Kameo: Elements of Power Interview: Musician Steve Burke

How did it all start, Steve?
I grew up on the Isle of Man, a great place to live with plenty of opportunities to get involved with music from an early age. I started playing the Clarinet and joined the Manx Youth Orchestra when I was at Junior School, and was hooked on music from that point on. At home I had a piano that I played nearly every day—basically, quite a traditional classical music background.

At 20, I decided to head off to London and study music at King’s College London. This was a great place to learn about composition, conducting, orchestrating, and I studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music as well. After that I specialized in Composition at the Royal College of Music for my Masters degree. While I was at college I went to as many film score recording sessions and concerts as I could blag my way in to, and learnt just as much from those as the college lectures. I was also lucky to meet and talk to great composers such as John Williams and Michael Kamen.

After working for a film composer in London for a year or so after college, I found out that Rare was looking for a composer/sound designer. Somehow I managed to get the job and have been busy writing music and making bizarre noises for games ever since. Working as part of a team of extremely talented programmers, artists, and designers is a great experience.

What’s the very first thing you do when you sit down to think about the music for a game like Kameo?
I wanted to create a score that was very diverse, and perhaps a bit different to other game music that I’ve heard. It was a good opportunity to come in to the games industry without any preconceptions, and just do what I thought worked.

Can you give us an idea of the process behind preparing music for a game like Kameo? What processes are most important to the successful completion of your work?
I’ll often sit down with George Andreas (Lead Designer) and we’ll talk about a Level or cutscene that needs music. All I’m after are a few key words such as scary, ominous, playful, etc. (I’ve even had a “Scarily playful”!) I can then go away and create something to fit those descriptions. Other times I’ll try a few things out and play them to the development team to get some feedback.

I’ve got my own studio at work, as do all the musicians at Rare, where there are lots of computers, samplers, keyboards and fancy coffee. A typical day towards the end of development on Kameo usually starts off with me scoring the music to another cutscene that has just been finished by the animators. Once I’ve written the music I’ll then create the sound effects. This usually means popping down to the main recording studio where I can make noises for the scene. After that (and the obligatory mid-morning caffeine hit), I’ll mix the audio and hand it over to the programmers to put in the game. At the moment I’m also doing a lot of speech editing and balancing for the many characters in the game that talk.

What was your greatest challenge while working on Kameo?
Trying to grow my hair long without it going all curly.

If you could be any of the Elemental Warriors or other characters in Kameo, which one would you be, and why?

I’d be Flex, the little watery slappy chap. That pelvic thrust move of his is awesome!

What has been your greatest joy?
I got a real buzz hearing the orchestra in Prague playing the Kameo music. I’d have appreciated it even more if I wasn’t so stressed about getting all the music recorded in the time we had at the studio. Hearing a big orchestra perform music you’ve written is rather exciting.

If you have to name only one thing that you hope players will appreciate in Kameo, what would it be?
The attention to detail in the game. It’s really inspiring to work on, and I couldn’t ask for a more stunning game to write music to. The levels really do seem like living, breathing worlds where there is always something amazing to see. I personally love the day to night transitions, and the mood these create. Breathtaking!

Was there a piece of music in Kameo that you are particularly pleased to include?
I was particularly proud of the alternate Kameo theme song, which went something like, “She’s a five foot fairy and her legs are hairy, – Kameo, – Kameo; because where she’s from shaving’s not necessary, – Kameo, – Kameo…” etc. Strangely the designers didn’t think it worked in the context of the game. Such a shame. I wasn’t sure if it was the lyrics or my singing. There was also the Troll Song that probably won’t make it into the final game as it was perhaps a little rude (thanks to Steve Horsburgh the programmer and part-time lyricist for that). I’ll sneak it out one day.

How did you go about recording the musicians? Are you pleased with their performances?
Quite a sizeable portion of the music was recorded in Prague with an orchestra and choir. They did a great job. We had four days to record 70 minutes of music, and they had never seen the music before I turned up at the recording sessions. There are several other tracks in the game that some very talented singers here at Rare sang on, so I’m extremely grateful to them for putting up with me in the studio. They get all flummoxed when I make up words on the spot and get them to sing them. Thanks Aisling, Eveline, and the guys!

Was there anyone especially well-known who played on the soundtrack?
Well, Andy the audio programmer on Kameo has been threatening to play triangle on one of the tunes for a while now.

As I’m writing this, there’s still a way to go before we sign off on the music to the game. So, there is a possibility of a well known performer being involved. Nothing as of yet though.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into a career doing what you do?
It’s a great career to get in to. My advice is to be as versatile as possible in the styles of music you can write. Get a showreel CD together and make it sound unique, don’t just stick a bunch of drum and bass tracks on it, really go out of your way to stand out from the crowd. Also, make sure you know about sound recording, sound effects creation, and mixing. These are all skills that are really useful when working in an in-house music department. On any given day you could be writing music for an orchestra, recording voice over artists, and working with programmers to implement sounds in the game.