Ori – A Musical Perspective with Gareth Coker (Patreon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFhJS7nNYE

Join us as we speak with composer Gareth Coker to gain insights on how he approached writing music for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, discussing everything from melody to boss fights to its evolving environments.
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This one has been a long time coming. I first touched base with Gareth's team back in March after Damiani had streamed the beginning of the game, just because I wanted to listen to the soundtrack. They let me know that Gareth was available for interviews, but I wasn't sure the best way to approach it at the time and I haven't really done anything music-related since GT due to a number of different factors. Then the pandemic happened, which sidetracked everything of course.

Eventually though, we reconnected and I found time to finish the game and get the ball rolling. Thankfully, Damiani already had a lot of capture from his reviews, but I got some extra bits from later sections during my playthrough. And I'm glad I did because some of those things came up in our conversation right away.

While I don't make music myself, I love getting to hear the thought processes composers have for why they do what they do. It's so great to learn about instruments he wasn't even aware of and to hear about techniques that I otherwise would never have noticed.

Thanks to Brandon for taking my notes and putting this piece together so well. I went with a more raw approach compared to the tightly pulled quotes of the old BackTrack episodes at GameTrailers, but I really enjoy how this piece turned out. I couldn't even begin to tell you when the next time I might do something like this will be, but I hope you dig it nonetheless. If you're seeing this as an early access patron, I'll probably post this publicly Friday morning if you want to share.

-Bloodworth