Commando Composer: An Interview with Jesse Harlin
Written by Justin Bielawa
March 8, 2006

Writing music for a company like LucasArts is a daunting task in itself, but putting your music alongside that of an iconic composer like John Williams is every film score lover's dream. That's exactly the job description for composer Jesse Harlin, who has worked on game music for hit titles like Star Wars Galaxies and Battlefront II. We recently caught up with him to talk about his work on the new game Republic Commando.

Music on Film: Introduce yourself to us, Mr. Harlin. What is your educational background in music?

Jesse Harlin: I got into music when I was 11, studied composition and song writing through my teens, and took voice lessons for about eight years as my main instrument. My original goal was Rock stardom; needless to say, that never happened. When I got to college, I was heavy into film scoring, sampling, and synthesis. I graduated with a BA in Performing Arts and a major in music composition from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in Liverpool, England. After leaving England, I moved to Los Angeles where I then completed the University of Southern California's graduate-level Advanced Studies program in Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television.

MoF: How did you get the job with Lucasarts? What projects have you been attached to?

JH: While I was in grad school, I peppered the industry with demos and caught the eye of LucasArts. When the position became available in 2002, they actually contacted me to see if I'd be interested in an interview, and the rest is history. As for projects, I've worked on most of the games we've put out in the last three years in one capacity or another. Star Wars Galaxies, the Episode III game, Battlefront II, Republic Commando, and non-Star Wars titles like Gladius and Secret Weapons Over Normandy.

MoF: What was the first videogame score you worked on with LucasArts?

JH: Technically, the first score I worked on was about 15 seconds of music for the game RTX Red Rock. An 11th-hour change came along, and I was asked to rewrite the music for the LucasArts logo animation at the top of the game. I think I'd only been at the company for about two weeks and didn't even have an office yet.

MoF: At what point did you come on board with Republic Commando? What was the first thing you had to do when assigned?

JH: I actually came onboard RC pretty early. The game was just edging its way out of preproduction, and I was brought on to help figure out the creative design of the game's music engine. I knew I wanted something highly interactive to help with the very cinematic atmosphere the game was shooting for. We were working with the Unreal Engine and found that the audio functionality it comes with out of the box just wasn't going to cut it for our needs. So, working with our audio programmers here, I designed an interactive music system that was really robust and gave me a tremendous amount of creative freedom. Figuring out the initial design needs of that system was step one.

MoF: Were you told to deviate from the "normal" Star Wars sound for the score?

JH: Yeah, RC was an odd project in that sense. We were constantly working on trying to find the right line between "not too Star Wars-y" and "not too far from Star Wars." It's up for debate how well we succeeded, but I'm personally very happy with the results. The entire goal was to present a very dark and military take on the Star Wars universe from the point of view of disposable grunts - something no one had seen before. These weren't guys who knew anything about galactic politics or the Force. These were just soldiers with a very dangerous, very thankless job to do. Most of John Williams' material is very romantic and thematically relates to characters we weren't focusing on. So, I had to figure out how to place anchors of the Williams score in with the original material I was composing. Mainly, this meant taking the Williams material and editing around the big recognizable themes. Commandos just don't make sense running around to Williams' Force theme. There are a few themes that made it in there - most notably the Trade Federation theme - but the score was sparse on Star Wars themes by design. That said, there's an elevator music version of the Imperial March that we snuck in as an easter egg. So far, though, I haven't heard of anyone having found it.

MoF: Was there a temp track or a specific jumping off point that the project head referenced to get you going in the right direction?

JH: As with all Star Wars games, the Williams' material is the initial source for everything, so I started there. Once we knew we wanted to step away from that, though, I looked at lots of horror and thriller scores: Aliens, Panic Room, The Thing, Planet of the Apes (both old and new), plus the soundtracks to lots of Vietnam movies. I also spent a lot of time studying Communist anthems.

MoF: At what point was it decided that a live male choir would be recorded?

JH: It was very early on and it came out of conversations with audio lead David Collins. David had drawn up an initial music style guide before I came on board, and we both agreed that a male choir would be a great addition. For me, the fact that Emperor Palpatine is behind the entire tragedy of the Republic's decay made him the most important character in the Star Wars prequels. The Emperor is behind absolutely every dastardly event that happens, so I saw Williams' choral theme for the Emperor as an important one to reference. With that in mind, I took the minor third motif from his Emperor's theme and built a new military clone theme off of it. I knew I wanted something tragically heroic, and the idea of something akin to a Soviet anthem just fit so beautifully. After that, I had to figure out what they were going to sing, so I invented the fledgling ancient Mandalorian language (now called Mando'a) and wrote the actual lyrics. The thinking was that the choral music represented the all-encompassing and unquestioning sense of nationalism that drives the Clone Army. The choral voices represent the unified thoughts of the clone troopers as they fight and die together for the Republic without any regard for their own lives.

MoF: Did you learn anything during writing this score?

JH: I learned an incalculable amount writing this score. Learning how to write heroic antihero music was just the start. I had to learn how to compose a score, then disassemble it and design a software playback system that would reconstruct it interactively in real time. I became pretty fluent in the use of the Unreal Editor, something I never expected to happen as a composer. I also learned that creating a language out of thin air takes a lot of work if you want it to sound like anything more than gibberish.

MoF: What inspires you most in your job?

JH: Without a doubt, it's the work I see being done around me from the rest of the development team. Working on staff as opposed to freelancing give me the ability to work closely with the concept artists, level designers, sound designers, etc. Watching the game evolve and getting to talk to the various people from each discipline influences me tremendously. It's one thing to simply watch a Quicktime movie of a scene and try to score it. It's another thing entirely to sit down with the artist responsible, ask him what their thinking was, and do your best to work with the film industry equivalent of 10 or so different directors.

MoF: Will there be a Republic Commando sequel?

JH: LucasArts hasn't announced a sequel, so there's nothing to comment on at this time. That said, there is a sequel to Karen Traviss' RC novel called Star Wars: Republic Commando - Triple Zero. Karen has massively expanded the choral work I started for the game and has turned Mando'a into a functional living language. It's a great book. Karen's an amazing author. Definitely check it out.

MoF: What are you currently working on and what is coming up in the future?

JH: At the moment I'm pretty busy with a lot of work I can't really discuss. I can say this, though: I'm completing some initial music work for our new Indiana Jones game right now, and that's got me really excited.

Special Thanks to Chris Baker at Lucasarts for his support and help in making this interview possible.

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