Level with Emily Reese

A few things about my conversation with George Sanger . It's the longest single-interview episode in my 11 years as a podcaster, and the interview itself flew by. I felt like each question could've been its own episode. I kept wanting to turn the page and discover more. Alas, we barely scrape the surface of this game audio legend. We talk about his music for Wing Commander and The 7th Guest . We t...

Joel Schoch 's music for the Far series of games is truly wonderful ( Far: Changing Tides from 2022 and Far: Lone Sails from 2018). I can't recommend it highly enough. Joel does a laudable job scoring the open, watery worlds in both games. An abundance of live instruments but with respect for the, well, "simplicity" that the games present. You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Pa...

There are 14,000 sound effects (aka "Foley") in the game Unpacking . That's a handful. And what a charming game, no dialog, just art and sound. You learn the story as you unpack the belongings of a young girl as she grows up, goes to college, moves in with friends, then experiences different relationships in adult life. Jeff and Angela van Dyck are responsible for the audio, and Jeff wrote gleeful...

Imp of the Sun is a gorgeous 2D platformer from Sunwolf Entertainment , a company co-created by the game's composer, Jose Varon . The game was inspired by the landscape, history, culture, art and music of Peru, where the developers live. Jose got the chance to record instruments in a museum, some of which were 6,000 years old. And he highlights other instruments with roles in Peruvian culture, lik...

The music for Loot River was composed by two brothers in Vienna, Austria - Markus and David Zahradnicek. Markus and David, who go by Wobblersound , are a full-service audio package, so for Loot River, they supplied not only the music, but the sound design and implementation.   You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon . Join us on Discord for free. Find us on YouTube and Twit...

Chase Bethea talks about his music for Questlike: Pocket , a mobile monster-hunter RPG with a rhythmic component to battle. Chase wrote four battle tracks for the game, all in the same time signature of 5/4, and all at 60 beats per minute to match battle tempo throughout the game. In addition to the four battle tracks, Chase also wrote the main theme. As always, it was a pleasure to speak with Cha...

Composer Ben Nichols talks about three soundtracks: OMNO, a gorgeous adventure game (for which he received an Ivor Novello nomination); Before We Leave , a colorful world-builder; and The Falconeer , a dogfighting aerial combat fighter. So different from each other and delightful to discuss each one! You'll find a YouTube video on our channel (sometimes they post a few days after the audio version...

Join us on Discord to discuss the episode!   This is music by John Robert Matz for Ambition: A Minuet in Power , an adventure game/interactive visual novel with all sorts of romance options, set during the ramp-up of the French Revolution in the 1780s.   John Robert’s music is also set in the 1780s, the height of the Classical era in music, and composers like Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn were...

Composer Carlos Eiene began his career at age 14, uploading video game music covers to YouTube from his living room on piano and saxophone. He posted a video at the beginning of 2022 stating he would no longer be uploading game covers, but that he would be focusing on original composition. Carlos and I talk about some of his new music, and some of his old music, on this episode. Find him on YouTub...

Video game music remix artist Lacey Johnson is a content machine! You can find dozens of remix videos of Lacey’s on YouTube , she’s got a Persona 4 album on Bandcamp and several more album projects planned (including Persona 3!) with dozens more YouTube videos scheduled. I got to meet Lacey in April at VGM Con here in Minneapolis. We were on a panel together and we chat about that briefly, but als...

A song by composer Robert Wolf is nominated for Best Original Song in the upcoming Game Audio Network Guild Awards on May 25, 2022. He composed "Immutable" for the game Arknights , a mobile tower defense/ tactical RPG from Hypergryph. Robert is a composer for Hexany Audio , a company that provides music and sound for many different game projects around the world. Robert also composes for Honor of...

Mark Schimmelbusch - known as " Mahn " in the VGM world - talks about his album called The Old Blood: A Bloodborne Concept Album . This album was recently awarded best remix album at the 2022 VGM Con Remix Awards in Minneapolis. Mahn has remixed many other favorites from game music, and we enjoyed talking together about his musical adventures! You can support Level with Emily on Patreon . Find us...

Composer Mason Lieberman works for Tencent Games , and writes music for all types of games and projects, like PUBG Mobile and Teamfight Tactics . He's composed for tons of different anime projects too, like RWBY and Beyblade Burst Evolution. Mason has a keen ear for composing J-rock, and other J-styles and C-styles, and was exposed to these styles starting at a young age when his family had a fore...

