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[Interview] Jeff Broadbent Talks Composing ‘I Am Alive’

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Tomorrow sees the release of Ubisoft’s downloadable game I Am Alive and BD Music wants to hype it up just a little bit more by bringing you an exclusive interview with composer Jeff Broadbent. Check it out below!
Don’t forget to download the official I Am Alive app on iTunes. It gives you exclusive hints, a list of all the resources and achievements, and also the O.S.T. including six tracks composed exclusively for the app. 


Bloody-Disgusting: I Am Alive has been in production for almost four years now. At what point did you become attached to the project?
Jeff Broadbent: I began working on I Am Alive in the winter of 2011.  I was in touch with the audio director, Zhang Lei, a couple of months prior to that, and had an opportunity to demo on the game music.  They enjoyed the demo I prepared, and in March of last year I began composing for the game.
BD: If you were to describe I Am Alive as an instrument or specific tone, which would you choose?
JB: That’s a tough one!  But if I had to choose, I would describe it as a heavily-reverberated ambience.  One of the goals when composing was to create subtle, almost atmospheric colors and tones that blend well with the visual scenery and environments.  As such, long, drawn-out, reverb-washed ambient tones would be a fitting description.
BD: I noticed that often times the music reflected the environment. For instance, in the subway, there was a sound of a train horn that bled into the music. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
JB: Sure – in that segment of the game, the player is navigating through subway tunnels to reach his destination.  It’s an environment that is very tense, unpredictable, and unknown.  For the ambient/exploration layer of the music, some of the instruments I used were sounds of metal objects being bowed with a double bass (stringed orchestral instrument) bow.  By adding a good amount of reverb and stretching these elements out, interesting sustained tones are created, that in this case sound similar to a distant train horn.  
BD: I Am Alive is the first game in a long time to actually give me a strong feeling of suspense and apprehension. One of the reasons was that as the stamina level burned down, the music became a warning, increasingly more and more frantic. It made the return to full stamina that much more of a relief because the music seriously abated. This, in turn, made the music itself something to fear. Was that your intention or simply a fortuitous by-product?
JB: The use of tense, disturbing music for when stamina is critically low was definitely a purposeful choice.  The audio director wanted me to compose music for this situation that would create a sense of urgency, and feelings of agitation and apprehension.  In composing this music I used some string techniques in which the performers are plucking or bowing their strings in a variety of rapid and random ways.  This random, unstructured musical approach gives a feeling of tension and unrest, which worked very well in this situation.  
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BD: Did you find that scoring for a downloadable title versus a disc-based release limited you in any way? Or, for that matter, do you feel that it gave you some creative freedom?
JB: In the case of I Am Alive, it was such a high-quality downloadable game that I didn’t feel limited at all.  In addition, the developers were very keen for the game to push creative and gameplay boundaries, so I had a lot of musical freedom while composing.  I believe that the fundamental basis of a great game is its conception, the initial idea from which it evolves.  If this creativity is nurtured, then it will result in a great finished work.
BD: I felt that this game pushed the player to explore, to get to know their surroundings. How do you think that the music worked with that sense of exploration?
JB: I gave a lot of care in composing music that would support the environments of the game, as well as the emotional state of the protagonist as he struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.  The music is intended to blend well with the visuals to create a unified experience.  Though some distinct themes and melodies are present, the score is largely ambient, and is based upon sound textures and rhythms.  This musical approach allows the score to interact with the visuals and environment in a close relationship, with the two working together to create the overall experience.  That was my goal when composing – to support the game, its scenarios, and emotions through the music.
BD: What do you have planned next?
JB: Very soon I’ll begin composing a score for an upcoming game by a major publisher/developer (I can’t say more at this time, but it’s a thrilling project!)  I’m also slated to compose for another undisclosed title later this year, and am in demo process for a couple of other very exciting video games.  In addition to video game scoring, I’m working on some high-energy trailer and action music for a couple of music production companies.



Got any thoughts/questions/concerns for Jonny B.? Shoot him a message on Twitter!

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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‘Lost Themes IV: Noir’ – John Carpenter Announces New Album & Releases New Music Video!

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(l-r) Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, Daniel Davies - Photo Credit: Sophie Gransard

John Carpenter has been teasing big news for a couple weeks now and all has been revealed this morning. Carpenter is back with Lost Themes IV: Noir from Sacred Bones Records!

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

John Carpenter called the first Lost Themes album “a soundtrack for the movies in your mind.”

From John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, Lost Themes IV: Noir is set for release on May 3 via Sacred Bones Records. The album pays tribute to Noir cinema!

In conjunction with the announcement, they’ve shared a music video for the album’s first single, “My Name Is Death”, a miniature noir film directed by Ambar Navarro, starring Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood), Staz Lindes (The Paranoyds) and Misha Lindes (SadGirl). “Noir is a uniquely American genre born in post-war cinema,” states Carpenter. “ We grew up loving Noir and were influenced by it for this new album. The video celebrates this style and our new song, My Name is Death.”

Sacred Bones previews, “The scene-setting new single marks new territory for Carpenter and his cohorts, propelled by a driving post-punk bassline that is embellished by washes of atmospheric synth, pulsing drum machine, and, at the song’s climax, a smoldering guitar solo.”

“Sandy [King, John’s wife and producer] had given John a book for Christmas, of pictures from noir films, all stills from that era,” Davies says of the lightbulb moment for Lost Themes IV. “I was looking through it, and I thought, ‘I like that imagery, and what those titles make me think of. What if we loosely based it around that? What if the titles were of some of John’s favorite noir films?’ Some of the music is heavy guitar riffs, which is not in old noir films. But somehow, it’s connected in an emotional way.”

Sacred Bones notes, “Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes the songs on Lost Themes IV ‘noirish’ is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it.”

“It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that became the initial Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts,” the label explains. “Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of Halloween reboots. It helped that they grew up in a musical environment. Daniel’s dad is The Kinks’ Dave Davies, and he would pop by the L.A. studio – the same one the Lost Themes records are made in today – to jam, or to perform at wrap parties for John’s films. That innate free-flowing chemistry helps Lost Themes IV: Noir run like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

Here’s the full Lost Themes IV: Noir track list:

1. My Name is Death
2. Machine Fear
3. Last Rites
4. The Burning Door
5. He Walks By Night
6. Beyond The Gallows
7. Kiss The Blood Off My Fingers
8. Guillotine
9. The Demon’s Shadow
10. Shadows Have A Thousand Eyes

The following physical variants will be available:

  • Sacred Bones Exclusive Red on Clear Splatter vinyl w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Sacred Bones Society Exclusive on Black and White Splatter on Clear w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Silver Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • All retail Transparent Red, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Indie Exclusive Tan and Black Marble, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Rough Trade Exclusive Oxblood Red and Black Splatter, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Shout Exclusive Black and Clear cloudy, w/ Screen Printed 7” bonus track “Black Cathedral”, a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • Black LP, with a Gold Foil Stamped Jacket and poster.
  • CD
  • Tape

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now!

Lost Themes IV Noir

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