Interview with miracleofsound – Why « The Great Unknown » is a good sign for MEA
Exceptionnellement, cet article a été traduit en anglais pour que MiracleOfSound puisse partager la version écrite de l’interview sur sa page s’il le souhaite. Vous pouvez trouver la version française ici.
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As you may have already noticed, the talented irish musician and singer miracleofsound recently produced a song on Mass Effect Andromeda, intitled « The Great Unknown ». Should you wish to listen to it, it’s right there (the clip contains spoilers, the song in itself does not).
Why talk about it ? Simply put, and besides the obvious fact that the song deserves to be shared, its mere existence is very reassuring for Mass Effect Andromeda. How, will you ask ? Lemme explain.
Keep in mind that the first part of the article is only my personal interpretation of a pre-MEA interview with miracleofsound, and in no way a declaration from him. However, what he says in the interview with us that follows tends to confirm this interpretation.
MiracleOfSound doesn’t just sing on any game
In an interview with nzgamer, MiracleOfSound, AKA Gavin Dunne, explained several steps and aspects of what has eventually become his job : to compose, write and produce songs as an independant. In fact, he does everything by himself, from the first lyrics hummed while thinking about the game, to the video we can write on YouTube, with everything in between. If the interview is interesting in itself for what it reveals about Gavin’s career and his job’s different aspects, let’s look closely at one particular part, which gives all its sense to the article.
« No matter how much people want, I can’t force good work. A perfect example recently is Final Fantasy. It’s been the most requested one all year. But when I played the game, it just didn’t grab me. I could do a song just to keep people happy and, on a very cynical level, just get the views. But I honestly wasn’t inspired, and if I did do something I think people would be disappointed. My heart really needs to be in it. »
If the game isn’t great, doesn’t inspire Gavin, doesn’t take him, he simply won’t be able to make a great song out of it. That doesn’t mean that if MiracleOfSound doesn’t sing on a game, then this game is necessarily bad and unworthy of interest. But if he does sing on a game, then this one inspired him, moved him, and was rich enough for him to make a song out of it.
Unless it’s something like DOOM, of course. But, well. Exceptions do happen.
Okay, but what does this have to do with Andromeda’s quality ?
That’s the subtlety. You didn’t see me saying that this meant that Andromeda is the best game ever, or a good game, even. Because I didn’t. What I said is that is a good sign for this game. For two reasons.
First things first, Gavin is a big fan of Mass Effect. It’s easy enough to guess. One instrumental, three songs, of one of which had a remix, on the original trilogy : you can guess that Mass Effect Trilogy had an impact on him. Games on which Gavin sang that much are scarce – from what I know, only The Witcher 3 had so many. Gavin even met with the BioWare dev teams at a Gamescom, and also was gifted an easter-egg in Mass Effect 3.
The second reason is very linked to the first one. Earlier, I was saying that MiracleOfSound also makes clips along with the songs. Sometimes, he’s helped by Paul Goodman, who’s often mentioned in a song. But in Andromeda’s case, it’s Gavin who did the clip, starring his own FemRyder. And the clip proves that he completed the game.
This proves clearly enough that MiracleOfSound, fan of the Mass Effect Trilogy, did complete Mass Effect Andromeda and like it enough to make a great song out of it. In other terms, you can be a fan of Mass Effect Trilogy and still have fun on Andromeda. And this is a good sign. After all, that was one of the biggest concerns about Andromeda : being disappointed after the trilogy. It doesn’t mean that Andromeda is perfect neither the same as the trilogy. Again, I’m not talking quality here. But it’s still reassuring to know that you can like the game until the end as a fan of the trilogy.
Interview with Gavin « MiracleOfSound » Dunne
With that idea in mind, I decided to verify it, and asked Gavin for his opinion about the game. Not only was he very eager to share his feelings about the game, but he was even kind enough to give us an interview. You can find it below, as a video or a transcript.
FM_ : Hello Gavin !
MiracleOfSound : Hello ! Hi, hello France, bonjour, salut !
So, for those of you who don’t know you yet, could you quickly introduce yourself to start?
Yup ! I’m Gav, I make songs under the name miracleofsound. A lot of those songs are popular because they’re inspired by videogame culture, or movies, or stuff like that.
OK. And you’ve made a lot of songs about the Mass Effect Series. How did you discover it, exacly?
