I'm Jon Licht, I composed music for Dexter, Dishonored, Silent Hill and many other TV shows, feature films and video games. AMA!

Does it affect your royalties if people "Skip Intro"?

I'm not sure about that actually.

What made you put the ‘Ding’ of the bell at the end of the Dexter theme? (Always my favourite part for some reason lol.)

That wasn’t me :)

Who was it? 😃

Rolfe Kent did the main title

I had a teacher in the music production program at Middle Tennessee State U who said he did music work on Dexter. Know anyone like that?

Nope, unless you knew his name

The Dishonored soundtrack was one of the things that made the game really stand out for me, and Honor For All in particular really made the perfect coda for my first finished playthrough.

But my question is about Silent Hill, Downpour specifically. It felt a lot like the soundtrack for that returned to many of the roots from the Team Silent games; was there a concious effort to follow Akira Yamaoka's work, or did you do your own thing and arrive at a similar conclusion? And, more personally, were you nervous about becoming part of the Silent Hill legacy of extremely memorable and bizarre music? (I think you nailed it, for what it's worth.)

I remember we definitely were trying to stay in the same world as Akira. His music was inspiration and helped shape our sound. We brought new things to the table but used his music as a world to live in sonically.

How does writing music differ when writing for film vs television?

It's different from writing and producing songs in that you are creating more of a background. You are trying to serve the picture rather than create something that will stand on its own. So if a movie was a song then the dialogue would be the lyrics, I would be creating the backing track for the dialogue.

It's the same in that you are creating music that is interesting to listen to. A lot of directors like to use bands for their scores because they are good at creating instantly catchy bits of music.

Akira's music from Silent Hill is incredibly important to me. When I heard he was being replaced I prepared for the worst but was pleasantly surprised.

Thank you for doing such a great job.

Are you working on any of the new Silent Hill projects?

I'm not working on any Silent Hill projects as of now. Glad you liked what we did!

Daniel was a great composer and I really enjoyed his work, especially on the Dishonoured games. Can you talk a bit about the process of creating that games score? Thanks for doing this AMA!

Dishonored was one of the projects where I was involved less with the score. I wrote and produced the end credits song "Honor For All."

I know that for Dan this was a unique project in the way that they wanted the score delivered. It was a lot of different loops he had to create for the programmers to use when implementing the audio into the game.

As far as the instrumentation he used hammer dulcimer and didgeridoo (for low pad sounds).

OMG that ending song was amazing.

Agreed! The whole soundtrack is great but the ending song is pure 🔥🔥🔥

Glad you guys liked it, I have more music on. Spotify that I’ve been terrible about marketing if you want to check it out :)

Could you help compose my short film and how much would it cost you to do it? I loved the Dexter theme.

you can send me the film, I'll check it out!

How do you even start to work out how the music for these shows are gonna go?

Silent Hill is terrifying, how would you start that composition?

Usually the producers or director will have an idea for what they want. They will most often have "temp" music that they will place in the edit. It will give the composer and idea of where to start and to use as inspiration.

Just wanted to say that Honour for all is one of my all time favourite songs. Do you have any memorable moment associated with it?

wow that's great to hear. I just remember sitting in my home studio and coming up with ideas for it. I'm not sure where the inspiration came but I couldn't believe it when the people at Arkane loved what I wrote. After that we went forward with producing the track.

What modern composer do you admire the most?

Thomas Newman, Alexandre Desplat, Rolfe Kent...

Any less-modern ones?

Morricone, John Williams

My mom’s maiden name is Licht, our family traces back to Germany. Do you know if yours does as well?

Poland!

Your musics r awesome. I love those games. Could you tell me about your journey? How did you get into creating tracks for games?

I started working with my Uncle. He had heard some songs that I had produced on my own and like what I was doing. I started as his assistant and soon I was writing additional music and songs for his project. I got lucky with the timing of it all and knowing someone established like that.

Do you first watch the scenes and then compose the music, or watch and compose at the same time?

Or a different way? What's the process like I guess is my question.

Yes first I would watch a scene and then start composing. You want to see what the scene is trying to accomplish, what the beats are, make a plan and then start writing.

Hey, would you ever speak to a class of highschool of digital media and film students to share your experience and process?

That sounds like fun to me!

How many year you making music now ?

I’ve been writing and producing music for over 20 years!

