The Sound of Strategy: How George Strezov Brought Jagged Alliance 3 to Life
George Strezov is a renowned composer known for his powerful, cinematic scores, blending orchestral grandeur with modern innovation. With an impressive portfolio spanning films, video games, and virtual instrument development, Strezov has carved out a unique space in the world of music composition. In this interview, he delves into his creative process for Jagged Alliance 3, the challenges of conducting live orchestras, and his inspirations from film soundtracks of the ’80s and ’90s. He also shares insights on rejection in the industry, his passion for storytelling through sound, and his ever-evolving musical journey.
What was your initial inspiration when composing the soundtrack for Jagged Alliance 3?
Hi and thank you for inviting me to be part of this interview! When I first had the talk at Haemimont Games’ HQ about this project I started remembering my initial gaming experience when I played the other games in the franchise when I was… much much younger. This gave me quite a few ideas about the music — harmonic language, instrumentation. Later on we decided that the game should sound like action film soundtracks from the 90s, late 80s, early 2000s — all film scores that I personally love and adore.
What were the most significant challenges you faced while working on the soundtrack for Jagged Alliance 3?
Each and every project has their own challenges but one of the things that was discussed with Boyan Ivanov (creative director on the side of Haemimont Games) and Brad Logston (producer on the side of THQ Nordic) was that we’re going to use mostly the power of the symphonic orchestra. As you can imagine this is a dream-come-true for any composer! However — there was one thing I didn’t take into account. I can spend days writing music in my studio without even noticing that but George Strezov “The Conductor” had to keep the focus and energy for four batches of 6-day non-stop recording sessions. At first it’s all fun and games but the amount of concentration that was needed for this was maybe a bit too much than what I was used to; what added to the amount of stress was also the fact that it was my own music and I was responsible for every single mistake — and being in front of 60 people with your music somehow feels like being naked in front of 60 people. But what got me through that was the support of my music team, the contracting team in Sofia, Prague and Johannesburg and all those musicians that performed the game soundtrack. I am once again fascinated at how much love musicians put out when recording! The world needs more symphonic orchestras and more live music. I hope we get a renaissance for this aesthetic soon!
How did you approach creating distinct musical themes for different characters or factions within the game?
I often write music differently, sometimes I get inspired by a specific sound or instrument, sometimes I have a vision in my head of something that needs musical background and I compose music for that made-up story. However, one approach that I employed heavily in the Jagged Alliance 3 soundtrack was to actually be a bit old-school before doing the MIDI mockups (this is the digital representation of the music made with virtual instruments). So I was composing everything for piano first and then orchestrating it afterwards. The process is definitely slower and it took me some time to stop thinking about the orchestration and instrumentation and focus on the composition only. And to be honest imagining a battle track and hearing only a piano reduction is kind of uninspiring, but in many ways that allowed me to think more outside of the limitations of the digital technologies we composers have today.
What role did live orchestration versus synthesized elements play in the overall composition of the score?
Oh, a huge role. I think that the ultimate reward for every composer is having their music performed by a group of fantastic musicians. I was fortunate enough to get this opportunity here as well and it made all the difference. Not only does it sound better than virtual instruments, but all that energy from these musicians being poured into the music through their performance actually makes the music FEEL different. Now the action tracks are not just something that boosts the pace of the action, it makes it FEEL like a matter of life and death. At first we actually went with a slightly different stylistic direction for the music, but after many discussions we came to the conclusion that this game needs something more organic — this gave us those 4 weeks in total with strings, brass, percussion. And in my humble opinion it changed the entire perception of the music!
Can you share any memorable moments from your early career that have shaped you as a composer?
Yes! I remember watching one masterclass of film composer Danny Elfman recently in which he spoke about composers handling rejection. This is a tricky subject, especially when it comes to writing music for films or games, where a lot of creative people are inputting their art into one thing. In films there would be one “captain” and that would usually be the director… and have in mind — directors would have worked on a film quite some time before getting the composer on board. So they already have a concept about the film and also about the music. So the memorable moment in question was one of my first short films that I scored when I was still in school. I had one music cue completely ditched by the director and dubbing mixer because it was revealing something in the plot that would happen later on in the movie (and it was kind of a plot twist). Remember — at that time I was still in school, I was pretty hot-headed and wanted to score every scene with my magnum opus, and I immediately felt devastated that they hated the music I’ve written. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The music just didn’t help the picture and the story. That’s all there is!
Thankfully for me the music editor of the movie was kind enough to come and explain to me why that music was not included in the final mix and what the motivations for that were — and this little something taught me so much about the industry at that point that I guess it even shielded me from occasions in the future where I -could- have been emotionally broken.
How do you stay inspired and creative, especially when working on large-scale projects like Jagged Alliance 3?
I’m a very visual composer — I’ve written music to some sort of a picture so much in my life that I can get creative energy from someone else’s art that sometimes music just… flows! It could be concept art, backgrounds, matte painting. Haemimont Games has a wonderful and fantastic team, and I made sure to go to their office and look at what the art department has done, speak to them about future ideas and discuss what’s next and what else we could do to elevate the gaming experience.
Your work spans various genres and mediums. How do you adapt your style to suit different projects?
Interesting, I’ve never actually thought about this. I love music and I love listening to various styles of music — my playlist includes album favourites like “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis, “The Fellowship of the Ring” by Howard Shore, “Équinoxe” or “Oxygen” by Jean Michel Jarre, “Decksanddrumsandrockandroll” by Propellerheads, Pink Floyd, also Foo Fighters, Juno Reactor, Fatboy Slim, Eminem and many many others… I have to say that film and game soundtracks attract me with the single fact that you’re not secluded to a specific genre of music. For example “Surviving Mars” has a completely different soundtrack than “Jagged Alliance 3” — and it’s a thrilling experience to experiment and try new things.
You founded Strezov Sampling, which has become popular among media composers. How does creating virtual instruments differ from composing music?
They have something in common, which I like to name “sonic storytelling”. I like storytelling through music, worldbuilding through music — this is something that piques my interest and gets me invested and curious. And you might find it hard to believe but you can also tell a story by the sonic quality of a virtual instrument! Our company has a different philosophy which focuses on imperfect and non-sterile sounds, which focus on great performances by inspiring musicians. We later on hand-craft these instruments into the so-called sample libraries — that process takes a lot of time because we manually go through each and single recorded note, making sure it can perform well in the “real world”. The hardest part there is to make something digital feel like you’re playing on a, let’s say, baroque artisan instrument. Sometimes this gets a bit tedious but when I open my composer template and perform our instruments I am able to create a “demo” (or as we call them — mockups) that feels alive and that inspires and motivates me. Not only that but we have great user interface graphics — if I can repeat myself — I’m a huge fan of visual art.
So to answer your question — the difference between those two things is mostly the post-production part. But initially they need the same creative spark!
Looking forward, are there any specific types of projects or genres you are particularly excited to explore?
I am a huge fan of role-playing games, especially fantasy. As I’ve said before — LOTR is one of my favourite soundtracks and I’ve also spent quite some time on “Dungeons and Dragons” campaigns… I like story-driven games and would love to do more of that (cutscenes for instance) which would be great to connect my two passions — film music and game music together!
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Thank you for reading, check out more about George Strezov here!
