Personal Statement

As an innovator in the video game music industry, I intend to create compelling, unique sound experiences in video games. I also intend to utilize the opportunities I obtain to create a safe, welcoming place in which other video game music composers and sound designers can have the same opportunities and support I have received, and more. Currently, I believe the world of music and sound for video games has been limited by pre-conceived notions placing video game music and sound under the same general blanket of work as music and sound design for film and television.However, as the medium of video games further and further deviates from the standard linear form we see in other video mediums and becomes more and more dynamic to the player’s interactions with the game world, I believe it is necessary to treat the soundscape of a video game as its own unique medium, utilizing tools such as procedural sound implementation and dynamic music transitions to truly make the player feel the impact they have on the game world. By adding my unique knowledge and inventive mind to the process of video game music composition and sound design, I believe I can carve a path for future video game music composers and sound designers to follow, learn through, and feel actively encouraged to grow and find their own success in the field.What motivates me as a composer, a writer, and as a creator are three key things. Firstly, I seek opportunities to demonstrate the unique factors I bring to the soundscape of a piece of entertainment. I am an entertainer at heart, and hence, I will always ask questions regarding how any of my work can be improved within any given project with a focus on what will bring the audience the most impactful experience. As a rule of thumb, I never settle at “enough” if there is something upon which I can improve.Secondly, I deeply value friendship and camaraderie in a team. It is a firm belief of mine that a team that genuinely enjoys one another’s company and builds off of one another’s strengths and growth points will be far more successful than a team strictly composed of solitary “best fits” in any given position; hence, I am always open to working in what way best helps my fellow team members, and actively make an effort to ensure all team members feel welcomed and encouraged to put forth their best work.Lastly, as a fervently inventive mind more than anything else, I value the chance to compose into reality the infinite concepts which rush through my mind. If at any point I have a design concept formulated in my mind, I will immediately write it down in as much detail as I can parse. The result of this habitual behavior is the ability to have upwards of thousands of ideas for games, characters, narrative beats, sounds, and musical concepts per week, well above the typical expectation for a game designer, sound designer, or music composer.Throughout my life, I have been impacted by my experiences in music and acting performance on and off the stage, in and out of the recording booth, as a solo performer and as part of a team. When asked why I wish to be a music composer, or why I wish to be an actor, or why I wish to write, I always bring forth the same answer: “The stage is my home.” The act of performing is what has always brought me some of my closest friends and greatest of teachers in life. These fellow performers have taught me to take my own advice, to be willing to be kind to myself just the same as to others around me, and to not give up especially when the going gets hard. To this end, I would like to share a story of mine from my time as a performer in a travelling jazz band.Our jazz band, known at the time as the Red, White & Blues, was originally formed from a high school jazz band ensemble after our teacher for the group wanted to turn the class into a legitimate performing group. Our director managed all the extraneous details, appointed me and two others as section leads, and focused on allowing us the freedom to choose and even compose our own works to perform.At one competition, however, our band was met with a new challenge; another jazz band had chosen an almost identical selection of pieces to our main set. Hence, we were left with our “B-list;” many original works we had not even evaluated for performance purposes, and a particular set of pieces our percussionist outright refused to perform. When we took the stage, it only took about four measures of performance for our last song in the set to totally collapse. Our percussionist began intentionally going out of tempo, our clarinetist began laughing audibly through the instrument, and our own director was on the verge of screaming us off the stage.Realistically, we could have stopped our performance there, collected our losses, and moved forward. However, I had an idea to not simply give up the show and the competition; and so, I began playing the melody to a fitting song for accepting when things go wrong and still moving forward, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s The Life of Brian.Soon after, the entire ensemble joined in the improvised performance, and to our surprise, our ensemble won the competition. Of course, our director was absolutely furious with me going off-set, which I understood; however, I believe the lesson I pulled from this experience that still impacts my work from here on is to remember not to give up when the going gets hard, to seek creative ways to make that which seems impossible possible, and to pursue that which lets you and your team feel the greatest hope for success and growth.