Driving Hard: Heavy Melody’s Original Sound for Shift 2: Unleashed 
By Jessica Zimmer

The composing team Heavy Melody recently created the most aggressive tracks for Electronic Arts’s new racing game, Shift 2: Unleashed. Heavy Melody’s dirty, electronic remixes of Stone Temple Pilots, Hollywood Undead, Rise Against, and 30 Seconds to Mars tracks recreate the experience of the driver as he pushes the car to its limits. According to Charles Deenen, senior audio director of EA, Heavy Melody’s work is part of a new way to create scores for video games.

“(For Shift 2), we (selected songs) from 10 very high-end bands. Then we told (composers), use as little or as much of the song as you want, as long as the hook is there. In this game, you go through a couple of emotions: you start off preparing for the race, then you get the agitated, edgy feeling of the driver while he’s in the race, and afterwards, this relief of a heroic moment,” said Deenen. 

Deenen said the work was extremely labor intensive. He went back and forth with all of the nine composers for the entire Shift 2 score probably about 5 to 10 times. “(This concept) needs some time to get into a consumer’s expectation. We (basically) made a cinematic score out of 10 bands’ songs, resulting in over 100 minutes of music,” said Deenen.

The members of Heavy Melody: Dave Fraser, Neil Goldberg, and Ari Winters, found inspiration for their tracks in their everyday commutes. “Since we live in New York, we recreated (the frustrated feelings we get on) the subway and on taxi rides,” said Fraser. Fraser, Goldberg, and Winters then added a unique blend of sounds to the songs.

“We did a lot of distorting, layering, and changing,” said Goldberg. “We (put in) a large amount of custom sounds we’ve created, such as delaying or echoing a guitar (line) as a motif.” Occasionally, the three members added original snippets that they played on guitar, bass, or drums in the studio. Winters said that each member took three versions of the 10 songs from start to finish. “(We knew what we were looking for) because Dave and Neil have been working together forever. I joined when they opened the doors. We have a cohesive sonic identity,” said Winters.

So far, Heavy Melody’s tracks for Shift 2 have been received well. Heavy Melody is interested in composing tracks for other racing games. “We like hard-hitting, aggressive music. That’s our style,” said Goldberg. Fraser said, “(We’re also interested because) we’re all gamers, and we’ve been playing games for years. For us, every single track was kind of an adventure in itself.” 

Heavy Melody’s remixes for Shift 2 can be heard on their website:
http://www.heavymelodymusic.com

Special thanks to Nick Starr, publicist for Heavy Melody, for assistance with this article. 
© June 12, 2011 // All material copyright 6/12/2011 by Jessica Zimmer