Grammy-Winning Composer Got His Start in Games

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
12,070
0
0
Grammy-Winning Composer Got His Start in Games



The composer of Pixar's Up [http://www.amazon.com/Single-Disc-Widescreen-Edward-Asner/dp/B001KVZ6FW/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280173714&sr=1-1] received 2 Grammys yesterday and said that it wouldn't have been possible without videogames.

Michael Giacchino won two Grammy awards yesterday for his work on the Pixar animated film, Up (Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and Best Instrumental Composition - "Married Life (from Up)" if you want to get technical about it.) None of that would have been possible though if Steven Spielberg hadn't picked him to compose the music for the Lost World videogame, released in 1997. A young director remembered the music of that game and sought out Giacchino to hire him for a new TV series called IMDB resume [http://www.amazon.com/Alias-Complete-Season-Ron-Rifkin/dp/B001MVWRNE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280173740&sr=1-1]. None of his success would have happened without his first major job in the videogame industry.

"J.J. Abrams played those video games," Giacchino said, "and called me out of the blue - 'Hey, do you want to do Alias with me?'"

The composer now has a strong tie with Abrams, having worked on most of the director's projects including the 2009's Star Trek reboot, for which he was also nominated last night. "Right now I'm concentrating on the final season of Lost [http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Complete-Collection-Naveen-Andrews/dp/B0036EH3WK/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280173783&sr=1-4]," Giacchino said.

Although Giacchino has found great success with TV and movies, he also penned the soundtracks of some landmark videogames such as Medal of Honor [http://www.amazon.com/Medal-Honor-Xbox-360/dp/B000TI836G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278970632&sr=1-1] and the first Call of Duty. Let's hope he comes back to the fold and writes some great music for the game industry again, if nothing else as an homage for giving him his start all those years ago.

Source: Variety [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014528.html?categoryid=16&cs=1]

Permalink
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
0
0
Goes to prove those who make the music in games can make it big!
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
17,032
0
0
Yep. Gaming has a ton of good music. Let's not turn this into a thread of youtube links though.
 

fozzy360

I endorse Jurassic Park
Oct 20, 2009
688
0
0
To me, Giacchino is one of the best working composers today. He's one of the few composers whose work I anticipate very much, and he deserves his awards. His score for Lost World was rock solid, but Medal of Honor: Frontline was easily his best work in videogames. It'd be nice if he comes back to score another game one of these days. I have no doubt it would be an awesome score.
 

RebelRising

New member
Jan 5, 2008
2,230
0
0
Medal of Honor: Frontline was definitely one of the best videogame scores out there. His work with Pixar is also wonderful; his fusion of golden-age classical with huge movies like Star Trek and Up is inspired.
 

Anarien

New member
Mar 30, 2007
184
0
0
I'm a big fan of Giacchino's work, and have been for years. I'm glad to see him getting all this recognition for his work on Up, which was a really great score (and, IMO, the best movie of 2009). I'm also a big fan of his score for The Incredibles.
 

rsvp42

New member
Jan 15, 2010
897
0
0
Yeah, soundtrack for The Incredibles was amazing. That's what put him on my radar (only now do I realize how much he's done) and now I love it when his name pops up the credits.
 

2012 Wont Happen

New member
Aug 12, 2009
4,286
0
0
I love to hear positive stories about games like this. Its a refreshing change to 10 year olds garrote wiring a cat after playing manhunt like the mainstream media so loves to discuss.

I think this is cool though. I can see this though, video game scores are very similar to movie scores.
 

Terramax

New member
Jan 11, 2008
3,747
0
0
Congratulations to him. Medal of Honor: Frontline's soundtrack is absolutely masterful. The game wouldn't have been half as memorable without his score.

Not to say the game didn't play well, but his score was the sweet icing on a well made cake.
 

sgtshock

New member
Feb 11, 2009
1,103
0
0
Medal of Honor and the first Call of Duty rank among my favorite video game soundtracks of all time. It's great to see Giacchino finally get some recognition; the man is extremely talented.