#81 - Mick Gordon Interview (DOOM, Killer Instinct, Mixing, Composing, Game Awards, Royalties etc.)

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 01:14 - How Mick Ended Up Scoring For Killer Instinct/Failing Demos 04:35 - The Direction Mick Was Given For Killer Instinct 05:53 - Learning Throat Singing 08:31 - Jago Theme Set The Direction Of The Music For Killer Instinct 10:45 - The Reality Of Deadlines & Crunch 12:40 - Doing Overnighters/Domino Effects Of Problems 14:34 - Micks Mixing Tips 16:38 - Micks BFG Division Mixing Breakdown 18:39 - Bands Having Unrealistic Expectations For Mick To Master It Like BFG Division 19:20 - Selecting Particular Instruments To Use Based On Frequency Range/Layering 21:30 - The Synth Wave Melody For BFG Division 23:20 - Originally No Guitars Were Allowed In DOOM 24:19 - Rip & Tear Was Originally Rejected/BFG Division Added Late In Development 26:25 - Implementation Of The DOOM Music 27:58 - Expectations Of DOOM Eternal/Direction Of Music For DOOM Eternal 30:16 - Writing The Music And Refining It 31:50 - Into Sandy’s City Remix Being Cut From DOOM Eternal 34:54 - Getting Feedback From Rejected Demos/Seagull Managers 36:20 - Mick Gordon Remixing DOOM For Smash Bros 37:15 - Mick Doesn’t Get Royalties 38:30 - Anonymity 40:25 - How Covid Changed The Game Industry 41:20 - Difference Between Composing For Indie & AAA 42:26 - Mick Hearing His Own Music In The Gym 43:12 - Mick’s Performance At The Game Awards 48:34 - Mick Tells Game Awards Smoke Story 49:27 - Mick Wants To Work On MK/Work Mick Has At The Moment 50:15 - Reaching Out For Projects/Challenge Of Making Games 52:49 - Designers Aren’t Sure What They Want From A Composer 54:10 - Mick Actively Moves Away From Doing Projects To Similar 55:58 - Working With Bring Me The Horizon 57:33 - Differences Between Working On Music Projects As Opposed To Games 59:41 - Spinals Theme Process 1:01:10 - Mick Shows Off Kangling instrument Used For Spinals Theme 1:02:41 - Analysing Robin Beanlands Spinal Theme For Killer instinct 1:03:24 - Sampling Killer Instinct 1:04:00 - When To Keep Themes Close To The Original Tracks And When Veer Off Course 1:05:55 - Cinders Theme 1:06:25 - Robin Beanland/Recording Of Original Killer Instinct 1:07:15 - Playing Music By Ear

Mick’s face when listening to questions: 🤨😳😊😳🤨

52:10 "You hear it all the time in the gaming industry, about crunch." Mick nodding enthusiastically here makes all the more sense now.

at 31:50, you can see Mick's expression changed for a brief moment when being asked about Sandy's City and the amount of tracks he sent them and still hasn't been paid for. Mick is DoomGuy for keeping all that anger and frustration to himself

34:54 he's 100% talking about Marty here

God knowing what was happening at the time and the fact that he's still able to conjure up so much joy at the memory of working on the game... How the fuck would someone not wanna work with this dude?

mick is such a sweetheart, i didnt doubt him for a second, i knew he was telling the truth and im glad he got his side of events out there.

Marty “Seagull” Stratton

18:43 Micks next OST leaked.

This dude is so humble, I'm shocked that people tried to bring him down.

Funny how Into Sandy's City gets rejected for being "too gamey" while the entire Doom: Eternal threw away all atmosphere from Doom 2016 for the sake of being more "gamey".

Mick Gordon is legendary. Thanks for sharing this awesome interview. Rip and tear... UNTIL IT IS DONE!

Man this interview in hindsight. Even then he was being charitable to Marty despite touching on what Marty put him through.

I bought DOOM 2016 because of Mick Gordon's GDC talk. Then DOOM Eternal became my favorite game of all time - I've spent 200 hours on it, which I've never done in a single player game. And now Mick is gonna sell me on another game, Killer Instinct!

29:35 What he says he is extremely accurate and makes a lot of sense. The player processes information in between the beats, and makes a decision once the beat hits. It explains why a lot of the game syncs up with the soundtrack.

37:07 Oh Marty, you slippery snake, you.

24:19 so THATS why rip and tear sounds so different than the other tracks

10:44 - 12:22 He tried to warn us, and we didn’t listen…

18:06 I once caught a fish this big

I want mick back Nothing against the new composers but the ancient gods dlc music just doesn't feel the same And putting into Sandy's city in the final scene instead of e1m1 would have been way better imo Edit: 2 years, 2 years of being mocked for defending Mick, being right has never felt this good