(Thresh) Welcome to the event horizon.
We were approached by the skins team at Riot Games to provide music for the legendary Thresh skin, Dark Star Thresh.
When I first began thinking about the music for Thresh,
I wanted to portray the vastness, borderless aspect of the universe around him.
But I also wanted almost an aura of nobility.
I wanted the music to be timeless.
How do we take this organic, immortal concept and turn it into music?
And I happen to play something that’s a little unique…
…it’s a hybrid between a viola da gamba and a guitar called “Guitarviol”.
I was really fighting for a melody
that would embody him.
It took me a while to figure out what those six notes would be.
And I wanted them to have a very lyrical quality to them.
I also wanted them to portray that sense of gloom and doom.
Create those intervals that slowly but surely expand.
It’s like a black hole getting bigger, just like his thematic.
That concise musical statement has all the DNA for the music of Thresh.
“A star can scream, isn’t that strange?”
One of the concepts of Dark Star Thresh is that he’s here to devour your souls, suck them in with his singularity.
One way of using very organic techniques to do that would be maybe using our own breath.
One, two.
I had a bunch of fellow Rioters come into the foley room and record all these inhalings and exhalings.
And turned that into a musical statement.
Cool, we got it. Thank you guys.
No singing? We don’t sing?
No. You do not sing. You do not sing.
You’re gonna be the sound of a soul being devoured.
“A means to the end.”
When walking into a foley session like this,
to be fairly honest, I was not sure what we were gonna get,
but for this, I wanted my fellow Rioters creative input and we ended up with a bunch of material.
So, just a quick word of caution, dry ice is extremely cold.
So never put your bare hands on it.
Some really fascinating things.
Some things that surprised even myself.
Holy shit!
That was really part of the fun.
Trying new things.
Go beyond what we had imagined.
And just embraced what we got.
Now I have to turn this into music. We’ll see how that goes.
After the initial discussion with the producers.
I get feedback from my little creative flame.
And one of the things that the creative flame threw at me immediately was like
you want to use a string quartet.
It’s exactly what Thresh is all about.
I’ve always adored the sound of Warner Bros. for smaller string sections.
It makes it sound larger than life and it’s just a beautiful place.
We have a number of really truly fantastic collaborators.
Together we’re able to bring the best possible scenario for recording live musicians.
I personally love live music.
I embrace the opportunity of recording those guys and have musicians bring in their expertise,
their beautiful sound. They’re the ones who take beyond. They’re the ones who get it live.
It’s really like… almost like witnessing a birth.
They give me back something that is bigger than what I gave them.
And that’s an absolutely incredible feeling.
So one thing i’ve attempted to do was to draw our players into that feeling of hopelessness.
I also wanted to portray the jubilance that Thresh is experiencing through his quest,
and just the sheer power of his abilities.
So I’m hoping that when the player is listening to that piece of music,
they feel this excitement, but they also know that this excitement is directed at them,
and not in a good way.
“Beware. I live.”