Q&A w/ Steve Szczepkowski: The Mind Behind Star-Lord's Music in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
At Rareform Audio, we love highlighting the amazing people who are changing the world of audio. Today, we're excited to share the story of Steve Szczepkowski, the Senior Audio Director at Eidos Montreal. Steve's journey is truly inspiring. He started as an audio professional and played a key role in creating the fictional band Star-Lord in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. He provided the incredible sound and music direction that made the game more interesting.
A Lifetime in Sound and Music
Steve Szczepkowski’s career is a testament to his unwavering dedication to the art of audio. With over two decades in the video game industry, Steve has carved out a niche as an audio director, touching every aspect of sound design. From collaborating with composers to crafting actor pools for recording sessions, his role is multifaceted and deeply impactful.
His journey began well before his time at Eidos Montreal; he started as a Sound Designer and Music Composer for a small company creating games for the Game Boy Advance and early PlayStation. There, he honed his skills, setting up talent and mixing audio for live events, experiences that laid the foundation for his career.
Diverse Industry Experience
His responsibilities ranged from supervising and contributing to game audio content to managing audio teams. He occasionally lends his voice to video games, commercials, and audiobooks, showcasing his versatility within the audio realm. This extensive background made him the perfect fit for the ambitious task of directing the audio for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy game.
One of Steve’s standout achievements was composing and recording a rock album for the fictional band Star-Lord. This album, Space Rider, not only appears in the game but also ships with it, adding a unique layer of engagement for players. The album captures the essence of 1980s hard rock, transporting listeners back to an era of epic guitar riffs and soaring vocals.
One of the standout songs from the Star-Lord album is Zero to Hero, written and performed by Steve Szczepkowski and Yohann Boudreault. This track captures the rebellious rock and roll spirit of the Guardians. Its powerful lyrics talk about overcoming challenges, and its energetic sound is perfect for the game's exciting moments.
"Ghost," unlike the other upbeat songs, explores themes of loss and haunting memories, showing a more thoughtful side of the band. Its lyrics and melodies create a strong, emotional atmosphere that many can relate to.
The acoustic version of "Ghost," released to celebrate the game's first anniversary, further amplifies the song's emotional depth and raw musicality. Stripped of its usual production layers, the acoustic rendition allows the purity of the vocals and the simplicity of the instrumentation to shine through, making the listener feel the weight of the song's themes even more profoundly. This version showcases the band's ability to convey powerful emotions through their music, making "Ghost" a standout track in their repertoire.
Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Steve Szczepkowski, about his extensive career and his groundbreaking work on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Here’s what he had to share.
RA: Can you tell us about your journey in the video game industry and how you became a Senior Audio Director?
SS: My journey into video games started through my love of music and audio. I have been a guitarist playing in bands since the age of 14. My goal was to become a rock star however by the time age 30 was creeping up, I had spent over 10 years playing in various bands and clubs and I felt I had better start looking at another plan. So, I went back to school and entered a program called Computer Assisted Sound Design at one of the Audio trade schools here in Montreal. Having completed that course, I began my search in the industry for a job! It took some time, but I eventually landed the role of Sound Designer/Music Composer for a small company making GBA and early PlayStation games. Believe it or not my first gig was writing music for Bratz, a dancing game for young girls. I spent 5 years with that company shipping games on Nintendo’s DS as well as PS2 and ended up having a team of 2 people to help me. The company eventually folded, and I found myself looking for work again with a new home and a 10-month-old daughter, talk about stressful. Thankfully I found my way to Eidos Montreal who was hiring an Audio Director for a Deus Ex re-boot. I was hired and ended up shipping my first triple A title, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This was followed by many DLC’s and then the sequel Deus Ex: Mankind Divided as well as it’s DLCs and Breach mode then most recently Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. During the time on Mankind Divided I was also managing Breach and supervising the DLCs so that was when Eidos made me Senior Audio Director.
RA: What inspired you to work in music and audio?
