Darren Korb

Darren Korb (born November 5, 1983) is an American songwriter and composer. Korb is best known for writing the music featured in Bastion, Transistor, Pyre and Hades, all of which were developed by indie developer Supergiant Games.[1]

Darren Korb
Korb in 2012
Background information
Born (1983-11-05) November 5, 1983
San Jose, California, US
Occupation(s)Songwriter, composer
InstrumentsBass, keys, drums, guitar, harp, accordion, mandolin
Years active2011–present

Early life and career

Korb attended Bellarmine College Preparatory high school in San Jose, California. There he would meet his longtime friend and collaborator Logan Cunningham. Having an engineering background, Korb went to New York University for music production and music business.[2] Prior to his work with Supergiant Games, he worked on minor television and film projects.[2] He was also a member of the NYC band Audio Fiction and was the co-founder, as well as a current member of NYC indie band, Control Group.[3]

Work with Supergiant Games

Bastion (2011)

A childhood friend of Supergiant Games co-founder Amir Rao, Korb was selected to write the music for Bastion.[4][5] Korb describes the music on Bastion as "acoustic frontier trip-hop", combining "heavily sampled beats in layers, along with acoustic elements".[2][4] On Bastion, a long-time friend of Korb's, Ashley Barrett, would provide the voice of Zia, as well as the vocals on the soundtrack.[6]

The music of Bastion was well received; Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku claimed the game had one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011.[7] Tom Phillips of Eurogamer stated, "the game's musical score and innovative narration are stand-out elements."[8] Additionally, Bastion won the Spike Video Game Awards for Best Original Score and Best Song in a Game for "Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)".[9][10] A physical CD version of the soundtrack was released on September 2, 2011.[8] The soundtrack would go on to sell 30,000 copies by November 2011.[11] Rapper Ab-Soul sampled "The Bottom Feeders" off of the Bastion soundtrack on his song, "Terrorist Threats".[12]

Transistor (2014)

Korb would compose the soundtrack for Transistor, Supergiant Games' follow up to Bastion, as well.[13] Korb described the genre of the Transistor soundtrack as "Old-world Electronic Post-rock".[14] Korb has stated that he and his team, "spent a lot of time prototyping the art and audio to make sure that they were 'of a piece' this time. That was one of our goals. Bastion, I thought, turned out really nicely, but a goal on this project was to more seamlessly integrate the look and feel of the art with the feel of the audio."[13] Some of the music on soundtrack was composed to create feelings of tension; Korb has stated, "one thing I like to do for building tension is to have rhythmic elements that fight a bit. In 'Gateless', for example, the piece is in five but the bass line for the B section is in three, so it ends up feeling really tense. I also tend to use a lot of chords with close intervals for tension building as well."[15] GameSpot also noted that Korb used "dissonant chords in the upper range to create unease".[15]

On the instruments used in Transistor, Korb has stated that "there is a lot of heavily delayed electric guitar and sampled drums, but I also tried to include a number of 'old-world' instruments: accordion, harp, mandolin, etc.".[15] Korb worked with Barrett once again on Transistor, as she voiced the game's protagonist, Red.[16] On their collaboration, Korb stated, "after working with Ashley on a couple projects now, I feel like I've gotten a better sense of how to write for her voice. For me, that's the main consideration that affects my writing process. Our sessions are pretty laid back. If a melody line doesn't feel quite right in her voice we will change it on the fly."[15]

Like Bastion, Transistor's music received positive reception;[13] TouchArcade claimed, "Darren Korb's music is astounding, rich and evocative as it echoes across the game and perfectly complements the bright yet mysterious world of Transistor".[17] Additionally, the music in Transistor earned several industry awards nominations.[18] In 2014 Korb received three nominations for his work on Transistor for the categories Song, Original or Adapted (We All Become was nominated, shared with Ashley Barret), Original Light Mix Score, New IP and Song Collection by National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers (NAVGTR).[19] The soundtrack album was released simultaneously with the game, on May 20, 2014, selling 48,000 copies in its first 10 days of release.[20]

Pyre (2017)

Korb served as the composer for the 2017 Supergiant release, Pyre.

Hades (2020)

Korb served as the composer for the 2020 Supergiant release, Hades, as well as the voice actor for the main character, Zagreus along with a minor character, Skelly. Korb described the genre of the Hades soundtrack as "Mediterranean Prog-Rock Halloween".[21]

References
  1. "The Supergiant Team". Supergiant Games. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  2. Jeriaska (May 19, 2011). "Composing for Independent Games - 3rd Annual Group Chat". IndieGame. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  3. "Bandcamp- Control Group". Clinical Trials Music (ASCAP). Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  4. Jeriaska (August 8, 2011). "Interview: Storytelling Through Narration In Bastion". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  5. Strock, Stu (September 14, 2013). "Supergiant's Darren Korb on recording for 'Bastion' and 'Transistor'". VGW. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  6. Danzis, Alan (February 25, 2012). "Interview: Ashley Lynn Barrett On Voicing Zia From "Bastion"". Complex. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  7. Hamilton, Kirk (December 28, 2011). "The Best Game Music of 2011: Bastion". Kotaku. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  8. Phillips, Tom (August 5, 2011). "Bastion soundtrack available now". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  9. Kasavin, Greg (December 12, 2011). "Bastion Wins Big at the Spike VGAs, Inside Gaming Awards". Supergiant Games. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  10. "Spike TV Announced 2011 "Video Game Awards" Winners". Spike. December 10, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  11. Winchester, Henry (November 14, 2011). "Bastion developer talks indie publishing". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  12. "Ab-Soul's Terrorist Threats sample of Darren Korb's The Bottom Feeders". WhoSampled. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  13. Freeman, Will (July 17, 2014). "Sound in Transit: The beats of Supergiant's Transistor". Develop. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  14. Pitcher, Jenna (May 26, 2014). "Transistor soundtrack creation saw vocals recorded in wardrobe and the birth of a new genre". Polygon. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  15. VanOrd, Kevin (June 4, 2014). "The Music of Transistor: In The Key of Red". Gamespot. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  16. Martens, Todd (February 7, 2015). "Grammys soundtrack category has yet to embrace video game scores". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  17. Lazarides, Tasos (June 19, 2015). "'Transistor' Review - An Action-Packed, Evocative Journey in an Amazing World". TouchArcade. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  18. Kasavin, Greg (January 8, 2015). "Transistor Earns 100+ Industry Accolades, Sells More Than 600k Copies". Supergiant Games. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  19. "NAVGTR Awards (2014)". National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. Archived from the original on 2017-03-22. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
  20. Byrne, John Aidan (June 7, 2014). "Wall Street exec moonlights as manager for indie rockers". New York Post. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  21. Hades: The Team from Supergiant Games & Hades Discuss the Game, Reactions & More | Games Masterclass. YouTube. November 14, 2020.
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