What composing music for an Escape Room has taught me

What composing music for an Escape Room has taught me

Well, today for something completely different. Not only do I work as a mixing & mastering engineer, but I also do compose instrumentals for clients and perform, record and produce them. This year I was given the fabulous opportunity to compose the background music for an Escape Room in Hanover.

But first, let me elaborate on the background story a little...
I have composed two songs for Olly’s debut Album „Normal Kann Jeder“, and I arranged all the other compositions for his album. The entire album serves the genre of pop-rock/pop-punk. And was my first big gig that I landed as a composer/arranger & session musician. It was fairly easy for me to meet the expectations because the desired genre was very close to my comfort zone (e.g. Laetitia, iCarus, Heute Tanzen, Wet Beach…). But being the curious music addict that I am, I want to learn more genres and more approaches to composing music. One of my things to do before I die is as well to compose the music for a movie. Be it even for a short independent one. Doesn’t matter. Film scoring!

The closest I got to this wish so far was the above mentioned opportunity to compose and produce the background music for an Escape Room. How did I get this opportunity? By knowing the right people and asking them. One of the people working at this escape room company is one of my former fellow students that I knew from Hanover and Durham (UK). One night in December last year when I was still learning and wondering how to get clients, I just called him and asked him about where they got the background music for their rooms from. It turned out that I called at the perfectly right time. They were building new rooms and needed new compositions for them. This former fellow student knew that I was doing music for what felt like an eternity already and I was capable of at least some things. However, he never heard something not heavy from me, but he was willing to suggest to his boss to give it a shot with me.

Three months later I got a call from an unknown number and when I answered the phone, it was the boss of the escape room company, asking me about the possibilities and conditions of me composing the music for one of their new rooms. When we hung up, I was excited like a little baby and the first thing I did was to tell that to my parents and brother how excited I was!

That initial excitement did not last too long to be honest. Because then, it was the real thing: I was facing the challenge of writing music that first: I did not know well and second: I actually never composed something like this before. So I spent a lot of time on thinking what this music was supposed to sound like. The only information I had to begin with was the story of the room. I had no pictures, I did not know the riddles and puzzles and I have never been inside the room. So my task was to create a tangible atmosphere without having a tangible impression of it. HOW EXCITING! (I'm serious. This kind of challenge IS exciting!)

The story of this room is about a spaceship that has to be rescued by the group. So we’re talking a futuresque scenario here. When we have a look at the music from Star Wars for example, John Williams went for a classical orchestra to suit the story. And holy mother of god, he nailed it. This is so iconic - I don’t think anybody who ever saw Star Wars will forget this music again.

Let’s be clear here: My task was not to write something iconic, as my instrumental should serve as background music for an escape game. But in terms of research, I thought taking a closer look at the soundtracks of futuristic movies and series would be a great start. And it proved to work for me. For some of you it may be obvious to use „futuristic sounds“ for a futuristic scenario, but it is also important to know about what specific futuristic sounds are commonly used for soundtracks so that I can create some familiarity for the listeners, so that it actually sounds like space for them.

In terms of research and applying the researched information to the composition process, the Metroid: Prime video games turned out to be my biggest inspiration for this project.

The main element creating the sense of space in my compositions for this room were „drones“. (Find the wikipedia definition of drones here. That sums it up quite accurately.) I created multiple drones in multiple pitches with different variations of modulation. Thus: composing how I usually do it was basically impossible. I had a set of 15 drones in the key of C minor, that I automated in terms of volume so at no point in time there are all 15 sounding at once. I wanted to get them sounding together like a liquid wall, as outer space does not look like it has distance. So it’s all pretty close and pretty far at the same time —> the liquid wall was my intention to recreate that sense.

Composing with this set of drones was really almost „automation only“. There was not a melody or chord progression I was going for… I just wanted this wall to „change pitch“ in a weird way to create a dramatic atmosphere that sounded like outer space. And did so by varying with the volume of each drone throughout the instrumental. As the drone wall on its own sounded very liquid, it had no tangible dynamics or a groove. So I programmed a fairly minimal drum pattern, that I looped and took even more drum hits out for certain moments.

The finished version of this instrumental is not a song that I would listen to in my spare time, but for its purpose it is quite fitting! (the client thinks so as well).

The room also has another part where I composed with a very similar approach, whereas I used a more normal melody and chord based approach for composing the "outro-positive-mission-complete" music. This is by far more dynamic and vivid than the background music during the game and was way easier to compose actually as this was closer to my comfort zone again. I knew the tools for creating that majestic victory atmosphere and since that last part was not intended to be a loop serving in the background, I could actually make use of a melody motif and use more iconic chord progressions.

So what has this story actually taught me?


Don’t be afraid to literally ask for opportunities.

You already have your no, but if you ask you have the chance of getting a yes. Talking to my former fellow student opened up the opportunity to do something that I’ve never done before. Play your cards right and trust your friends.


Automation can actually play the leading role in composition.

As mentioned above, having a set of 15 different monotonous drones in the key of C minor was a starting point that wasn’t usual for me. Creating that liquid wall just by automating the volumes of each drone had an effect that I would not have dreamed of. So far, I can tell that since I've learned to use automation as a main composition technique, I feel like I have not only a deeper understanding of what I am actually doing, but I also have a lot more ideas on how to add little details and spice things up a little.


Step out of your comfort zone more often.

Approaching things that you are used to in a totally different mode will change the rhythm your clock is ticking to. And that will help you to develop new sparks within your comfort zone. Step out of it, take in as much as you can and bring all of that back into your comfort zone. Whatever you are doing - composing, cooking, teaching, skating, running, writing, you name it - challenge yourself every now and then. You’ll get immediately better at the things that you are used to anyway. 


Although I already knew that it is important to not be afraid of asking people for help and that stepping out of your comfort zone is always an opportunity to improve yourself, it was very nice and refreshing to experience it in such a powerful way for me. I think there is a difference of taking small steps outside the comfort zone and really jumping out of it. Since I was still dealing with the subject of music, it was not a big base jump out of my comfort zone, but this was certainly the biggest step out of it that I’ve been taking in a few months…

I am still very happy and thankful that I got this opportunity. Do you have similar experiences? Shoot me a message or drop a line below! 

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