR: Call of Duty was a little bit further along. They had pretty much completed the QuickTime movies they were able to send me. It’s different from movie music in that you know exactly when a verse is going to hit a certain incident. But in games you’re not quite sure when the player’s going to hit that point.

 

With Big Red One I had still action sequences where people are talking and a picture is given where they’re rounding up the troops, or a [picture] for a funeral as if someone just died. They were still working on the [actual] scenes for that. I could only see sketches, so it was really hard to get a vibe for what’s going on when you don’t know what someone is expecting from that kind of emotion. The action stuff is easy, but when you’re dealing with specific emotions and you’re not quite sure what they are it’s quite difficult.

 

What do you feel is the most important aspect of a song?

 

GR: Different music for different functions. If you’re entering a level, then you come in with an introduction [track] to really set the mood for that level, helping to give the player the feel for what he’s about to embark on. Then there’s one or two action sequences pumping percussion. Then at the end you end it with something emotional; the sound of victory, or it’s very sad because somebody died. You know, really, really applying myself directly to the storytelling.

 

Now you’ve made your first game – was the game industry what you expected it to be? Were there any surprises?

 

GR: It was easier than I thought it was going to be. I went in with a little hesitation because I wasn’t sure… I like the way that I write. I didn’t just want to end up writing loop. And I think with some of the more fantasy games I would probably end up writing more action-loop. Or scary moods, and that wouldn’t be as interesting to me as applying myself to storytelling.

 

I’ve found it interesting that you could loop sections of a song and it’ll hit [the high point] at the same time the player does. That fascinates me. I’m not quite sure how it happens, but I like it. 

 

 

 

Were there any game soundtracks before or are there any now that were really striking to you, that made you want to be a part of the industry?

 

GR: The only game that I really played for a long time is MYST. But not really, not with any great relation.

 

Let’s talk about Sin City, which a lot of gamers love, and The Chronicles of Riddick, which has been turned into a great game.

 

GR: Yes, a great game and a great film. Both [Sin City and The Chronicles of Riddick movie] were fun projects.

 

Were you the main composer of Sin City?

 

GR: No, there were three of us. Robert Rodriguez (director) was the composer himself, but he was trying to perform every other function in the movie as well. So he got me and John Debney to help him out. I did the whole first section. It was just amazing to work with Robert. He likes anybody to come up with crazy ideas. He wanted me to write what he said was a 21st century schizophrenic Conan the Barbarian. I said, “Hey, you got the right guy!”

 

I have a strong relationship with David Twohy. I did Pitch Black, then a follow-up called Blow, and then Riddick. That was very cool on Pitch Black we had a very electronic approach. Then on Riddick we went with a larger-scale soundtrack and had a choir.

 

Unfortunately they were developing the game simultaneously so I wasn’t able to contribute to it.

 

How were you involved with CSI: Miami?

 

GR: I did the first season and half of the second season. It’s difficult to work with the weekly format when I’m doing games and movies all the time.

 

Does that mean you’re working on another game?

 

GR: No, but I’m working on two movies at the moment.

 

I just finished Harsh Times, which is a movie from the writer of Training Day, David Ayer. It’s a feature film with Christian Bale, a very cool movie about a guy who comes back from Afghanistan, and having to deal with getting back into society.

 

And I’m halfway through a remake of The Fog. 

 

 

 

With the Christian Bale movie, is that more of a war soundtrack?

 

GR: No, it’s about when he comes back to the States. It has somewhat different styles to it and it’s somewhat hip-hop, it’s really kind of LA music.

 

Back to Call of Duty, does Activision have any plans to release the soundtrack?

 

GR: I hope they do. We’re looking into it. I know there’s a promo CD, but I think that’s just marketing. I really don’t know who puts the soundtracks out. Is there a specialty company who puts a lot of game soundtracks out?

 

Sumthing Distribution releases quite a few. They’re the main ones – a lot of times they’ll work with someone else for the release. iTunes is also a great venue.

 

GR: Cool.

 

You’ve tackled games, movies, television – is there anything else you want to tackle or are you going to continue doing what you’re doing?

 

GR: I’ve been trying to make— Well there’s a lot of things I want to do. One of the things I want to do is I’ve written two scripts. It’ll be great to contribute pieces of music to my own script. I’m working on a live show in Vegas. The third thing is, I look at the concert hall and the average attendee is 70 years old. I think it’d be cool to turn it around and make it a really fun, visceral experience and hopefully young people [would enjoy it]. It’s a hard one worth tackling. Those are the three things I’m shifting my attention to.

 

 

Sounds like a great plan. Good luck!