1 September 2003
Emmy award-winning TV composer Laura Karpman (Steven Spielberg’s Taken) has scored the music to EverQuest 2, the upcoming sequel to the hugely successful epic fantasy MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment, and recently recorded the soundtrack with the FILMharmonic Orchestra. We caught up with the composer to discuss her first game project.
M4G: What first inspired you to want to compose music?
Laura Karpman: My mother declared that I would be a composer before I was even born, so I guess it was inevitable! I was about 7 when I started writing.
M4G: Who or what do you look to as your inspiration when creating music?
Laura Karpman: I look mostly to 20th Century concert music, especially Bartok and Stravinsky. In thinking about the music for EverQuest I also looked at a lot of Shostakovich, Lutoslawsky, Britten, among many others.
M4G: What would you consider to be the highlights of your career to date?
Laura Karpman: In my film and television career, “Taken” was certainly a great highlight. I also loved working on the Showtime series “Odyssey 5,”(my score for the pilot was nominated for an Emmy this year), and a series I did for 6 years for PBS called “The Living Edens” (for which I have 9 Emmy nominations and 4 wins).
M4G: Taking into account your earlier scores, Taken must have given you the chance to experiment with the new genre, did you approach this any differently from your previous work?
Laura Karpman: All three bodies of work I mentioned, allowed me to stretch my wings musically, and really develop my voice. I got the “Taken” gig when Todd Homme at Dreamworks got my music for the Odyssey 5 pilot to Spielberg, so had already been scoring sci-fi.
M4G: How much input did Steven have in the way your score for Taken progressed?
Laura Karpman: I’ve never actually met him. He approved my demos, which turned out to be the main themes of the show, and he approved the first 10 cues or so of the first show we scored, Episode 2. After that he didn’t involve himself in the music.
M4G: What were your personal favourite scenes you scored?
Laura Karpman: The spaceships taking off or arriving seemed to have inspired some of my favorite music in the score. There’s the first one we see in its full glory in the end of episode 5, there’s a big take off at the end of episode 8 and again in Episode 10. I don’t want to give too many details in case someone hasn’t seen it.
M4G: You have been hired to score the music for the sequel to Sony’s very successful EverQuest game. Can you tell us about how you got the gig?
Laura Karpman: After hearing the “Taken” score, Lia Vollack, head of film music for Sony, asked me to take on Everquest II.
M4G: How familiar were you with the popularity of the EverQuest fantasy world and how did you relate to this new ‘virtual’ environment?
Laura Karpman: I had heard about the popularity of Everquest, and knew a little bit about ‘virtual’ role-playing environment even though I am not a gamer myself. That fact, however, didn’t seem to faze the producers of Everquest. They were interested in creating a more cinematic experience for their players, so they were happy that I had the background that I did.
M4G: Are you involved in the implementation of your music into the game?
Laura Karpman: Very much so. As far as I know, I was one of the first people on the team pushing to deliver the game in 5.1, which we are. I also have consulted with the programmers about how far we can push the sound technologically and experientially. The graphics for EQ2 are so mind blowingly sophisticated, absolutely gorgeous, I really want to be a part of making sure that the audio experience is on par with the level of the visuals.
M4G: Will there be a game soundtrack release?
Laura Karpman: It is my understanding that one will be released with an update of the game, and maybe commercially released.
M4G: Do you think that game music is as important in its own right as scores for television or film?
Laura Karpman: It’s getting there, especially with the money and effort starting to be spent on creating rich scores using live orchestras.
M4G: What do you think are the main differences between scoring TV/films and game soundtracks?
Laura Karpman: For me this experience was more like writing programmatic concert music. Because Everquest 2 is an online game there are no “timings” in the traditional sense of film scoring; instead, it was more about creating a mood for the various experiences that a player might have.
M4G: Did you encounter any problems with the switch and if so how did you overcome them?
Laura Karpman: It took a while to get rid of my own expectation of exact timings and scoring to a specific picture, but as soon as I realized I could write whatever I wanted for as long as I felt the cue needed to be - based on the guidance from the producers and art director - I started having a blast.
M4G: What type of game would you like to score next?
Laura Karpman: Anything where sophisticated orchestral music is welcome.
M4G: What are your upcoming projects you can mention?
Laura Karpman: I’m doing a Scott Turow miniseries for CBS and working on an opera for L.A. Opera.
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