Chatting with Mikko Tarmia, Video Game Music Composer

by Jason Epstein

As video games become more cinematic with greater production value, music has become more prominent and crucial to the gaming experience. Music can add a touch of lightheartedness, bring a tear to your eye, or prepare you for battle as you control your character and progress toward the game’s finale. Mikko Tarmia, an award-winning Finnish composer is well-versed in the realm of video game music. Among other gigs, he’s prepared the soundtrack for Frictional Games’ critically acclaimed, cult classic, survival horror series Penumbra and its hit-status spiritual successor Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Rather than composing with broad strokes on these projects, his music serves the games by strategically adding an unsettling atmosphere and key moments of intensity. SoundCtrl exchanged emails with Mikko to talk about his process, his work with Frictional Games, and his current projects.

SoundCtrl - Do you play any of the games you have written music for yourself? Do your own compositions ever lend to the horror you feel when playing?

Mikko Tarmia – This might sound weird, but so far I haven’t played any of the games I’ve written music for during their development stage. It’s nothing intentional, but I think there hasn’t been a real need to do that as I get enough information from visuals and event descriptions to know what kind of music is needed. When I started playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent after the project was finished, I found myself forgetting to observe the functionality of music because of how immersive the game was. That’s when I knew I have succeeded in the job and it was very rewarding.

SC – What other types of games do you enjoy?

MT - I’ve been a fan of extreme sports games since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 came out. Like the old 80s arcade games which I also like to play, there’s a level of real skill required in these games and I like the challenge. I also like the Legend of Zelda series and RTS games, like StarCraft. I also love to play pinball machines. Though pinball games for computer are somewhat fun to play as well, nothing can beat the real thing.

SC – Can you tell us a bit about the process that occurs between writing
music, recording it, and implementing it into the games and how you are involved with all of this?

MT - My work for games starts with negotiating what style of music is it going to be and what kind of instrumentation is going be used. For example, Amnesia’s music was done using sounds (mostly samples) from real instruments only – no synthesizers were used. Usually developers have some references for music style and they send me links to music tracks which have that something they like, but there weren’t any examples given for Amnesia. It was obvious that the game needed music tracks with spooky feeling, but there was more freedom in developing the style which was great. It’s not just a bunch of tracks that’s been put into the game – I like to play with themes and on how they evolve during the game’s story. So there’s a certain structure in music.

As I mentioned earlier, I get descriptions for each event that needs music. I compose quick simple sketches for each event, leaving lots of room for improvement. It doesn’t make sense to waste time on making music sound polished when there’s a chance of music tracks being rejected. Sometimes it takes a number of tries to get everybody happy, but even if it gets a bit frustrating from time to time, results get usually better in the end. I usually leave most of the polishing into last weeks of project because there can always occur some changes in game that affect into use of music. That’s when I tweak, record and process everything, and finally do the mastering – I haven’t needed to do any implementation so far, even if I have studied it a bit. When you leave few weeks to finish all the tracks, it might get pretty hectic and you get your ears tired pretty quickly. That’s why I start working on a bunch of selected tracks a bit earlier. Even if they won’t get used in game, I know I’m going to put them on the soundtrack album.

SC - What are some of your upcoming projects?

MT - I’m currently working on Frictional Games’ next game, but I’m not allowed to tell you anything about it at the moment. I recommend to follow Frictional Games’ blog for any news concerning the project. I’ve been asked if I’m composing music for the upcoming Amnesia: A Machine for the Pigs, but the development of the game is handed over to an entirely different developer crew (thechineseroom) and they have their own contributors for the project, including composer. It will be interesting to see a whole new approach to the game, though.

Another project I’m working on is a game called Overgrowth developed by Wolfire Games. It’s an action-adventure game with rabbits and other animals fighting in it. It’s starting to look really good and they have done fantastic job its promotion. They also have these weekly alphas where they go through the game’s development progress from every aspect. As a side project, we (me and Anton Riehl) are working on an arrangement based in Overgrowth’s main theme and it will be played by [an] online volunteer orchestra, consisting of players from Wolfire Games’ community. They play and record required stems in their home and send us files back. It’s quite challenging to put it all together as the only requirements were that players can play their instrument at some level and that they have ability to record it. So, many of them has been recorded with cell phones or laptop mics – but most of them sound surprisingly good. We still need some more players though, but we hope to get the project finished in couple of months.

SC – Can you tell me a bit about your music label The Sound of Fiction?

MT - The Sound of Fiction is more like a channel to contribute my own stuff than a real label with a roster of artists to be represented. Besides game soundtrack albums, The Sound of Fiction also produces collaboration projects. Our first album project was called AIKA, which is a soundtrack composed around a short story written by Tom Jubert. We had few composers and an illustrator working on that album. There might be some similar projects coming up in the future, but I’m currently out of time for working on anything that massive. I’m planning to do my own album before anything else (besides game soundtracks).

SC – Who are some of your favorite bands or video game compositions/composers?

MT – I listen to all kinds of music from classical to jazz and rock ’n’ roll and I have my favorite artists in every genre. I could mention names like The Police, Vangelis, John Williams, Devo, Queen, Eric Serra, Shostakovich. I don’t really have a favorite video game composer – so many of them are doing a good job.

Jason Epstein is a writer based in the New York City area, and has been writing as long as he can remember. In his career he’s done a wide variety of pieces and projects including interviews with notable musicians, short stories, comedic commentary, entertainment writing, event coverage, photography and more. He can be reached at Jasonepstein84 at gmail dot com.