GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: FORTNITEMARES Composer Chris Thomas Shares His Process For Scoring Spooky Season's Favorite Battle Royale (INTERVIEW)

Every October one can expect the air to get cooler, leaves to change color and your favorite horror films to be played on repeat. If you are a gamer, another certainty is that Epic Games will release a new edition of Fortnitemares, their annual Halloween celebration across the battle royale and beyond. This year a plethora of new tie-ins are available, such as a bundle with a Saw theme and an appearance by Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Fortnitemares fanatics may also notice that the game sounds a little different, thanks to the spooky music that has been added.

The Halloween-themed music that can be heard on the game was created by composer Chris Thomas. Thomas is no stranger to the genre, some of his credits include the horror film “Don’t Look Back” directed by “Final Destination” creator Jeffrey Reddick, and Smol Games/Daedalic Entertainment’s “Hyde’s Haunt & Seek” video game. He has also created original music for Halloween attractions across the globe such as Knott's Scary Farm, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, Creep (LA), Queen Mary Chill in Long Beach, CA, Haunted Soiree (Glendale, CA), which can all be heard on his new Halloween album Purgatio. 

Thomas breaks down his Fortnitemares score and much more in the below interview.

-First off, how did you become involved with Fortnitemares?

My friend, Verity Pabla, who runs I’m Not A Machine Music in the UK was contacted to see if I could write a score for an upcoming Fortnite game. It seems that some people at Fortnite and Epic Games were already fans of my Halloween theme park music and wanted to know if I might be interested in working on a Halloween-themed game. It was quite a surprise to wake up to a WhatsApp message about Fortnite asking me to consider writing a new score. Before I even could jump out of bed I messaged back with a big “yes!!”

-What is the process for scoring a game like this? Would Epic Games send you actual gameplay to score to or was it more stills?

Much like film, you’re onboarded into a situation that has long been in progress. Composers are often brought in as the story, visuals, the edit and rhythm of a project has found its footing. You’re highly aware that the music is one of the last remaining steps before everyone can finish, so there’s a little pressure to get it right. There is a lot of discussion about style, sounds, characters and their themes. Sometimes you don’t get to see everything they are working on, or it may not be completely ready for you to see even when you need to keep moving ahead. In this case, it was a lot of the visuals and music (and sound) working concurrently, but we did get a fair amount of gameplay and visual guidance. 

-When Epic Games asked you to create music for Fortnitemares what sort of description did they tell you for how they wanted the score to sound?

This experience was different from all the others. For the first time, they had a list of reference songs that were all my own! It seems they had already been following my work in the Halloween theme park world, and the reference music in the game was my Halloween tracks. Usually, the reference music helps them get a feel for a scene or a region in a game. They pick pre-existing songs from other movies and games to discover what musical qualities work best in these areas. This helps them guide us composers in terms of emotion, rhythm, and general timings (since music is uniquely hard to discuss with words). In this case, my own collection of Halloween soundtracks provided the exact sound they were looking for. It was the first time I was asked to sound even more like myself. I’ll just take that as a very lovely compliment. 

-Fortnitemares features beloved characters such as Leatherface and the Pumpkin King from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Did you create any new music for these particular characters or was it more for the general gameplay?

While we did allude to some musical IP, Fortnitemares wanted a more original approach. Rather than trying to fit themes from all the different films, we focused on story, action, and how to amplify what the player will be experiencing moment to moment. Don’t get me wrong, figuring out how to juggle a cacophony of movie themes and making them work together is just the crazy challenge weirdos like me live for! However, for the good of a project, I usually find centering the music around the needs of the story in front of you is always the right approach. Sometimes using everyone’s theme means none of them have an impact. Therefore, we opted for clarity and impact! 

-Fortnitemares features a new Jigsaw’s Challenge, based off the Saw films. Did you go back and watch any of the Saw films to get inspiration for this? Do you have a favorite Saw film?