I discovered Mass Effect when I was very, very poor. A friend of mine was working in a videogame shop. I went in and was asking her for second hand games, you know, what’s a good one that’s sold at the moment. And she recommanded it to me. She knew I was poor, so… she let me have the game for half price. [Chuckles]. Thank you for that, Janice! That’s how I discovered it. I took it home, and was immediately in with everything about the game. I think Mass Effect 1 was a bit flawed mechanically, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a universe in a game just instantly grab me, immediately, the way that game did. Even from those first scenes in the ship, with Shepard…
… walking towards the cockpit.
Yeah, exactly. And just talking about the different species, and where humanity fit in in that universe… It was so fascinating to me.
Yeah, Mass Effect was quite a slap in the face for everyone of us, I think. Even if it’s hard to play it now that it’s 2017 and the gameplay is old, back in the days, that was… Wow.
Yeah, and it’s hard to appreciate it now, because it’s been done so many times… But I remember there were so many moments in that game, like when you become a Spectre, or the final battle against Sovereign… I jumped out of my chair and cheered. And I was like « I’ve never done this to a videogame before. ». You know, never. I’ve never jumped out of my chair and gone « Yeees ! Come on ! ». That was a crazy experience. And then Mass Effect 2… that feeling was even more crazy, in the end. And, well… we won’t talk about the end of Mass Effect 3. [Chuckles]. There’s a line in latest Mass Effect song I did, that goes something like « Leaving behind our broken hearts »… you know, it’s definitely got a double meaning, that line. [Chuckles].
The whole interview started because I wished to discuss with you about Mass Effect Andromeda. Without going into details yet, what’s your general feeling about the game?
I liked it. I think I liked it more than a lot of fans did. It certainly, for me, didn’t reach the emotional heights that I would’ve got for Mass Effect 1 & 2, and even parts of Mass Effect 3. I feel… if they make the next game a little more tight, and a little bit smaller, with less stuff but more focused, interesting stuff… Because all of the team missions were great in this one, like they always have been. But I could’ve done without 80% of the open-world stuff, I wasn’t so interested in hunting down 5 things to scan, or collecting rocks, or anything like that. All of that stuff, if they just throw that shit out of the window, and go back to the way it was in ME2, with a smaller but much more focused game, I think they could really have a winner. Because I think there’s a lot of potential in there! I liked Ryder as a character, I really liked the idea behind the game of moving forward and exploring, I really got a sense of adventure of hope from it, and I liked that.
What do you think of open worlds?
Open worlds. It’s a loaded term these days, isn’t it ? It has changed meanings, it used to mean « An amazing place to explore, and find things », and nowadays, it kind of means « It has a lot of fillers ». So, to me, it means different things with each game. Like, recently, I played Horizon: Zero Dawn and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to do all of the side missions in that game. Maybe not collecting all the flowers and stuff, I didn’t finish that, but all of the side missions were interesting. Same with The Witcher 3, it gave you reasons to travel its world.
So, open world is not a dirty word to me, some of my favourite games are open worlds. I think open worlds, when they have the resources and the time to do it properly, it can be amazing. But for the way BioWare structure games, I personally preffer when they do a slightly more narrow game.
Yeah. It’s kind of dangerous to do open worlds nowadays, I guess.
Yeah. I think in the last generation, « corridors » and « cover shooting » became the dirty words, so everyone wanted to make open worlds, and now it’s the other way around. Hefty balance, that’s the key. I mean, a company like From Software, I think, does this balance perfectly. If you look at a game like Bloodborne, which is kind of an open world, but also very structured : there’s no empty space in that game.
We know that story is an important part for you in games. What did you think of Andromeda’s?
Like I said, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the sense of wonder, exploration and hope the game put across. I felt the writing was… up and down. [Chuckes]. There were some parts of the story that were fantastic, and there were other parts where I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. [Laughs] For me, it was… characters like Liam, I wanted to shoot him out of the airlock. [Laughs]. I remember him saying something like « I think I really pissed that alien off, I think it’s ’cause I shot him in the face ! ». And when he said that, I physically facepalmed. Like, « this cannot be a BioWare game with a line like that ». [Chuckles].
But the overall story ? It was cool. Like I said, I liked Ryder and I liked her story, and the way it finished. It was a good ending.
About The Great Unknown, the song you wrote recently about Mass Effect Andromeda. Can you tell us a bit more about how you wrote it ? Any major inspiration or something else to mention?
Absolutely. When I write songs, the main thing for me is to just capture a certain feeling, and it’s a different thing everytime. Say, with my DOOM song, it was to capture the attitude. But with this song, it was to capture a feeling of hope and some little parts of nostalgia as well, and just the idea of moving home, going somewhere new. And the kind of bittersweet feelings that gives. Most of us have experienced that in our lives : moving somewhere new, and being excited about it, finding new things but also being a little sad for all the stuff we’re leaving behind. That’s what I wanted to create with that song.
