Whenever you’re sat throughout from Simon Viklund – narrative director for the just-announced Den of Wolves and famend composer – music is the elephant within the room. He’s, within the eyes of many, the large daddy of EDM, and for good purpose. The Payday collection is infamous for a cash bag of causes, not least of which is the thumping soundtrack that accompanies the heists.
However Viklund has taken considerably of a hiatus from the style as of late. Following his departure from Starbreeze, Viklund centered extra on freelance work earlier than touchdown again with long-time colleague Ulf Anderson at 10 Chambers, the place he’d assist create the extra haunting sounds of GTFO. With Den of Wolves revealed at The Sport Awards, he’s dusting off the onerous bass.
“It’s gonna be EDM as a result of it’s sci-fi. And that’s my wheelhouse,” Viklund tells me on the Unity places of work, a while previous to the sport’s official reveal. “I really feel I can do a superb job in that area. I could make you’re feeling cool – make you need to nod your head. Head bobbing pleasant music. One thing with angle.”
Viklund is bound to notice early on that he’s not aiming to create a complete new style right here, stating he’s “not too bothered” because of the probability it might distract from the core targets of the soundtrack. As an alternative, he’s working with quite a lot of different profitable musicians as a way to nail that cool issue. Considered one of them is none aside from Jamie Christopherson; Viklund is aware of him from 15 years in the past once they collaborated on Bionic Commando, however you seemingly know him from his excellent work on Metallic Gear Rising’s soundtrack.
Already, that is thrilling. The minds behind Razormid and Guidelines of Nature working collectively is an ode to your cellphone’s headphone quantity warning. However there’s extra! Given the setting of Halfway Islands, 10 Chambers can be collaborating with percussionist Greg Ellis.
“We’re gonna be recording some Polynesian stuff. We’re additionally working with Greg Ellis who labored on Argo, Transformers, and Godzilla. He’s implausible with that type of percussion. He’ll be bringing every part he has as a result of it suits the Pacific Ocean setting of Den of Wolves. We’re gonna weave that in – it’s not gonna be like Polynisian conventional music – however I would like the drum fills and different little issues so as to add some flavour and texture.
Whereas Viklund and co. are creating music extra akin to his work on Payday than his current work, he’s certain to notice some key variations, describing it as such: “Slower and heavier than what I typically made for Payday. That’s as a result of there’s this sense of willpower and heaviness to slower music, and you’ll double the tempo or hit the sixteenth notes to get that stress component in there. Music that’s round 100 BPM – I’m listening to quite a lot of that now. It’s very heavy and funky – digital music with a relentless tempo that has that (vocalises heavy bass and snare hits).”
In order for you a style of what kind of music Viklund is speaking about, he confirmed me his private Spotify playlist of onerous EDM bangers. He didn’t need to share the total playlist publicly – preserving it his personal supply of inspiration for now – however he did share some artists that he believes would get the Den of Wolves vibe throughout.
- Skum – who remixed Viklund’s Steal from the Wealthy, Give to Myself.
- Varlen
- Hveds
- Lick – who did that heavy bass Valorant theme that everybody loves.
- Brandon Black
- Lemay – particularly their monitor Digital Catastrophe.
“It’s gonna have quite a lot of angle. You need it to have lots like – it’s an influence fantasy! You need the music to be like ‘Sure! That’s f**king superior” when what you’re doing is freaking cool.