Work on each chapter always begins with the crucial meetings with the designers and writers to look at the shape of the episode, scope out the new locations, go over the scene breakdown, and then discuss any special needs like the Mariachi song or the dance numbers that made appearances this season. Emerson-Johnson is then usually left to his own devices to compose sampled versions of the music which Telltale then places as temporary tracks in the game as it wends its way through development.
 
"I always have some kind of art to look at when I'm starting up, usually fully modeled environments and character concept art," says Emerson-Johnson. "As production goes on, we finish recording the dialog and voice appears, and then all of the acting goes in, so I generally have a little bit more to go on for the cues at the bottom of the list for a given episode." 

Symphony of Sam 

Once the sampled versions are finished, Emerson-Johnson goes back over everything and polishes things up before preparing the sheet music for the instrumentalists and booking the recording sessions.  While the finished pieces still use plenty of sampled elements, Telltale has been great about always fitting live musicians into the budget.  This doesn't mean a whole symphony orchestra or anything, but having the most important parts played by real musicians makes a huge difference. 

Emerson-Johnson's unique method of handling that aspect is to record the musicians individually instead of as a group.  If a given piece has two or three guitar parts, this allows a single guitarist to record each part one after the other and then those recordings can be combined afterwards in the mixing process.  "Oftentimes there are 4-8 saxophone parts in a given tune, and 4 trumpet parts, so it's quicker, simpler, and much less expensive to overdub than it is to put together a large ensemble and spend studio time rehearsing them," Emerson-Johnson explains. 

Scoring the 20-30 individual cutscenes is usually the final step in the process since the scenes have to be time-locked before making it to the music stage.  Each cutscene is scored like a miniature movie which requires a slightly different set of skills than writing for gameplay.  "For me, comparing the two is practically like comparing night and day, and consequently I love both for really different reasons," says Emerson-Johnson. 

"The freedom of writing the environmental music is absolutely wonderful.  It's great to be able to just go wild and to only be bound by whether the music has the right feel for the environment.  Writing for cutscenes, on the other hand, has the perk of being able to actually time specific musical moments to the action, so there is an opportunity to build in more subtlety.  For that same reason, the cutscene score tends to have most of the character-specific thematic material." 

Lagomorph on the Loose 

"One of the best things about Sam & Max is that it can jump so unabashedly to an entirely random, out-of-the-blue scenario," says Emerson-Johnson.  "When that happens in the games, my music tends to follow suit."  This is especially true of Season 2, where the musical styles range from the darkly foreboding Christmas themes of Ice Station Santa to the Latin beats of Chariots of the Dogs.  This season has seen classical, '80s hair metal, Hungarian folk music, surf rock, and just about everything else one could imagine. 

Listen to the Creature Was Stirring Track
Listen to the Creature Was Stirring Track

 Perfectly duplicating those styles demands plenty of research, which, along with the recording sessions, is Emerson-Johnson's favorite part of writing for Sam & Max.  "I firmly believe that composers need to dedicate a considerable amount of time to listening to what other folks are doing and have done," he says.  "This is infinitely more true for any sort of genre composer, especially for a series like Sam & Max which pulls its influences from all over the place.  My favorite thing about writing for Sam & Max is still the incredible variety it calls for." 

Beautiful Box of Blues 

The 2-CD soundtrack that comes out this month will feature roughly 140 minutes of music, along with about 40 minutes of bonus tracks in the form of high quality MP3s that wouldn't have fit otherwise.  This covers nearly everything from the season, including a couple of trailer scores and even a little revamped music from Season 1.  "We worked really hard to make this soundtrack even better than the last one," says Emerson-Johnson.  "It initially proved to be a little bit difficult, since there was considerably more music this time around even though there were only five episodes." 

Track List: 

Freelance Panic
T.H.E.M.
Arctic Hush
The Big Stinker
Unholy Workshop
TKO
The Creature Was Stirring
The Friendly Demon Song
Ice Station Santa Cutscene Suite

Easter Island
Woo!
Hangin' 8
Rapa Nui Choo Choo
Beneath the Island of the Chimps
Moai Better Blues Cutscene Suite

Sturm und Drang
New Location Unlocked (Midtown Remix)
Jürgen's Lair Suite
Silent Shootout
Night of the Raving Dead Cutscene Suite

Radical!
La Oficina del Futuro
Oscuridad Eterna
La Canción de los Mariachis
El Molcajete De Almas
¡Feliz Cumpleaños!
Chariots of the Dogs Cutscene Suite

Twilight Eternal
Please Hold
4:59
Fugue and Dies Iræ
Grotesque Burlesque
Absorptio Bullescens Fatiscores Diaboli
What's New Beelzebub? Cutscene Suite
Season 2 End Credits

The Office (new season 2 version)
City Streets (new season 2 version)
Sybil's (new season 2 version)
Ice Station Santa Trailer
Chariots of the Dogs Trailer

"I may be old fashioned, but to me there is nothing like having a physical album with all of the beautiful cover art and graphic design, the high quality fidelity, etc.," Emerson-Johnson muses.  "An album is so much more than just the music, really.  I also feel – especially with soundtrack albums – that there's something unique and special about listening to them all the way through from start to finish."
 

 Listen to The Big Stinker track
Listen to The Big Stinker track

The album should tide fans over for a while, but what's next on the schedule for Jared Emerson-Johnson?  In addition to doing sound effects for upcoming games like Saboteur and A Vampyre Story, he's also looking forward to writing the music for Telltale's upcoming Wallace & Gromit episodes.  And with Sam & Max: Season 3 currently aiming to start early next year, the future's looking bright.