The American composer chats about his collaboration with The Chinese Room on their all-at-sea horror video game, and commissioning custom sculptures to help unsettle players.
By Thomas Quillfeldt
Jason Graves doesn’t want you to sit comfortably.
He doesn’t want you to sink contentedly into your couch. He wants you on the edge of your seat, with a sad, sinking feeling slowly infecting your mind and body…
…while you’re playing one of the video games he’s scored, that is.
Known for his brutal score for seminal horror game Dead Space (2008), and having repeatedly returned to the genre with Until Dawn (2015) and The Dark Pictures Anthology, Graves knows a thing or two about things that go bump in the night, so to speak. And not just bumps: his thickly atmospheric scores generally include a terrifying mixture of droning, scraping, pulsing, clanking, throbbing and thrumming.
The Chinese Room’s latest work, Still Wakes the Deep, is a horror video game set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland in that most cheerful of decades, the 1970s. A vicious storm, perilous surroundings, and a story full of both humanity and eldritch terrors keep the characters and players of the game on edge.
Naturally, for a game full of danger and mystery, the development team turned to Graves to bridge the gap between the intensely personal and the unfathomably strange.
The soundtrack for Still Wakes the Deep is now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music and other music platforms: lnk.to/still-wakes-the-deep
All at sea
Many of The Chinese Room’s games, including Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, are known simultaneously for their unsettling atmosphere and intimacy with their characters.
No surprise then that Graves’ first challenge was to attune to the vibes of the project: “All of my initial conversations with Daan Hendriks, The Chinese Room’s audio director, were about the overall vibe and emotional statement we wanted the music to make.
“The entire musical ensemble was selected to evoke feelings of isolation, depth, and unsettling mystery. Given the maritime setting and cramped interiors of the oil rig, the music needed to be more direct and intense. It features 10 instruments chosen for their unique tones and ability to blend. Think of it as a reinterpretation of a Mozart string quartet infused with elements reminiscent of 1970s Moog synthesizers, with added sound design from a bespoke metal sculpture…that looks just like a tiny oil rig!”
“[An oil rig is] an incredibly isolated and terrifying setting. The ocean is its own character in the game. When The Chinese Room shared their 20-minute game synopsis with me at the outset, my initial observation was that the story was fundamentally a narrative about someone trying to reunite with their family. Their response was a resounding: ‘Exactly!’ We were aligned in our creative direction.
“The music focuses primarily on amplifying the emotional and human elements, even during the tensest moments in the game. But it also acknowledges the oceanic setting with deep, filtered ‘underwater’ sounds I coaxed out of the metal sculpture [‘The Rig’].”
Perhaps an unlikely addition to the game’s musical palette, Graves found some joy with pennywhistles: “I did a quick test recording playing a few long, extreme vibrato notes on a pair of pennywhistles I own — playing both at the same time. I put the recordings into the computer and played them back as chords, but transposed down 2 octaves and twice as slow. The result was this mysterious, unidentifiable texture that sounded soothing and threatening at the same time. Kind of how I imagine an underwater version of the score would sound. I used the treated pennywhistles in all of the swimming/water gameplay levels.”
It’s all about family
As well as the game’s story revolving around Cameron "Caz" McLeary trying to reunite with his family, it also delves into his relationships with friends on the rig — people he’s been living and working with for some time.
Graves says: “The gameplay does a great job of illustrating the crew’s tight-knit bond. This greatly influenced the decision to focus on a string section, which is familiar and texturally neutral. As I immersed myself in the game, I gravitated towards a string quartet in particular. I was drawn to its intimate sound and the ability to work with musicians recording from their homes, allowing us to record cues as I composed them and integrate them into the game immediately.”
“The strings are exclusively featured during scenes involving Caz’s family and friends. [Audio Director] Daan Hendriks proposed using them throughout the game, employing more aleatoric effects for the suspenseful music. I suggested reserving them for poignant moments to maximise their emotional impact.
“The woodwind quartet embodies the essence of those on the rig who were once your friends but have transformed into something unnatural and dangerous. I was captivated by their dual role in the game’s narrative and character development. Similar to the strings, the woodwinds were recorded with a single musician performing at home over multiple takes, encompassing bassoon, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and contrabass clarinet.
“However, unlike the strings, the woodwinds serve a different purpose. They can enhance emotional cues warmly and intimately, akin to a trombone arrangement. But they can also convey the menace of the creatures haunting the oil rig through snarls, hisses, and shudders.”
Up close and personal
There are aspects of music production that the majority video game players likely never think about, including microphone position of live-recorded instruments. But these decisions, including other variables like reverb ‘wetness’ and EQ, can subtly change the atmosphere that a score imbues a game with.
For Still Wakes the Deep, Graves went for a close-miked approach for the string ensemble to emphasise the intimacy of the story: “I loved the idea of the strings feeling warm, round, and in-your-face with a super wide stereo image. The woodwinds were recorded the same way. They were written and arranged to complement and support the string quartet without getting in the way or calling too much attention.
“With both sets of instruments, the final result has an intimate and breathy air about it. Very human. Very live-sounding. That is, until the woodwinds are featured without the string quartet, in which case they are incredibly nasty. You can hear Kristin’s breaths and instrument keys clicking, all multiplied by four, as she recorded separate tracks. It’s very much an ‘inhuman-by-way-of-a-human’ approach to the sounds, much like the fates of the workers on the oil rig.
Custom rig
You will often see Graves sharing tips for other audio professionals online, getting into the weeds about his gear and approach. No one who knows how the composer operates would be in the least bit surprised at his commissioning of custom instruments like ‘The Rig’.
