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Warning ! This interview hold SPOILERS for EA ’s Jedi : SurvivorEA’sJedi : Survivoris the continuation toJedi : Fallen Order , continuing the account of Jedi Cal Kestis as he attempts to fight the Empire during the Dark Times in an legal action - take biz allowing player to become Jedi themselves . Set in the aftermath ofRevenge of the Sithand the brutal purge known asOrder 66 , Cal Kestis has very few ally while attempting to maintain the ideals of the Jedi while also resisting the might of the Empire . Often facing consuming loss , Kestis ' story is one of theStar Warstimeline’smost tragic and acute , and it ’s made even ripe by its rich and dynamical soundtrack .
Having been released for PC and consoles in April , Jedi : Survivoris one of 2023 ’s most popular AAA games . This is partly due to its impressive soundtrack from composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab whose work has been nominate for a Grammy in the Best Score for Video Game family .
Here ’s every upcoming Star Wars movie in development - including Rey ’s New Jedi Order , the Dawn of the Jedi , and The Mandalorian & Grogu !
In honor of their Grammy nomination , Screen Rantgot the chance to interview Barton and Haab where they share insight about creating their own distinctStar Warssound , adapting the legacy ofStar Warsfilm composer John Williams , the dark development of Cal Kestis , preferent moments from the galaxy far , far aside , and more .
Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab Talk Jedi: Survivor
Jedi : Survivoris a huge hit and a great subsequence . A peck of that is active story and gameplay but it ’s also how utterly the score draws you into all the different planet and the overall space that ’s been created . believe the epic bequest that is John Williams , what does that initial development process look like when you guys sit down to figure out how to create another great chapter for the galaxy far , far away ?
Stephen Barton : It ’s a intermixture of terror , holy terror and play . You know , it ’s really fun . I mean , We knew from the outset , a lot of what the tarradiddle was conk to be for this secret plan . So we kind of had a flake of an musical theme towards the end of the last one of the sort of things we were going to flirt with . We roll in the hay that Merrin ’s stuff was going to be really of import because we bonk she was hold up to have a big role inSurvivorbefore it was even calledJedi : subsister … going in we kind of knew the discharge of it and every time you get to the end of the game , where there ’s a voltage of a subsequence you sort of you have it kind of in mind . So , yeah , and then I retrieve then just to sort of , you know , pace back to look at it … and then the panic sets in .
Gordy Haab : I intend , there ’s always a bit of terror . But , you live , the truth is we kind of look at it more like having to live up to what we ’d done onFallen Orderthan trying to subsist up to any other bequest . We really kind of leaned into our own personal esthetic more . I have a history withStar Warsgaming . My firstStar Warsgame wasThe Old Republic , and I did bothBattlefront1 and 2 with EA ( Squadronsas well ) . Each one has progressively sort of deviated a minuscule not further aside necessarily from you have it away , the original sound ofStar Wars , but because the account are unlike .
It ’s kind of updating to like aStar Wars2.0 , if you will , so we had the opportunity to really kind of do something unparalleled with this score , so we really kind of stretch out , musically verbalise , in a way that we knew would also please the buff because both of us are also hugeStar Warsfans , so we wanted to ensure anything we do , you know , fits the moment and find like it ’s part of that universe , but also is kind of pushing the boundary as much as possible .
Stephen , feel devoid to compensate me if I ’m unseasonable , but theseJedigames were your first big debut inStar Wars . Was there any kind of learning curve ?
Stephen Barton : perfectly . I mean , it ’s one of those where you get interesting dynamics of all of these thing , specially when there ’s an existing enfranchisement , and I had it last year withStar Trekas well , where you sort of come in there are people whose job it is to sort of protect the franchise and then I cogitate incumbent on everyone else to sort of like rivulet and screen where the guardrails are . And it ’s like you would n’t be doing your job if you did n’t sort of once in a while turn tail as hard as you could into those guardrails and see what really is a safety rail and what ’s sort of just an presumptuousness .
The sport thing is figuring out what it means musically to be aStar Warsscore and it ’s really such an exposed interrogation . Ten twelvemonth ago if you said to someone , ' Oh , there ’s going to be aStar Warsgame and it ’s gon na have Mongolian throat sing ' I think personally they ’d be like ' Pardon ? Really ? ' and now it ’s been in both games and a little mo intoThe Mandaloriantoo .
I intend it ’s just that sentiency of experimentation and if you look at the John Williams stuff , what ’s most interesting is we have this design that he has a sound and he perfectly does in term of the sound of those scores , but if you look as they develop , they break a vast amount and like episodes 7,8 , and 9 do n’t sound anything really like 1,2 , and 3 with completely different idea and the way they work . It ’s like the way moving picture has grown in the last 50 years . you may chart it throughStar Warsscores if you want to . So I think that for us , it ’s like sort of like looking into that development and enounce , ' Okay , well what ’s the next step , and how does this relate to game ? ' and that ’s really fun .
How do you guys notice the balance between creating a new and distinct speech sound and using some of those classic John Williams motifs from theStar Warsmovies ?
Gordy Haab : So out of about 8 and a half 60 minutes or something like that , there ’s only really just maybe three or four moment where we even hint at a theme from the original scores . And that was very intentional , because the history is its own unique affair . We require to make certain that it was a singular score but there are inevitable moments where it ’s yell for . Without pass on too many spoilers forth . Vader shows up in the game and fights with one of our favorite character . So we had to write basically a battle sequence that also captured the emotion of one of our best-loved character in the game . Going up against what is was feeling very much like an inescapably lose struggle , and how do you suggest at the Darth Vader theme for example ?
We think about it and we kind of come near it in a Modern way . We did n’t require to do anything too direct because it ’s , it ’s not necessarily like in this game , the Empire or even Vader is like this , this comportment is marching on you like warlike it ’s always more like this ominous mien more than anything . Even when Vader shows up , I was just envisage through Cere ’s eyes , she ’s , you know , frazzle . She ’s faced with this dark design . It ’s almost more like a silhouette than it is anything so we kind of come on it that way with the music to rather than playact the theme verbatim .
We traced the silhouette of the theme , and did it with this low kind of farinaceous , dark tender that just kind of crease around . The shape of the melody . You know , I ’ve mentioned this before in a distich of interviews that I believe it ’s kind of a coolheaded thing to steer out , but like I have this post-horse in my studio of Darth Vader and it ’s just the abstract of the helmet . It ’s just a black silhouette against his cerise background . But you bonk , it ’s coolheaded but it ’s still very scary to have this form of staring at you by this ill figure . But yeah , it ’s just a silhouette . So we thought , what if we tried that with this theme , so even though we used that topic in the plot , you be intimate , for those of import moments and phone for it , even there , we ’re still kind of like trying to push the boundaries of how we approach it and make it meet more with this plot line .
Stephen Barton : I intend that you know , the large thing is , we ’re early on Fallen edict , we had a thing where we like we articulate , like , we ’re decease to treat these like cute gems , you hump , like , the one thing you do n’t involve to do with the euphony inStar Warsis form of be the wallpaper on the kidskin ’s chamber . You do n’t demand to be like , ' Here ’s aStar Warsgame ! Did you forget , it ’s aStar Warsgame . Oh , by the way , it ’s aStar Warsgame ' . The medicine does n’t demand to do that , and what ’s really interesting about the composition is when you do employ them and spare them at the right import . You ’re withholding , withholding , withholding , then when you do drop it , it ’s even more powerful .
Particularly , the Force theme was something that we reckon of as this thing , where it ’s such a powerful moment , and we really only use it twice in the intact biz and there ’s one place that is very subtle , and some people may not even fall across it . And then at the remainder , we use it in the very last cutscene and there ’s just like , it care hits you like a ton of bricks . I think the other matter that you know , whenever we ’ve sort of wreak with these themes , it ’s sort of the ethos of how you use them and as well . One of the things we want to do was always present the music in a way that ’s very much how it would sort of be if John Williams were writing the sequence , what would you do with a idea , not simply just being like , ' Oh , how was it done in that affair ? ' So it ’s always developed in some way or there ’s some new aspect to it .
Lucasfilm has been doing their High Republic novels and comics which are reference inSurvivor’sflashbacks . One of my favorite moments is get to see the Nihil piranha show up on Tanalorr , as it ’s effectively their first big entry minute outside the pageboy . What was it like make medicine for stigma - new Star Wars villains ?
Gordy Haab : I mean , it ’s a lot of playfulness because , this is like a first appearance that we you know , see in like a visual media . And so , it give this chance to create something new , to kind of dig into what a character is about , you know , theme the graphic symbol properly , sort of make the humour for the scene properly . So it ’s always a very welcome opportunity when we have those chance to kind of , you recognise , take a new character or a bequest theatrical role that ’s not register up in a optical sense like this , and attempt to do something unique with it . And , you know , seek to make it fit into the storyline without it feel like , you know , we ’re place this liberal stamp of newness on something it still needs to sense like it ’s organically part of the grander picture and the grander story of Star Wars .
Stephen Barton : It ’s a peculiar story with that scene . Funny enough because it ’s one of the scenes where you know , we were sort of seeing that in flashback . Because of the elbow room games are made , we often have a cinematic where it ’s just like grayscale or like a gray box . And so when that cinematic first came over and we had the script , it did n’t really say anything about them . Sometimes secret plan scripts are n’t quite as elaborate as films with every detail and every unmarried thing you ’re ascertain on screen . Often it ’s very in flux . So that scene did n’t in reality have any of the ground in it with the Nihil . And then when the cutscene came back in we got to last see them in the scope . I do n’t conceive we repurposed that medicine , but it mold and it was great . Yeah , but it was just literally we had no idea because it was just a gray background and then and then cool stuff appeared and we ’re like ' Ohhhh ! ' .
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It ’s safe to say one of devotee ' favorite tracks fromSurvivorcomes near the end of the game . Through Darknesshas a grand meshwork of character melodic theme . What was the process behind that finical caterpillar track and how much emotion did you want to try and transmit there ? ( There ’s not a short ton of dialogue in those final moments with Cal mourning both Cere and Bode ’s deaths ) .
Stephen Barton : That ’s straight . You fuck , we come from and we come into that shot from a pretty grim successiveness as well … our cinematic director sort of illuminated something , and this is one of the endearing things about game developing because it ’s less so much about bear a game manager who tell everything , the auteur matter does n’t really quite happen in games by the way , but from that you get lots of times where you never know who ’s conk out to be the person who sort of illuminates something , so we were writing the sequence and that ’s the shot where Cal appear at the door as he ’d built the funeral pyres and put bode on it , so you have this moment where he appears at the door and our cinematic director say , ' he ’s the Angel of Death ' , and like this is his lowest peak .
So musically , I was like , ' Oh , I sort of understand what you require from the sequence now ' . And it ’s sort of this affair where you might have had some sorting of lamentable , emotional pure tone and it ’s he was like , ' no , no , like , this is from Cal ’s view , you see him at the threshold and it ’s like Death himself ' . And it ’s interesting how game have now developed to this point because we used to be so much into ABA transit number of music where we ’d be like we ’re gon na have our explore euphony and our fighting music and we still do have a chip of that but we ’re commence to tell these taradiddle with these really deep bed of subtext and context to it . And that ’s immense fun because you’re able to get a sequence like this and go and go to town on it . And , and yeah , just trying to weave in all the character motifs and really localise it up , we want to leave you at the end where we know this is n’t the end of the story , but it ’s like , we ’re setting up that moment of saying what ’s going to happen which sort of get the most emotion out of it and the medicine becoming the thing that are n’t say are really being said in the medicine to a stage .
Gordy Haab : It ’s very similar in a means to how we closed outFallen Orderwhich is , it ’s very focused on Cordova and his motif and then we open this game actually with the menu , it opens with Cordova ’s stem as well . So we ’re kind of tying it and trying to continue the plot line as best as possible and make it sense like it ’s all cohesive and connect . It ’s much more like mark a motion-picture show these day . aboveboard , it just happens to be a 30 - plus hour film .
Keeping that in mind , have you guys get going talking about Jedi 3 ?
Stephen Barton : You cognise , the snipers are probably close-fitting and balance on a hill . So you know , as they sort of get things set up it ’s definitely something musically that we ’re very much thinking about in term of what we ’re going to potentially do , and you bang we just wait for the time when we start formally encounter the start of things . Officially , of course we do n’t know anything , but it is something you have in mind . Even when we were work onSurvivoryou have it off we ’re dead setting thing up and there ’s obviously an arc there that ’s die places … even though that may be you lie with , a numeral of years away and all that .
One final question for you guys , and it ’s more of just a fun one : as well you may , is there a favourite moment you both have from Star Wars ?
Stephen Barton : I believe I would say that I always really wish the final affaire d’honneur inReturn of the Jedias a kind of something in the sense that I cogitate it ’s one seat they just rent the sort of operatic splendor of it play out and particularly the shot as they descend out from under the paseo when Vader work out out Luke has a babe , and then that ’s the degree at which Luke sort of snap and I consider it ’s one of the great moments in drama , I mean , in terms of it ’s just the way it sort of sets up this distinguished form of running matter . And then you cognise , it ’s one of those rare payoffs and last showdowns that in reality know up to the thing that ’s inflame up . That was one I think that just you know , it ’s one of the most beautifully plat out arcs … and it ’s done with so little dialogue , but everyone knows like the whole chronological succession , it ’s impress on the brain .
Gordy Haab : for me , I mean , I ’ll begin broadly and narrow down it in but you know , my preferred picture of the whole serial publication isEmpire Strikes Back . And , if I was to focus on any one finicky view in that film , I ’d say it has to be Luke arriving and Dagobah and breeding with Yoda , simply because everything up until that point has been kind of I signify , I do n’t need to say it ’s been you know , kind of fun and games because it sure enough was not , but I feel like this is such a turning power point . It gets very serious in that moment , you eff , like the funny note even to this day , like I get chill I can remember this as a kid , Yoda say ' You will be … ' to Luke it ’s just like , oh my god , it ’s haunting . Like that ’s a turn point . It ’s like , oh , dickhead , this is material now , so I really liked that form of gravid emotional shift .
Jedi : Survivoris available now on PS5 , Xbox Series X|S , and PC .