SS: I grew up loving music and began playing in bands at the age of 13. I played my first live show a year later. I always loved music, the process and the gear around it. I love being creative and what is funny is that while I always considered myself a musician first, I always played video games. Going back to Colecovision and Atari right up to Sega and current gen etc but music was always my first love. So, when I finally found a home in the video game industry I realized I was able to put all my loves together right here. Working with creative people, working closely with Composers to seek out the right music feel gave me incredible satisfaction. Working with the audio team and delivering the impossible was also a great rush that I truly enjoyed!
RA: How do you work with composers and your audio team on projects like "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy"?
SS: I work very closely with the Composer without getting in the way. I generally like to give them the high-level guidelines of what I want to hear and then as much freedom as possible so that they can add their style and ideas to what we have discussed. I feel you get the best results when you work collaboratively, sharing ideas back and forth but letting the Composer have the freedom to pitch me ideas as well. I generally make sure the Composer always knows where they are going musically, has all the necessary information (narrative points etc.) as well as any existing assets. I’ll provide walk through videos etc., sometimes I’ll do musical mockups with an existing track as a reference basically whatever it takes to help achieve the overall musical vision. On Guardians, Composer Richard Jacques and I had an incredible synergy that made working on the game a true labor of love. We’d sync back and forth all the time and had an amazing working relationship. We developed such a great trust that either of us could pitch the other a crazy idea with no fear. Ultimately, I see my role here as setting up the Composer as much as possible to succeed and to make the process fun. You create better when you’re having fun. The score for Guardians was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios. Sadly, Covid and restrictions made it impossible for me to attend those sessions live but I was there on Zoom and with a high-quality audio feed. Hearing our score performed by a live orchestra was unbelievable. That same positive energy applied also to collaborating with my audio team on that project. I always believe to surround yourself with experts, strong people who can bring ideas forward etc. and let them have freedom and ownership to create. We’ll work in similar fashion, I’ll show them what I have in mind and then we’ll have discussions, questions etc. but together we’ll walk away with the plan that everyone has had a say on, and then I let them go and have fun. I’ll give my feedback when we do reviews etc. when I have a specific idea in mind, I’ll always provide many examples to inspire the team.
RA: Can you share a bit about the process of designing music for a video game?
SS: When I look at a new title with the goal of designing the music I start by trying to figure out the “vibe” What is the right sound for this game, is it a techno score or a more orchestrated? What will be the gameplay style and the moods I will need to support. What does combat look and feel like. These are the first high level questions I start kicking around. If there’s reference material (such as with Guardians) I’ll throw myself into that and take notes etc until I have the beginnings of a rough musical design. Then I may try some mockups etc so that I can sit down with my Creative Director and show him where I want to go and my overall musical intentions. Once we agree on a direction, I’ll start researching Composers who are strong in that style\genre of music. I’ll prepare a pitch document for them, outlining what I want to hear in the pitch. Then comes the fun part of listening to all the pitches and seeing which one gets me excited as I search for the right fit. Once we have selected the Composer, now it’s time to get more technical and start designing the music systems. How de we transition in and out of combat, what are we doing during certain gameplay situations, do we have quick time events? Where do we want music and where do we not want it. All this needs to be planned and accounted for so that we have a global system in place for treating all these instances and we’re not just trying to make it up as we go. A title like Deus Ex had very complicated music systems that used a lot of layers etc. Guardians borrowed some of the better ideas from Deus Ex but also had to have systems in place for transitioning from the score to a licensed music track which we did often. Usually when we’ll work on our first playable iteration, we’ll stress test all our systems and see how it all works, what worked well and address what didn’t. Then during production, I also need to keep close tabs on how many minutes we’re spending as we have a time/money budget we can’t exceed. I put on my accountant hat and add up minutes keeping in mind where we are in the grand scheme of the game and how much is left to do. This is a balancing act that constantly shifts and moves throughout production.
RA: What challenges do you face when creating audio for games, and how do you overcome them?