Drummer Dom Palombi talks about his new album Game Night!  with game music covers and three original tracks. The album features several seasoned video game, anime and all the J-styles performers like Patrick Bartley (J-Music Ensemble), Carlos Eiene (insaneintherainmusic), the Super Soul Bros. , Charlie Rosen (8-Bit Big Band) and more. Dom and the Game Night! band recently traveled to Minneapolis f...

Andrew Hulshult 's music for the Quake-like retro first person shooter called Dusk is fabulous. Dusk, from New Blood Interactive, originally came out in 2018. Andrew’s music for the original Dusk is symphonic metal - a lot of electric guitars and epic orchestral music. And that’s all wonderful and amazing and you’ll hear a bunch of it. EVEN MORE AMAZING, in 2021, New Blood released a tiny prequel...

This is a panel from VGM Con with composer Andrew Benon for Chex Quest , a game that came out in boxes of Chex cereal from General Mills in 1996. Andrew, at the time, worked for a company in Minneapolis called Digital Cafe. General Mills also is located in Minneapolis (well, a suburb called Golden Valley, to be more precise). In any event, Andrew will tell you the story of the CD Rom cereal game,...

Composer Lee Jackson 's legacy in the world of game music includes the theme song for Duke Nukem 3D called “Grabbag”. Lee talks about writing music for Duke Nukem 3D and other Duke projects, as well as how quickly he wrote music for Rise of the Triad , and how he made sounds for Balls of Steel (all games from Apogee Software / 3D Realms ). Lee also takes commissions to write new music, and his alb...

You’ve probably heard DB Cooper 's voice at some point in your gaming life. I first heard her in BioShock 2 as the voice of the PA system. Most recently, she cast and directed the voices in Lake  (in my intro to the episode, I mention she voiced characters in Lake, which is incorrect). And she is one of only two who voice ALL of the characters and sounds in the strategy roguelike deck builder Mons...

One of my favorite soundtracks from 2021 came from Neil Bones (a.k.a. Corey Jones) for Twelve Minutes , a creepy time-loop game from Annapurna Interactive. Corey’s music caught my attention for its simplicity and beauty. Find it on Bandcamp and all the places! You can find a playlist and support Level with Emily on Patreon .

Maclaine Diemer talks about his music for the newest expansion for Guild Wars 2 called End of Dragons. The music is inspired by traditional Korean music and instruments, a much needed educational dive into a rich tradition! Emily and Maclaine talk at great length about the special instruments he chose to use and the beautiful music for GW2: End of Dragons. You can find a playlist and support Level...

Ego Plum talks about his music for The Cuphead Show , a new animated TV series on Netflix based on the 2017 game Cuphead. The music Ego composed for the TV series is inspired by the early jazz that accompanied cartoons in and around the 1930s, and that you heard in the original score for the game itself (props to composer Kris Maddigan and here is his interview about Cuphead ). Netflix recently an...

We’ve talked with composer Chase Bethea in the past about his music for the game Aground , but this soundtrack release is different, so we talked again. The Aground Deluxe Edition includes nine more tracks, and piano sheet music for three of the tracks. This interview took place on December 30th in 2020. You can support Level with Emily on Patreon .

Hear a conversation with Inon Zur about his music for Syberia: The World Before . The game comes out in February 2022, but the soundtrack came out late last year. That gave me the chance to speak with Inon about all of the music, and the music in this game is special for several reasons. One of the main characters is a concert pianist and part of the game is set in 1937 with clear parallels to Wor...

Erik Desiderio is composing music for Last Epoch , an action RPG from Eleventh Hour games. Erik just released a music video with the performers from Last Epoch's Main Theme and you can view it here ! Last Epoch has been in early access for quite a while, and Erik is busy filling in the music - 4+ hours of music, to be exact. He used the Scandinavian instrument called the tagelharpa (which you see...

Mike Raznick composed music for AWAY: The Survival Series . In this game, you control a sugar glider as he is trying to make his way to safety in a new world. The game is narrated, like a nature documentary. And the music is absolutely gorgeous. If you buy the AWAY soundtrack on Bandcamp , Mike is giving all proceeds to the Audubon Society , dedicated to the protection of birds, so be sure to visi...