The Expansive Game Music of Kevin Manthei

Kevin Manthei's music has been heard in cinemas, through television speakers, and out of computers since 1995. He has made his most notable strides as a composer of highly cinematic, rhythmically layered scores for computer games, but recently has had the opportunity to delve into animated television. Soundtrax recently interviewed Manthei about his approach to game scoring and his experiences on several recent projects.

Like many composers, Kevin Manthei started out his musical life by taking piano lessons as a youth, although he started a bit later than most - in fifth grade.  "Even before I took piano, I loved to tinker on it," Manthei [IMG2R]recalled. "I was amused and impressed by the sonic qualities you could create by banging loudly or playing very softly.  My fascination soon turned into a passion which lead me to my first synthesizer when I was fifteen, from there to a small four track studio, and from there to the University Of Minnesota where I studied music composition for four years." 

After Minnesota, Manthei headed out to the University of Southern California to be part of a small, handpicked graduate program in "Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television."  After the program was over, Manthei entered his final graduate program: The School of Hard Knocks, "which I entered immediately after USC!" he grinned. "After a few years of assisting other composers and doing anything music related so I didn't have to take a corporate job, I started to obtain my own writing gigs." 

His first work for the gaming world was composing the score to the computer game based on the 1995 feature film, INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD. "After doing this game I soon realized that my setting my sites on just film and TV were misguided. I wanted to compose for all three and that what I have been doing since 1995 or so," Manthei said.

He developed an association with film composer Marco Beltrami, contributing "additional music" to such Beltrami's scores for RESIDENT EVIL, SCARY MOVIE 2, SCREAM 2/3, DRACULA 2000, and THE FACULTY. He also composed music for feature film trailers if you saw the trailers to GANGS OF NEW YORK, SPY KIDS, THEY, IMPOSER, or THE YARDS, then you've heard some of Kevin Manthei's music.

"Music for film and television is ruled by the action on the screen," Manthei said, explaining the differences between scoring for feature or television films and for games. "The screen dictates and calls out to you to score it a certain way. Your music must fit the action of the scene of the film. The worst thing you can do is ignore the screen and write a piece exactly the way you would like it while ignoring all the specific cues and hits you need to focus on.

"Games on the other hand allow one to write a cue without the need for hitting specific actions within a scene. With games, you're scoring an emotional bed that spurs the player on, gives the right tone for the level and helps the development team make their creative point."

Manthei's score for the new Warner Bros animated television show, XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN, is a case in point. "This is a kids' kung fu show with lots of action," said Manthei. "When I score the action scenes, my music is all over the place in terms of style, volume, tempo and meters. This is because in order to score everything correctly, (dialogue, cuts, action) I need to really mix it up to score the scene. But if I were scoring the XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN game, I would be free to let the ideas of the same TV action piece flourish. I would be able to compose freely without the confines of changing action of the scene. Melodies would not be interrupted and musical builds could last as long as I like. That's the challenge of both genres."

Most of Manthei's work thus far has been composed and performed for electronic instruments, although he did use an orchestra for his music for a PC game called SACRIFICE. "I am excited and anticipating using more live players in the future as game projects come up, but the reality is that many publishers don't want to unload the extra cash to get an orchestral score recorded," Manthei said. Fortunately this prospect is changing, as more game scores are being developed with fully orchestral scores, and gamers are noticing the difference in the excitement of gameplay. "For me, I like the challenge of creating a unique hybrid score of electronics and synth realized orchestra," Manthei continued. "I find that the extra control I can put on the synth tracks allows me to create exactly what I am looking for. I also try with every project to create original samples unique to the project. For PITFALL THE LOST EXPEDITION, I recorded panpipe effects and tribal vocal samples. For KILLSWITCH, I commissioned an electronic artist to create original drum loops for me. For SHREK 2, we used live guitar and original loops. The live players here and there can really help a project breath."

Starting on a computer game score is not unlike staring on a motion picture score. The first thing is to sit down with the developer (producer) and determine what his or her needs are for the game's music. "I generally start the process by asking a lot of questions," said Manthei. "I try to get inside their minds and really see what they are looking for. It's not about what I want to do for the project but their vision of the music inspired and created through my music. It's my job to take their vision and turn it into a musical reality."

