Grooving To A Post-Apocalyptic Tune: Interview with John Swihart

Sure, the end is coming – but what will it sound like? And what kind of music comes after the apocalypse? What will people make as the new world regrows from the ashes? To talk about these questions, I sat down digitally with musician John Swihart, who was part of the two-person team that made the soundtrack for the newest chapter in the Far Cry series – Far Cry new Dawn. Here’s the audio for you to listen to the interview and read below for more details about John, the game, and why the Sugar Gamers are excited to be interviewing him:

New Dawn is John’s first venture into the industry side of video games, but he rose to fame working on the soundtracks for Napolean Dynamite, How I Met Your Mother, and recently American Woman among others. If you are familiar with the Far Cry,you know it often plays with comedy, so the connection seems to fit, but John also brings some thrash to the table with a background as a heavy metal guitarist. The blend of talents, as well as his collaboration with his friend Tyler Bates (Guardians of The Galaxy, John Wick) created an awesome pallet with which to build the post-apocalyptic sound they wanted for New Dawn.

New Dawn is a narrative sequel to the recent Far Cry 5, which was set in county in modern-day Montana. In the new release, we revisit the same county, but 17 years after the nuclear apocalypse. Now, the game reimagines the formerly foreboding and bucolic landscape as overgrown with vibrant, radiating life – grown wild without humanity to impede it. To pull you into this new world, John and Tyler built a wonderfully creative set of music. During our interview, John explains how they incorporated ideas about the type of music people could make after the apocalypse from pieced-together instruments or unorthodox materials. The sounds they put together in the music pull you to into the futuristic and chaotic setting of the game.

If you haven’t tried this newest chapter, or Far Cry in general, this is a great time to check it out. The visual and musical landscapes are worth the experience alone. If you have play it, we hope this interview helped shed some light on the back end of the game’s production. Either way, thank you for listening and we hope you enjoyed it!