Wow everybody, thanks for caring about the music in Halo2. Heres the official word from this old horses mouth.
Halo1 was a big hit. Many people liked it a lot. Nile Rogers, a truly legendary music producer (my generation by the way) absolutely loved it and had his company release the soundtrack. Over the past three years, Nile and myriad marketing type folks from Microsoft, kept telling me about all these popular bands and artists who love playing Halo. Wouldnt it be cool if they contributed music to Halo2? My instinct was to say no, go away and stop bothering me. Then they started talking about having a soundtrack that would be ready for release at the same time as Halo2s release. I knew that I wouldnt be able to finish all the audio for the game, and mix a decent soundtrack at the same time, so Nile and I came up with a plan to have two soundtracks. Volume One, which would feature whatever music I had finished in time to have it included (which by the way is a majority of the album) and inspired by music from the bands that really love playing Halo and wanted to contribute something. Volume Two, to be released at a later date, will include all the remaining music of mine and perhaps some more inspired by stuff if that turns out to be cool.
The most important thing is that there is NO music in the game that I didnt want in the game. I knew that I had to focus on making music for the game and not for a soundtrack. Thats where Nile came in. He really is quite a talented guy and knows a lot of people. Ive worked with many great guitar players, but when Nile called me and said that I could work with his buddy Steve Vai (my generation again), I just about lost it. Once I did the session with Steve, which Ill tell you about sometime, I decided to trust Nile to fill out the Halo2 Soundtrack Volume One any way he saw fit. I know that Ill like at least most of whats on there. Two of the bands that worked with Nile and contributed to the album also sent me instrumental mixes of their stuff. The music was based on my themes and I was pretty blown away by them. The deal was that I could use those pieces in the game at my discretion, and thats what I did. I like how I used them, maybe you will too, well see. Trust me, theyre an amazingly small percentage of the overall musical landscape of Halo2, but I think they work great.
The temptation to succumb to the siren call of Hollywood and the marketing hype machine is hard to resist. Bungie tried hard to stay Bungie throughout the production of Halo2. Our goal is to make the coolest game for the best fans. It turns out that some of our fans are already part of the big hype machine and ended up being pretty cool too. I hope we dont let you folks down, and I dont think we sold out. Of course you should know that buying the Halo2 Soundtrack Volume One will help me in my quest for paying for my two daughters college tuitions.
Oh and I hope you like Sergeant Johnsons hip hop rap duet with Justin Timberlake.
(kidding!)
