Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition we talked to Louise McMahon, Composer & Reporter. She speaks about blending music, dance, and gaming elements to push artistic boundaries, combining classical and singer-songwriter styles with video game-inspired techniques, while tackling themes of AI, self-discovery, and inclusivity through innovative, collaborative projects. Read more about Lou here:
Hi Lou,Butterfly Wars blends music, dance, and video game elements into a unique theatrical experience. What inspired you to explore such an interdisciplinary approach, and how do you see it challenging or expanding traditional artistic boundaries?

Process, I think. Kind of like shaking the dust off a rug. I’m dusty. Becoming and expressing all of me as an artist and putting it into this body of work—a work that is guiding me toward becoming the kind of composer I’ve always wanted to be: classical and focused on music for visual media. Even as a singer-songwriter, I was always keen on synchronisation. Butterfly Wars features a contemporary classical score alongside an indie singer-songwriter soundtrack.

The gaming vibes come alive through animations, interpretive dance, or both during our live performances. Our artwork guy, PA Fortin, is also a contemporary dancer and has prepared interpretive dance in the style of the Japanese art Butoh for 2025. I love this collaborative spirit. I love to dance and improvise music, my piano works are mostly improvised but I’d much rather someone else do the dancing (I’m very clumsy). This live performance will truly be a work of abstraction. It’s developing all the time. With animations, it’s more like a video game concert, complete with gaming footage in the background.

I’ve placed my songs in synchronisation libraries and with labels. For example, Wide Eyed Lady, my folk song, is on a compilation album distributed internationally by ARC Music and can be found in many academic libraries—a huge achievement for me. Another song, A River, was featured on a task in The Apprentice reality TV show. Despite these successes, I’ve still found it hard to secure sync placements. The self-doubt creeps in. So, with this project, I decided to create my own game concept to score while continuing the hunt—DIY.

Now, Butterfly Wars is acclaimed, and it’s giving me the confidence to present myself to the industry as a composer and singer-songwriter worth their salt. And I am.
This project isn’t about creating a traditional video game score or employing the rudiments of classical music; it’s supposed to be niche. There isn’t a brief—no dev asking for an epic theme or chiptune. It’s contemporary, infused with ideas around the structure and function of video game music, such as loops and intensity. Even Butter_flies is composed with ideas around 8-bit sounds; for example, the plucked sound of a pulse wave can be translated into pizzicato.
I studied music production for games at Griffith College, and I’ve applied all of that knowledge—narrative storytelling (the hero’s journey), music, and image—to create Butterfly Wars. Once the game is made, the ideas can be revisited to create a more immersive soundtrack. Video game music does have certain boundaries, as it follows player choices and is designed to loop and trigger dynamically. Loops and layered intensities are part of making that work. For Butterfly Wars, a small ensemble classical work drawing on the existing ideas is in the bag.
I’m working to establish myself as a niche video game composer, even though I have adaptable skills as a genre-fluid artist. The works of Philip Glass, Berlinist, and other minimalist composers have greatly influenced this project. I love big epic scores too—Star Wars Outlaws is fantastic, and Austin Wintory’s Journey? Wow! A game I play often and adore is Monument Valley—I love it mostly for its soothing, dissolving into the geometry via the audio world relaxation effect. Females — Winifred Philips is wonderful, Tina Guo, Julie Elven all fabulous women in games. Audio design plays a huge role in my day-to-day life. A proud woman in tech!
There’s a lot to be said for taking the bull by the horns. My concept work in video game music is opening doors for me far more effectively than waiting on miracles. Do. It. Yourself.

An essential factor of this project is self-discovery—much like our protagonist X on her quest for identity. The composer I’ve become through this process, and the bigger picture, is miles ahead of the composer I was two years ago. I go to work every day, I practice, I compose, and I handle all my own admin. I fully intend to be among the best in the world. I’ve great admiration for my colleagues and friends working in the games industry.

Butterfly Wars is acclaimed now too, and it made the Grammy long list in the contemporary classical composition category. Is it challenging and expanding traditional artistic boundaries? Perhaps when the game is made and the music is implemented in a niche way, I’ll see then if it’s truly pushing boundaries. For now, I’m delighted that classically trained musicians enjoy performing the work—they’re from Ireland’s leading orchestras. They’re great! It’s not my intention to challenge any standard or tradition, only to make this project a success for my team and me. I hope it’s opening doors for all of us as freelancers—I think it is. We’ve been doing some amazing things.

We’ve also adopted an inclusive strategy, supporting diversity and inclusion for our BWars family. We have a strong female presence in the crew and members of the LGBTQ+ community. It’s very meaningful to have been invited to your publication. I just kind of want all the butterflies to fly—including myself. Through this project, I’m finding my voice in video game music and classical music.

Your work often delves into profound themes like AI and humanity’s future. How do you translate such complex and futuristic ideas into music and performance that resonate emotionally with your audience?

