At 2017’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Austin Wintory, Grant Kirkhope, Mick Gordon, Wilbert Roget, Rich Vreeland and Jason Graves spoke at the composers’ panel about their „confessions”. The recording came with a huge delay (few days ago), bit it still has a lot to tell for creators and composers.
Anyone who creates has surely struggled with the situations and feelings mentioned here.
While some of them were pretty original and amusing, all of the presentations shed some light on the process of composing music with insightful takeaway. Jason Graves touched on experimentation and overcoming fear, Mick Gordon stressed the importance of proper communication between the client and the composer, while Wilbert Roget explained his mistakes when he was doing orchestral music for Star Wars Old Republic.
Grant Kirkhope talked about the importance of letting go of the frustration and (self-taught) smiling, one of the most useful things to learn, and Rich Vreeland mentioned his experience when following a bad creative pathway. Austin Wintory, who was announcing his colleagues, spoke about not being able to fully predict what the audience will think of a piece.
The talk is quite coherent and concentrated, so you’ll barely notice it’s one hour. Anyone who creates have surely struggled with the situations and feelings mentioned by all these composers. And truth be told, seeing Mick Gordon read his own poem to Looney Tunes stills is one of the best experiences out there.