I guess you managed, perfectly.
I hope so! [Chuckes]. Musically, there are motives in the song, from a couple of my older Mass Effect songs. Particularly in the mid section, which has a piano thing from one of my old songs, Crucible, and that was my way of pointing out « We’re saying goodbye now, we’re moving on from that ». We’re gonna appreciate it, but we’re gonna move on from it.
I think a lot of people, whether they like your songs or not, are really impressed that each time you write a song, it feels like it could have been in the OST of the game and no one would ever notice [the difference]. Like, Clockworks really feels like Dishonored, The Natural Heart really feels like something that says « Deus Ex », etc.
Honestly, the reason I can do that is a lot of practice with songwriting and moods, but also a lot of practice with production techniques, instruments, programming, mixing and stuff like that. Because the song is just the song : it’s the chords, the melody, and the words. But to create that feeling of something similar to what’s in the game ? I’ve been able to do that through learning how to produce music. You know, if I want a synth or a guitar to sound a certain way, and create that mood similar to a game… that’s all very nerdy. And I would bore you terribly if I explained how I do it. [Chuckes].
Do you think there’s a particular song where you really started to manage to produce the feeling you were talking about?
Ouuh, that’s an interesting one. Lemme just look at what songs I have. Well, everyone knows Commander Shepard as my first really popular song. Gosh, I don’t know what’s the first song, for me, that really captured… I think my Bioshock song, Dream of the sky, was one that a lot of people said « this is one that really, really captures the mood [of the game] ». I don’t know, I mean… what do you think ? [Chuckles]. It’s hard to be objective about your own work in that way, you know. And my style has changed so much since it started anyway…
Yeah, and you do a lot of styles anyway.
Yeah. In the first miracleofsound album, there was a lot of novelty songs, like, joke songs like Commander Shepard. But I’ve kind of moved away from that now, because I want to make music that I want to listen to myself and that I can enjoy, and I don’t enjoy those kind of songs as much as I enjoy writing more serious, thoughtful ones. Unless it’s about DOOM, in which case, you know… you’re not really gonna be writing something contemplative there ! [Chuckles]. The message it in was like « Violence, gore, guts, blood, yay! ».
What was interesting in The Great Unknown, apart from the song itself, is that at the end of the video, you thank BioWare for « re-igniting your career », six years ago. Care to tell us a bit more about this?
I’ve been making music for a very long time – more than sixteen, seventeen years. I’ve been in bands, long before miracleofsound. There was the cliché : my band almost made it, we got signed by a record label, did our album… and then the band fell apart. When I started doing my videogame songs, it was like something for fun, for me, to cheer myself up. And then, when Commander Shepard took of, and BioWare really liked it, and got behind it, started showing it to their fans, tweeting it, and all that good stuff… that’s when my career started to pick up as miracleofsound, and it kind of snowballed from there. Which is funny, because there’s people who were around then, who’re still like « So, Commander Shepard‘s your biggest song, right ? »… and no, it’s my 12th most popular song! [Chuckles]. There are lots more songs more popular than it, but it’s still the one Mass Effect fans are the most familiar with.
I explain to Gav that I kind of randomly discovered his work through the Commander Shepard song, which is funny as he doesn’t recommand it as a starting point for his songs.
Yeah. [Chuckles]. It’s not that I hate the song, it’s just that I feel like that I have had much better songs since then. It’s a fun song, but it doesn’t represent what I do now so much. It doesn’t represent anything I’ve done in the last 3-4 years. But it’s still fun, I still enjoy it sometimes. [Chuckles]. If I’m drunk enough, I can listen ot it.
Or… if Mark Meer reads it.
Oh yeah, that was cool!
Still on music, what did you think of the musical ambiance of ME: Andromeda, in itself and compared to the trilogy?
Look at it this way : from what I presume EA wanted it to be, I think it did a good job of that. Personally, I would’ve liked to have had Sam Hulick back. Sam is a friend of mine and I adore the music he made for the first trilogy. I would have loved to see him getting the job, and I hope he gets the job for the next one. Because, the music of the new game, as sparse as it was, it did a good job at creating a certain atmosphere. But for me, that atmosphere didn’t quite feel like the one that I know and love for Mass Effect. Maybe that was the point, maybe that’s what EA wanted. But personally, if I had my way, if I was picking the music for the next game, I’d go back to Sam [Hulick] and Jack Wall.
Are you eager to see more of Mass Effect Andromeda? Like a new Andromeda-focused game, or some DLCs for ME: Andromeda ? What would you like to see or do?
