Thrice Rocks Games and Radio Airwaves; Can An Orchestral Soundtrack Be That Far Behind?

by Louis Bedigian

“We have a good relationship with EA, they've been using our music for the past four years.”

October 18th brought the release of a new album from a band that’s been supporting games and been supported by gamers for the past few years: Thrice. Featured in Burnout Revenge, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, and Need For Speed, Thrice’s music has been one of the most influential bands in soundtrack licensing.

“With Tony Hawk, that really was something,” said Thrice’s drummer, Riley Breckenridge. “We had been playing that game, all the versions. Every year we'd get [the new one] and we'd play it and be like, ‘Man, it'd be so cool if we could be a part of this soundtrack.’”

Finally they got their chance. “A lot of bands that we've toured with have been on it and a lot of bands that we look up to have been on it. When they came to us and asked if we wanted to be a part of it, it was a no-brainer. Definitely we wanted to be a part of it. And the fact that, since they were looking for people to cover old punk rock songs, also made it fun because we got to cover two Minor Threat songs. That was really fun for us.”

From Left: Riley Breckenridge (Drums), Teppei Teranishi (Guitar), Ed Breckenridge (Bass), Dustin Kensrue (Vocals/Guitar)*

That wasn’t the beginning for Thrice’s success with games, nor is it the end. “We've been on a couple versions of Madden. We did a hockey game for EA Sports. We have a good relationship with EA, they've been using our music for the past four years.”

Their latest release, Vheissu, blends the band’s trademark style with a new sound, deep lyrics, and better choruses. Riley said that it took the band approximately nine months to write the record and an additional two months to record. That time was very well spent. Sample any of the album’s 11 tracks and you’ll understand why game publishers keep coming to them for their soundtracks.

In the future Thrice hopes to move into the world of game and film composition. Imagine that – a rock band that turns to game composing. They’ve got a lot of plans and a lot of dreams and Riley recently took the time to tell us about them.

The process of getting into a game – is it strictly corporate? Or is there a way a band could promote themselves to a publisher so they could possibly get their music in a game and get some exposure?

I think there are ways to go about it, getting hooked up with a publisher. That's the way we do it now, we have a [music] publisher. We're with BMG. They're trying to get us into video games.

Originally we got hooked up with EA, which was the first company we started getting our music to. There was a guy doing that who was doing sound for one of the bands that we were out on tour with in, I think it was 2001. He had been part of the staff at EA Sports and I was talking to him about video games one day and how I'm a huge sports game fan and how I play Madden, I play MVP Baseball, I play their basketball game and Tiger Woods golf. I'm a huge fan of EA Sports stuff. He was like, "Oh yeah, I used to work there. Would you be interested in me giving them a CD of yours to see if they could use your music?" I was like, Man, that'd be awesome. I've been playing these games for 10 years. To be able to be involved with it, that'd be awesome. He ended up hooking us up. Since then they've approached us a few times with a couple different games and asked if we'd wanted to be a part of them and every time we took advantage of the opportunity. 

Madden has been an integral part of building awareness for many rock bands.

How did that end up working? Were you guys with a record label at the time or were you independent?

RB: We were with an independent label called Sub City that we put our first full-length album with. Now we're on Island and we're still trying to stay involved in the video game stuff. We're all pretty avid gamers ourselves when we're out on tour or in the studio.

Do you think that being in a game has helped with awareness? I don't know about you guys, but I've purchased at least 10 CDs after hearing just one song in a video game from a band that I had never heard of before. All that mattered was that I liked the song and had to have it. Is that what you see happening now?

RB: Absolutely. I definitely think it's another avenue to get your music out to more people that haven't heard of your band before. It's another avenue like radio or video or touring. A ton of people play video games. You kind of tap into that demographic, it's a good way to get your music out there.

It's been beneficial for us. I've met tons of people on the road that say, "Hey, I got Madden 2004 and heard your guys' song every time I scored a touchdown. I went out and bought your CD, I've been a fan ever since." It's definitely helped us out.