Each project is different, requiring different kinds of music. Gone are the days when game music was little more than synthetic beats to encourage enthusiastic game play. Game scores are as thought out and as richly composed and developed as movie scores. But how extensively complicated a score is depends a lot on the needs of the producer. "Every developer is different," said Manthei. "Some come with some general ideas in mind whereas others have detailed docs with musical examples. Ultimately I am happy when the developer is happy. Once we have come up with the style we want for the game I usually have a conversation about a specific level and then go off and compose the music for that level. I then submit it and based on the feedback of that piece I move forward to the next level. This continues piece-by-piece, level-by-level until the game is complete. I always make sure they are hearing the music as I am composing it rather than composing 50 minutes of score and then submitting it all at once."

PITFALL THE LOST EXPEDITION is an exotic [IMG4R]and rhythmic score, build around a compelling heroic theme for Pitfall Harry that is taken through a variety of moods and arrangements throughout the gameplay and the cinematics featured in the game. There are also a pleasing variety of mysterioso motifs and straight-on action riffs. Successive levels where Pitfall Harry explores new realms are given unique sound designs, often quite lush and appealing. The music is performed electronically, but a number of sampled sounds give it a convincing orchestral tonality and feel, complete with exotically whispered voices. "My approach was to create a fun adventure score that incorporated the ethnic feel of the jungle and locations along with a big orchestral adventure score," said Manthei. "I said up front that I wanted to stay away from any John Williams rip-offs as he is the master of his sound. I wanted to take a fresh look at the genre and see where I would go with it, coupled with the developer's ideas and the game itself."

Manthei and the game designers were able to plan some interactive use of the music as the gameplay goes on. "We had an initial explore and/or ambient track that would play as you wander around not too big, just music to explore by," Manthei explained. "When you would come upon some danger tribal warriors or the like the music would switch seamlessly into the combat track. We also had special music for various Boss fights and many different sets of ambient, explore and combat tracks. We then used these various themes and ideas in the cut-scene scoring."

Like many contemporary computer games, there is a mixture of straight gaming action with cinematics that illustrate the story as it progresses from one level to another. All this requires a close collaboration between composer and game designer. "I generally work hand in hand with the developer," noted Manthei. "I will talk to them about one or two levels at a time. I get direction and then go off and compose one or two pieces of music. I then upload it to an ftp site, they will listen to it and give me feedback. In the beginning of the project there usually is more feedback than at the end of the project as we are honing in on the sound and style of the score."

After receiving feedback on his initial compositions, Manthei finalizes the cues and uploads the final files. "It's important to me to be able to see the levels and the gameplay that I am scoring so I always request a VHS tape or quicktime files from the developer," said Manthei. "This way I can have the gameplay playing while I compose the music. I find that it puts me in the right mood and the music fits the context much better. The developers and I prefer that I don't score music for a said level until the development of that level is far enough along so that I can extract enough direction and guidance from it."

On some times the composer interacts with a music and/or sound effects person who works at the game company. "They deal with more of the nuts and bolts of how the music works in the game and how it gets programmed and implemented," said Manthei. On other occasions, he deals only with the producer of the project and everything goes through that individual. "There really is not that big of a finalizing process in game audio when your tracks are stereo pairs done with in a home studio," he said. "The challenge comes when you introduce an live orchestra and a 5.1 surround sound mix."

KILL SWITCH, a military action game, featured a number of exotic locates as a background for its game action, afforded Manthei an [IMG5L]opportunity to compose music for a variety of locations to provide a sense of depth and atmosphere to the gameplay. "The producers and I wanted lots of pulse-pounding electronica action music but always with an emotional and cinematic underpinning," he said. "The music goes from a purely electronica soundscape to one that has more 'human' elements like voice and strings. This was to help emphasize the transition of the main character from a purely mechanical killing machine to a fully realized person."

As well as providing a cinematic action feel, Manthei also created certain unique musical elements into various levels to help give each level of gameplay its own identity. "The North Korea level, for example, takes place in some below ground tunnels next to a submarine docking station so I highlighted the music with percussion played on big oil drums and metal tubes to give it an industrial under water, dock feel," Manthei said. "The Malaysian Ruins music has fairly authentic sections of music that is derived from listening to traditional Malaysian music. Then for the more intense sections of the Malaysian Ruins, I combined the authentic with the electronic to create a world/electronica hybrid. The Middle East regions I stuck with a purely electronica sound. But for the most part the other pieces had a good deal of electronica mixed with world, and orchestral elements. I am a big fan of combining styles and genres to create a unique musical hybrid."

