Interview: Matt Chalmers and Erich Preston sound off about the first TennoConcert and their inspirations

I love all of Warframe, but in particular, the music is a standout. It’s so important they even made a Warframe out of it. I am in awe of what the team can do with sound, specifically Matt Chalmers. Composing a stream of hits from multiple genres is mind-blowing. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Matt Chalmers himself, and also the man behind the curtain who makes sure the magic can happen, Audio Lead Erich Preston, ahead of the inaugural TennoConcert.

Let’s get started. If you could both introduce yourselves to our readers.

Matt: I'm Matthew Evan Chalmers, and I'm the composer for Warframe.

Erich: And Erich Preston, the audio lead for Warframe.

Warframe has gone through musical genres quicker than any other game that I've ever played. Do you actively try to tick all the boxes?

Erich: Usually, the tone of our next move is kind of known, but we'll definitely try to drive the music in as different directions as we can intentionally. Mainly because we like exploring and trying different things. So it's usually a fun challenge when we see what's coming around the bend, and we say, "Okay, challenge accepted."

What can we do now that's different from where we were? And once you've done that enough times, you can cherry-pick some fun themes that have been made from past music and bring them into newer stuff that we're working on. We love to change genres as much as we can, and it's completely intentional.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Do you listen to a lot of different music?

Matt: Yeah, lots of different stuff. It's obviously dependent on the update, but we were just talking about how we like to grab references that are maybe not as obvious. For the 1999 stuff, yes, we checked out '90s stuff, but we still want to be semi-modern with it. I asked what 90s musicians are doing now. And what's music that's coming out now that kind of sounds like the 90s? I'm trying to expand on it and not just sound exactly like this was written in the 90s or something like that.

Erich: Yeah, and sometimes when the ideas are not obvious, it's just a matter of lying in bed one night, surfing around, and a weird thing pops up. And I think that's kind of a cool snippet or a cool vibe. I think smashing things together is kind of what we've been doing a lot. And my favourite way to get interesting results is to combine things that are unexpected.

Matt: My favourite comments this year are, “I don't know what the genre is”. I'm like, I don't know either. It's a combination of a lot of different things.

Is there any genre that you haven't gone into yet that you want to incorporate?

Matt: There are definitely ones we haven't gone into. 

Erich: We've kind of dabbled in a lot of them over the past four years. We've really gone through a whole bunch of different genres. Something that I would love to try? I kind of like to be inspired by the visual side of things.

Matt: It does ultimately still start there. We're not just randomly trying to force something to work. It's a case of now that we know the narrative, how crazy can we take the music? But it has to still work in-game. I have a background in jazz, so it could be cool to do something like that at some point.

Erich: I think that would be awesome. We've also been thinking about taiko ensembles and more percussion-based large ensembles.

Like big band stuff?

Erich: Yes, absolutely. That kind of goes back to the jazz thing, too. There are so many different nooks and crannies to explore. We're excited to explore them. That's the thing. 

Matt: Like you were saying, we've done a lot of one-off things. To venture further into punk, metal, that would be cool too. I feel like 1999 dabbled in a lot of genres with just one track, and then they each had their little place. But they can all be expanded upon, I think.

Have you got a favourite piece from Warframe across the years? Pick your favourite child

Erich: I don't think I can, to be honest with you.

Matt: My favourite is always what I'm working on.

Erich: Yeah, that's so true.

Matt: If I'm not feeling good about it, then there's something wrong. And then I eventually just listened to that hundreds of times while writing and mixing it. And then it's on to the next thing. That just exists in the Warframe world. That's why this concert is interesting. Because I'm having to go back to old stuff and do it again and again. I'm like, wow, I really wrote that, did I?

Erich: It seems like another decade ago.

Matt: Yeah, I know. It moves so fast. It feels like so long ago, even though it's within the last year for a lot of it.

What about a favourite piece of music outside of Warframe?

Erich: I never have favourites

Matt: Yeah, I'm bad with favourites.

Erich: I think it's because it changes. My favourite piece will just kind of come and go; it's one of those different things that I'm listening to in the moment. I hate to cop out.

Matt: I don't know if I can pick a favourite. I could mention some music that I like, but I could never point to one song.

I suppose that comes with being in the industry; you have to absorb everything.

Erich: Yeah. You have to listen to everything and enjoy everything equally, I think.

Matt: I find something I like about everything. Even if it's not something I'd listen to normally, it's like, what can I take from this to learn from it? So maybe there's a cool production thing that's something I've never done, so I'm clocking that for later. If that ever comes up, I have that in my bag of tricks now.

Erich: I've been listening to a lot of classical music lately with my daughter in the car. Whenever I drive her to school, there's a show that we listen to in the morning here on CBC Radio, and she's recently gotten into classical music too. We always enjoy that on the ride in. It's funny how music will come into your life in weird ways, and it influences you in those ways that it comes in.

The last big expansion was 1999, and obviously, music had a big focus on that. Are we expecting The Old Peace to carry on this music-first style, or is it in the background?

