Excerpt from "Healing", featured in "eos"
Excerpt from "Static Field," featured in "Primary"
My History with Music
Being involved in band from early middle school to high school pushed me to understand basic concepts of music theory. I loved not only playing the oboe, but also learning how to transpose music in my free time to arrange medleys. I never thought that transposing and composing in my free time would ever prove to be a useful skill in my career. I consider composition to be a form of storytelling without words, as you convey emotions through melodies and harmonies. With experience in the classically trained art of music, my compositions are typically filled with catchy melodies, ever-building phrases, and a mastery of piano, orchestra, and electronic synths. If you are looking for anything from a haunting, dark ambience to mysterious, yet catchy electronic synths, you've come to the right place!
Now that I've begun my MFA in Interactive Media at the University of Southern California, I've had the pleasure of composing even more music than ever before for video games! During my first semester as a graduate student, I was immediately accepted onto a thesis project as an audio lead and composer. I am so thankful and excited to share and learn more about how I can craft my music for the best possible listening to playing experience.
Below are several games I've composed music for. In addition, you may listen to some tracks that I've made on my Bandcamp!
Excerpt from "Caught Up In", featured in an upcoming USC MFA thesis project "Prism of You"
Compositions for Short Games
As a student of game design, both in my undergraduate and graduate programs, I've thoroughly enjoyed crafting play experiences through short form projects. With such a tight scope and small team sizes, I'm always ecstatic to bring my skills as a composer to the table! As I began my journey as a graduate MFA student at USC, I've found so much joy in crafting short pieces of music for a variety of different genres. From board games guided by 15/4 timed compositions, to gothic and atmospheric background tracks, I'm always excited to score something new for any game that I work on!
"PRIMARY — THE ALBUM — THE OST"
Composing the score for "Primary" was the first time that I truly felt the freedom to explore a range of styles, instruments, and implementation strategies for my music. Having around a year and a half to work on this capstone project meant that I had ample time to strategize how the composition of my music would reflect the overall narrative of the game. In a game about the convergence and battle of art and technology, I decided to combine my experience with classical composition for instruments like piano and strings with my childhood love for electronic music. By attributing the piano and strings to the voice of the powerful artist Aletha, and the heavy synths to the nasty artificial intelligence program, I was able to craft compositions that are anything from emotional to dance-worthy. Inspiration for this album ranges from Lifeformed's "Tunic" OST, to James Primate's "Rain World" OST, all the way to classic EDM tracks from the community of "Geometry Dash" composers (Cacola, Dimrain, etc).
"Disquiet"
Working with a team to create an entire game within one semester was a tough challenge. I took on a multitude of roles, and being the only member on my team who knew how to make music, I took on that job as well. What came out of it was what would become my signature style of composition. Our game's story created an uneasy environment, which I mirrored in the level themes as ambient horror tunes. This was the first time where I realized that my beginner skills as an arranger and transposer could be used to compose my own pieces of music!