Has that been the case with you as a gamer? Have you heard a song in a game and then had to have that as well?

RB: There's some stuff on the latest version of MVP baseball that EA puts out. There was a Trail of Dead song on there and it kept coming up over and over so I went out and bought that record. It's a great record. I had listened to them in the past but I hadn't gotten the motivation to go buy the record [until MVP].

What do you think of non-licensed music? Like the original scores for Metal Gear Solid or the Final Fantasy games?

RB: I think they're awesome. A huge influence in what we do music is movie soundtracks and original scores. It [game and movie composing] is something we'd be very interested in. I know we all want to get involved in doing soundtracks in some way, shape or form. We're really inspired by that stuff.

So you guys are thinking about doing this as a band or is this an individual project for each person?

RB: I would assume we'd do it as a band. But if they came to us individually I'm sure we'd take them up on that offer as well. It's been such a huge influence on our music over the last few years, especially with the new record. A lot of the new pieces that people were bringing to the table when we were writing the record actually sounded like soundtrack music. It'd be cool to instead of adapting those into Thrice songs to use them as original scores for a video game. It'd be awesome. 

Just think of the theme Thrice could write to this! 

If you had to start from scratch, how would you approach a score for a game? Would you write lyrics for it, or maybe go for an all-music theme so it has more of an orchestral sound?

RB: I would definitely go orchestral. I think some of the most powerful movie scores whether it's like what John Williams did with Star Wars or what Michael Andrews did with Donnie Darko, or Danny Elfman has done with a number of movies from Legend of Sleepy Hollow to Red Dragon to The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's those instrumental pieces, those orchestral pieces that really move you and complement the visual element instead of taking away from it a little by having lyrics you have to adjust by watching game footage or movie footage.

Are there any specific game scores that have had an impact on you?

RB: I can't really think of any in particular. For me as a gamer I'm more drawn to the sports games which is usually a compilation of artist’s tracks and not original scores.

What do you listen to while touring?

RB: We're on tour right now. Our music is aggressive at times. We're out [touring] with two bands that are very aggressive. It's kind of nice balance that with some mellow stuff. I've been listening to some Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Radiohead which is always a staple in my music listening. It's just nice to balance, you know, when you're in a club, a loud club, with aggressive rock music all day and all night. It's kind of nice to use that downtime to mellow out a bit.

Do games help mellow you out as well? Or do you use them to pump up before a show?

RB: I usually use them to kill downtime. On days off to kill boredom. Right now I'm the middle of playing Madden 2005. I just got the new Tiger Woods golf. Madden's been hogging the spot in the Xbox at the moment so I haven't gotten to Tiger Woods yet, but once I finish the season I'm working on I'll hop into Tiger Woods.

Once, twice, Thrice, FOUR! 

How do you keep the pace while touring? Is there anything special that you do, do you warm up before going on stage?

RB: Absolutely. As a drummer my job is very physical. I have to stretch out a lot and warm up and I'll play rudiments and practice on a practice pad backstage before we go on stage just to make sure I'm physically in the right place and mentally in the right place and totally focused and feeling good and stretched out.

How does that affect you when you're not touring? Do you keep playing just to keep up the pace when you're not touring?

RB: We just had nine months off to write the record that just came out. When we are touring on a record like we are now, we're home maybe...a month total out of the year, and it's not all at once. It's like a week here, three days there, and maybe another month somewhere. The hardest thing is to try to stay in shape when you're on tour. When I'm at home I try to play the drums as much as possible and try to stay in shape by going to the gym and try to prepare myself for the long haul.

Do you do any experiments? Maybe you're not even thinking about music, then all of a sudden something pops into your head and you rush right to the drums?

