Find Boris Salchow @
Official website
Soundcloud
Brief list of credits
Sunset Overdrive, Germany From Above, Resistance 2&3.
Tell us a little about yourself and what you do for a living?
Thanks for having me. I live in Los Angeles and write music for TV, films and games.
Can you give us a brief summary of the equipment, software and plug-ins you use regularly?
Of course. My sequencer is Steinberg’s Cubase. Most of my computers are Mac, I am using RME and UAD Hardware a lot. Plugins are all over the place … pretty much all the high-end ones but also some super funky indie ones.
You composed music for the popular “Resistance” video games. How and when did you become part of this series?
Resistance 2 was my first job with Insomniac. They were working on the game and trying to find the right composer, when Paul Mudra, the audio director, got ahold of a CD with my music and he thought my music might be a good fit. But it still took a long time and some demoing etc. until I actually got the gig.
Could you share with us some insights on scoring cinematics music for the “Sunset Overdrive” game? How did you go about scoring the music for the narrative scenes and what was your favorite part of the score?
Sunset Overdrive is very different than other projects. Story-wise this one is just absolutely out there. Half of the cinematics needed a Sunset Overdrive action score, but the other half consisted of, at times, very unusual elements. Medieval music, glam-metal, ‘50s Hollywood spoofs, and much more.
Are there any big differences in your workflow when you are composing music for films instead of video games?
Yes, several. One of them is that games are obviously interactive. So we have to think a little bit more around the corner when writing for a game. The other big difference is that I can watch a movie’s rough cut within two hours and then I do have a handle on the overall storytelling. Games have many more hours of gameplay to cover, which very often is not yet in existence when I am starting to work on the game.
What aspects do you usually take into account when deciding the musical direction of a project?
Everything. The entire story arc, all the characters, and very importantly the creative vision of the director.
Germany From Above was probably a difficult task considering it only features a couple of narrative words and is full of music. How did you tackle this obstacle and how much time did it take to make a full score for the documentary?
Initially this was somewhat intimidating, but it was also a wonderful opportunity to write music-to-picture in an unobstructed way. And once I learned that we would record with an orchestra I was extremely motivated!
And now this beautiful thing happened, that it is being performed live with large orchestra playing alongside the movie in major music venues throughout Germany. The next event takes place at the end of April in Munich.
Any specific “lessons learned” on a project that you could share?
I learn something on every single project. Still do. I do keep learning that the more live elements music has, the better and the more timeless it is. Doesn’t matter if it’s an orchestra or a punk rock band.
Any tips, hints or motivational speeches for the readers?
Try to be curious about anything related to music. Also, study contemporary music the same way you studied classical or jazz music. Mixing and sound have become a huge part of the musical vocabulary today.