The Last EB Music Preview
Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans. Today we have our last music preview, showcasing more of the work of our composers:
As shown in our earlier music previews, EB v0.8 features new music for our different culture groups. We have replaced *all* the music from the vanilla version of the mod at this point with new music from our composers. We are releasing today the last two culture sets to give a better idea of where the music for EB is going (or maybe "has gone") and to free up even more songs that our composers can include on their own personal websites (Morgan Casey and Nick Wylie).
We would like to thank Morgan and Nick yet again for their work and we can't wait to release all of the pieces with the 0.8 build (yes, there are still more, most importantly including the main theme for Europa Barbarorum, as well as victory, defeat, general tension, load screen loops, etc.). We are also very happy to suggest that folks out there take a closer look at their other work on their websites and their myspace.com pages too.
And now for the part you've been waiting on, here are the previewed songs (click on each "button" individually to hear them - if you are going to listen to them multiple times, we would advise saving bandwith by just right clicking and choosing "Save as..." to save the songs to your desktop):
Semitic Music Set:
Barbarian Music Set:
Teleklos: Very glad to have you here to answer a few questions Nick. I think that maybe starting out with a bit of an explanation of how you teamed up with EB would be a good idea. Could you fill everyone in on that a little and about why you decided to join up also?
Nick: Glad I could be here. I was approached by Morgan to co-compose the EB soundtrack with her and after looking into it, it felt like something I wanted to be involved with. The attention to historical accuracy in EB, both in story and in graphics, was also a supporting factor in my decision.
Teleklos: Had you played Rome: Total War before?
Nick: I had not actually. The game being only for PC, that sadly leaves me out of the picture because I'm a Mac user.
Teleklos: Oops! Well, do you think you will try it out at some point to see how your music actually works in the game?
Nick: I would really like to try it someday, yes.
Teleklos: Since this was your first foray into the world of scoring game themes, do you think you would like to try this again?
Nick: After going through co-composing in EB, video game scoring is something I would definitely like to be involved with again.
Teleklos: About the collaborative aspect: Have you and Morgan teamed up with anything else in the past? Do you have any plans yet to work on anything together in the future?
Nick: This is our first collaborative project together. I would like to think that if the right project becomes available to either one of us, there's a possibility we could team up again.
Teleklos: We are releasing two of your theme sets in this preview (the barbarian and semitic ones). Since the barbarian culture group has a wide variety of factions it must represent, how did you attempt to deal with that problem in creating the theme?
Nick: Because the barbarian group does cover such a wide range of factions and cultures, I wanted to focus on the feeling of what the barbarians represented. After getting feedback and suggestions from the EB team, I was able to get a good enough picture of what the theme would look like.
Teleklos: What about the direction you went with the Semitic theme; what sort of instruments and ideas was it built around?
Nick: The Semitic theme was talked about among everyone and a similar consensus was it being more of a meditative and more "drone" quality than the rest of the factions. One of my earlier ideas I had for a theme was a flute, hammered instrument and solo vocals. This felt like a great theme to adapt that to.
Teleklos: As a musician and composer, what do you see as your strengths, and how is that reflected in the themes you've created?
Nick: Some of my strengths are in sound designing and percussion. Sound design played an important part in creating the faction specific instruments, since most were created from scratch or from existing instruments. EB's overall theme of war and history I felt needed to have a good percussion bed in it to help drive things along.
Teleklos: What about any weaknesses that you are still working on?
Nick: I have too many weaknesses to list here that I'm always working at getting better on. But the best I can do is to continue to do better to improve them and myself in the process.
Teleklos: Although it hasn't been released yet, I'm sure there are some folks out there who are very interested in what the main EB theme is going to be like. Can you give any hints about it or what sort of style you went with?
Nick: The main theme will have a few different flavors to reflect some of the different factions. It has uplifting, solemn and epic feelings throughout the piece and opens with a carnyx-like horn.
Teleklos: If you had to pick your favorite piece from the ones you have worked on, which would it be and why?
Nick: My favorite piece I worked on would have to be the Semitic theme. Everything clicked really well when I was writing it, and it still finds its way into my iTunes playlists on a regular basis.
Teleklos: Like Morgan, you also seem to have some pretty varied musical interests. What sort of music do you prefer working on?
Nick: I like working with a few different styles quite similar to some EB themes, but slower, more reflective soundtrack music would be the most preferred to work with.
Teleklos: Will you concentrate on that in the future, or do you have any plans that you'd like to fill us in on? It would be great if some fans of your music here became interested in your next project(s).
Nick: Stylistically wise, I love that kind of music. However, that gets tricky because I have to keep my creative palette open from project to project. I plan to continue looking into video games as well as working with films. There is also a possibility that I may make my own album in the future as well. Everything will be updated on my website, so be sure to check in often.
Teleklos: Thanks Nick! We really do appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and we hope everyone enjoys the music previewed today!
You can listen to more of Nick's work on his myspace.com page also. Be sure to visit it, at: http://www.myspace.com/nickwylie
We hope you have enjoyed this brief preview.
As always, if you have questions or comments, the best place to post them is here, where the EB team is most active:
Europa Barbarorum ORG forum
Europa Barbarorum TWC forum
We give special thanks to Imageshack that provides us with a simple, foolproof, and free way to show you all these pictures each week.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
The Europa Barbarorum team.
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But who knows, it might be the last preview. Might not. There will be something else in a few days that might get a few people excited, but I won't say what it is (though I will say what it is not: it is not the 0.8 release yet).
History+Gaming=Historical_Gameplay
Originally Posted by Invoker47