RB: Yeah. I write on a lot of instruments: guitar, bass, drums and piano. I've got a mini-studio in my house. When I'm home I'm always working on music and there's always somewhere for me to go to record any ideas that come up. In my car I have a little mini-disc recorder so I can record any idea that may pop into my head while I'm driving somewhere. It's really important to me to make sure that I get all the ideas in my head out, so I made sure I have proper recording devices in every area.

That's cool. How much were you involved with the recording of Vheissu? How much did you write? Did you contribute any lyrics?

RB: I didn't write any lyrics but I played all the drums on the record. I wrote quite a few guitar parts and pieces of certain songs. The entire process for us is totally collaborative and totally democratic where everyone has a say in what happens. It's a total collective effort.

Does that make it difficult at times? Is there a time when one guy loves the sound of something, thinks it's so great, and everyone else is like, "Eh"?

RB: It definitely happens. We'll have arguments over certain parts or lyrics, how songs are going to be structured, or even what songs are going to be recorded. But a band is an effort, it's not a solo project. Everybody's comfortable with hearing everybody's suggestions and taking criticism as constructively as possible and it ends up making the music as a whole better because everyone feels involved, knows they're involved, and has an active role in everything that goes on.

When does the producer come into play? Does he immediately start telling you, "I want to hear more of this, I want to hear less of that"?

RB: Usually you'll pick a producer mid-way through the writing process. You'll make some demos and start soliciting producers and seeing who's interested and who isn't. Once you pick a producer you pick time towards the end of the window that you have to write the record. They'll come out and you'll do pre-production which is basically picking the songs that you've written as a band and kind of fine-tuning them and trimming the excess fat and making them as good as they can possibly be.

With some producers it's a very hands-on thing. For us, with our producer this time, Steve Osborne, he wasn't very hands-on. We more free to do what we wanted to do, and he helped us with instrumentation and getting the sounds we wanted to get. Once that pre-production is over you do the final round of demos and then it's show time. You get in the studio and start recording.

Is this a preferred experience? Do you like that he was more open, that he let you do what you wanted to do first?

RB: We've been lucky. We never really had a producer that [told] us what to do or was too hands-on. Working with Steve was awesome. He generally works with a lot mellower bands like U2 or Peter Gabriel or Doves or Massive Attack. We bring, from our previous records, aggressive rock. The meeting of the minds coming from such a different place was really cool. It worked out very well.

You mentioned soliciting producers to see who's interested – is it up to you who you get to work with?

RB: You kind of put together a short list of producer that have done work that you admire. You call around and ask bands how that experience was. You put together that short list and then start sending out demos and start getting feedback from them and seeing if you're on the same page and have a similar vision for what the record should be. Then you make a decision. I'm really glad we chose Steve because it's been amazing experience.

Going back to games, do you play games with anyone else on tour, or is it strictly you and a console?

RB: I usually play against the computer. The other guys in my band, Justin is more into role-playing games and first-person shooters like Halo and Medal of Honor, something like that. Every once in a while you'll be on tour with a band and word will get out that you're a gamer and somebody will challenge you. Our Warp Tour this past summer I was playing a few guys on that tour in MVP Baseball. Everybody loves to talk a bunch of trash, and then when you get 'em in the game it's a totally different situation. You gotta back up your words. 

Back up my words? Please, I’m the king, and kings don’t need to waste time with words. (Just kidding.)

Have you entered any tournaments?

RB: No. I think I'm an all right player, but I'm definitely not on the level of some of those people that get into those tournaments. The amount of time that I devote to music they devote to video games. Every waking hour they're trying to get better at their video games like I'm trying to get better as a musician and a songwriter. I don't think I can hang with them.

Are you getting an Xbox 360?

RB: [It's on my] Christmas list so hopefully somebody will get it for me. I've been playing Xbox. I was strictly a PS2 guy forever, then I started playing Xbox and I liked it a lot better. So I'll probably get the Xbox 360. Hopefully somebody will get it for me but if not I'll go out and get it myself.

Good luck finding one! :)

Thanks Riley for an awesome interview.

*"Image courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group."

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---