Writing music for this game was pretty exciting and intense. Throughout the music process, my wife was pregnant with our first child and four days after the orchestra recording she gave birth. Talk about a close call! I was praying every day that our little girl didn't arrive earlier, as I really wanted to take some time off to be with my family. Luckily everything worked out perfectly, and the music for The Golden Compass videogame turned out just how I had envisioned it!
I have a lot of people to thank for making this project happen. I was truly blessed with being able to bring on an outstanding team of collaborators for this game. Two of my good composer friends, Cody Westheimer and Deddy Tzur, helped me out by supplying some wonderful additional music and taking my themes in surprising new directions. My orchestrator and conductor James Sale really outdid himself on this project, getting inside my head with orchestration and helping me to bring my vision to life. We even got to use a full woodwind section on this one!
My recording engineer, John Rodd, pulled off the impossible by making our 65-piece orchestra sounds like a 100-piece orchestra and saved us the need of having to do overdubs thanks to his keen recording techniques. My mixer, Tommy Vicari, did an absolutely amazing job of blending in the orchestra with all of the pre-dubs and solo instruments and making everything sound like a real cinematic experience. Marc Aramian and Michael Kimball at Soundelux helped me immensely with all of the business and logistical details of getting a score done so quickly. They really rock.
Leslie Morris was my contractor on the project, and she worked tirelessly to get me the best players in the world. Savina Ciaramella, a local AFM union rep, worked with us very closely to bring this music to town while at the same time paving a path for many other game composers out there with a new agreement. I was honored to be a part of a little bit of union history on this game. Last but not least, the LA Union players helped to breathe life into my compositions, and for them I am very grateful. I mean, we had Sid Page on violin, Rick Baptist and Malcolm McNab on trumpets and a zillion other superstars on this session! Who could ask for anything more?