He admits: “I’m just a huge nerd and I really love learning. The most direct result of that internal creative drive is discovering unique sounds and original concepts tailored to each new project. For me, it’s so much more exciting and inspirational dealing with physical things that exist in the real world, as opposed to sitting at my computer and clicking my mouse a bunch of times until something interesting happens. I also think the end result is much more interesting and original when you are simultaneously confined and inspired by whatever it is you have sitting in front of you. I know no one else has this bespoke metal sculpture. And no one is going to play it the way I play it.
“When the Audio Director asked for ideas to blend the music with the game's sound design, I immediately thought of commissioning a metal sculpture from Matt McConnell, a local artist I collaborated with on the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013. Recapturing that creative synergy felt like a golden opportunity, exactly a decade later.”
“Similar to our first collaboration, I provided Matt with only broad guidelines, envisioning different surfaces for bowing, striking, and rubbing to create varied textures. I utilised the sculpture in two distinct ways: live recordings processed to enhance weight and scale, and high-resolution sampling at 100 kHz to preserve detailed top-end frequencies. This versatility allowed me to transform simple sounds, like a metal tap producing a ‘ting’ when struck on The Rig with a drumstick, into impactful effects such as a thunderous metal door slam when pitch-shifted and treated in Kontakt. Additionally, I explored sustained bowed sounds, pitch modulation, and reversed hits to introduce rich variations throughout the score.”
"The Rig directly mirrors the oil rig in the game in terms of musical representation. Our goal was to blur the distinction between the game's sound design and the musical elements, enhancing the overall immersion. It can mimic waves crashing against the oil rig or unleash haunting, banshee-like shrieks that sound appropriately inhuman.”
In the Moog
Jason Graves meets the Moog team at their factory and received his signed Model D.
Another tool joined Graves’ arsenal that contributed to the atmosphere of Still Wakes the Deep’s score—the Moog Model D analog synthesiser.
He explains: “The allure of the Model D lies in its straightforward interface and immediate accessibility. It was the first commercially available synthesizer and has been on hit songs since the ’70s. The Model D plays a pivotal role as ‘The Horror’ within the game. The premise revolves around the oil rig inadvertently piercing into something profound beneath the ocean's depths, resulting in eerie manifestations on the surface. While this concept may seem on the nose, I pondered using a synth bass to generate deep, ultra-low sounds.”
“Long desiring a Model D—and having missed its initial production run years ago—I discovered they were currently being manufactured in Asheville. After experimenting with the Softube Model D, I decided to embark on a pilgrimage to Moog and acquire the genuine instrument. I was given the honor of a personal tour of the factory and had the pleasure of meeting the five artisans responsible for crafting my personal synth. I even managed to have them sign it!
“Its sound quality is extraordinary: very up-front and in-your-face. It delivers a warm, robust low-end foundation for supporting strings and woodwinds. And its capability to scream and swell, particularly in the lower registers, adds significant depth and intensity. Given the game's 1970s setting, the Model D also offered a rich palette of John Carpenter-esque bass patches, ideal for creating atmospheric and authentic rhythmic pulses.”
Four to the score
Heard in particular in the soundtrack album’s opening track “Dùisgidh E Fhathast Na Doimhneachdan”, there's a ‘mnemonic’ motif that musically plays the phrase 'Still Wake The Deep'.
Graves says: “Mnemonic means ‘related to memory.’ It can refer to many things in music but, for this score, I chose to use a simple four-note pattern that is directly related to the four-word title: one note for each word. This four-note pattern repeats across the entire score, varying in pitch and tempo.
“I originally thought, ‘What if I create a simple four-note phrase that can be easily transposed and harmonized?’ Sitting at my piano, I promptly played a straightforward pattern of G-A-F#-E and thought maybe it had some potential. Why not try working it into a few cues? And I never looked back from there!”
“This spontaneous approach is fairly typical for me. I’m so used to composing quickly and moving on to the next measure, the next phrase, the next cue. I find it natural to follow my instincts, developing ideas without thinking about them too much.
“The motif is prominently featured in the string sections, particularly noticeable in the album's opening track. It serves as an ostinato, played at four times the speed throughout the track, and also appears in varied registers within the strings.”
Horrified to be one-note
Always experimental, always striving, Jason Graves isn’t a musician happy to repeat the same process from project to project.
“I always seek opportunities to diverge from writing purely scary music in horror titles,” says Graves. “It's not just refreshing for me—it also serves as a palette cleanser for the audience. The Chinese Room shares this perspective, allowing me ample chances to compose music that isn't frightening, probably more so than I've had in previous projects.
“What's more significant is that I ventured into uncharted territory, exploring an all-live-but-processed approach that was new to me. As I pushed the boundaries, The Chinese Room enthusiastically embraced the music. It was a rewarding challenge to achieve so much with a minimal number of instruments, especially since nearly half of them are only featured in about a third of the score. The majority of cues primarily utilize just two instruments: The Rig and the Model D, occasionally complemented by eerie woodwinds for added texture and atmosphere.”
Hopefully, you were sitting comfortably to read this interview. Or, in exploring Graves’ cues from Still Wakes the Deep, maybe just a little on the edge of your seat, your mind drifting out to sea...
Jason Graves is a composer for media – jasongraves.com
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Check out Still Wakes the Deep on PC and consoles – stillwakesthedeep.com
The album is now streaming – lnk.to/still-wakes-the-deep