Click here for the latest News!
Click here for Previews!
Click here for Cyberlore Interviews by Dragon!
Click here for Cyberlore Reviews by Majesty-Dragon!
Click here to view the Majesty-Dragon Forums!
Click here to see in-game screenshots!
Click here for links to related sites and reviews!
Click here for available downloads!
Click here for strategy guides and tips!
Click here information on Majesty-Dragon!
Click here to visit the Majesty home page!
Click here to visit the Cyberlore home page!
Click here to view Forrest's FAQ!
Click here to view the news archives!

Interview with Kevin Manthei, Composer
Wednesday, March 8th, 2000


Just to give you some background information:  Kevin Manthei is the creator of the music for the game Majesty by Cyberlore.  The music takes your mind back to almost a fairy tail medieval time filled with stories of knights and dragons.  Luckily for those of us that enjoy a variety in our music selection the music from the Majesty CD can be played from the game CD over a normal CD player.  The music is of such high quality you might actually enjoy doing this. 

Music is used to set the tone for movies and games.  The music in Majesty does this well.  As an example, it is only a shame Kevin was not around to help the movie Lady Hawke (starring Rutger Hauer and Matthew Broderick).  His music would have been far more appropriate to that movie than what was used and could have potentially turned a good movie into a great one.  For those of you that remember this movie, you know what I am talking about.

...BUT I digress.  On with the interview!



Dragon: How did you get started in the music business?
Manthei: To understand how I got started, I will start from the beginning. As a young kid growing up I became fascinated with sounds and the emotions I could emote from the Piano.  I started Piano lessons a bit later than most - in fifth grade.  Even before I took Piano, I loved to tinker on it. I was amused and impressed by the sonic qualities you could create by banging loudly or playing very softly.   My fascination soon turned into a passion which lead me to my first synthesizer when I was fifteen, from there to a small 4 track studio, and from there to the University Of Minnesota where I studied music composition for 4 years.  After Minnesota I headed out to the University of Southern California to be part of a small, hand-picked graduate program in "Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television."  After the program was over, I was equipped with many years of composition and study, but the last school was the School of Hard Knocks which I entered immediately after USC! After a few years of assisting other composers and doing anything music related so I didn't have to take a corporate job, I started to obtain my own writing gigs and the rest is history. 

Dragon: You do more than just compose music.  What other roles have you played in the music industry?
Manthei: I actually just concentrate on composition.  My company, KMM Productions, does sound fx for games. We work closely with a group of sound fx designers.  Besides doing games I am heavily involved with writing music for film, television and commercials.  I scored my first film 2 years ago called "Milo."  It is a fairly decent "B" Horror film that is in your local Blockbuster and has been airing recently on Cinemax and Showtime Extreme.  I also compose film music for other composers who are in need of additional music because of time pressures.  I contributed music to "Scream 3" as well as "Scream 2" and "The Faculty".  On the TV side I have contributed music to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "The Pretender" and most recently the ABC movie "Tuesdays With Morrie".

Dragon: What led you into writing music for games?
Manthei: After graduation I saw an emerging field in the interactive area.  Games were finally moving past general midi and on to digital audio which allowed me the opportunity to use my multi-thousand dollar studio instead of relying on everyone's fifty dollar soundcard.  I procrastinated getting involved early on until I came upon a composing job for a game almost by accident.  Through some networking, I met up with a guy who had already done some work with the now defunct Viacom New Media.   Since he wasn't a composer, he was looking for someone to do the music for a game he had already secured a contract for.  It was a game based on the children's movie "The Indian in the Cupboard".  I did the music for the game.  I loved the schedule, talking to the producers, and being creative.  I was hooked: writing game music was fun!  From then on, I started to market myself to interactive companies. It started as any snow man does, small but gradually gets bigger and bigger as you roll it.

Dragon: What project are you the most proud of?
Manthei: Of course I am proud of my work on Majesty.  It was a great project to work on writing authentic sounding medieval music. More on Majesty later.

It's difficult to define my craft with only one project.  I consider my work a journey rather than a one-time accomplishment.  Most composers will tell you that what they are working on presently is their best work and are most proud of that.  I am in that camp.  In the game arena, I have been working on music for a game for Shiny Entertainment called "Sacrifice".  The game itself has not been talked about much yet but I can say a few things about the music.  Because of the premise of the game and the worlds in it, I have been experimenting with combining different styles of music to create other-worldly music.  I am composing a separate piece for each world and each world's music is totally different from the others, yet it has a similar thread.  So as a composer it's a great challenge as well as a lot of fun.