SS: There are many challenges that can arise during the production of a video game. I would say that because Audio comes in more towards the end of the digital assembly line, any assets that are delivered late or changes that are introduced late can cause major issues for the audio team. Sometimes these changes are necessary and need to happen for the better of the game and we just need to take the hit. The best way I found to overcome them is to not get emotional about it (it took me some years to develop this skill…lol) and to then see what options to adapt are available. I’ve started creating my own audio schedule that I deliver to production so that they have visibility on my planning and where I need to be at specific dates. When these disruptions to the schedule happen, I try and present the different scenarios going forward and together with production see what can be done. Usually if they have visibility on the audio schedule then they are prepared to work with us to find solutions. At the end of the day, they want the audio to be good like us so we have a common goal, now how can we achieve that together. Putting things into a hard deadline schedule can give us a bit of protection an insurance as some changes will be refused because they would disrupt the current planning of the audio. The balancing act of getting all the music spread out throughout the game and not going over your max minutes before you’ve finished can be difficult. As an example, Cinematics often get introduced later in the production schedule that may have not been initially planned for and they usually require custom music, so you need to keep a close eye on your budget/minutes as things can sometimes begin to bloat during production. If they bloat too much you need to sit down with your Producer and raise the flag that we are now going way past what was scoped out and see how we can address that problem.
RA: How do you choose and cast actors for voice recordings in games?
SS: For the main cast we usually do that as the Creative Core team. Example Narrative, the Creative Director, Cinematic Director myself and maybe 1 or 2 other disciplines will sit together and bring all our notes from the casting sessions. We usually receive videos from the casting session, and we’ll all arrive with out notes and hash out who we think would best suit a specific role. I tend to do most of the casting for all the secondary characters and the reason for this is over the years I’ve gained the trust of my Creative Director (17 years together) and because it also involves creating an overall Voice Design . The reason for this is you want to maximize your time and money with the actors. What I like to avoid as much as possible is having an actor come in and read lines for say 20 minutes and then we’re still paying them for the entire 1 or 2 hr session. I design all the NPC pools, how many different voices are needed etc and how they can also be re-used as side quest characters or public announcement voices, anything I can do without impacting the overall quality that helps us maximize the time and money we spend with them. It also gives the actors more presence in the game. It’s usually a win-win because the actors want to contribute as well so giving them more is never a bad thing.
RA: What was it like working on "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy," and how did you feel about the Grammy nomination?
SS: It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a project. It’s not to say it didn’t have huge challenges, remember we got hit with Covid during production and had to adapt and work from home etc. But the overall enthusiasm of the Team was contagious. We all knew we were working on something special. For me, growing up as a huge Marvel fan it was a dream come true. Working on this title was one of the richest sandboxes I got to play in, and I learnt so much. It was the first time I got to work with licensed music as it’s an important part of the DNA of the franchise, so we had 31 licensed songs used throughout the game. We would weave them in and out of the score at the right time as well as in gameplay. I wanted to make sure we maximized our use of the songs versus our investment. We also had 5 hours of an amazing score created by Richard Jacques. Richard was fantastic to work with and his score elevated the game to another level. On the sound side our team was amazing. They worked so hard to deliver and we spent a lot of time challenging ourselves. I couldn’t have asked for a better team. Working with Sebastien Croteau and Le Fabric Des Monstre also brought something special to the game. I was lucky enough to meet Seb and he was the missing piece in bringing all the aliens in the game to life. It would have been easy to just give them all English voices, but I wanted something that felt more alien and was in line with our reference, The Cantina in Star Wars. Together we spent months designing each alien’s language and how they would sound. Once we had established that design Seb took every script and translated it phonetically into that alien language. I couldn’t have been happier with the results. As if that wasn’t enough good stuff, my Creative Director JF Dugas asked me to try and write and record a hard rock album for the game to support the lore. In our game, the reason Peter Quill chose the name Star-Lord was because he loved a metal band growing up with that name. So I went off and brought in my friend\musician Yohann Boudreault and together we wrote and recorded the 10 song Star-Lord album that appears in the game. For a guy who wanted to be a rock star back in the early questions above, this was a dream come true. We then spent 3 weeks in London mixing the game at the amazing Molinare studios. Again, in this phase I learnt a lot about what goes into properly mixing a game.
