Video games are still a pretty new thing for me.īut when I moved out to LA to start working in the industry, I got pretty lucky and ended up working for a composer named Harry Gregson-Williams, who is very well-known and respected. Tell me how your career ramped up to "Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök." What games did you work on prior to this title? So, I love the challenge that’s built into this work. That’s pretty much exactly what happened. So, I have a lot of different, very, very eclectic influences, which I think is what made it so exciting to write music that felt genuine to me.īut I thought that film music and scoring for media in particular offered this really rare opportunity to potentially harness all of those influences that I loved from growing up - just putting them in a blender and seeing what comes out.ĭepending on the project you’re working on, too - you could be working on a period drama where you have to study baroque music, or you could be working on an Assassin’s Creed game and someone says they want to do a black metal score. Most of all, I grew up loving classic rock, and just the rock genre - punk, metal, things like that. I grew up loving orchestral music because it's what I was playing in school. I loved the collaborative process, working with a filmmaker who was really challenging me to try things out of my comfort zone. There was just something there that clicked with me. So, I didn't score my first short film until I was in college at New England Conservatory, which is a music-only school. I grew up playing violin and piano, and I pursued in college specifically concert music. Tell me about your early inspirations and what drew you to this medium. And sometimes people can be attracted to what that diversity can bring. I just think that as a composer, I represent something different from what much of this industry can be - which is not better or worse, it’s just another perspective. Maybe that balance is shifting where people are connecting with creators who are coming at this with a different lens and have something slightly different to say. So, regardless of who won, it was always going to be somebody who I think has earned a level of respect in the industry.īut I do think there is something to be said potentially for the fact that: yes, I am younger, and I am slightly newer to games. Truly, whoever won this category, it was going to be a huge celebration, because it's such a win to even have the validation from the Recording Academy to have video games as their own thing. If so, was there a feeling upon receiving this GRAMMY that it's giving way a tad? I imagine there's a degree of aristocracy in the video game scoring community, as there is in many subcultures. This interview has been edited for clarity. Taking cues from neofolk, Nordic folk and black metal, Economou employed a diverse palette of instruments - synthesizers, lap harp, viola da gamba, et al - to make the open-world RPG evermore captivating and transportive.Įconomou opened up to about her creative journey through the worlds of film and TV, the manifold inspirations behind the "Dawn of Ragnarök" score, and her hope that this new GRAMMY Award will grant the video game music community the esteem it deserves. The soundtrack to "Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök" isn't just high-quality it's immersive, evocative and boundary-pushing. "The music is great, and what you represent is something important." It was Wintory, who Economou characterizes as "very, very, very well-known," who set her self-doubting mind at ease: "It's absurd to even question why you're here," he told her, from her recollection. "I'm still pretty new to this, and I was like, Did I earn this? Do I deserve this? " "I was experiencing a lot of impostor syndrome," she says. But despite the heavy competition - Austin Wintory for "Aliens: Fireteam Elite," Bear McCreary for "Call of Duty Vanguard," other industry juggernauts - the golden gramophone was hers.įrom rows and rows deep, Economou dashed to the stage feeling more than a little conflicted. "I was up against titans in the video game composing industry, so I was just happy to be nominated and happy to be there," Economou tells. The video game soundtrack composer was nominated for the inaugural Best Score Soundtrack For Video Games And Other Interactive Media award for her score to "Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök" - a lavish expansion of the latest entry in Ubisoft's series of historically inspired action role-playing games. Stephanie Economou was so certain she wouldn't win a GRAMMY, that she sat near the back of the auditorium.
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