Assassin’s Creed Mirage is, by most accounts, a return to the kind of Assassin’s Creed gameplay that first captured imaginations and sparked interest in the franchise. Since the first game was released in 2007, the Assassin’s Creed series has ventured farther and farther from its stealth-based roots, with (admittedly fantastic) games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey much closer to full-on RPGs. Still, the Assassin’s Creed Mirage story, characters, and setting still offer plenty that is new.
Another new aspect of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is its music, provided by composer Brendan Angelides. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is Angelides’ first foray into the world of video game composition, but the prolific musician and composer has provided the score for Billions since 2016 and has enjoyed a successful touring career under the moniker Eskmo. For Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Angelides collaborated with a range of musicians to help lend an authentic sound to the game’s world, while also giving it his own modern twist. Angelides also recently released his first solo album in years, a masterful blend of orchestral and electronic hybrid music titled Oxygen.
Brendan Angelides spoke with Screen Rant about stepping into the world of video games, finding the instrumentation of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and more. Note: This interview was conducted during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and the game covered here would not exist without the labor of actors in that union. This interview has also been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Brendan Angelides On Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Screen Rant: This game is being hailed as a return to the roots of Assassin’s Creed. Was that something that played into your music in terms of direction you were given, or anything you wanted to do?
Brendan Angelides: In the sense of having another Ezio variation that was Middle Eastern… a makam-oriented variation of it; that was an intentional one. There’s another Bureau variation that I did which is referenced from some other games. But aside from that, not really, to be honest. In terms of relating to the overall score, it was the sense of melancholy in there, the sense of strong thematic elements and everything that I wanted to make sure [was there] as just a general through line with any AC stuff.
I think I got hired because I didn’t sound like some other stuff. Admittedly, I had never played any of the AC games. I listened when I got hired for the job. They had me do a demo alongside a bunch of other composers. Admittedly, I listened to like, 45 second[-clips of Assassin’s Creed music], clicking through really fast on Spotify. I was like, “Oh, I get it. It’s really big, dramatic, thematic music and there’s melancholy stuff,” but I didn’t want to have it influence me too much.
Because it’s my first game, I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed the demo process. If I didn’t, that would be an indicator that I shouldn’t do the thing. So I just leaned into whatever I got inspired to do, and I think, upon conversations with them, they hired me because it didn’t sound like the other demos.
I know that in the world of video game composing, the levels on which composers and developers interact may be different on any game. Did you learn a lot of new stuff for this, or did you tackle it similarly to how you would approach film or TV?
Brendan Angelides: It was super different for me. I’m guessing that in the gaming world, the strategy is very different [depending on the type of game]. I think an open world [game] has its own type of dynamic stuff going on in the way things relate to each other, which you would not get in a different type of linear game. It’s a whole different system that’s running underneath.
It was a very different working process, but ultimately, with any kind of score stuff, it always goes back to the story, and “What is the core thing happening here?” In that sense, it’s the same. [I’m] just trying to get a sense of this character and the driving motivation, and trying to be able to extract from that as much as possible.
Aside from that, logistically and pragmatically, the process was very different. There were a lot of layers, a lot of things having to loop and link back into each other, and one thing that was completely different than any kind of other score stuff was that the engine is always running the music in the background. It needs to be able to turn on at any point. Aside from cutscenes, it’s always running, and it needs to be able to turn on in the middle of the track and make sense, which is a really interesting thing. [I had] an objective to make something that can look within itself, not be too thematic, if it’s [music for] roaming or exploration, but not static enough that it’s just a single note thing. Then, it needs to also be able to make sense by turning on at any point, which is a really interesting formula to try to tackle.
Can you talk about your recording process and instrumentation? You have some tracks like “Serpent’s Kiss” that seem very manipulated, and others that feel very orchestral. It seems like you were all over the spectrum, which was really cool.
Brendan Angelides: The starting place was wanting to make sure that I limited my palette of the actual live instruments, wanting to [have a sense] that they came from ninth century Baghdad, at least at the beginning process. The main violinist that I worked with, Layth Sidiq, is the artistic director for New York Arabic orchestra. I had him play his violin as if it was a joza, this other instrument, because technically there were no strings back then. Once the core thing was developed, it was like, “Okay, strings are going to be coming in here, just for an extra cinematic quality.”
[We did] remote style recording of players from Egypt, Madrid, and Tunisia, and a handful of places. I just really wanted to make sure I worked with musicians that authentically represented the culture and came from those backgrounds, to be able to really let that voicing come through, and have it be something that was very distinct and authentic. A lot of the time I would take that instrumentation, put it into samplers, tweak it out, synthesize it, and combine it along with the synths, pitch them down, and do all sorts of weird effects. Then, sometimes, the sound of it asked to be just more pure and naked.
It was kind of track dependent. Sometimes it was like, “This is a really beautiful thing here. It just needs to sing by itself.” That was part of the opportunity, too, is that there were opportunities to really lean into heavy electronic stuff as well as stuff that was more sweeping and organic. With “Serpent’s Kiss” in particular, all those tweaked-out weird sounds in there come from a ney. It’s a wind instrument that I brought in and then just tweaked out to smithereens.
I’m also really curious about all the vocals in the score. It sounds like there are a lot of lyrics, and the scales feel very authentic to Baghdad. I’m curious if those are things you collaborated with people on.
