Linkedin - Youtube - Spotify - Twitter

ELEKTROBEAR

Introduction

I still remember the moment I first sat down to write a song. I had gone back to my hometown for the summer to work and since space was tight, we leased out a small apartment for me to live in while I was there. I‘d brought a computer along with me to pass the time but without internet connectivity, going to that apartment was like stepping into an isolation chamber. I was bored to death there, until my solution appeared in the form of a limited Fruity Loops trial. Suddenly I was laying down notes and beats, creating sounds, exploring an endless world of aural possibility, and the isolation chamber became a boon rather than a curse, allowing me complete focus on the task at hand. And the task was ever so rewarding..

Don‘t get me wrong, most of the music was absolute dross, but I loved it and enjoyed it as if it were the finest works of art. The sense of fulfillment from creating something out of nothing was unlike anything I‘d experienced before.

And so the years passed..

Music was always just a hobby, a pastime to reach out to when I had nothing to do. I worked aimlessly, and sometimes it was difficult to get moving because I had no idea where I was going? But one day I was pushed to try to do something which was far beyond my skillset. My friend sent me a link to a forum post by an indie game developer looking for a musician for his small free game.

"Looking for musician for a metroidvania"

This small indie dev has gone on to publish his games on most current consoles, selling hundreds of thousands of copies of his games, and I happen to be composing on his latest release. All because I took that chance, did my research and tried to deliver something he would be happy with, even if I had no idea how to make video game music beforehand.

So if there is one advice I would leave here, it‘s to never tell yourself you aren‘t good enough to do something. Leave that to other people.

After a long journey of writing hobbyist music and later writing music for hobbyist video games, I‘ve finally arrived in a place where I am on the verge of being able to call myself a professional composer. So I finally took the decision to go all in and create for myself the best possible platform to succeed going forward. I would make my life into music and see if the supports would hold.

That is why I made the decision to go to SAE Institute to study Audio Engineering. I‘ve learned alot on my own over the years, but the more I‘ve pushed in one area, the more I‘ve felt how wobbly and weak the supports holding me up really are. I came here to create for myself the most solid possible foundation for me to stand on going forward, so that I could take on any project and grow to meet them.

I want to have the skills to achieve the visions set before me, either by my employers or by myself. I want to continue honing and evolving my personal style and adding on more and more tools into my arsenal. This last year I‘ve taken the step into Sound Design, creating and recording my own sounds to help realize the impact and feel of video game actions. It has been a difficult process, but extremely rewarding in its own way.

Going forward I want to better myself in my overall production work and strengthen my Sound Design skills as well as learn how to operate popular game engine audio pipelines so that I can properly integrate fully within a team and be more of an asset to them, as well as having a shorter distance between the creation of my sounds and the integration of them.

It is my firm belief that if I continue to better myself and grow, my career will grow along with me.