"That is me with an electric guitar dive-bombing it on the whammy bar."
When I inquired about a particularly ominous sound in Gears Tactics, Edward Patrick White's reply was revelatory. The Gears universe has a certain element of grittiness to it, something he didn't shy away from when creating Gears Tactics' soundtrack. Luckily, I was able to pick Edward's brain regarding his composition methods for the game's music.
Right from the start of our phone call, talking to him felt like catching up with an old friend. He revealed his storied background as a Gears fan, and coincidentally, we both played through the first entry in deckchairs (for lack of better seating options over 13 years ago). Suffice to say, nostalgia was an important part of Edward's musical mission.
The original Gears of War contained a highly-recognizable "broken transmission" sound within the game's main theme; Edward recreated the same call for the opening moments of Gears Tactics' score. The team wanted fans to recognize the series' DNA, as he put it, "literally when they boot the game up."
Listening along, I was instantly hit with a wave of memories from my time with previous Gears titles. "If the music isn't singing from that song-sheet that you've learned and you know really, really well – it can actually be quite alienating." Despite the soundtrack's own uniqueness, Edward and the team felt that there had to be a certain level of reverence and respect for the sounds of the originals.
Nevertheless, his originality shines through the soundtrack. "Gears is one of those universes that musically allows you to, what I call, paint in broad colors… it allows you to be very, very explicit." From suspenseful strings to militaristic brass, Edward wields each musical color with purpose and intention. Nothing in the soundtrack is too joyful either; it is Gears, after all. "The good guys can never be too on-the-nose heroic. You always have to feel like the best that they can hope for is to survive this battle."
But what of Edward's own musical background and interests? "I'm a John Williams freak. I absolutely love the symphony orchestra and what-have-you. At the same time, as a guitarist, I was playing in metal bands growing up… trying to be like Nine Inch Nails." As it so happens, Edward's musical preferences served him well when composing for Gears Tactics. Combining an orchestral foundation with the hardiness and personality of sampled, processed sounds was a perfect fit for the game. "There's a collision between these two worlds that really shouldn’t ever get to play together, and yet in the world of Gears of War, it actually works really well."
I had to admire the use of what Edward referred to as "unsettling" sounds in the score, too. His experience scoring for film and TV certainly assisted in his cleverness composing for Gears' cinematic nature. "Gears is like a horror movie hiding inside an action movie," he quipped.
Composing for a game like Gears Tactics is not without its difficulty. "Sometimes you can end up telegraphing," Edward says. "You have to be very careful with the themes so that you’re not giving things away." It is a turn-based game, so I inquired about players (such as myself) who spend extended periods of time on a single turn. Edward didn't skip a beat, proclaiming, "I really wrote the score for that player." He wanted to ensure nothing took attention away from the experience, regardless of time spent on a mission. "If [the music] becomes too much of an earworm then you can really drive people insane."
When the sound in a video game does its job well, it can be taken for granted all-too-easily – but it shouldn't be. Creating music that functions organically within a game that contains a laundry list of player variables is a daunting task. In the case of Gears Tactics, composer Edward knocked its soundtrack out of the park.
As far as his upcoming work, keep an eye out for a project helmed by director Hasraf 'HaZ' Dulull, aiming to showcase the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5.
This interview was conducted via phonecall on May 19, 2020.