The massively popular wave and story based sci-fi shooter “Raw Data” has finally come out of its early-access phase receiving an official launch on Steam and Playstation VR. I was lucky enough to be able to sit down for a chat with Jeremy Nathan Tisser, the head music composer behind the complex and varying score for this virtual reality action packed experience. Tisser has built himself an impressive list of credits over the years as a composer and music editor including his work on the TV series “Nightwatch”, “Gatchaman” and “Green Lantern: The Animated Series”.
Tisser originally got involved with the team at Survios 'the developers behind “Raw Data” - when they attended USC together long before the companies creation. Jeremy told me he “was doing the film scoring program and studying composition for film and television... The game design program was only a few years old at the time and the VR stuff was very new.” Jeremy ended up working on the music for another game design students Master Thesis project and he met James Iliff during this project. Iliff would go on to become one of the founding members of Survios.
He would later help them work on a VR title called “Zombies on the Holodeck” which would serve as the basis for many gameplay elements in “Raw Data”. A few years after their time at USC, the team developed the first gameplay demo for “Raw Data” and asked Jeremy to compose the music for it. Following the huge reaction of the demo Tisser came on board to help compose and design the sound of the full game.
According to Jeremy, one of the main goals from the beginning was to make the game “feel like we transported the player into a 1980's sci-fi action flick. From day 1 that was one of our main focuses [with the design]. I ordered an analogue synthesizer to capture that sound” and from then on Tisser experimented with a huge array of instruments and sounds from flutes to techno grooves and Japanese percussion instruments for the Botanical Garden map. “We wanted each level to be completely distinct, unique and separate from [the others] while still being cohesive. Each section of the map had to have its own sound” while still threading together the story in an overarching sound. This provided a constant source of challenge and ultimate payoff.
This is expertly achieved. Throughout the soundtrack we are constantly bouncing between moments of high tension and soft, brief moments of reprieve only to be undercut by more pulsing, racing action. The intensity and driving beat of the drums throughout keep the energy pumping while not drawing too much energy away from the content of the game. Tisser is able to use this dichotomy of sound often, notable in track 4 “Rigid Automo” where Tisser effortlessly swells us up from a soft, dreamy piano into a racing, electronic groove that draws one into action. This could easily have been overbearing but the delicate nature in which Tisser treats the transitions allows for an enthralling experience. “That was the biggest challenge”, according to Tisser. “To not take away from the dialogue or story but to enhance it and remain intriguing... with traditional gaming or even film is that you're [always] removed anywhere from 10 to 50 feet from the screen.. but with VR you're putting on a headset and you are in the world physically.”
In the Virtual Reality action experience “Raw Data” the composition of the industrial sounding 80's tracks mixed with subtle and thoughtful piano, Japanese musical influences and racing, pounding drums work together to build a world entirely unique from our own. A world where robots and enemies run rampant and the music continues to pound driving you forward to see just what Eden corp really is up to in this unforgettable Virtual experience. Tisser is also currently working on a couple of VR projects that are in the works that he couldn't touch on more now, but I'm sure this is only the beginning of this composers deep dive into creating music for truly immersive virtual Reality stories!
You can keep up to date on all things Jeremy by following him on twitter, then you can follow Survios, the team behind "Raw Data," on Facebook, Twitter and their website to stay up to date on all of the new mind blowing virtual reality projects they have in the works!
