With its setting in Oregon's High Desert and mountains, and its complex main characters searching to be reunited, Days Gone, by SIE Bend Studios isn't a typical post-apocalyptic game. Composer Nathan Whitehead told me that both the setting and love story, even bringing a shred of humanity to the infected Freakers, all gave him plenty of ideas for his soundtrack. As the game opens, seemingly-tough biker Deacon St. John makes the difficult choice to put his wife Sarah on a rescue helicopter in the midst of a terrifying outbreak so he can stay and tend to his friend's wounds. There's more to Deacon than the surface reveals, and we come to know him better during flashbacks when he's remembering the life he had with Sarah. Nathan used the gorgeous but unforgiving landscape of Oregon as inspiration to create a soundtrack that incorporates not only the Nashville Scoring Orchestra, but a handcrafted, raw sound of several guitars as well. He says that one of the best moments in scoring this