By Marty Mulrooney
When composer Robert Holmes last joined Alternative Magazine Online for a chat at the end of 2021, he was kind enough to tell us all about his latest project Sequel – an album inspired by his soundtracks for the Gabriel Knight trilogy and Gray Matter (iconic adventure games written by his wife, legendary game designer Jane Jensen – what can I say, they’re a talented family!) Now, it’s 2023 and the album is out there being listened to and enjoyed by fans all over the world. Therefore, I am proud to welcome Robert back to AMO for yet another exclusive online interview where we talk about his creative process, the best cover versions of his music, and the importance of bringing beauty and positivity into the world.
Hi Robert, thank you for your time and welcome back to Alternative Magazine Online – it’s always such a pleasure to speak with you!
Hi Martin! Great to chat with you again. Hard to believe a year has zipped by us. Seems the busy ones go faster.
It certainly does. When we last spoke in December 2021 you had just launched an exciting new Kickstarter campaign: ‘Sequel: A Collection of New Game Themes By Robert Holmes’. Now, I’m happy to say that the album recently launched and it’s absolutely fantastic! I’m assuming 2022 was a very busy year for you working on this project?
Thank you! Yes, it’s been great fun and constant activity to get all the Kickstarter rewards out, write and record the album, and get the CDs and now the vinyl versions produced and available. It’s been a real pleasure to have such a project to focus on, and to have the results embraced and appreciated by the audience!
The album boasts 11 tracks, with an additional 5 bonus tracks and demos. How did you approach making such an ambitious concept album, and what was the first step of your creative process?
The first thing I did was go back and look at the Gabriel Knight and Gray Matter OSTs to be reminded of what some of the key types of songs and elements are that have resonated with fans over the years. I wanted to make this new collection feel and resonate in the same ways if possible. I then put a little digital piano and recorder on my dining room table. For three months I did nothing but write little sections and catalogue them whenever I went into the room. This allowed me to capture a ton of new music without self-editing or getting bogged down on one song.
This album was of course inspired by your many video game soundtracks. Did you revisit any of your previous albums for inspiration or perhaps look at design documents for games that were never made (such as Gabriel Knight 4 and Gray Matter 2)?
I did think about what a potential new Gabriel Knight or Gray Matter might include and tried to respond to those textures and possible characters. But potential games like those are purposefully rather general in tone until the real dive into design, so there’s not a lot I can talk about – at least, nothing that was specific to a possible new game.
Alongside your trusty Kurzweil K2600, which is responsible for the haunting piano sound that will be familiar to any Gabriel Knight fan, what new instruments did you include on the album?
I had lots of fun mixing old tools like the Kurz and some of my old Korg synths with new hardware synths like the Novation Peak, the Korg Wavestation and the Hydrasynth. I usually would combine these with several VSTs from folks like Cherry Audio, UVI or Arturia such as Mellotron emulations and others. I love mixing hardware and VST sounds to obtain unusual combinations. I was also able to do some guitar on the album and used some Gibsons, Fenders, Guilds and Gretschs for various tunes.
At what point did you start bringing other musicians into the mix?
We had some great guests on the album, with Troels Pleimert providing killer drums, Marco Machera on fretless bass, and piano and string arrangements by Roger Hooper. It really helped add a new dimension to the album and always elevated the songs. Usually, I would send nearly completed tunes to folks and ask them to respond and add to that. In some cases such as strings, I would send over early piano demos to feed the process.
During the Kickstarter campaign, you also ran a Cover Contest where backers could submit their own cover versions of your music. I recently listened to the winning tracks and they’re all magnificent – I was particularly delighted to hear the Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra’s cover of the Gabriel Knight 3 theme, which I believe was taken from a video I recorded while visiting Edinburgh in 2014! Do you have any favourite submissions, and were there any in particular that surprised you?
Man, I love them all. That’s why we couldn’t choose a winner and decided to include all the submissions. They are really wonderful and all so different. It’s such an honour to hear people do their spin on your music. Really one of the big thrills for me from composing. Along with the ones you mentioned, there’s an amazing cathedral pipe organ version of the Gabriel Knight theme, and a beautiful vocal take on the Aria from the Gabriel Knight 2 opera that is just stunning! These are all included on the CD version of the album.
As a former euphonium player myself, I greatly enjoyed Jeffrey Meyer’s cover of the original Gabriel Knight theme. Lost Amsterdam’s cover of the Gabriel Knight 3 theme is simply gorgeous too. How does it feel knowing that people still love listening to and performing your music all these years later?
I feel so fortunate that people have embraced and still find beauty in the music, and especially that they have been open to this new music as well and just as welcoming! A big reason I do music is because I believe we all should try to bring beauty and something positive into the world while we are here. So to hear amazing stories from fans on what the music has meant to them or how it helped them through something makes it all worthwhile! Fans have told me about the music helping them through grief; there was even one great story about how a young man was in 8th grade when Gabriel Knight came out and he was being bullied, so he played the Gabriel Knight main theme every morning before going to school to help pump up his self-esteem. I just love that!
Unlike the Gabriel Knight situation with Activision, you previously mentioned that you and Jane still own the rights to Gray Matter – is there still a possibility that there could be a sequel one day? It’s one of my favourite adventure games of all time, and I still listen to the soundtrack regularly!
There is indeed! Jane and I are also very hopeful that the potential Microsoft purchase of Activision could eventually bring more flexibility and opportunity to continue the Gabriel Knight saga. We would love to do both! In fact, Jane would love to spend the coming years back doing games and specifically Gabriel Knight and Gray Matter (which would also make a great Netflix-type series I think). So we are doing all we can to let the universe know we are interested in doing more and keeping an ear to the ground for future possibilities!
What’s next for you Robert – and is it true that there might be another Kickstarter project being launched in the months to come?
It is! We’ve been so pleased with the reception to Sequel, and people seem to want more. And it just so happens I have much more of this music in my head, and I need to get it out. 🙂 So we are hoping to do another campaign early this year for a Son of Sequel! I’m very excited about the prospect of diving back in and hope folks will join us on the journey. Keep an eye on robertholmesmusic.com for all the latest!
You can always count on my support, Robert. Thank you for your time and the wonderful music!
Thank you! It’s always a pleasure, and I look forward to chatting again when we get into the next project! Wishing you and your readers a great 2023!
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Thanks for reading (and listening)!
To find out more about Sequel and purchase a copy, visit:
https://robertholmesmusic.com and https://robertholmessoundtracks.bandcamp.com/album/sequel
Martin Mulrooney
Guest/Previous
Alternative Magazine Online 