Brendan Angelides: I’ll talk about the tonality stuff first. When I first got hired, there was a conversation about creating some of the diegetic music for the game too. So, as a player is running around, there are some street musicians playing some stuff. That’s not my background at all, but in that process, I learned a kindergarten level of makam and that musical language; the general way in which those phrases connect together.
It’s a whole different scaling system; it’s 24 notes as opposed to 12, and having these quarter steps in between was a daunting, intimidating thing. I just approached it incrementally, trying to get a sense of it. Then, once I linked with Layth and met the other musicians, it was a combination of me writing stuff out here and then having them play that, or having them improvise over other stuff I had written and then taking bits and pieces of that and working them in.
Then, for the full orchestra pieces that I wrote, I worked with Adram Haddad, an orchestrator living out in Boston. He was teaching Western music in Jerusalem previously, and now he lives in Boston teaching Middle Eastern music. He helped to fully flush out and orchestrate the strings in terms of ornamentation, flourishes, and all that stuff to really be able to lean into authenticity. He also conducted the New York Arabic orchestra session in New York that we did a Power Station. He was there actually being able to talk with them throughout the process and use the right type of language. It’s beyond my understanding, but it was really an important thing of making sure that I hired the right people and worked with the right people that could bring that genuine authenticity to the whole process.
[With] the lyrics… On the main theme, for example, I helped Layth write those. For the Roshan track, “Daughter of No One,” Emel Mathlouthi is on there. She wrote all that stuff. She just verified [it with me], like, “Hey, this is what it is. This is what it says,” and before any of this stuff, I made sure that they had a really solid understanding of the general narrative arc and what this was about. There was a bit of back and forth in terms of making sure the lyrics were properly linking into what’s happening, but it was a very fluid, collaborative process. Then there’s a lot of vocalise stuff throughout some of the roaming tracks, which was just more supportive ambiance.
There’s a track we named “The Shadows We Walk”. Layth Sidiq is an Iraq-born Jordanian, and so that track is an old Iraqi folk song. The combination of that with this dark synthesis thing happening in the context of the game felt really nice. Where they end up using it felt very, very right. But that’s an old song.
I’d love to hear about how the main theme came together, because it’s a beautiful theme on its own, and then it sounds like you took pieces of the instrumentation you’re using for the rest of the score and made sure that everything was represented a little bit. I was wondering if that was very intentional on your part, and what your general thinking was.
Brendan Angelides: Yeah, very much intentional. One of the goals for the main theme was, “Can I tell the whole story of this thing in this one track, and not just have it be a jumbled mess of stuff? Can there be a hook that brings you in, that feels inviting, that tells enough of a story, as well as being able to transition into questioning moments and, essentially, [touch on] how the game progresses?” So, that definitely was the intention, and there were many versions
There’s extra pressure when you know something’s the main theme. It’s not like I just wrote a bunch of stuff. I had a few sketches down, and I was like, “This thing that I’m working with here; I think this is the theme for the game.” There was a sense of wanting to tell a story of the progression of the character, the dangers that are there, but then the sense of strength. Layth Sidiq is playing violin on the track and singing there. He kind of acts as Basim’s vocal representation on the OST.
And I want to know about your album, because I saw that you’ve been wanting to do this for a while, but have been tied up in scoring projects. How is it to return to doing solo work in that way? That’s how you started out anyway, right?
Brendan Angelides: This is my first solo album since 2015, which is a long, long time, especially in today’s music world where people expect something almost every year. My wife and I had twins at the beginning of 2020, so right before the pandemic. The pregnancy was terrifying. [I was a] first time dad; we weren’t expecting twins. It was like, “Oh, my God.” And then there were some complications along the way, and we were wondering if the babies were going to be all right. There was a bit of fear in there. And I started working on the album during that process. Then, after the kids were born, in between scoring stuff, it was still happening.
When they were one, our daughter–we had boy and girl–was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. We had a question that something was going on, but she had an official diagnosis when she was one. She has that diagnosis from a lack of oxygen in the womb. She can’t speak, she’s legally blind, she has muscle atrophy things going on, [and] there’s permanent brain damage in there. It was quite a big process to go through. This album is named Oxygen because of her diagnosis.
On the album art, her ultrasound is actually on the front, and there’s a little drawing to the left, which you can see on the vinyl that’s a drawing of a sun that my son drew. It’s a love letter to the kids and the family, and the tracks all correlate to that whole experience. It was in the era of crazy political stuff going on, the middle of COVID [where] everybody’s wearing masks, the “I Can’t Breathe”, movement still strong, and then to have this diagnosis with her, I just felt compelled to lean into the oxygen theme and this idea of breath.
The London Contemporary Orchestra is on this, so it’s an opportunity for me to lean back into trying to tell a story and having a cathartic experience via my music, which you aren’t able to always get from scoring. It was very needed. It’s a different engine, a different train, that has momentum, and that wants to get put out in the world. I’m pretty stoked to be able to present this to everybody.
About Assassin’s Creed Mirage
The thirteenth mainline installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Assassin’s Creed Mirage goes back to basics, focusing on the stealth-based gameplay that helped establish the series. Players embody Basim, a street thief in search of answers and justice, as he joins an ancient organization and his life is changed forever.
Also take a look at our interview with Assassin’s Creed Mirage developer Simon Arseneault.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is out now on PlayStation consoles, Xbox consoles, and PC.