The “risk to humanity” factor in Butterfly Wars actually shows up in the gameplay and through the dancers’ interpretation as they improvise—it’s not in the music at all. My AI obsession, however, seems to be showing up in all my work lately. It’s definitely getting out of hand.

I work as a reporter, covering topics like artificial intelligence, robotics, music, and gaming—very broad and cross-pollinated subjects. It’s also a pleasure to participate in Womenize! focusing on empowering women in tech and audio design, an area that remains male-dominated. It’s great to be part of that space. I spend my days recording and editing audio for broadcast. At Gamescom, we performed at Spielfabrique’s European Games Night during Devcom and at Games Ground, where I met some incredible women in the industry. Shout-out to Julia Bencher, who leads stellar Ableton workshops!

Over the years, I’ve covered stories about a robot cellist, creepy pasta “Loab”, the virtual influencer Imma, Cyberdelics, and the Nyckelharpa being performed on Halbrand’s theme in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and God of War, interviewing celebrities, artists and academics. It’s a fascinating mix, and I spend a lot of time researching for my reports, that’s where I found my interest in AI. I was preparing for a debate on AI and music. I dove into researching, and it sparked a deep curiosity about the ethical implications of generative AI.

I record, edit, interview, script-write, and provide voiceovers for everything I cover. Anyway…

Artificial intelligence both irks me and excites me. In recent years, we’ve seen everything from ChatGPT hooked up to Furbies plotting world domination to AI companions, and the rise of generated images, music just feeding an attention economy. On the surface, it all seems like accessible fun, but underneath lies a host of issues: copyright breaches, cybersecurity risks, and many hidden dangers of generative AI. Everyone knows this, but I really have genuine worries about it… though I’m not against it.

To me, the biggest risk isn’t AI itself—it’s AI in the hands of humans. I’m deeply concerned about the way artists’ copyrighted work online is reduced to data for generative AI. There needs to be transparency in how this data is used—watermarks, disclaimers, or other measures. I know there’s efforts to do that now. We’ve already seen irreparable mistakes. There have been suicides linked to AI chatbots, and even one man who was arrested because ChatGPT allegedly told him to kill the Queen of England? Our animations and our dancers interpret these kinds of ramblings from me in an abstract kind of way, really the characters etc are just inspired by it.

This is why Butterfly Wars has its central character: an AI who swings between zero emotion (pure machine) and sentience. I think I was reading a lot about DABUS at the time. At the end of the story, X, the AI, faces a pivotal choice—to remain a robot or become human. The evil creatures in Butterfly Wars are generated from unethical AI practices, symbolising the risks of misused generative AI. But we don’t see it this way, it’s a boroque gothic fantasy, a souls like adventure inspired by themes of AI. The music is string ensemble work, nothing electronic or robotic. But who knows, the Fredrick Grans Robot Cellist might be a freelancer and available for hire when the time comes around… wouldn’t that be apt?

As a multidisciplinary artist, what advice would you give to game composers and developers looking to push creative boundaries or work across genres and mediums?

I think that within the parameters of game music, there are always going to be some rules to follow—structurally and functionally. Game music needs to align with gameplay, evoke certain emotions, and enhance moods. It must follow the narrative musically, so we can’t stray too far from that foundation. Personally, I find the minimalist, small ensemble, and contemporary styles of game scores to be particularly appealing.

We all have our strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, so it’s not my place to guide anyone’s artistic vision. However, I do believe that if a composer and developer are trying to push boundaries, it’s important to establish one’s own voice, style, and approach to scoring for any game genre.

Sometimes you might receive a brief that says, “In the style of…?” These can be useful references, but I’m not particularly fond of the idea of replication. For me, it’s not the most exciting path as a composer. If you’re aiming to push boundaries, following such a brief can feel like playing it safe.

I like exploring odd ideas. Recently, I gave a workshop at Games Ground titled “Conceptualising Game Music: Creating a Leitmotif.” For it, I took a step back in time to early “talkie” movies. One example I shared was Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” being recycled as a diegetic sound—a whistle performed by a serial killer. In that film, the rest of the scene’s audio was sparse, and there was no musical score where, today, there likely would be.

I wondered about revisiting an idea like that: playing with emptiness in sound as a use of minimalism in gaming audio and scoring. Would it work, or would it feel wrong? I’m lucky to have the freedom to experiment with audio ideas like this for the reports I create, and I enjoy pushing concepts that might succeed or fail. It’s exciting to see how far an idea can go.

I’m not suggesting you do this specifically, but I think it’s important not to be afraid to follow your instincts and fail. That’s often where the real discoveries happen.

Women building up other women in the industry is super important right now. My experiences at Games Ground and Gamescom in mingling with other gals in the industry has been super-positive and I wish everyone continued support and success.

Thanks for this interview, Lou!

Louise’s links: LinkedIn, Website

Womenize! – Inspiring Stories Feature by Madeleine Egger