{"id":51910,"date":"2024-05-22T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-22T09:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2044256"},"modified":"2024-05-22T14:20:20","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T12:20:20","slug":"the-last-of-us-composer-on-the-revolution-that-made-players-cry-and-the-anxiety-of-tv-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/the-last-of-us-composer-on-the-revolution-that-made-players-cry-and-the-anxiety-of-tv-adaptation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last of Us composer on the \u201crevolution\u201d that made players cry, and the \u201canxiety\u201d of TV adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gustavo Santaolalla opened up between Game Music Festival shows. <\/p>

By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 22 May 2024 at 09:52 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Ahead of his recent concert at the Game Music Festival in London, the amazing composer Gustavo Santaolalla spoke to RadioTimes.com<\/a> over Zoom about his experience making the iconic musical score for The Last of Us.<\/p>\n

In this wide-reaching chat, Santaolalla looked back on his journey with The Last of Us<\/a>, and touched on the fact that his collaboration with developer Neil Druckmann and his company Naughty Dog was something of a \u201crevolution\u201d in terms of emotional storytelling in games.<\/p>\n

Check out the video version of the interview above, or read on for the written edition!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that I\u2019m a terrible gamer,\u201d Santaolalla says, before describing himself bumping into virtual walls at every opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I have a son,\u201d Santaolalla adds. \u201cAnd I always enjoyed watching him play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I always thought, you know, if somebody, at some point, connects with a gamer in a more emotional way, has a more soulful connection, outside of killing and the survival and fighting [\u2026] it\u2019s going to be a revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

This idea remained just that, an idea, until Santaolalla earned a massive amount of success in the movie industry. After winning two Academy Awards, for his work on the films Brokeback Mountain and Babel, he had his pick of new gigs.<\/p>\n

\"Gustavo\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Gustavo Santaolalla in action at Game Music Festival.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Santaolalla recalls: \u201cI was approached by several companies, one of them a very big company, with a couple of huge projects. Financially, but also in terms of exposure, I mean, they were big projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I always like to say that, whatever success I have achieved has to do not only with the things that I\u2019ve done, but also the things that I have passed on. And at the time, it was big to say no. But I knew what I wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen suddenly, Neil [Druckmann] appeared, and the story of The Last of Us. And he also pointed out that he was looking to connect with the gamer in that level, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I got to work into it. It was very organic. I had total freedom to do whatever I felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when we learned that people were crying playing the game, I mean, it was confirmation, you know, that yes, this was really happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the vision that I had, and what Neil had in his mind, that was something that was functioning and everybody was connected.\u201d<\/p>

In terms of how he found the game\u2019s beautiful signature sound, Santaolalla says: \u201cI work really in a very primitive, primal, instinct-driven way. There\u2019s not a lot of reasoning behind it. Lots of times, what happens to me is that I do things, and then rationalise them [after the fact].\u201d<\/p>\n

This retroactive experience happened with The Last of Us. Santaolalla had composed some melodies with deeper-sounding instruments, like a Fender six-string bass from the 1960s. Other bits he\u2019d played on more fragile-sounding instruments including the lute-like ronroco. In the middle of the soundscape were more instantly recognisable guitars and banjos.<\/p>\n

In Santaolalla\u2019s words: \u201cBut then I realised that all this low-end thing was connected to the male side of the story, to Joel. And the ronroco, with this fragile sound and stuff, was Ellie\u2019s world, you know? But when I did it, I didn\u2019t think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n