VAM 165 | Interview with Crispin Hands, Part 2
Welcome to episode 165 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with composer, sound designer, and audio director for video games and films, Crispin Hands! Crispin has lent his composing and sound design talents to many high profile games including Metroid Prime, Neverwinter Nights, the Need for Speed game franchise, as well as Gears of War 4 and 5.
For a complete listing of Crispin’s audio work in games and films, you can visit the website of his production company, Lionshead Entertainment at www.LionsHeadPro.com.
In this episode, Crispin tells me what initially inspired him to get involved in music, composing, and sound design. He shares with me the story of the first time he sang for other people and how deeply that experience affected him. The joy he felt creating music had such a profound impact on him that he committed himself to pursuing a career in music, even though he had no formal musical training and had never even dreamed of becoming a professional musician. Later, after he had written a score for his friend’s student film, he happened to watch a behind the scenes video on the making of the highly influential computer game, Myst. When he saw how the music for that game had been created, he realized composing music for games was exactly the type of work he wanted to do.
As our conversation continues, Crispin shares how he uses his appreciation and understanding of character and story to help him write his music. It’s vitally important to him to understand what the character and story mean to his collaborators so he can create music that helps support their creative goals. He also reminds me that even the environment of a game can be a kind of character in the story, as the planet of Sera is in the Gears franchise. A game environment like Sera may even require its own musical theme in order to help guide the player through the emotional journey of the game! As we wrap up our time together, Crispin gives his advice for the aspiring voice actor and talks about how important it is to always play to your strengths when auditioning for AAA game developers! He has some great insights that I’m eager to share with you, so let’s get started!
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