Your mom may hate Dead Space 2, but gamers and critics alike are raving about the second installment of the survival horror game. The Comet blogger Jackie Otero spoke to award-winning composer Jason Graves about his experience delving into the dark world of Dead Space to create the haunting musical backdrop.

According to VGChartz, the game debuted last week at the top of the sales charts with 655,873 total units sold for XBox360 and PS3 - nearly doubling the first week sales of the original. 

Q: The audio for the first Dead Space was a critical success, winning you BAFTA awards for Original Score and Use of Audio.  What impact did this have on you as you went into composing for the sequel?

A:> With the first game, the soundtrack was essentially a combination of live orchestral performances supplemented with traditional musical elements through MIDI in my studio.  I was working on the first game for almost 2 years – I was so completely immersed the entire time.  I had no clue what the response would be.  Then it became a sleeper hit, and the audio in the game got much more notoriety than I ever expected.  While it was amazing, it was nice to be away from that dark universe for a while.  When the opportunity to score the sequel came along, it felt like the classic sophomore album conundrum: how do you make it different enough to keep yourself interested but not so different that you’re alienating fans from the original? 

Q: The music for Dead Space 2 is surprisingly beautiful for such a dark horror game.  Can you take us through the creative process?

A: We had four recording sessions – two with an orchestra, one with a string quartet and one with a choir.  I wanted to create a counterpoint to the intense horror – I’d always been interested in the dichotomy of a giant orchestra with a tiny, intimate ensemble.  To me, that’s like chocolate and vanilla – one makes the other even better. The main character Isaac has this mental illness – the whole point of the game is to try to cure what’s going on in his head.  I thought a string quartet would be perfect for representing the mental journey he goes through. Isaac’s Theme is four notes – D-E-A-D – it’s chromatic and dissonant, but the string quartet brings that beautiful, intimate emotional sound. On the piano it would be creepy, but on strings it’s beautiful.

Q: How did you break into the profession of creating music for video games?

A: I was a classically trained percussionist when I arrived at USC for a film and television music program 15 years ago.  In Los Angeles, I began doing a lot of ghostwriting for films, trailers, lots of reality television.  While I felt lucky to have steady work, creatively it was like a musical root canal.  After three years, I decided to move back to North Carolina, and I happened to have a local contact there who was looking for 60 minutes of music for the video game “King Arthur.”  It was the antithesis of everything I’d done for film and television, where every second was micromanaged by 12 different people - it completely depletes you.  For this first time, there were no corrections - they approved everything!  After five years of doing film and TV, it was actually fun and creative - I didn’t have to just copy the temp track every time.  It was an eye-opening experience for me.

Q: Has it been hard to sustain a career as a composer living in North Carolina, away from where many of the large developers are located?

A: That’s another wonderful thing about game developers – they’re so in tune with technology, that even the big game developers are accustomed to outsourcing 30% to 40% of their production needs, especially art, music, and sound design.  It really makes no difference where you are, which is the opposite of film and television, where you have to be near Hollywood. The gaming industry recognizes that you don’t need to restrict yourself to having local anything, when you can pool talent from literally all over the world.

Q: How do you market yourself as an independent video game composer?

A: In the world of games, it’s a combination of luck and timing.  I landed my first game purely through networking.  You need to have a bucketful of raw energy and talent, and you have to absolutely love what you’re doing.  When you do get that first break of luck, you need to have the resources and ability to do whatever needs to be done.  I’ve been in games for eight years, but probably the first 4 years were hit-or-miss – there would be a lot of down time. Whenever I wasn’t writing music for someone else, I was writing music for something – even if it was a fictitious movie I was dreaming up a main title for. The challenge about composing is having a voice that speaks through your work, where you can be recognized through your music – making your “musical fingerprint.” It’s the same for any artist – the more you work on your craft, the more personalized it gets.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I could tell you, but they would kill me [laughs].  Game companies are notoriously paranoid with their non disclosure agreements!  I’m working on a few fantasy games and a science fiction game that’s going to be awesome, and another action/survival game.  The nice thing about music is that I’m not restricted to just games - I’m also working on two independent films and a concert piece that I was commissioned for.  Musical variety is the spice of life – it keeps things fresh for me.