Okay, so, you know what I’d like to see for Mass Effect – and this is not a popular opinion [Chuckles] – I want to see a game where they pick one of the three endings [of Mass Effect 3] as cannon and just move on, give us more with the Citadel, and more with the species there!
Gav is pleasantly surprised when I tell him it’s also my opinion. I explain.
Well, I believe that cannon endings tend to scare people, especially because it means ignoring a choice for some players. And I believe some can’t cope with it. But sometimes, it’s a good idea : it was the case for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for Dishonored also – and it worked out great.
Yeah, exactly. And – actually no, I don’t like how they did it in Human Revolution [Chuckles]. I really don’t like, at the end of a game, when they give you three different choices. I hate it. For me, a story doesn’t have an ending unless it has an actual ending. That’s not something everyone shares my view on, and I’m aware of that, but I like stories to have one ending. I like how Mass Effect 1 and 2 did it, because those games both had one ending, but they had slight variables depending on how you played. I’m trying to think if there’s another game that did it really well, I’m struggling to find one, but I know there was one. It’ll come to me later. [Chuckles].
But as for Andromeda, I’d like to see another one, yeah. I want to see what happens next.
Can we expect more songs about Mass Effect Andromeda in the future?
I don’t have any immediate plans, but I never say never !
From a Mass Effect fan to another, who / what was your favorite character, place, romance ? In the trilogy and then in Andromeda?
In Andromeda, Drack was definitely my favourite character, by far. Honestly, I was not a fan of Liam, or Gil… Cora didn’t do much for me either. I quite liked Peebee, I know a lot of people don’t like her, because she’s kind of the manic picksy dream girl type character, but I liked her. Apart from that part where she sent me out in a fucking escape shuttle. I was so angry with her at that point. [Chuckles]. There weren’t that many memorable characters in Andromeda compared to the first series. I liked Vetra, but she again was another Garrus. She was cool in the same ways that Garrus was.
In the original trilogy… I loved all the characters, between Tali, Wrex, Garrus… there were all great characters. The only two that I find a bit boring was Kaidan and Ashley… and I think everyone find those two a bit boring. [Chuckles].
I think we’ve found someone that doesn’t dislike Jacob Taylor!
Jacob was alright ! He was a little but dull, but I didn’t hate him.
Yeah, my point is that usually, nobody cares about him, basically.
Yeah. [Chuckles]. Well, I forgot he existed when I was listing off characters, so… [Laughs].
My Commander Shepard romanced Miranda. My Ryder didn’t have any real romances but she did have a « fling » with Peebee.
Mass Effect Trilogy had so many incredible characters… Legion, as well, was fantastic. The first time I met him, I was like « This is so cool ». And Harbinger, and Sovereign… both really great characeters. So many !
Yeah, we all like a lot of characters in the original trilogy. Three games, that’s a lot. Even some side characters, not very important, like Commander Bailey on the Citadel… We realize we like them a lot, too.
And Conrad. [Chuckles].
And Conrad, of course.
The true hero of the Mass Effect series !
Did you meet his sister in Andromeda?
Yeah, I did ! [Chuckles]. That was a nice touch.
Reyes was kind of fun as well. But Reyes didn’t accompagny you in an awesome bar fight, so, Drack wins. [Chuckles].
Have you ever tried multiplayer in Mass Effect?
I’m really not interested in multiplayer at all. I didn’t even try it Andromeda, I think I played it for about an hour in ME3, and never played it again. That’s not to say they’re bad, it’s just… For me, multiplayer games are infuriating. I play videogames to get away from other people. I see other people a lot in real life, videogames are my time for myself, my time to escape from all of that. So, I preffer to be solitary when I play videogames. [Chuckles].
Well, you know, I’ve played ME3MP a lot and it can definitely be quite infuriating sometimes. [Chuckles]. So I guess you’ve spared yourself a lot of trouble, even if it’s fun.
When it comes to multiplayer, I got addicted to Call of Duty for like a year… and that destroyed multiplayer games for me forever. [Laughs]. These days, I don’t even want to play that game. Gaming for me is a time to be alone, at peace with my own thoughts and my own escapism. I’m not interested in multiplayer stuff at all. It’s too chaotic, it’s too noisy, it’s… got too many other people. Real life has enough people in it. [Chuckles].
Well, I guess that was the last. Thank you very much for giving us time! And the last word is yours.
So, thank you very much to my french fans and followers for all the support through the years. If you’re Mass Effect fans, I’d imagine a lot of you have been here pretty much from the beginning, so thank your that. And… What else is there to say ? [Chuckles]. Thanks for doing the interview with me! I was happy to do it.