Another project I am really proud of is Activision and Nihilistic's "Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption."  With this project I felt like I scored a film.  I wrote the music for the Dark Ages portion of the game and it has a dark, moody medieval feel combined with a real and present sense of horror.  Besides writing music for each of the dungeons or worlds, I composed music for each of the main characters, as well as a love theme.

My first CD-ROM project I wrote music for was Viacom New Media's "Indian In the Cupboard".  This project stays with me as one that I am very proud of.  I did it with a limited amount of time and equipment, yet the music has a very unique and creative sense to it.  It has elements of American Indian styles with magical film scoring undertones.

Dragon: Have you done work for Cyberlore before?
Manthei: No.  Through some networking I did with some producers at Psygnosis in San Francisco, I was pitched for a game they were going to do for Psygnosis.  That fell through and I never really contacted Cyberlore after that.  Months later I got a call from Cyberlore and they wanted to hire me for Majesty.  Once we worked out the business end of things, they hired me.  I didn't have to go through my least favorite thing: bidding.  Composition isn't an auction.  I want people to approach me because they want to hire me.  If they are lukewarm about me and want a bid and are asking 10 other composers, chances are they don't respect music or understand its value.  It's not the way I like to do things. 

Dragon: Why do you think Cyberlore approached you to do the music for Majesty?
Manthei: I am biased in this but I think they approached me because my demo blew them away and by the time they dialed the phone to talk to me, they already wanted to use me.

Dragon: How long did it take you to complete the Majesty Project?
Manthei: I worked on it in the Fall of 1998.  This gives you a good indication of how long it takes to develop a good game.  The release of the game is slated for Spring 2000.  I would say that I spent about two months on the music.  I was probably working on a few other projects during that time and would switch back and forth.  Incidentally, I just finished the music for the opening cinematic for Majesty.  It is a two and a half minute cinematic that gives you an introduction to the game and the kingdom.  It's looking really good and the music I came up with gets you into the Majesty mode right away.

Dragon: What was your inspiration for the Majesty music?
Manthei: My inspiration comes from the vision and direction from the Producer.  Each project is different.  With some projects they have music from soundtracks they like, or bands they like and those pieces may become my inspiration; but a good producer can inspire good music through relaying their passion for the project and what they believe they need musically.  My inspiration for the Majesty music was just that. Working with the Producer Rob Caswell was all I needed to get started on the score.  Since I was familiar with Medieval  & Renaissance music I was rearing to go right away after our initial talks.  Another point which you may find interesting is that many top notch working composers do not rely on inspiration to write music.  Inspiration is one of those things that comes and goes and cannot always be relied upon.  A teacher of mine said that composition is like working on your biceps.  The more you work on them the stronger they become.  This is true in my case, I rely more on my compositional muscles to get me through projects than pure inspiration.  Inspiration and passion are very important but so are strong compositional muscles.

Dragon: Did Cyberlore have a clear vision of what they wanted, or did they leave it up to your expertise?
Manthei: It was a little bit of both.  Rob Caswell, the Producer, was my contact person and we had a series of conversations about the game and the music before a note was written.  A good producer knows what he wants even if he can't explain it in musical terms.  I try to ask producers to give me a series of adjectives to describe what they want the music to be like.  This really helps because they don't have to be a musical expert to get their desires and ideas across.  Working with Rob was really great because of his ability to explain what he liked and didn't like.  On pieces where I had to change certain parts, he was clear on what he wanted changed and why.  Once I did the revision he approved them right away so there was no back and forth between many revisions that can take place when a composer and Producer aren't seeing eye to eye.

Rob had a clear vision about the music for Majesty. He wanted the music to be medieval with a bit of fantasy, but it had to be orchestral in that it sounded more authentically medieval than an updated style that incorporated medieval elements.  The score was to be more classical medieval than a modern medieval style.  Once he and I were clear on his vision for the music it was my job to turn that vision into music.  The process of taking adjectives and directions and turning it into music is not an easy one to write about.  It's really more of a left brain thing that is best described as 'This is what I do'.  I knew Rob and I were on the same wavelength when he accepted my first piece on the first pass.  I started with the Majesty main theme.  The rest of the project went just as smoothly.