Do you think there is something inherent in any sounds or notes that inspires fear on it's own or are all "scary" sounds related to a preexisting fear? Is there any property of music like the "Devil's Chord" the Catholic church outlawed in the 17th century for basically being evil sounding?

Notes on their own could inspire fear I guess but mainly it's the combination of notes to create harmony that really can create a mood. Sounds can definitely be scary, like scraping on a metal fence, screams...etc.

Do you have faith in the Yzer-Plan?

LGRW

Absolutely!

Hey man. I am a huge fan of your work, and Daniel's as well. My question for you is, what cool BTS stuff did you see while he was working on the last few seasons of Dexter?

Got to be in Dexter's wedding band at the end of Season 4. That was pretty fun. We visited the set a few times and it was awesome to see them working and to wander around the sets and see the fake knives :)

What’s your thought process when you compose music for a specific scene?

When I approach a scene I will see what I can do to amplify whatever is happening on screen. That's the scores job. So I will look at what is happening in the story, big moments that need an accent, etc.. How can the music make this scene better. That's at least how I start. Then I will look at how the score should sound and then start composing.

If there was someone new to creating music in general or for games, what tips/advice would you have for them?

That’s pretty broad but I would say just put in a lot of hours getting better then try and find a unique style along the way. Then do some networking and find some fellow creatives to collaborate with and you’ll be on your way.

How to tell when you've shit your pant?

You'll know

What DAW do you use for production? Any favorite / go-to plugins that you’ll use on most projects?

I use Logic for composing and producing. Omnisphere is a must have, Arturia has great synth plug-ins, native instruments has tons of great sounds

Hey Jon, love your work and really appreciate you doing this AMA. As an aspiring composer myself, I'd love to know what you think is the most effective means of networking and getting yourself noticed. What's your story in terms of how you found yourself composing for TV/Film/Game? You mention starting out with your uncle. Do you know how he got his start?

It’s very competitive but I would say put in the hours to become good at what you do, develop a unique sound and do a lot of networking, find young directors and producers to connect with

Was one of your ancestors a lich? Also of all the projects you worked on, which is your favorite?

Lichtenpacht

Hey Jon, love your work!

What are you working on at the moment (if you can tell us) and how is your day going so far?

Over the past year I've been producing an album for a very talented singer/songwriter from Detroit. The album was released today so I'm currently working with her to get it out there for people to hear! I've been building my label and enjoy working with artists. The link to the album is in the description btw.

What’s your favorite composition in Dexter?

“New Legs” by Daniel Licht

Wow. I've done film sound design and music for very low budget short films. One day I want to be in the industry but the opportunities just stopped coming. although I've continued to write, i dont know where to share my work. Also I work off of a modx/cubase and use a lot of digital plug-ins, (Mostly waves and fabfilter) and some analog (2A compressor, saturators, tube amps for my ribbon mic). As far as equipment goes i feel like I'm behind the curve, i have access to all kinds of amazing musicians but i cant afford them. It just feels like I'm stuck and aimless to be honest. Is releasing music under the guise of intended for film a good way to maybe get some action? Have you ever been in my position? What would you do?

Everyone in the entertainment industry is pretty much in your position except for a very small percentage. It’s a grind, a really difficult one. I would recommend finding something that can pay your bills then devote as much time as you can to practicing, getting better at producing music.

2010 was before your uncle's work on Hellraiser: Bloodline, which I'm a fan of. Probably one of my favorite sequels after Hellraiser 2. I really adore your uncle's work.

If given the chance, would you work on a Hellraiser movie?

Hell ya!

When composing for tv shows, do you score every scene to picture, or do you also work with music editing and score certain scenes with music from previous scenes/episodes to save time?

Usually there’s some cues that get edited in, a lot of times they will have to be altered a bit tho to fit the spot.

How do you start writing something completely new? Do you just go:" it has to be spooky -> i'll use scale xy" or do you have a small database of of melodies you came up with and when the time is right you pick one and make it a whole song?

Just experimenting really. I write a lot by ear so I just jam for a bit and find something I like and then build from there.

How was working with Nate Walcott on The Stand? Did y’all take different roles on different tracks? Huge fan of his work on bands, especially Bright Eyes, but didn’t know he did film work.

I worked as an additional composer for the show so he would give me scenes to do and then give me notes etc…he’s super nice and talented