“I get inspired by challenging art rather than art just being dark for the sake of it.”
I was inspired by the recent activity of game developer Inner Seas studio on Kickstarter and the possibility of a sequel to the majorly underrated Winter Voices game [it’s the Dark Souls of turn based strategy – Ed] that I went on my own journey to speak with one of the talented voices behind the atmospheric series– Composer Balthazar Benadon.
I found your work through Winter Voices. A thoughtful and avant-garde RPG with nihilistic tendencies that was originally released in 2010 and which ran for seven episodes. It has been eight years since its original release with the possibility of a second season on the horizon (at the time o writing.) How did you get involved with the game?
At the time I was working as a graphic designer in an agency located in the same building where the Beyond the Pillars‘ team were beginning their project. I would have a cigarette break with the smokers of the team every now and then, so I quickly got that they were working on a game that would need someone to make the soundtrack for it. I just asked if I could be given a try, so Clara Lehénaff and Emmanuel Malin handed me a few graphic ideas, glimpses of the story and dialogues. The next week I [delivered] a track and got hired for the job.
How did you approach writing the soundtrack? Did you play through scenes and then write something to capture the mood or were you given descriptions to work around?
Basically just a few pieces of artwork, a poem maybe, and a few hours discussion. Whenever I get started on a soundtrack, I try to figure out the best way of approaching the project it will serve; sometimes I’ll be needing something very specific other times it will be more about capturing a general scent and morphing it into sound; on the Winter Voices’ case I was coming in pretty early, lots of ideas were in mutative states, so it would definitely be the latter.
Will you be involved in the sequel to Winter Voices?
I would be glad to.
“Recently I got into an indie game called Doki Doki Literature Club…”
Your career has been more than the Winter Voices OST. What else have you been involved in?
Soundtracks for a survival horror game, another one for a heroic fantasy beat ’em up. Exhibitions, luxury, advertising. Binaural projects. Mixing/recording some rapper’s track. Making hip hop beats with a friend of mine. Joining a couple of bands essentially for live performances, and a few projects of my own. There was so much of them that name dropping wouldn’t make much sense, but most of my favourite bodies of work are available on my soundcloud page.
You have got quite a few video game soundtracks behind you. Were there any games that inspired you to write for the medium?
I guess that anything from Ocarina Of Time or the Water Theme in Mario 64 keeps sticking for some reason. Or some track from a super old Nes game that was called Bayou Billy. I’ve never got past level one though. Recently I got into an indie game called Doki Doki Literature Club and fell in love with its music. If you get to meet team Salvato, can you say I said hi?
There seems to be a darkness running through a lot of your work. It is a pretty cool selling point. What inspires you?
I’d rather say that I get inspired by challenging art rather than art just being dark for the sake of it. But it’s true that inspiring pieces are featuring some kind of darkness as you say. That’s where I get the thrill I guess. Generally speaking, if it’s fun, sincere and seems like it has been done by someone smarter than me, I’ll be in.
What is your approach to songwriting?
I try to go with the flow of the idea. To me there’s nothing more cringy than art trying too hard, so I take my ego and my influences as far as possible from the craft, and let it take me where it has to go. That’s where nice unexpected stuff can show up. Then when it’s done I mix it super loud.
“I got pretty motivated in doing something fancy for a living.”
How did you get involved with composing in the games industry?
Genuine fascination for this medium, for the process of making music and the will to contribute to something. Plus, us early millennials are a breed of perpetually overstimulated kids who got convinced by advertising that anything under the rockstar way of life would be a failure, so I got pretty motivated in doing something fancy for a living. I don’t think that anymore.
Are there any projects that you have worked on, past or future, that you want to bring attention to?
You can pick anything on my Soundcloud page. You can also visit my Instagram, there’s a few musical clips there and my YouTube page with this clip I like a lot:
