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Today we have Grammys again – for the first time also one for the best video game music. One of the five nominees is Stephanie Economou.
Stephanie Economou finds her nomination “pretty crazy”. Because given the competition, she didn’t expect it at all. But of course she feels very honored, she says.
Economou received the nomination for their soundtrack for the video game «Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök». It sounds raw, mysterious, epic and transports players to another world.
God among dwarves
«Dawn of Ragnarök» is a typical action-adventure game: As a gamer, you control the character of Odin, the Norse god of battle and wisdom, and fight against enemies of fire and ice in a dwarf kingdom called Svartalfheim.
In this world, the players would spend many hours, days, sometimes weeks. That’s why she has a great responsibility as a composer, says Economou: “I set the tone, I set the tempo and with my music I contribute to the experience of the person playing.”
Chance directed it
Stephanie Economou already knew as a teenager that she wanted to be a composer. “I have an eclectic taste in music,” says the 32-year-old.
As a child, Economou listened to rock music with her parents, and she learned the violin at school. In the orchestra falls in love with classical music, with Wagner, Beethoven, Bartok, Bach and Shostakovich. So much so that she studies composition.
Economou comes to the video game music rather by accident. After graduating, Economou wrote the soundtracks for the Netflix series “Jupiter’s Legacy” and the documentary series “Marvel’s 616” for Disney+ and co-composed for major film productions.
No experience? No matter
One day Economous’ phone rang. The video game company Ubisoft asked whether she would like to write the music for the latest part of “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla”. The company didn’t care that she had no experience.
The video game industry is lucrative for pretty much everyone.
In general, the video game industry is open to women and younger composers with a new voice, says Economou: “They give you a chance, even if you don’t have a big name yet.”
failure allowed
Economou takes the opportunity to write the soundtrack for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Siege of Paris” and “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök”. She experiments with different music genres – in the case of “Dawn of Ragnarök” with black metal.
The slow tempo, distorted sounds, grungy deep basses, growls – “that whole black metal feeling” – fits perfectly with the fights between Odin and Surtr, the hero and a fire giant, from their point of view.
The whole industry is benefiting from the boom
The gaming industry is big business: around 3.2 billion people play games, according to the market research institute Newzoo, the industry earned 184 billion US dollars in 2022. That’s more than the film and music industries combined.
New games are becoming more and more complex, the budget for them is growing. Economou also benefits from this development. “The video game industry is lucrative for pretty much everyone, even young professionals.” She does not say how much she earns. But she was always paid fairly.
Economou would also like to compose for film and media in the future. “Classical music is all about practicing, mastering your instrument and getting better and better.”
Working on video games changed her: “‘Assassin’s Creed’ took away my fear of not being good enough.”