M4G: Spider-Man 2 sees superhero cartoon composer Michael McCuistion return to score the various cutscenes and dramatic moments. When was he asked to start writing for the movie game sequel and at what stage was the final music delivered?
Tom Hays: We started demoing ideas for central themes and character motifs in late 2003, before the game levels or the cutscenes were ready. This wound up working nicely, because we had strong core themes and pallettes to use when locked cutscene pictures appeared in January. I doubt, for example, that Michael would have come up with such a great suite of music for Black Cat if he hadn't spent time throwing away several ideas before writing the final pieces. Other core elements were a main hero theme for Spider-Man and a fugue-like set of music for Doc Ock that I think wonderfully tied together his intellectual power, his warmth, his hubris, and his villainy.

Our scoring date was February 17th, and we mixed over the following two days. I took the final mixes back to the office with me on the 19th.


M4G: Did you have final say in approving the music before it was included in the game or did you already pre-approve demos before moving forward on the live recordings?
Tom Hays: As Audio Director for Treyarch, I was responsible for selecting the composer and managing the process, with the input of the game's Creative Director (Tomo Moriwaki) and writer (Matthew Rhaodes). Michael McCuistion made simple demos of all pieces using samplers, so that we could offer feedback and approve the finished compositions.


M4G: The Spider-Man 2 orchestral music was recorded on the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank. How much of a difference in quality do you think there is in recording with LA players compared with Prague, for example?
Tom Hays: The difference was night and day. I walked away from this project convinced that selecting an orchestra and venue is as specific a task as choosing a composer. Michael couldn't have written half of the stuff he wrote if we were going to a lesser orchestra in a smaller American city, let alone Prague. He wrote some hard stuff, and I think the players handled it wonderfully. The ability to play difficult music precisely, in sync with 70 other players, is a rare skill. Also, we recorded over 29 minutes of music in a single 6-hour day, which I am told is very rare.

The stage itself is the best-sounding room I've ever heard in the 1 � second reverberation range. I wasn't involved in the Prague sessions for the first Spider-Man movie game, but I'm told the studio was like a high school music room. As to engineering staff and equipment, I have a hard time imagining better than we had at Eastwood.

I think that we might have pulled it off in London, or maybe Sydney, but LA is the blue chip choice and we didn't have time to take chances.


M4G: Some critics raised issue with the lack of music during gameplay. What would you say to these reviews - do you agree/disagree?
Tom Hays: I have never been a fan of wallpaper music that plays incessantly when nothing is happening. I'd rather have music in a game reinforce the emotion of what's going on, and let the background sound effects fill in during the quiet times. We decided that when music played in Spider-Man 2, we wanted it to indicate to the player that something was happening.

Almost any time a mission or specific goal comes up, a piece of music will start, which I think helps give the player a sense that it's time to do something. I get the feeling that some of the reviewers may have had the game sitting on their machine not doing much, swinging around and maybe looking for some detail, as opposed to doing missions and moving the story forward. I'm not sure this is representative of the typical gamer's experience.

Having said that, it's a definite challenge to balance out the ebb and flow of things in a wide-open world like we have in Spider-Man 2, and it's possible that there are moments that could have benefited from music that didn't have them. All in all, though, I think the game's music works nicely.


M4G: Tell us about some of the other music featured in the game? What about the tracks supplied by KMFDM and The Distillers - where do they appear in the game? How were these tracks chosen?
Tom Hays: Treyarch's previous Audio Director, Sergio Bustamante, got KMFDM involved early on, and they provided half an hour of original music. This is the hard-driving sound you hear when it's time to break up a robbery or during the trick races. It was great having this solid block of great music to build the rest of the game's soundtrack around. For example, this let us choose to have Michael steer away from heavy use of synths, think in terms of themes, and provide a strong contrast to the KMFDM. I've always liked this sort of juxtaposition of styles in movies; The Matrix is a great example.

Tim got us The Distillers songs that appear in our credits, including their rendition of the theme song from the '60s TV show.

Tim Riley: Yes I did. In an attempt to involve some more current music in the game, Will Kassoy, in our Marketing Department and myself decided to have a band do a cover to the original Spider-Man theme song. In choosing that artist many different variables came in to play and we ended up using The Distillers based on a few specific reasons, most importantly being timing. The band's first major label release and the game were coming out about the same time. Plus much like the game, The Distillers were being praised as "one of the bands to watch in '04" in the media. Also, the thought of having the song done by a female lead was exceptionally exciting to me; I was certain it would lend a fresh approach. I believe the end result speaks for itself. The band really nailed the track and MTV showed up to the studios to film the entire recording session which later aired in the "Making of the Game."


M4G: How do you choose artists/composers for your new games? Are you selecting composers on their previous credits in the games industry or on their profile in the film/recording industry?
Tom Hays: The top people for writing music to cinematic sequences are in the film industry. I would never balk at the opportunity to have Don Davis or Danny Elfman write music for our linear sequences. However, when it comes to writing music for gameplay, I would need to feel certain that a composer was actually interested in the specific needs of games.

As to licensing existing or original tracks from various artists, these can drop into many spots in games, especially steady-state action scenarios. There is no need for the people who write this music to have any understanding of games, as long as we dig their music.

Tim Riley: While searching for composers, we consider everyone we feel might make the best music for that particular title. As Tom mentioned, the top people in that world tend to work in the film space, so we usually consider a few of them, but we also look at everyone else we think might work - from the top writers in the gaming space to well known artists in popular music. And yes, their profiles and credits always seem to weigh into the end decision.


M4G: With original interactive music now becoming more and more crucial to the gaming experience how do the budgets reflect this growing expectation of quality and innovation?
Tim Riley: As you addressed, the inclusion of original music in gaming has become very popular. At Activision we are adapting to this in every way necessary. One of these adaptations is in the gaming budgets, however I would prefer not to get into budget conversations.


M4G: Has the Activision audio department expanded since your introduction to the company or do you tend to hire all of your composers/producers from outside?
Tim Riley: The Activision Music Department has grown slightly since I arrived in-house over a year ago, however we still hire all of our composers from outside.


M4G: During this year's DICE summit Steve Schnur seemed to suggest that EA was working on a commercial download service for licensed music tracks in next-generation EA games. Furthermore, at this year's E3 Didier Lord mentioned UbiSoft are working towards further exploitation of their original game music catalogue by using the Internet to forge new avenues of income. Does Activision have any plans along these lines for promoting music beyond the game?
Tim Riley: Yes, like EA and UbiSoft we're very excited about the next-generation machines and the opportunities they'll offer. However, I would rather not mention what we are or are not considering at this time; I will say that the possibilities are extremely exciting.


M4G: What's in store for next-generation Activision game soundtracks? More exclusive remixes and original content or a continuation of previous music licensing endeavors? Any other new projects you are currently working on that we should be on the look out for?
Tim Riley: We're going to continue to release the best quality soundtracks possible, whether it's composed, licensed or original music in all of our games. In the next-generation games, I believe you'll be seeing more original musical content, more inventive scores and much more licensed music as the space we have to work with grows. Yes, keep an eye out for both the Shark Tale & Tony Hawk's Underground 2 soundtracks.

Interview by Rusty James

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