Jessica Curry, composer of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, talks about elitism, the musical process, sexism, and zombies

I know the podcast has been dormant for awhile, due to a serious lack of time and technology. Thanks to some encouragement and enthusiasm from others, I am relaunching this podcast for it's second series, starting with episode one, by interviewing Jessica Curry, a force to be reckoned with in the game music industry.

In the podcast, we talked about the realities of an apocalypse, and the original inspiration for the game. Co-creator Dan Pinchbeck said to Jessica,

"You always play as the hero, you wouldn't be that person, we'd be the people just lying there in the apocalypse, dead after about 4 seconds."

I reckon that's true. We'd all like to think we would be the heroes of our own narratives, but chances are that we would be just another zombie in the shambling mass that's chasing Rick Grimes around the southern United States. And besides, we all know that anyone who lives in or near a city is probably just screwed.

Of the writing process, Jessica said,

 "I'm a really slow writer...I am tortoise slow. ...I thought I would faint, or be sick, or just run off!"

This was the first undertaking that involved scoring for an orchestra, soloists, and choir for Curry, but that doesn't seem to have stopped her. With truckloads of critical acclaim surrounding her previous scores for Dear Esther and other games, she leapt into this project and literally poured her heart and soul into this gut wrenching, introspective score.

As many will know, the score for Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was yanked from the classical music chart in UK when it was on its way to number 1, and put on the film scores chart, alongside impossible blockbusters like Frozen and other Disney films. Still, other scores remained on the classical music chart, includingHans Zimmer compilations and Harry Potter film scores.

"I think there is an immense amount of snobbery about game music in particular. I think film music has won the battle, to a great extent."

On sexism in the gaming industry, Jessica mentioned,

"We just had the game awards, where there was one female judge out of 52 male judges....The people that worry me are the ones I interact with every day that don't think they are being sexist, but there are little things they say, and I think they should be more self-aware." 

If you want to hear more about her compositional process for the game, her views on Gamergate, and her personal story about her induction into music, take a listen to the podcast using the widget on the right hand side of the page. ---->

If you want to learn more about the book mentioned in this post, A Composer's Guide to Game Music by Winifred Phillips, click here to read the review and buy the book.

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(Please share, please comment, and please put forth suggestions for the rest of series 2!)