The fact that Gordy started his professional Star Wars journey with a RU-vid LIGHTSABER VIDEO is just mind-blowing to me 🤯 he seems like such a great and knowledgeable guy too!!
I got more hype seeing this upload than is frankly reasonable. I love Gordy's work; it perfectly captures the spirit of Williams' scores while also clearly exhibiting his own unique sound. What a breath of fresh air.
First time I played Battlefront 2 (never played BF 1) I heard the music and was like oh damn, did JW do this? And then finding out it wasn’t him blew my mind apart haha.
Gordy’s work is INCREDIBLE!! His original take on Star Wars that blends the old with new is phenomenal. I’m obsessed with the way he’s able to channel Williams from the prequel era specifically as that’s my favorite work of Williams’. Jedi Survivor’s OST is on repeat for me lately. Just gorgeous. Thanks Gordy!
Absolutely amazing interview! - love the details over how writing with the sequencer / samples completely can make you think what you are trying to write will not work due to the limits in its abilities to sound “real”. As a symphonic composer i deal with this on the daily. It’s so good to hear Gordy talk about this and amazing to hear how he dealt with that.
In my opinion, the people that can continue in the spirit of such iconic original works make just as prominent of an impact as those who started them. Gordy is a legend, and part of the reason that I tell people that Star Wars is my favorite genre of music.
I just watched this on the AIAS channel. Also my respect for Chance just increased exponentially, to put his own career on the line for another composer is such a nice thing to do, also the funny thing is it was Chance who exposed me to both you and Gordy years ago. Gordy is an amazing composer, he has been one of my favourites since Kinect Star Wars and Halo 2, I can't believe the hoops he had to jump through to just to gte his music approved imagine having John Williams critique your music?!!
This isn't actually a comment on this particular video, though I love this series. I just viewed my Spotify "2023 wrapped" and had such a delight of seeing the message from you. It was lovely of you to do that and I didn't know how else to say thanks. I'm a musicologist who used to work in more traditional media (e.g., opera, musical theatre, film scores) and has recently turned to teaching and writing about games. I said to one of my colleagues that your YT channel has been probably the single most important source of learning for me about what goes into writing a video game score and the potential for interactive music today. I've been slowly making my way through your vast catalogue (Journey, ABZU, The Pathless, Erica, Stray Gods) and enjoying every minute. I thought it was time to say thanks not only for your creative work but also for these inside looks at the industry. By the way, I'm writing what will hopefully become an academic article about your role on Journey.
The most fascinating thing about his ability to mimick Williams style is that he mimicks the style that is appropriate for the current Star Wars movies. The "Late Period" i'd call it. (Which in Williams case I sadly have to add is not a compliment since I consider the man to be written out. His modern scores all bore me to tears [I switched off his last Indiana Jones score which managed to be even more boring than "Chrystal Skull"], but that is a discussion for another time). Gordy could have gone 70's and 80's Williams, which would have been more appropriate for that era of Star Wars. But in the current era, it is not. I remember playing Fallen Oder and the score was so much like Williams that I felt I was losing my mind trying to figure out from which movies they cut this together. Because that is how that used to work with LucasArts games 20 years ago.
I've been looking forward to this, now you need to get Stephen Barton as well! I remember playing Fallen Order and being absolutely floored by the music. It's insane how they made music like that work in an interactive environment. Stephen, Gordy and the rest of the music team absolutely crushed it. And I love the bits about singable themes and writing with a sequencer vs writing by hand. For my own humble music (when it's at least 90% orchestral and for which I have unlimited amounts of time) I switched to writing with Dorico+Noteperformer and producing the final version with sample libraries in a DAW as the last step. I just write a piano sketch, orchestrate and have Noteperformer play back the results. It does an adequate job without spending hours massaging a bunch of CC lanes. I honestly feel like I write "better" like this. PS: Chance Thomas is a goddamned Gentleman. PPS: Any chance you could get Mick Gordon for one of these?
A chat with Barton is forthcoming (and already available from AIAS)! :) Mick I've tried many times over the years but never managed to pin it down. I can still hope though ...
The comparison of Classical music theory to Jazz music theory to Newtonian physics to Relativistic/Quantum physics is an unexpected but actually very apt comparison! Also, I was also annoyed by the constant quoting of John Williams (by John Williams himself) in Indy 5… playing the grail theme when the Lance of Loginus appears is cute, but borrowing the entire motorboat chase in Venice theme is a little egregious, imo. But I’m not John Williams lol!