Not to be repetitive but I learnt so much on this project and learnt a lot about myself and what I can bring to the table. The cherry on top was all the love and attention not to mention awards the game received. For us, getting a Grammy nomination was simply surreal. It was the first-time video game OST were being considered so I can’t imagine how many applicants there were. Richard Jacques so deserved that nomination as the score does not get enough credit for how rich and amazing it is. I went to the Grammys with Richard and while we didn’t win the award, the experience alone felt like a win for us both. I couldn’t be prouder of everything we accomplished on that game.
RA: How do you stay creative and motivated in your role after so many years in the industry?
SS: I always find things in any project to get excited about. Getting to be creative daily whether it’s content for the game, a musical idea or just problem solving, I find it extremely rewarding. I think because I’ve played in bands all my life that I really enjoy the creative process in a group of people dynamic. It’s exciting and never gets stale. When I know I’ll be presenting an idea to the team, I get very fired up and I hope my idea will get them fired up as well. It’s hard to explain but I never get tired of working with creative people. It’s one of the joys of working in this Industry.
RA: What advice would you give to someone looking to pursue a career as an audio/music professional?
SS: I always say to people looking to break in is that first off know your stuff and be honest. If you don’t know something, be honest. You can’t con people in this industry, eventually you will look the fool and lose all credibility. It takes a brave person to stand up and say, “I don’t understand” or “I don’t know”. Be that brave person, you will be surprised how often you will walk away stronger for it. Secondly be the “ Go to” person, meaning there is no better team member than the one who can go off autonomously and get things done and deliver. These people are indispensable and will go far. Anyone can provide a million excuses why something couldn’t be done but few people can go off and come back with exactly what you asked for or better. These are always the people I want t to surround myself with. You want to make the job of the person managing you easy. No one likes divas or malcontents. Be professional. Be creative. Look for solutions to your problems. Speak with people in other disciplines on the team to understand the workflow. The work you do is a big part of it and needs to be good but how you conduct yourself is at least half of the game. When you’ve mastered all that call me and I may have a job for you.
What are some of your favorite projects you have worked on and why?
SS: I’ve been fortunate enough to work on so many rich titles. Deus Ex: Human Revolution will always be special as it was my first AAA game, and it did very well. The atmosphere, sound and score were all highly acclaimed at the time and we were all so young and inexperienced back then but felt confident we knew where we were going with this title. To have it do so well reaffirmed my belief in myself and my abilities as an Audio Director. As you may have already gathered, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a dream project for me. I’ve never been more creative or tried to put so much love into a game. All the amazing people that I got to collaborate with, the years with my Audio Team working so hard on our common goal, being in the trenches with Richard Jacques our Composer and constantly riffing back and forth until we both felt satisfied. These were all amazing moments! Ultimately getting to put out the Star-Lord album checked off a lifelong dream for me as a musician. To date it has over 7 million streams on Spotify alone and allowed Yohann and myself to continue with our current project spun off of the success of the Star-Lord band called Devil On The Run. Our new songs are available on all streaming services.
In closing, I honestly feel I’ve been extremely blessed with the projects and people I’ve gotten to work with since I started my journey in this industry, and I look forward to what is to come next! Rock On!
Steve
Looking Toward the Future
Steve’s journey in the video game industry is far from over. As he continues to push the boundaries of audio innovation, he remains committed to creating immersive and engaging soundscapes for players worldwide. His dedication to his craft and his ability to blend his love for music with the dynamic world of video games make him an invaluable asset to any project he undertakes. We at Rareform Audio are excited to see what Steve will create next and look forward to hearing more of his groundbreaking work in future games.
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