Jeremy Soule Interview

GameSpy has conducted an interview with Jeremy Soule, in which the video game composer answers questions about his profession and some of the games he's worked on in the past.
Q: Obviously, you'd do different music for a futuristic game than you would a medieval one, but does it matter what kind of game it is? If you were doing music for a Tolkienesque fantasy game, would it matter if the game was a straight action game or a turn-based RPG?

A: Yes. The first thing I always determine is the tempo. It's all about the kinetic energy that's on the screen. So if it is a turn-based game, and the action is very measured and paced, like in a Square RPG, the music might actually need more energy to drive the player than an action-based game where things are exploding everywhere. So like with Factions, that has a very minimalistic score.