Zombie Army Dev Diary – Soundscape of Horror
Deadhunters!
We recently took the time to sit down with the Zombie Army series’ composer and Rebellion’s Head of Audio Nick D. Brewer and talk all things Zombie Army.
With several incredible soundtracks under his belt, we delved into those questions we know our community has been hungry to have answered for many years: the inspirations behind the soundtracks we all love slaughtering zombies to.
Were there any pieces of music that inspired you when composing for Zombie Army VR?
So, when I work on the music for these games, I like to throw myself into the music that I'm trying to ultimately pay homage to. Luckily, that also happens to be some of my favourite music, and that's the soundtracks to 70s, 80s, 90s horror films.
I've been listening to a lot of Fabio Frizzi, he did the music for Lucio Fulci’s movies (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead) among many other Italian film directors from the late 70s, early 80s who were doing that kind of whole exploitation cinema movement. Also, a lot of Goblin who did the soundtracks to many of Dario Argento's films (Suspiria, Profondo Rosso) and John Carpenter's soundtracks to his own films from the 70s, 80’s and 90’s. I've also been watching a lot of spaghetti westerns, which I absolutely love. Ennio Morricone was a key composer for a lot of those films, so don't be surprised if you hear a little bit of that spaghetti western sound weaving its way into the Zombie Army soundtracks going forward.
What elements are key to any horror soundtrack?
I think one of the great things about composing for horror is the fact that you can abandon a lot of music theory. You don't have to worry too much about how melody or harmony should be. You can kind of play into the discordance and things sounding not quite right to kind of give you that sense of creepiness and tension.
Abandoning all music theory, everything you were taught at school and just throwing yourself into something without those kinds of constraints is a really exciting part of the process.
Roughly how many instruments did you use for Zombie Army VR soundtrack?
Instruments wise for the Zombie Army soundtracks there are a hell of a lot of synths. Roughly 8 on the go, not always on one track, but throughout the whole piece. 2 different types of electric bass guitar, a standard electric guitar, an acoustic steel string guitar, full drum kit, and a violin played by me. I can't play violin, but leaving it all detuned, tweaking it in weird, noisy ways creates interesting sounds.
In general, there’s lots of borrowed random objects like broken old cymbals, milk bottles, anything that I can get horrible screeching noises out of and embed them into the sonic palette.
What's the toughest part of putting together a track?
For me, the toughest part of composition is continuing a piece of music to its full length from its concept. So, coming up with that initial idea, a few bars, a phrase, a hook, if you will, but then suddenly having to turn that 20 seconds into six minutes is the moment where I start to get a bit stonewalled.
Sometimes I just need to kind of pull myself fully away from what I've done, come back to it a few weeks later and listen to it fresh or take it in the car, the living room, just take it out of the studio and listen to it on a completely different device. Then my brain can start ticking away and deciding how I'm going to turn that 20 seconds into this epic game piece.
What's your favourite Zombie Army track that you've worked on?
Picking my favourite piece I've worked on is difficult, maybe “Destroy The Brain or Remove The Head” from Zombie Army 4? Mainly because that was a piece that I got really stuck on taking any further than the initial 20 seconds.
We then had the E3 2019 trailer come up, and that piece was picked to be in it. Getting forced into that situation to have to expand that track to fit a trailer with loads of weird variations, having to factor in the camera work and editing then allowed me to put those pieces back into the track, and suddenly that that 20 second piece was four minutes long and had all this amazing new content in it.
So, I always look back and see that as a piece that really blew up without me expecting it to. That said, there's lots of fantastic new bits on Zombie Army VR that I'm hoping you’re looking forward to!
What's your favourite horror/zombie movie?
My favourite zombie movie is a bit of a draw.
It's probably between The Beyond and Zombie Flesh Eaters, both by Lucio Fulci. I can't make up my mind between them. As I mentioned earlier, I’m a huge fan of that Italian exploitation cinema era and the zombie movies that came out at that time in my mind are definitely some of the best zombie films out there.
If it's just horror movies we're talking about, my favourite horror film of the last century would probably be 1982’s The Thing by John Carpenter. A more contemporary favourite would probably be It Follows by David Robert Mitchell, which is a homage in quite a lot of ways to 80s and 90s horror itself.Zombie Army VR will be available on PlayStation® VR2, Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro, Oculus Rift, and PC headsets via Steam in 2024.We’ll have more to share about Zombie Army VR soon, stay tuned via the links listed below to find out more!
In need of hair-raising music to get you in the zombie slaying mood? Click here to check out Zombie Army 4's soundtrack, available to stream, own and download courtesy of the team at Rebellion Music.
