Speaking over at IGN, composer Gordy Haab discusses his influences and processes for bringing a score together, specifically one that – like Zero Company does – sits in the Clone Wars era and is inevitably influenced by another works from Haab, the Battlefront series from a decade ago which saw conflicts in multiple eras on countless worlds.
“When I wrote the score for [2017’s] Battlefront II, I felt like I was really onto something. [With] Battlefront I, the assignment was to write the B-sides for the original scores. So [afterward] I really sort of branched off and started doing my own thing. So picking up [with Zero Company], I almost wanted to think of it as using Battlefront II as sort of my springboard. My parameter was ‘What would be the sequel to that?’ I wanted to have that sparkle that the Prequel era music has, but also have my personal aesthetic stamp on it.”
Despite multiple trips through the Star Wars galaxy, Haab says composing the various themes that make up Zero Company’s soundtrack presented a fresh set of challenges.
“I spent a couple months just coming up with the themes before I even started putting pencil to paper,” Haab says. “I probably wrote 15 versions of [the main] theme before I even sent it to the developers. I wouldn’t even let it out the door of my own studio until I was absolutely thrilled with it. Version 1 was a lot of flourish. I spent a lot of time boiling that theme down to something that is extremely concise and simple, and I think it works.”