Devil May Cry 5, the long-awaited fifth entry in the franchise will finally be arriving on the 8th of March. Everything that’s been showcased of the title far looks great and has adequately served to pile on the hype as the game’s release date fast approaches.
And one of these showcased elements is, undoubtedly, the game’s excellent “Devil Trigger” score, composed by Casey Edwards who we at TechQuila have had the pleasure of conducting an interview with and getting his thoughts on his work, the upcoming game and other cool tidbits of information.
So Devil Trigger. That’s an awesome score. How do you go about making such kind of music ?
“I’m a long-time fan of the DMC series. I started playing back in 2001 when the first game came out. So that’s where I started musically. With the inspiration those first games gave me.”
Ah I see, a fellow gamer. That’s wonderful.
“I grew up playing all kinds of games. I’m definitely steeped into that whole world. The ironic part is that working on games makes you so busy you hardly have time to play them anymore.”
That’s rather unfortunate.
“It is and isn’t. I love being able to give gamers something new to enjoy. If that means cutting a few extra games out, then that’s a sacrifice well worth it!”
Okay so DMC, the reboot or DMC 4?
“DMC4, and only because it follows the original story that Itsuno-san set out to tell.”
Are there any other video games to whose music you’ve recently contributed to?
“Oh, man. Unfortunately nothing I can talk about at this time. Sorry about that!”
It’s okay. What about previous ones?
“Sure. I got my start in games in two different way”
“First was doing live-action branding material for game companies. For instance, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag was a game where a popular YouTube company, Corridor Digital, whom I’ve been working with for several years now, were given a budget to shoot an entire short film based around that new game. That’s just one example. I’ve since done live-action scores for games like Heroes of the Storm, PUBG, Far Cry, etc. I even scored a full feature-length film based on Battlefield, called RUSH.”
Wow, that’s really neat. Congratulations!
“Thanks!”
Other than gaming and composing music for them, what else would you say really gets you going?
“Sorry, I’ll answer that after I address the rest of your question. The other way I got into games was helping other composers when I first started. I was lucky to get to work on Killer Instinct, seasons 1 and 2 when they first came out with the XBOX ONE. And then got my first writing credit working on
Oh I didn’t know that. That’s quite something.
Favorite video games?
“Oh, that’s a hard one! And only because it really depends on the genre and era. I grew up playing a lot of games like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series,
“Lately I’ve been enjoying playing the new Ultimate Smash Brothers game.”
Have you gotten a chance to play DMC 5 yet or are you waiting on it just like the rest of
“I’m anxiously waiting like everyone else! I purposefully skipped out on playing the demo so that I can get a full first-time impression when playing the full game.”
From what we’ve already seen, whose your favorite character from DMC 5?
“I feel like that’s always a mood thing for me. I grew up playing Dante a lot in DMC 1 and 2, but then grew to love Nero in DMC 4. Especially the Yamato awakening scene!!! (That scene was probably my biggest influence when I first started writing Devil Trigger) I sway back and forth.”
What are favorite scores, I mean not just from video games but in general?
“That’s a hard one. John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Shirley Walker, Johann Johannsson…. the list could go on for days. Jurassic Park is one of my all-time favorite orchestral scores ever written”
“One of my favorite individual cues ever written is the cue called “Journey To The Island” in that movie. Some of the most expertly written music done to picture. He movies in and out of adventure and dialogue constantly. That’s a really hard thing to do!!!”
I see what you mean.
“And I HAVE to mention Martin Stig Andersen’s work on INSIDE. Not traditional by most peoples definition, but a masterpiece in its own right! Both from a composer’s point of a view and a game designer.”
What about video game music. Apart from DMC, what are some of your favorite scores from the game industry?
“So many to list! I enjoy so many genres its hard to narÂrow it down. The latest Zelda: Breath of the Wild score is incredible. Hyper Light Drifter has a really unique and colorful score as well. INSIDE, as mentioned. DOOM by Mick Gordon is a sound sculpting masterpiece surrounded by head-banging energy!”
What is your favorite video game score that you yourself wrote?
“That would have to be DMC 5!”
So I suppose that’s pretty much it. Other than music and gaming, what else are you really passionate about?
“A lot of my passion revolves around music, even if it’s not directly music itself. For instance, I like to write code for software instruments. I also like to hobby around in electrical engineering and build music related items to help fit my
That’s remarkable.
Okay before I let you go just one last question. Which is your favorite music genre?
“I’m not kidding when I say this: ALL!!”
Favorite songs then?
“Take On Me by Aha, Everlong by Foo Fighters, Deep by Julia Michaels, Its Tricky by RUN DMC, Superman by Goldfinger, Progenies of the Great Apocalypse by Dimmu Borgir….”
“I could go on for too long crossing genres probably too much.”
Okay, thanks for your time Casey. Really appreciate it. Good luck with your future projects! Cheers!