GILES LAMB - A Decade of Dead Island
Composing for the Decomposing
Written and designed by: Tom Wilson - Sense Music Media
Known for music that is as cerebral as it is emotional – he has a degree in neuroscience, and even attended medical school – Giles Lamb is a man with a lot of range. Having composed soundtracks to TV shows, short films and videogames, he can work in many genres. It’s lucky, then, that his big break came from playing in his own style, as opposed to adapting to the client’s wishes. That big break was the jaw-dropping trailer for zombie survival game Dead Island. A slow-motion ballet of shocking violence shown in reverse, depicting a family trying to fight off an undead horde, the carnage was offset by Giles’ hauntingly beautiful piano and string music. The trailer would go on to win awards, and its success cemented Giles’ credibility both as a commercial composer, and as an artist in his own right. About to re-record the theme with a live orchestra to celebrate its ten-year anniversary, Giles spoke to me from his home studio in Glasgow.
Pictured: Giles Lamb composing in the studio
When did you first get started in music?
I did science at university. I studied neuroscience and music psychology. I didn’t study music at all, but I always played from a relatively young [age] … Even when I was nine or ten, I remember mucking around on the piano … I just used to improvise. We were lucky. We had a piano at home – a really nice little grand piano. It had that really nice sound. So every day, [when I got] back from school, I used to play and play. I remember my piano teacher said, “I can’t teach you.” [Laughs] Because I’d do the piece, and then I’d say, “I’ve been doing this stuff!” And I’d sit and play it, and they’d just watch me as I mucked around. It was never an intention. I never imagined I’d do it for a career or anything. At that point, it was just pleasure. I just loved working it all out … I probably should have [studied] the arts, but I’m happy I did science, because I think it gave me a perspective, and it gave me a logical, critical thinking approach. I wasn’t sort of coming through the traditional arts route, so I think it gave me something different. I think it gave me a sort of practicality which probably helped establish what I do. At that time, I linked up with a group of guys who were doing TV themes. There was a band that nearly made it. We were at the time of JAMEROQUAI … I was the keyboard player, doing funky, jazzy stuff. But it was never going to be serious … So I linked up with these [other] guys. We got some gigs, we set up a little company doing TV jingles and things like that, and it just sort of evolved and evolved.
Pictured: Giles Lamb
I first heard your work with the Dead Island trailer in 2011, which just blew my mind … That trailer is legendary. What do you remember about that process? Did they just take your music, or did you compose it for them?
No, it was composed for them. Basically, this company in Glasgow, Axis Animation … They’re massive now, actually, but at the time they weren’t quite as big. They did game trailers, and I think Deep Silver wanted to do something different, and put everything on its head a bit. So the whole thing is in reverse, and I think that the idea was, it’s a zombie game, [so let’s have] contrast – you’ve got this brutal violence and death, but let’s make it more like a ballet, so it’s very kind of poetic and in slow-motion, and it’s in reverse, so it looks different. So you’ve got that kind of juxtaposition, which worked beautifully. They wanted something very emotional, evocative, quite sort of beautiful and pared-back, and not what you’d expect – the complete opposite to a zombie game soundtrack that you’d expect. So, they had this rough animatic … I scored the music to the picture. At the time it was a different speed, and it was a very rough visual [quality], and it was just that piano piece – very simple, but it just kind of evolved. Again, it was an improvisation, which I tweaked and worked out, but it started off just playing with those pictures and finding a nice thing, and it just evolved from that. So I did that, and did a piece with virtual strings, and sent them that, and it just nailed it. It was the first thing I did, and it just worked. It’s funny, because it has a certain arc that just works. It’s been used for so many different things, and the number of people who go, “Can I use it for my film?” It just had a completeness … It was a collaboration, really, but I did end up with a piece of music that I’m really proud of … [With] game trailers, there’s a culture around them. If you’re not into games you wouldn’t realise, but these games are so cinematic, and they happen so far before the game that … they’re not just an advert. They define the look of the game. [Dead Island] was never a big game, but because of the trailer, it ended up becoming a really high-profile, AAA game.
The technology that I’m speaking to you on right now was science fiction a few decades ago. To what extent do you think that, with technology becoming more advanced and more people having access to it, the term “composer” has evolved since you started?
Well, there’s a lot in that question. [Laughs] I think, obviously, the technology has liberated people, so if you are musical, it’s no longer this elitist thing where you have to do it at a certain level to afford an orchestra, otherwise you’re never going to do it. Obviously, a real orchestra is going to have something over the virtual thing, but not necessarily all the time. It’s liberating for someone who isn’t necessarily classically [trained]. I’m not classically trained. A lot of people think I am, because of the kind of music I do. There are a lot of people like me, who are working in the digital world, using plug-ins and virtual instruments, which enables you to create this immense orchestral music, without really having the full knowledge of scoring specifically for an orchestra. It’s been very liberating. There is a whole generation of musicians – I’m probably part of it – that couldn’t have existed fifteen, twenty years ago … this sort of “crossover classical,” “neo-classical”, “composed ambient” … there’s all these names! [Laughs] I suppose the flip-side is [that] anyone can do it … It’s so easy to get your music on Spotify or whatever – you just pay a bit of money and it’s there – so there’s so much stuff out there … There is so much music. I do feel that music has almost become … the world is saturated. I think there is always going to be only so much good music. You can make a tune, but it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily any good, and it also doesn’t mean that anyone’s going to listen to it. I think there is a finite amount of good music, and that will always be the case.
Pictured: Giles Lamb
My wife was saying, when we were listening to THE BEATLES the other day … She asked me, “Would be anywhere near as revered if they came out these days?”
I was reading in the paper that Liam Gallagher said that if OASIS happened now, they probably would’ve been nothing. They would’ve come and gone. To get that traction is really difficult.
Think how many fistfights they could’ve got into these days!
[Laughs] Yeah! Exactly. In fact, I was in a band … one of my claims to fame; I was in a band called ELIAS, and we played a festival here called T in the Park … It’s kind of like a Scottish Glastonbury. At the time, it was just outside Glasgow, and we played in one of the tents, and OASIS played in the tent next to us, and no one had ever heard of them! [Laughs] It was right at the beginning of their rise. My other claim to fame – in the same band, we played a gig in The Garage in Glasgow, and we were supporting Gil Scott-Heron. He was completely off his head, and he fell off the stage! [Laughs]