Honestly, I didn’t go back to see the films. I knew them pretty well already, and immediately had a sense for where to take the score. Plus, the visual and story aspects of those areas gave me quite a lot to work with! There was plenty going on to work with musically. Ah, as with all franchise movies, I’m always a sucker for the first in a series. In nearly every case, that’s where the initial magic was produced, the spark that fueled a movement around extending the life of the story. As someone who works in film and games, understanding why something launched into continued success is a very valuable study. There was true lightning in the bottle with that first Saw movie, and it will always hold a special place for me. 

-Phill Boucher is one of the other composers of Fortnite. Did you collaborate with him or any of the other composers from the game when working on Fortnitemares?

Oh my goodness, Phil is a musical wizard! We did not cross paths on this production, but his shadow over the Fortnite pantheon runs long. As a newbie to the Fortnite family, I’m aware that I stand on his shoulders. However, this game wanted a very specifically dark and quirky sound that defines my work in the Halloween space, and really wanted me to stay true to myself. That’s just what I did, and I sincerely hope it serves the game and its creators well!

-You score a lot of the Halloween attractions around the U.S. such as Knott's Scary Farm, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, Creep (LA), Queen Mary Chill in Long Beach, CA, House of Spirits (Glendale, CA). How did you become the “go to” guy for Halloween attraction music?

It all started back in 2010 when I attended the LA Haunted Hayride. I loved the show, but called their hotline to suggest broadening their musical choices. I could tell right away music was an afterthought. It was such a shame since their show was amazing. I got a call back from the owner, Melissa Carbone, asking me to meet up for breakfast one day. By the end of this meeting she asked if I could try scoring 11 of their most important scenes, which was set to open in 4 weeks from that morning. The next year, other LA area theme parks were asking for original tracks to their Halloween events. The year after, all across the US, Canada, and the UK I was getting requests to score their shows. Sometimes, I think something is just meant to be. Working with Halloween events is second nature to me, and I’m so glad we found each other! 

-What attraction has been your favorite to create music for? Why?

I have so many theme park children out there! I love them all for so many reasons, and gave so much of myself to some of them. It’s hard to pick. The really big theme parks (a la Universal or Knott’s Scary Farm) often can’t let me off the leash too far. It’s the more independent shows that don’t have corporate overlords looking over our shoulders, and I can really make things weird. I would say one of my favorite lyrical orchestra scores was written for the Evermore Adventure Park, the most deranged and scary track I’ve ever written was for Nightmare NYC, one of the most fun recordings of my life was for Drunken Devil, and the LA Haunted Hayride will always be my first…and therefore very special to me!

-When you want to make one track scarier than the other, is there something specific you add?

Well, there’s never any one specific thing to add. It depends on what will make something scarier. Sometimes, adding a human voice to gasp, choke, crackle can bring so much disturbance to a listener. Sometimes it’s adding things that should not be a part of a scene, like small children singing a lullaby in a psychotic janitor’s basement dungeon, or innocent Christmas carols while Santa butchers a small army of helpless elves. Nefarious juxtapositions and unsettling mismatches are the true stuff of nightmares! 

-You just released a Halloween album titled Purgatio. How would you describe the album? Do you have any favorite tracks on there?

Every few years I will survey my collection of unreleased Halloween theme park songs. From there, I try to pick around 30 songs I am especially fond of. These select tracks will be compiled into a new album. The music can range from haunted mansion music, to psychotic murder-clowns, twisted lullabies, and industrial punk music with chamber orchestra. It all depends on what people ask of me in the year leading up to the album. I often feel like I can’t take credit for my work, since the twisted minds of show creators are the ones who create these nightmarish scenes. They ask me to do things I never thought possible, and I set out to make them happen. While it’s hard to pick a favorite, I have to admit my fondness for Bloody Barnaby’s Big top and Return of the RIP Circus. Barnaby was just a massive undertaking to write and record. It was an obscene amount of work for my mixer and myself, but I really love the way it turned out. Revisiting the RIP Circus was a lot of fun, and we added a gigantic underscore in the middle section. It ended up feeling more like working on a Star Wars score for a while, since it was so orchestral and grandiose. There were a million little notes flying by all the time, and it took so many days to properly notate this kind of music. It was completely exhausting, but so worth the work in the end. 

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