Posted in: Games, Interview, Microsoft, Video Games | Tagged: austin wintory, Towerborne

Interview: Composer Austin Wintory Talks Towerborne Soundtrack

We got a chance to chat with film and gaming composer Austin Wintory about his latest endeavor: the soundtrack for Towerborne

This week, Xbox Game Studios will release Towerborne as a "game preview" title on Xbox consoles, giving players a chance to experience the game that has been in Early Access on Steam since September. But while they continue to work on its development, some of the title's qualities are already getting praise, which includes the soundtrack. Recently, we got a chance to chat with film and game composer Austin Wintory about making the soundtrack to this particular game, while Xbox released a brand-new video showing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of it.

BC: Hey, Austin! First off, how have you been doing so far this year?

Can't complain! I've never had a year with a bunch of teed-up releases quite like this. One of those funny things where projects gestate for years and then somehow all end up coming out right on top of each other (Eternal Strands, then Monaco 2, then Towerborne, and then some others unannounced still). It's a luxury problem to say the least!

2024 was pretty big for you, with a Grammy nomination for Stray Gods, which was third in your career. How does it feel to get the recognition for your work at that level?

Peer-voted awards are always touching. I never felt that shiny objects validate the work we do, nor does going unnoticed by those groups invalidated great work. But it doesn't change that when you're lucky enough to get it, it's a touching sentiment. Your colleagues know what it's like. They fight similar battles, so to look across the room to each other and give a nod is a cathartic thing. And I feel that both directions. I took immense satisfaction voting for Wil Roget this past year, for example, for his work on both Helldivers 2 and Star Wars Outlaws.

For those who may not be aware of your journey, how did you get into making soundtracks for films and games?

My love for music came from my exposure to Jerry Goldsmith's film scores when I was around ten. Patton, A Patch of Blue, Planet of the Apes, and others. It became my mission from that point on to write music for a living. I had a parallel interest in games and even game development, too, but at the time, most game music was written by in-house, staff composers, and since my path was towards a freelance career, I assumed games were off the menu. But by dumb luck as a student at USC, I met some game designers, which led me to Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, founders of thatgamecompany. We had the opportunity to do Flow as a PlayStation 3 launch title in 2007, and it got the ball rolling ever since. It's insane to me that that was nearly 20 years ago!

With so many titles to your name, is there any particular method you use to make sure nothing sounds quite like something you already did before, and that it fits the mood of that project?

I think the method is avoiding having a method! If ever I feel like I'm relaxing into a tried-and-true approach, I stop myself and try to shake things up. It's never easy and it means I sort of ALWAYS feel like I'm treading thin ice, but it seems to keep things reasonably fresh. Always having lots of collaborators in my life really helps. Obviously different game developers and filmmakers will always inject perspective, but I also like to constantly rotate the musicians I work with. Or another example is I do these online contests through my YouTube channel with these very broad prompts, hoping to find unique talent. I've hired a couple dozen people that way for various projects.

How did the opportunity to work on Towerborne come about?

I started working with Stoic in 2012 on The Banner Saga. That ended up being a trilogy of games we worked on through 2018. Basically the moment we finished, their Creative Director Arnie Jorgensen started telling me about his ambitions for the next game, Towerborne. We started on it pretty much immediately!

What did you do to find the theme for the game and make it work for the action within?

Arnie said something that rang in my ears for the entire 5-6 years we worked on it: "After nearly a decade on these grim, mature and depressing Banner Saga games, I'm eager to do a game I can play with my kids." Interestingly though, he never meant a so-called "kid's game." He meant something more like what [Hayao] Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli does: full of innocence and wonder, and also a real elegance in the craft. Stoic wanted Towerborne to feel like it was produced at the highest level of artistry (as had been the case with Banner Saga too, frankly). So that really informed the approach. The word we constantly used was "optimism." At its darkest, it's never truly dark.

There are elements to some of the tracks that feel jaunty and playful before things get truly epic. Were you trying to strike a balance between those themes?

Like I said, that sense of optimism was our constant North Star. Joy. There's also, for me, this aspect of it highlighting musicianship. The actual performers in the orchestra themselves. When you watch a Ghibli film, you genuinely marvel at every single painting, every single frame of animation. I wanted the music to feel like that: where every bowstroke of the violins or a riff on piano or these slightly novel instruments like accordions and recorders make you feel that a truly masterful musician has played those. We were so lucky to record in Los Angeles, a major rarity for game scoring, and so I was trying to write the music as a sort of salute to what they are capable of. In the end, that's what ties it all together for me, whether we're being jaunty and playful or all-out epic. It's about the performers!

What did the team think of the music when you first presented it to them?

I remember when I first sent the theme to Arnie, he said something like "Look, I know you can wear multiple hats, but I have to say I wasn't sure if you'd nail the optimism given all the darkness we just spent on in Banner Saga. But you nailed this!" To his credit, he never told me in advance he held secret doubts! Needless to say, I was grateful it was resonating with him. I must say it was a real privilege to tackle this sort of thing. We so rarely get asked to write music that's positive in this way. It's not very in vogue.

With Towerborne being in Early Access and on the verge of release, what's it been like seeing fans' reactions to both the music and the game?

Ultimately the music is in service of the game, so I'm really just hoping people connect with the game itself! I think it's really special and has this fantastic potential to really evolve over time in ways that no other games are doing. I'm excited to see that happen!

What's next for you and over the rest of 2025?

We actually finished the main bulk of scoring on Towerborne last year, and they've been focused on gameplay refinement in Early Access since then. In that time, I shipped these latest titles (Eternal Strands and Monaco 2) and now I'm focused on my collaboration with Giant Squid. We're working on our third game together, Sword of the Sea. As with everything they do, it's exceptionally beautiful and a real honor to be part of.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!