Scoring Shadows: How Thunderdrum Put Their Stamp on Assassin’s Creed with Pro Tools
Who are Alex and Félix from Thunderdrum
Alex Cameron Ward and Félix Rebaud-Sauer are two members of the team at Thunderdrum, a London-based group of composers, producers, artists, mixers, and sound designers. Along with their third co-founder, Hugo Brijs, they’ve built a reputation for their work on games, film, TV, and advertising. “At the heart of what we do is creating real songs and real music that exist in those mediums,” says Alex, speaking from their base at Strongroom Studios in Shoreditch.
Before Thunderdrum officially launched three years ago, Alex and Félix had already been making music together for over a decade while playing in different bands and gigging around London. “By luck, we started sharing practice rooms, and eventually one of our bands landed a sync deal. That’s what introduced us to music for media,” Félix told us. The duo’s early sync success led to their first studio space in Limehouse, where they began scoring to picture and building their first company, Audio Commune.
That creative partnership soon evolved into something bigger. Enter Hugo Brijs—an artist they’d met years earlier on the live circuit—who brought not only a deep understanding of music for ads but also a shared vision for what a modern composer team could be. “We reached out to Hugo for advice at first,” Félix recalls. “But the more we worked together, the more it just made sense to form a proper team.” Thunderdrum was born, and the crew grew.
Some things have stayed foundational to the team throughout their expansion, like using Pro Tools for all of their work. “Those first proper paychecks we got from music for media allowed us to buy our first Pro Tools license,” Alex smiles. “I was a Logic guy originally—Félix brought me over to the dark side.”
What is the “Thunderdrum sound”?
According to the team, the “Thunderdrum sound” is not so easy to pin down—and that’s entirely by design. “I don’t think there is a Thunderdrum sound,” Alex admits. “We’re a diverse group of people... by the nature of the clients we work with, we need to have quite a varied sound and that’s part of the joy.”
While the trio’s musical backgrounds are rooted in different traditions, Hugo brings a love for classic Hollywood cinema scores, while Alex leans into songwriting-driven styles, and Félix blends both with his own broad palette. “You can argue that we do have a sound,” Félix adds. “Because ultimately, we come from lots of different influences, and that shines through.”
If there is one thread that ties the work of Thunderdrum together, it’s excellence in audio craftsmanship. “We’re audiophiles,” says Alex. “We take a lot of pride in having very well-mixed, very slick recordings, which isn’t always easy when you’re working in the fast-turnaround world of media composition.” So, rather than one signature genre, their identity is characterized by adaptability, intentionality, and sonic integrity. Whether it’s psychedelic rock for Assassin’s Creed, orchestral textures for film, or experimental cues for advertising, the sound is whatever the story needs, done with taste, depth, and polish.
The setup at Thunderdrum
The Thunderdrum studio setup is all about speed, flexibility, and capturing authentic performances. “We’ve got a pretty modern media composer setup,” says Félix. “An Apple interface, a bunch of preamps, and loads of instruments that are always mic’d up and ready to go via a patch bay.” With roots in live recording, both Félix and Alex still prefer mics over MIDI. “We love the idea of comping something and getting the right take, the right performance,” Alex explains. “Our rig reflects that. We want to be able to just put a mic in front of something and go.” Their recording-ready approach naturally led them to Pro Tools. “It just allows us to record fast and mix as we fly,” Félix adds.
When it comes to their favorite features in Pro Tools, they say it’s less about flash and more about flow. “Pro Tools doesn’t do things for you that you didn’t ask for,” Alex says. “It’s a blank canvas—you’re in control.” Félix, who cut his teeth on old-school Pro Tools rigs as a studio intern, agrees: “I’ve used Cubase, Logic, Ableton… but Pro Tools is the one I’m fluent in. I don’t even have to think about it, and that’s what makes it powerful.” He also highlights its unmatched routing flexibility: “Whether I’m staying in the box or sending things out through hardware, it just works—and that makes everything flow.”
How Thunderdrum joined Assassin’s Creed
Sometimes the best collaborations start with a late-night music chat. That’s exactly how Thunderdrum’s journey into the Assassin’s Creed franchise began—at a festival in France, long before any formal pitch. “We went to a festival that was aimed at people working in cinema, film, and video games,” Félix recalls. “And we ended up chatting to a music supervisor from Ubisoft at a party around 1:00 am. It was just a really long conversation about music—no pitching, no agenda.” That supervisor turned out to be the legendary Bénédicte Ouimet, who later tracked them down via email. “We hadn’t even given her our contact details,” Alex laughs. “We’d just started the company—we didn’t even have a website at that point!”
The initial ask was simple, but unusual: Ubisoft was looking for a psychedelic rock band which was East African in origin for a mysterious upcoming title. Thunderdrum was tapped to help find talent in London’s music scene, but when they couldn’t identify a perfect match, they turned to Tiggs Da Author, a Tanzanian-born multi-genre artist known more for grime than guitars. “He wasn’t an obvious choice for a psychedelic rock frontman,” Alex admits. “But he was open-minded and excited by the challenge.” So excited, in fact, that Ubisoft asked Thunderdrum to demo a concept. With minimal assets and no confirmation of whether the demo was for Assassin’s Creed, they composed a two-minute track and nailed it. “The creative director and music team loved it,” Alex says. “That demo proved we were the right team to score the character.”
Building the sound of Yasuke from Assassin’s Creed Shadows
To shape the sound of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Thunderdrum drew from three main influences: classic psychedelic rock (think King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Black Angels, and vintage surf guitar), African blues and rhythmic traditions, and traditional/psychedelic Japanese music. “Those were the three pillars we tried to explore,” says Félix, who described their approach as culturally rooted yet cinematic in tone. Tiggs Da Author’s role was pivotal, not only as a vocalist, but as a storyteller who helped lyrically embody the character of Yasuke. “We spent so much time working out what he should say, how he should feel, and how that story would come through in the songs,” Alex adds.
The team also credited Ubisoft’s openness for allowing their creativity to thrive. Rather than prescribe a strict sound, the brief was more atmospheric. “It would be great if it felt like something off a Tarantino soundtrack,” Alex recalls. This freedom allowed Thunderdrum to lean into their own musical identity while honoring the game’s narrative. “For me,” Alex says, “this project is redemption for all the years trying to make a great psychedelic rock record. I feel like we finally did it.” While the album had to support an open-world gaming experience, the goal was always to make it feel like a standalone, needle-drop record—not just background music. “It was never about sounding like ‘game music,’” Félix says. “It was about making a real album.”
Advice for the next generation
When asked what advice they’d give to someone just starting out in music production—especially those dreaming of working on iconic titles like Assassin’s Creed—Félix keeps it simple and powerful: “Make stuff. Make a lot of it. And don’t give up.” The key, he explains, is persistence and creativity. “The people I really look up to are the ones who never stopped making things,” he says. “Music is endless, you’ll always discover something new, and the only way to grow is to keep creating.”
Both Félix and Alex also emphasize the importance of collaboration. “Make music with people. Keep your mind open to new ideas.” That openness, consistency, and passion for the craft is what carried Thunderdrum from late-night gigs to composing for one of gaming’s biggest franchises.