The Lord of the Rings Online Music Interview

IGN had the opportunity to sit down with composer Chance Thomas for a three-page Q&A about the score he composed for Turbine's The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
Q: I heard some rumors that you only slept 2 hours a night during the composing and recording sessions? How did you manage to keep up such an insane pace? Were you addicted to caffeine, prescription drugs, meditation during the sessions, I mean what was your secret?

A: Ha-ha. you've been reading quotes from John Pratt, the videographer who filmed our sessions. I think he exaggerated. I slept at least 3 hours most nights. Well, actually there were a couple of nights I slept less than 2 hours. So maybe he was averaging.

The point is, we had a mind-boggling amount of work to do, and since it was Tolkien, everything had to be done just right. I wanted to pull off something really special, something almost magical. So I was pretty driven. Plus there was no shortage of adrenaline since recording an orchestra is a ridiculously expensive undertaking, like between $4,000 and $5,000 per hour, plus the studio and engineering costs. No artificial stimulants were necessary!

That's... uh... expensive.