We were asked to do a piece that sounded similar and we did. We actually had a "Devil Came Down To Georgia" inspired piece. A lot of tongue-in-cheek stuff, we were doing some pieces that sounded like SWAT, Rocky, Weezer, and just like the bluegrass, country music.
And that's sort of how the music plays in the Shrek movies, as well. I love the fact that Shrek 2 required so much different music and it really kept me and the people that were working with me on our toes. I personally really like that about games scores. It was kind of crazy how much different the styles of music were we did for this soundtrack, which was fun. Rob did a couple of pieces that were based off of some Weezer tunes and "Hey Now, You're a Rock Star" (Smashmouth's "All Star"), I would say "inspired by" music off of that. "Kevin Riepl, who works with me a lot and a friend of mine from Minnesota, Rob Berry, who did additional music. "I had help on the score, too," Manthei divulges. In fact, there's even some rather well-known pop and alternative influences hidden within the score. Compared to some of his other video game work-primarily the more orchestral and epic sounding Vampire The Masquerade: Redemption and Sacrifice scores-the music in Shrek 2 is downright eclectic and diverse, bouncing from thundering "battle" music to whimsical, fairy tale-esque numbers that incorporate banjoes and other country jamboree-styled instruments. Throughout the whole game the music is fresh." Fresh is as good an adjective as any to describe the style of Manthei's Shrek 2 game score. They're like a minute, a minute-and-a-half, sometimes 30-seconds and the music changes up all the time. "We did a lot of semi-interactive music to where you're going along in one section and there'll be triggers and it will switch to another piece of music. "I was brought in and had an initial meeting with Luxoflux and I asked them 'Well, how much music do you need?' And they said 'Maybe we need like 30-minutes.' To which I replied, '30-minutes? That doesn't seem like a lot.' So we started talking about the game and figuring it out and I asked 'What would be a great wish-list for you guys?' They said 'It would be great to have original music on every level.' To which I enthusiastically said 'Let's do it! I mean this is a big thing and Dreamworks is spending a lot of money, time, and effort to make a good Shrek game that really is appropriate to the movie.' It ended up that we did 86-minutes of music for the game." Manthei's 86-minutes of music moves through roughly 11 levels of game play, changing mood and theme to fit the action of each level appropriately. But first he had to set parameters for what the designers were looking for in terms of music to interact with the game play.
YES NO Once the fit was made, Manthei set about crafting the score to the game. So it was kind of like I had two angles to work.
And then we were just talking and he mentioned 'We're doing Shrek 2…' And I also knew the lead designer over at Luxoflux because I'd scored a game for him, Shiny's Sacrifice. "One of the contacts I have over at Activision, an Executive Producer-actually it was the Executive Producer who worked on Vampire-I actually did Pitfall: The Lost Expedition for him. The fact that he already had a connection with Activision, having scored their Pitfall: The Lost Expedition and Vampire: The Masquerade Redemption titles didn't hurt, either.
SHREK 2 PC GAME WALKTHROUGH MOVIE
"Someone at TDK was doing the Shrek stuff, but then Activision got a new contract with Dreamworks to do all of their movie based titles," explains Manthei. Manthei was pegged to compose the music for the sequel game through a roundabout way that included his penchant for networking, as well as his respected work ethics and reliability. The latest franchise to benefit from Manthei's musical touch is Shrek, as the venerable composer has crafted the score for the Shrek 2 video game. He's scored music for four Nancy Drew PC titles, lent his sound to Twisted Metal Black, and in the cinematic world he's supplied additional music to both Scream 2 and Scream 3, as well as Scary Movie 3 and Resident Evil. Composer Kevin Manthei is no stranger to franchise work.