Dragon: How many different pieces did you write for Majesty, and how many were actually used in the game?
Manthei: 6 pieces total. 
1. Opening Cinematic  2:30 
2. Majesty Main Theme 3:00
3. Epic Quest Theme 2:00
4. Early Game Music 7:00
5. Mid Game Music  7:00
6.  End Game Music 7:00

The Opening Cinematic music goes with the intro video that plays when you start the game up.  The Majesty Main Theme (which is available on my website and Cyberlore's) plays during the main menu screens and setup screens.  The Epic Quest Theme is played when you go on a specific epic quest.  Then the rest of the music is the 21 minutes of game play music that runs during the actual game.  I have yet to work with another company that asked me to do seven minute pieces.  This has to be the most interesting thing that they asked me to do.  For their game it makes sense.  It being a Kingdom Simulation where you slowly build your kingdom, Cyberlore wanted longer looping pieces to play during the appropriate times in your kingdom's life.  So when you start the game, you will hear the Early Game Music which starts off very slow and mellow.  The music attempts to match the pace of the game so when you get to the end of the game, the End Game Music is much more active and exciting than the Early Game Music.  Having seven minutes to create a piece was new to me.  I put 3 or 4 ideas in each seven minute piece so it had lots of variety.  I think it would take the listener an hour or two of listening before he was extremely familiar with the loop and even longer before he would start to hum it in his sleep. 

Dragon: Are you happy with what you have done for Majesty?
Manthei: Yes.  I think it has a very original take on medieval music yet it is still very classical and genre specific.  I want my music to always have a sense in it that is original and says 'Kevin Manthei' while it also does its job in capturing the correct style and mood.  The  proof is always with the client on how well one composed.  Rob Caswell and the guys at Cyberlore are very happy with the music and have let me know on several occasions.  It's hard to say this without sounding arrogant!

Dragon: What tools did you use to compose the music for Majesty?
Manthei: I used my samplers and extensive sample library.  I don't talk about my equipment much because I feel it's more about what you do with it than what you have.

Dragon: Do you have any suggestions for a someone who is thinking of composing as a future career?
Manthei: Be prepared to be a smart, savvy business person, and realize that they aren't coming around knocking on your door if you don't let them know you exist.  Selling yourself is the most important part of this business.  Of course it helps to be a talented composer as well!

Dragon: Can you give us any idea of any current gaming projects you are working on?
Manthei: Besides Activision's "Redemption" and Shiny's "Sacrifice" which I talked about before, I  am always working on interesting things.  I just finished working with the talented artists over at Disney On-Line.  They are coming out with a Broadband version of their "Worlds Of Disney" stories that are interactive stories on-line with voice-over and digital quality music.  For this project, I originally did the music tracks as general midi but then a few months ago they approached me to take those midi tracks and make them sound even better with my studio and create digital tracks.  The music and dialogue load in as mp3 files.  You need a fast connection to access these stories thus the "broadband" title.

I am working with Crave Entertainment doing music for 2 trailers showcasing their upcoming game "Galerians".  I also am writing music for 4 cinematics for  Activision's "Redemption."  Although I finished the bulk of the music a year ago, cinematics often lag behind in production.  I just finished writing additional music for the major motion picture "Scream 3" which hit theaters February 4th.  I did twenty five minutes of full orchestral music for the film.

I am finishing up music for Electronic Art's new outdoor sports titles.  I did over fifty minutes of music for them and their six titles.  The one EA title that has been released with my music in it is "Deer Hunt Challenge". I am in negotiations right now to do a game for GT Interactive, Crave Entertainment, Sir-Tech Cananda and Kemco.



We here at Majesty-Dragon would like to thank Kevin for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us.  We wish him the best, and we know that his talent and hard work will take him far.  Hopefully we will hear more of his work in the future.

-Dragon



If you would like to learn more about Kevin Manthei Music Productions, be sure to check out his Web Page.

Click here to visit the previous site in the ringClick Here for Information on the Majesty Web Ring!Click here to visit the next site in the ring

Click here to visit the GameSpy home page!
Click here to visit the StrategyPlanet home page!

[News] [Interviews] [Reviews] [Forum] [Gallery] [Links] [Downloads] [Strategy] [Dragon-Info] [Forrest's FAQ] [Archives]
All rights reserved.  Copyright © 1999, 2000 by Majesty-Dragon.  Majesty and the Majesty Logo are trademarks of Cyberlore Studios, Inc.  All other logos, brand names, and product names listed are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.