Los Angeles-based musician Phill Boucher collects a variety of instruments, despite his career path trending toward composing for entertainment properties. More often than not he spends his time writing with the help of a keyboard, but tries to leave himself parts to play in any given score. “I love recording myself playing instruments and getting out of the computer to put my hands on the real thing,” he said. ForHeroish, anApple Arcadegame released July 22, Boucher contributed more to its live music.
Heroishis a hero-based castle defense game in which players choose between one of six characters and try to destroy their opponents with card-based units and attacks. While the game utilizes fantasy tropes seen inclassicDungeons and Dragonscampaigns, Boucher said Sunblink Entertainment wanted to maintain a “more modern, more fun” identity. Game Rant spoke to Boucher about mixing modern and classical sounds like real medieval instruments to helpHeroish’s world stand out.
RELATED:Shenmue Creator Yu Suzuki Asked Dutch Composer Valensia to Rewrite Songs for Air Twister Soundtrack
Getting Into the Groove
Boucher has been interested in music from a young age, singing into a dinosaur tape recorder while growing up in Massachusetts. He competed while playing trumpet in elementary school and performed at his local church, but by the time middle school came around, “I sort of realized girls don’t care about a guy who plays the trumpet.” Heswitched to guitar, which he considers his best instrument despite not playing as much as he used to.
Guitar led Boucher to playing in high school metal bands, where he wrote songs that were more story-driven than introspective. “I was doing pseudo-concept albums,” he said, gravitating toward other peoples' stories. Realizing he couldn’t make a living with “a mediocre metal band,” he became interested infilm music. Boucher joined summer programs at Berklee College of Music in Boston throughout high school, and would go on to study Film Scoring and Music Production & Engineering there.
Soon after graduating, Boucher worked under composer Geoff Zanelli - a fellow Berklee alum known for award-winning work with just about every Hollywood studio - at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions. Much of this work touched Disney films includingRango,The Lone Ranger, and twoPirates of the Caribbeanmovies: as a technical music assistant on 2011’sOn Stranger Tides, and additional composer on 2017’sDead Men Tell No Tales.
From Fortnite to Heroish
Though Boucher’s contributions toPirateswere in the background, this credit andwork on games likeCivilization 6andUncharted 4caught the attention of Epic Games. The developer was preparing a pirate-themedFortniteChapter 1, Season 8, and messaged Boucher out of the blue - one of his few jobs not stemming from a mutual connection. This would be the first time Boucher led a live orchestra playing his own score, an experience “I’ll never forget.”
“They hired me to write 10 minutes of music or something, but it was terrifying … I was also floored because we were in Los Angeles, and there’s no better musicians in the world. I’ve never gone so quickly from nervous anxiety to a feeling of relief as soon as they started playing.”
Epic Games has invited Boucher for Chapter 2, Season 6 (“Primal”) andChapter 3, Season 1 (“Flipped”), among others. He said the game is a “great place to learn and grow” because of its sandbox mixing original stories and iconic franchise themes, though it isn’t his only gig. In recent years Boucher also worked on games likeReadySet Heroes, shows like theDuckTalesreboot, and films likeMaleficent: Mistress of Evil.
One day Boucher was invited to send a demo reel to Sunblink Entertainment based on the recommendation of Mark MacBride, whose company Injected Senses Audio has worked onFortniteas well asInsomniac’sRatchet and Clank: Rift Apart. “It was one outsourcer recommending another,” Boucher said, but he immediately hit it off with Sunblink director of operations Nicky Britt. When he found someHeroishdevelopers were also fans of his work on Robot Entertainment’sOrcs Must Die! 3, Boucher felt everything about working on the mobile game made sense.
RELATED:Orcs Must Die! 3 Dev Talks Stadia Exclusivity
Designing Heroish’s Musical ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’
Sunblink Entertainment was founded by Julian Farrior in 2019, who also started foundational mobile developer Backflip Studios in 2009. Backflip’s success on early casual smartphone titles likeDragonValeled toHasbropurchasing a majority stake in 2013. The developer worked on titles likeTransformers: Earth Warsbefore it was shut down in 2019, two years after Farrior left. Boucher got his foot in the door at Sunblink’s debut venture.
“Sometimes when you’re putting a reel together, you can just tell it’s a good fit … ForHeroish, I was like “this is in my wheelhouse, I’ve done it before, I’ve got some ideas.”
HeroishandOrcs Must Die! 3have a lot of similarities, blending medieval fantasy elements with modern metal influences - and “they don’t take themselves too seriously,” Boucher said. However, he feels audiences won’t necessarily hear this similarity in their scores. WhileOrcs Must Die!had a more established palette when Boucher joined the third entry,Heroishwas more of a blank slate.
The mobile game’s score started modern to avoid soundscape comparisons withgames likeEverQuestandSkyrim, typified by demonic Lord Marduke playing electric guitar in-game. While some orchestral sounds carry throughoutHeroish, each faction - Imperial, Feral, and Cursed - has a unique “sonic landscape” that becomes layered with instrumentation for on-screen heroes. This “jigsaw puzzle” of sound design became complicated with four-person multiplayer balancing tracks that include Marduke’s guitar, Queen Lavinia’s violin, Flynn Diamond’s brass, and more.
Beyond keeping musical loops recognizable as they flow into one another, Boucher also had the challenge of incorporating medieval andCeltic instruments like uilleann pipes or Irish flutes. Though Sunblink was worried about an “authentic” sound betraying its modern sensibilities, Boucher wanted a gritty, tactile feeling by incorporating the flavor of old-school instruments.
“I didn’t know how to play these medieval instruments, so I’m not worried about it being authentic even if I start with that sonic basis.”
A lot of research went into making these instruments sound natural, as many had limited ranges and keys. There was even one case where Boucher had to change a single note in one track because uilleann pipe player Eric Rigler was physically incapable of reaching it.
Though heavy research isn’t always required for traditional orchestras, Boucher has spent time studying to “get his chops up” on orchestral composing and make up for his more rock-focused background. This came in handy forHeroish, which was “pretty special” for a mobile game in that it recognized the importance of live music. A64-piece orchestra and seven soloistscontributed to Sunblink’s debut effort, which Boucher said not every game would warrant. “This was such a wide canvas, anything I wanted to go in and do, they were up for. It was a fantastic experience.”
Heroishis available now through Apple Arcade.
MORE:Axiom Verge 2 Interview: Thomas Happ Talks Metroidvanias, Future Plans, and More
