TGL’s exclusive interview with Shawn Lee

CommentNovember 17th, 2009 16:42

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TGL recently broke the news about Bully 2 and to great acclaim: been featured on the likes of IGN, Gamespot, MTV, Neogaf, Kotaku and 1up, amongst others. We interviewed Shawn Lee about his experience in the games industry, what’s to come and his personal interests. TGL would like to personally thank Shawn Lee for his time. Enjoy!

The Gaming Liberty: First off, tell us a little about yourself.

Shawn Lee: was raised by a pack of wolves who descended from an ancient funk loving secret canine society! I’m originally born & raised in Wichita Kansas. I moved to LA in the late 80’s to hit the big time and lived there until the mid 90’s(I only hit the gig time). At that point, I signed a record deal in London & moved over to the UK in late 1994. From then up until now it’s been a endless cycle filled with loads of albums, sessions, collabs, soundtracks and touring. I’m living the dream baby!!!!!

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TGL: Are you a gamer yourself? If so, what titles do you enjoy?

SL: Nope! I’ve played a bit of Halo here and there, but that’s it really. Oh yeah,I play the game of life, but it’s not on Xbox 360 as of yet!

TGL: You’ve worked alongside musicians such as Jeff Buckley and Dust Brothers and even branched off into your own highly successful solo career. Do you approach games differently compared to work on your solo material?

SL: It’s all music basically… I always play every note like it might be my last. So my approach only varies in the musical parameters that are imposed by each situation. Otherwise, there is no difference in the way I work on games as opposed to my other musical pursuits.

TGL: So far you’ve worked on two games, The Getaway and Bully, would you be open to composing for other games in the future?

SL: Yes. It looks like I will be doing the soundtrack for Bully 2 in the not so distant future….Oh yeah, I’m available if anybody wants to hire me! heh heh.

TGL: When preparing to compose for games does the developer tend give you an idea of what they want or are you able to flex your creative muscle to how you see fit?

SL: I worked quite closely with the Ivan Pavlovich the music supervisor at Rockstar. He had given it a lot of thought and had lot’s of reference points & ideas. We worked hand in hand, although I had a great deal leeway too (no pun intended)!

TGL: Musically what was your approach to Bully?

SL: The music was very eclectic and covered a lot of musical ground. I think I determined early on that the music should have twisted quirky childlike quality. I also thought about specific instruments/sounds which would give the soundtrack a signature. One such instrument was a children’s piano I bought in Tokyo. From there, I set out to write the most important cues which would go a long way to help define the overall feel of the soundtrack. After that. it was just a case of doing a over a 100 cues!

TGL: For Bully it’s interesting how each clique has their own musical themes and sounds. Was this a conscious effort on your part through the composition?

SL: Indeed it was. This was sometimes a tricky proposition. For instance, what kind of music represents “preppies”?

TGL: Did you compose music for Bully that never saw the light of day and were cut from the game?

SL: I sure did, but most of the music found it’s way into the game.

TGL: Where you aware about the controversy that surrounded the game after it’s release?

SL: I saw some of the hype surrounding the game but it turned out to be quite unfounded in the end didn’t it. Bloody

do-gooders haha!!

TGL: Who are some of your favorite artists that inspired you to get into music in the first place?

SL: Jimi Hendrix,The Beatles,The Who,The Stones,Isaac Hayes,Curtis Mayfield,The Beach Boys,Chuck Berry,Ennio Morricone the list goes on and on….. I really like the Spice Girls psychedelic phase!!!!

TGL: What’s next for Shawn Lee?

SL: The next album to be released is a collaboration album with an amazing Chinese musician named Bei Bei. It will be released late jan. on Ubiquity. Like some kind deep cosmic psych Hong Kong film soundtrack!!! Otherwise, I’m still making albums like there is no tomorrow, so much more to come…

Bully: “Main theme”