Madden NFL 20
Credit: EA Sports
During the NFL Draft this week, EA Sports unveiled that Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes would be on the cover of Madden NFL 20, and also outlined some new features like the addition of college football.
And since the Draft was in Nashville, it also offered the company the opportunity to highlight the fact that the symphonic score for the game was recorded at Ocean Way Studios on Music Row. In recent years a growing number of scores for video games, movies, and TV shows have been recorded here.
Ocean Way Studios on Nashville’s Music Row
Credit: Pam Windsor
“This truly has become, in my opinion, many people’s opinion, most of the major composers of the world, one of the top three recording destinations for film, television, and games in the world,” says Steve Schnur, President of Music for Electronic Arts. “Los Angeles, London, and Nashville.”
Scores for video games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, and others have been recorded at Ocean Way, and this marked the third year Madden was recorded here.
“Is it unique to be talking about an orchestral score in a sports?” asks Schnur. “Madden has a story, an emotional, at times beautiful, heartbreaking story. And we’ve taken the route of making a true interactive animated film within the game.”
The emotional story he’s referring to will a personal one for everyone who plays the game. This year’s Madden has a new game mode that will allow players to create themselves as a college football player on the road to the NFL.
“This is a story of someone who dreams of getting into the NFL,” explains Mike Young, Executive Producer and writer of the Madden NFL 20 storyline. “It’s your choices, what you look like, how you sound, what you say. So in every scene in our story you’re making a choice that could change the story and the relationships in the story.”
Young says a lot of a lot of Madden fans played high school football and often wondered if they could have played in college. This game will let them explore the idea
“As our story takes place, you’re thrown into the college playoffs. For the first time ever you’ll get to play college football in Madden. We have 10 teams including Clemson. You get to put yourself on one of those teams. Ultimately the goal is to get drafted No.1 overall, but the story has a lot of different branches.”
Music has always played an integral role in the game, but this year EA worked to make it even more personal and interactive than ever before. Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers was brought in to create the score. While he hadn’t done that for video games before, Bowers has composed for a number of TV shows and movies, including the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film Green Book. He also grew up playing video games and remembers the importance of music and how it affected him, similar to the effect of music in memorable movies.
Steve Schnur, President of Music for EA, Mike Young, Executive Producer and Writer for NFL Madden 20 storyline, and Composer Kris Bowers
Credit: Pam Windsor
“Themes from these video games take us back to that moment we were playing them just the same way a Star Wars theme would or listening to an E.T. cue from that score. When I hear that score I immediately think of my childhood. It’s like that with Zelda or Super Mario or Smash Brothers or any of those other games I grew up playing with almost on a daily basis.”
Bowers worked closely with Young to create music to fit the storyline, blending a variety of genres and styles.
“We talked about how we could incorporate a lot of different sounds that maybe were reflective of the generation playing the game,” notes Bowers. “I think myself and a lot of people are into so many different styles of music and we wanted to reflect that in this score. So from the very beginning we were talking about how we can fuse the sounds of Dirty Projectors and Sleigh Bells and Tune-Yards with hip hop beats and an orchestra and be able to have the cinematic side, as well.”
The first thing he created was a strong theme for the main character that could be used throughout the story. And then began working on the more than 40 other cues or pieces of music for different parts of the game. The challenge was striking a balance that would work for different twists and turns throughout the game.
“In one scene you’re going into the locker room at half-time, you’re up, there’s an underscore there’s an underscore there that feels a little more uplifting, a little bit more exciting. And there’s another iteration of that where you’re down at half-time and the coach is coming down on you, you have to score that differently.”
And while working on music that worked with the different scenarios, he also had to make sure it stayed true to the overall story.
“Having to figure out, for reach of these branches, to compose something that will work in itself with each scene, but also, work no matter which way you go with the storyline is pretty fascinating.”
As Bowers played several music clips, it was clear he was extremely successful. His film score for the game will not only add to players creating their own story in the game, it will give them the feel they’re staring in their very own feature film.
