Carbon Games' Founder Talks About Working with Front Line Assembly For Soundtrack on their new game "Airmech: Wastelands"

James:  The reason I wanted to work with Bill/FLA for our games is the same reason I love the music as a fan. It's more of a signature Bill Leeb thing in fact, as you can hear it across all his music projects--the complex layering and build up of songs which get better and better the more times you hear them. In games, you might end up hearing the same music a lot, and having something with the depth and texture you find in FLA songs is exactly what I wanted. I actually never thought I would have a chance to work directly with them and that I would have to settle for someone to make something "like" FLA. It blew my mind that I was able to connect with Bill and actually get to work with them.
James:  It was actually very easy to work with Bill and FLA because I was such a fan of the existing catalog and already knew it would be a good fit for our game. When you take a talented artist and try to direct them too much you need to ask yourself why did you want to work with them in the first place? Bill was always eager to get feedback and wanted to make sure I was happy with the tracks, but honestly it was just as important to me that he was happy with them. The music influenced the game just as the game originally sparked the music. 
James:  It was like getting a brand new Frontline album as always--there's a few more catchy tracks that catch your attention right away, then on repeated listens of the whole album you dig into each track. To me it's just magical when your ears learn a track and you can start to see the structure and you ride the wave of this epic build up. I wish I was a musician myself so I could describe it better. WarMech being the second album it really surprised me because I knew right away that this was them finding their zone with these instrumental types of tracks. I think it's better than the first one, and I loved the first one. I think fans are going to love it. 
James:  Depending how many listens I would have given different answers to that. Originally the high energy tracks jumped out, like Mechanism and Heatmap--instantly I could see these as trailer material cut to a lot of action. Got me excited about the whole package. I'll say there aren't any tracks I dislike, and each one is affecting the mood and design of a particular area of the game. Anthropod, love the dark  
James:  We originally planned to handle the physical release ourselves if you can believe it. We thought getting the CDs made, shipping some off to Amazon, this isn't that hard is it? Since it's a soundtrack and not your typical Frontline release we just weren't sure it made sense to go the traditional route. But then we saw some of the work that Storming the Base and Artoffact had done and what started out as a conversation about vinyls turned into wanting to work with them on the CD release as well. I want to make sure the fans still have access to the album from their local record shop wherever they might be around the world. 
James:  AirMech Wastelands is in what we call "alpha" as of right now. We plan for the game to move into "beta" phase as we release the soundtrack as a nice tie in. We're very public about our development process and the game is available in Early Access on Steam, with the full release planned for later this fall. It's already a lot of fun and we are fleshing out the missions and adding content to hit that release. 
James:  AirMech Wastelands is quite a difference pace than the first AirMech game. This time around it has more of an RPG approach to your character, your mechs, and your army. You play either solo or cooperatively against the storyline enemies. There are a ton of fantasy themed RPG games and we wanted to take a new spin on that by doing it with mechs in a world on the brink of collapse. You are trying to scrape together a fighting force to hold back and ultimately destroy the self running WarMechs giving humanity a chance to rebuild.
James:  We're big fans of mechs and post apocalyptic settings, with many games from my youth mashed together to create the AirMech/WarMech mechanics. From the classic Herzog Zwei to C&C Red Alert, Advance Wars and Starcraft, and plenty of anime with transforming mechs (not robots!) are all influences. As a game there's not a lot out there that has this mix of RPG progression, realtime strategy, online coop world. We actually build the game to be compatible with the previous game, meaning inventories are shared with a deep player market and crafting system there from the start. Friends, factions, competitions and leaderboards, it has become a sprawling world of a game due to how we iterate with both community feedback and what we think is cool ourselves.

Lastly, I wish you the best of luck with Warmech. I can't wait to watch clips of it and possibly try it out myself if I ever get the chance!