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Interview with Jon Holland
I can’t help but notice this wall of keyboards. When did you get into those? I’ve been banging on keyboards ever since their association with synthesizers, probably since the age of 10. I’ve never had formal keyboard training. I don’t know how, but miraculously I manage to make music with these things! I don’t consider myself a keyboard player by any means. I’m embarrassed to play in front of people but old habits die hard and I’m just afraid to kill mine. I would rather play people something I’ve recorded. You’d start losing respect for me if you saw me play! [Laughs] It’s sad! The guitar is my main instrument and I’m very comfortable with it. I use whatever I need to get the job done. I can play everything I hear in my head so it all works out.
When did gaming enter the picture for you? I was signed to Warner Bros. records as an artist back in 1991. It didn’t really work out so I moved to London in 1992. I spent a year there working around the techno scene which by now was becoming the answer to what I was looking for. But I vowed that the next time I came back to a record label I would have my own studio and I would license recordings to them rather than sign as an artist. I came back to the States a year later and ended up scoring a couple of ESPN specials.
How do you go about scoring for a project? I like producers to give me specific examples of music. I need names of songs or pieces of music that are close to the direction they want to go, that way I know where the producer is coming from. If he tells me he wants Vangelis or Hans Zimmer and then he ends up playing me some acid jazz, we might have a problem. I save a lot of time by finding out exactly what piece of music influenced that producer in the first place. If it is a cross between John Tesh and Korn, you may have to nail them down a little more specifically to what it is about John Tesh that turns them on. What is it about Korn? When you start compartmentalizing, it gets you into the zone quicker. Sometimes I may have to re-do a demo, but it’s rare. Especially if I ask enough questions before I start. Most of the time it just takes the right interrogation methods on my part to pinpoint exactly what they are talking about musically. It is hard for me to look at storyboards and have somebody explain to me what a game is about. It’s better than nothing, definitely, but I like to see animations that are far enough along where I can see what the environments look like. It doesn’t have to be completed art by any means. I immediately start getting ideas when I see animations. You can explain to me for three days something that I will see in an animation in 15 seconds. During your scoring process, when do you seem to be your most creative? Ironically, stringent deadlines tend to do wonders for the imagination, however, some can be downright ridiculous. After viewing animation loops and reading a few notes, I can get crackin’. Fortunately 95% of my music themes come to me within the first 120 seconds of composing. Unfortunately, tight deadlines have a way of reducing options and experimentation, but in the end the producers get something that they’re happy with. I play it safe with situations like that because there is little, if any, time for re-dos. By the same token, when I have a harsh deadline, I usually get into a groove, working from one piece of music to the next quickly. Detail in my music arrangements is usually where I have to censor myself. Usually the more time I have, the more intricate the arrangement will be. I’ve been called a perfectionist, but I really know when there is enough info on a piece to keep the listener interested and when there isn’t. What do you normally charge per project? First of all, I no longer accept sheep as payment. [Laughs] My fee is $1700 per minute for the first 20 minutes of music, then it goes down to $1500 per minute for the next 10 minutes. After 30 minutes the price goes way down and is very negotiable. Usually the main themes are established during the first 10-20 minutes of a game and later in the game they are revisited as variations on those themes. This price is for a buyout. The publisher is not obligated to pay any additional royalties to use the music for the original specified game platform and or that game’s advertising. Making and enforcing royalty deals for one game platform can sometimes cost a lot more in attorney’s fees than the deal has room for up front. I’d rather the publishers paid me this money than their $400 per hour lawyers who draw up these intricate contracts.
However, I am adamant that my agreements specify that this fee is for only one game platform, to be agreed upon up front. Any additional use, such as film or television sync license or CD soundtrack release, gets split 50/50 on net profits. These additional fees usually come into play only if the game is selling and making money anyway. Also, each additional port to another platform will carry a flat fee of $10,000 per port. I’ve been surprised a couple of times over this oversight. This includes Internet use as well. With few game budgets being less than $1 million these days, and ports being a few hundred thousand, that’s not a lot to ask. I try to get a $10,000 bonus on sales over 100,000 units. Publishers should be well into the profit zone by then. I dare anyone to tell me that music is less than ten percent of the total game experience. Bad music may be, but powerful music can be a major factor in a game’s success. I like to use games like Wipeout, Riven, or Final Fantasy as perfect examples. How about films? What would Blade Runner be without its brilliant music score? How about "Batman", "Star Wars" or "X-Files"? These film directors understand the crucial role music plays in the success of their productions. |
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Features
After
the ESPN scores, I started knocking on game developer’s doors and eventually
ended up writing the music score to the Vectorman project for BlueSky
Software in San Diego. I believe that the Vectorman games ended
up selling almost a million copies. Vectorman enabled me to develop
a relationship with Sega, who was very excited about the music and subsequently
asked me to record a Vectorman soundtrack for CD release. Vectorman
is a great character and with the promise of Sega’s Dreamcast platform
I’m sure he’ll be back in full swing before too long. I’ve been in the
business for a busy five years now, and I’m really enjoying myself. I
was very fortunate to hit pay dirt on the first project I did. I could
have gotten stuck scoring something like "Amateur LumberJack and
Barrel Rolling" for the Atari, which would have made it a bit rougher
to come up through the ranks!