One of Manthei's most challenging game scores was for Activision's SHREK 2 game, released as a tie-in to the 2004 movie sequel. "When Activision got the license to do the Dreamworks game franchise, I had been working on PITFALL THE LOST EXPEDITION for Activision," Manthei said. "The same executive producer on Pitfall was also working on SHREK 2. He mentioned it to me and asked if I was interested in taking it on and looking further into it. I also had a connection with Luxoflux's lead designer who I had worked with on Shiny's SACRIFICE. So between the two relationships, it seemed to be a great fit."

The SHREK 2 game developers originally had temped some of the original John Powell/Harry Gregson-Williams SHREK score into some levels, referencing it for places where they wanted the music to work similarly to the first film. "I loved the score to SHREK so it was great to hear the music in the game at different points," Manthei said. "My intention always is to take the temp music of a project and use it as a creative springboard to create new music. We never were asked to do a close sounding mimic of the score but rather to incorporate the elements of the original score that were working in the game and translate that into my creative space and create a unique SHREK-like track. Because this game is based on an existing universe, the music needed to stay in the universe and work."

In addition to the music that identified the SHREK universe, the game also featured a wide diversity of music for different game levels. This was both challenging and rewarding for the composer. "The score was eclectic and diverse, bouncing from big battle music to fairy tale-esque pieces to country banjo and bluegrass music," said Manthei. "Not to mention fun plays on classic TV scores like SWAT and ROCKY to well known pop and alternative rock tracks. The 86-minute score had original music for all 11 levels with interactive loops within each level. Many pieces were 30 seconds to a minute long which correlated into many, many tracks to compose!"

Manthei's most recent game score was for Dreamworks/Activision's SHARK TALE, the official game inspired by the Dreamworks film. "That music score was another fun one to work on," Manthei said. "I recorded an original rap tune, did some 70's disco music and some JAWS-inspired intense orchestral romps. Of course all of those genres ended up getting all mixed together into some cool pieces."

Recently, Manthei has had the opportunity to diversity from game music when he began scoring animated TV shows [IMG6R]for Warner Bros (XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN) and Disney (BRANDY AND MR. WHISKERS). These two vastly diverse subjects provided their own unique opportunities for music. XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN, featuring a variety of kung-fu type action, encompasses electronica, big beat, traditional Chinese and Japanese music, American Westerns, Brazilian percussion and panpipe music, Industrial and Nu Metal and Middle Eastern music. "Because all four characters come from different backgrounds and the villains in the show have unique backgrounds, I am able to throw in lots of different genres of music and bend and twist them together to create a cool hybrid score," said Manthei. "It's the same kind of thing I love to do with video game music."

BRANDY AND MR. WHISKERS has a similar kind of genre-bending nature to it. "I'm scoring this series along with my composer Kevin Riepl," Manthei said. "He and I approach the score through the characters and their environment. Brandy and Mr. Whiskers are stuck in the Amazon jungle so their music has an ethnic Amazonian feel to it while also incorporating a Latin sound to Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. Each character has a strong theme and the music bounces back and forth from each of their themes in a dizzying array."

Scoring episodic television has several differences from scoring computer games. Games need a degree of repetitive music to accompany the ongoing action of gameplay, while also providing a sense of increasing excitement and emotion as the game progresses. Animated television tends to be a little stricter, closely following the action and with less flexibility than that found in a game, which can change direction based on the player's interaction. "The TV score in BRANDY AND MR. WHISKERS is all about the implementation," Manthei explained. "The whole idea behind the score is to play the action and be very cuey with the hits and changes and quick cuts between characters during dialogue. The same goes with XIAOLIN SHOWDOWN. A good TV animation score follows the action well and upholds the emotion of the scene. A good score for a game creates the right emotion for a level or area in the game."

For more information on Kevin Manthei, or to purchase CDs of his game scores, visit his web site at www.kmmproductins.com.