Cracked Exclusive: 'HEROish' Composer Reveals His Process
Music makes or breaks a game. The pulse pounding, breath holding, palm sweating soundtracks elevate gaming to a true art form. And that all starts with the composer. We’ve written about big names in the gaming music business like Bear McCreary, Ramin Djawadi, and Lena Chappelle, and today we’re highlighting another entry in that pantheon: Phill Boucher. He wrote the original soundtrack for the new castle defense battler HEROish, and it rocks so hard.
The game’s soundtrack involved a host of musicians, led by Boucher’s composing, that creates something that is frankly, shockingly epic for a mobile game. We’ll definitely be throwing this on the next time we need hype up music during our next D&D or Magic: The Gathering battle. We’re excited to be the first to share this behind the scenes video HEROish - Composing the Score, where Boucher reveals the incredible amount of work that went into creating the music that takes this mobile game to the next level.
It’s no surprise his work sounds so cinematic, so worthy of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters. That’s where he cut his teeth. Boucher has lent his talent to big name projects on the silver screen, TV, and gaming for a decade now. If you’re a fan of movie soundtracks slash have a human soul, you’ve probably heard of Hans Zimmer. Boucher worked at Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions on a whole array of titles. Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, even the controversially cast The Lone Ranger. Pretty much any late career Johnny Depp movie. Those may seem like big credits, and they are, but for us gamers, Boucher’s real achievements are from some of our favorite games. He’s scored additional music for both Fortnite and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, as well as the scores for XCOM: Chimera Squad and Orcs Must Die! 3.
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We hope you enjoy the behind the scenes look at what it takes to compose an epic gaming score. There’s a 64 piece orchestra, medieval string instruments, electric guitars and something called Uilleann pipes. Seriously, watch the video, if only to learn what the heck Uilleann pipes are.