Erich: We're always going to try to push the envelope with music, and even though it's meant to accompany the gameplay, there's definitely going to be focal points in the music and songs and things that you can latch on to and listen to outside of the game. That's always going to be a priority from here to the end with what we do. It's going to be a departure from 1999, for sure, but in the most intentional and loving way possible.

When you are composing, do you try to inspire specific emotions in the audience?

Matt: In-game, I think it should just really elevate the experience of whatever is happening. So if it's a cutscene that should make you cry, I hope the music's helping do that. Ultimately, I'm just there to elevate the experience. I'm not trying to bring in anything that goes against the feeling that's supposed to happen in that moment. A lot of players have very different experiences while playing or listening because it can be so personal. 

I know a lot of people really connected with the music for Jade Shadows just because that was such an emotional story, and people bring their own life experience into that. I'm never like you must feel happy. I just hope you enjoy it, is really my feeling behind it.

Erich: For me, it's really about having fun. And we're in this amazing position to be able to be creative and share parts of our lives and things that make us happy, things that make us cry with you guys and people playing the game. I think the most important thing, and the thing that's always on the front of my mind whenever we're creating, is just to create interesting experiences for people that come from our experiences, and hopefully they connect.

Let’s talk about your tenures with Digital Extremes. I know Eric has been here for ten years, and Matt for around two or three

Matt: Yeah, I started support writing for Keith Power for the update of The New War. That was my first introduction to Warframe. I started doing a little bit of music there, and then I just kept doing more and more. The first big update I did was Duviri, but I was still going through Keith for that update. I think the very first thing I did on my own was Wisp Prime. That was a trailer that we did right after Duviri, and Keith was like, "You've got it, you're ready." So that was May of 2023. So yeah, it's been just over two years now.

When you look at Digital Extremes from the outside, they seem to give the creative staff a lot of freedom in terms of development. Is this how it is behind the scenes? 

Erich: It's a dream come true, really. It's incredible. It's also terrifying. It feels like too much freedom at times. We really do get to do what we want to do, but it has to be the best we can do. And it has to relate to the content that we're working on.

It is like you're out in the ocean by yourself. It has the plus of allowing us to explore, we can have fun with it, but also it has to be awesome, and it has to fit, and it has to work. Equal parts amazing and terrifying at the same time.

Matt: It has that feeling of the bar has been set so high for so many years, and if we ever feel like we've one-upped ourselves, it's like, well, now we've got to do that again. You just keep pushing for better and better. But for me, this gig has been a career-changing thing.

I never thought I'd be doing video games. I wanted to go more down the film route, and now that I'm seeing the film world, I feel that I like the video game world right now. The games are pretty awesome. I'm not technically a DE employee, so I can say everybody at DE is amazing. 

I have yet to meet someone who works for the team that I don't think is the coolest person, and super creative and positive. It's just such a great environment. So it makes me want to just keep being better and raise the bar.

Erich: I think everything that people assume or think about the company from the outside kind of lines up with it from the inside.

Matt: Unless they're assuming bad things.

Erich: Yeah, it feels very close-knit and homegrown, and just like a group of people who want to do cool stuff. That's why I've been here for 10 years. And I intend to stay because it's just a great place to be.

Do either of you play much of the Warframe yourselves, or are you both too busy creating it?

Erich: When we're doing updates, I play quite a bit because I'm looking for audio things. I'm judging mix, so I'm playing through that lens. In terms of just getting to sit down and play, not as much as I would like to, but I picked up a Steam Deck recently. So finally, I can kind of sit in bed at the end of the night and play a little bit more, which is great.

Matt: Yeah, I've done enough playing to get a sense for the game. I'm always thinking about Warframe and music for Warframe, so when I'm finally not doing that, I need a break from the Warframe world. My job also doesn't require as much time in the system.

Erich's like my music producer, basically. He's checking the music I do, seeing if it works in the game. He reports back like “it's cool, but we've got to change this because it's not working with the dialogue”, or whatever. It's nice to have someone who's more involved, and I think it's kind of nice that I'm off in Neverland just being like, what about this?

Erich: No, that's great. I love it. It's an awesome angle to have, and what you bring to it because of that.

We have the first TennoConcert this year. How are the nerves?

Matt: I think it's just excitement at this point. I'm ready to do it.

Erich: I want to see what these guys have put together.

Matt: It's been a lot of work, but doing three back-to-back rehearsals the last few days has made us feel like we're ready. Let's do it. We have a dress rehearsal tonight. I'm just excited to get on stage and do it for real.

Erich: Going from an office to a concert, it will be awesome. I've been at the desk for a little while now.

With all the tracks in Warframes' history, how do you pick what gets into the TennoConcert?

Matt: We decided on whatever we had in the concert; it was going to be more of a song focus. There are so many classic instrumental, combat tracks, and ambient tracks, but to do that in the proper way, you would need a full orchestra.

1999 kind of lent itself to a smaller band, and we can get away with a smaller group rather than a 40-piece orchestra or something. So we thought, let's do a bunch of 1999 stuff and obviously the classic Warframe songs.