Read About How the Iconic Sound of WC3 Was Born

Hi everyone. First of all, BRAVO for getting us so close to the target so quickly! I'm already hearing that orchestra in my mind's "ear" :)!

Ten years ago I posted an update for the original campaign about how I got hired by EA/Origin in the first place. It was pretty much a whim when speaking to eventual fellow Origin composer Paul Baker one day in Austin, TX. Paul and I had done many gigs together (he sax, me piano). I ran into him in early 1994 when he told me he'd gotten hired to compose game music. I found that truly intriguing and decided that "I could do that" and told him so. He recommended that I make a demo cassette (remember those??) and so I did. I gave it to Paul to hand in, and a few weeks later I was hired to score Wing Commander 3!

I also alluded some years back to the fact that I'd never heard of the Wing Commander series at that time, nor was I much on playing games, but I did have a Masters degree in composition as well as lots of experience performing in various genres. I also was totally devoid of any technical knowledge in terms of MIDI scoring and basically learned it all on the job from February 1994 up to the release of WC3 in Thanksgiving of that same year.

When I arrived at Origin, and had absolutely no clue of what was expected of me, I was needless to say very malleable in terms of what to do. Martin Galway, the audio director of WC3, met with me shortly after my arrival and seemed to assume the role of my coach. I was immediately given the task of submitting some demos to Chris Roberts our esteemed producer regarding the musical direction I would take the project. Martin assured me that he new what Chris wanted, since they both went back a long way. He directed me to create a Kilrathi theme that would seem very big and cat-like, with musical cat roars in it. I was like, "OK" and proceeded to do so, but also composing a few cues that were not of that ilk. We didn't bounce out audio at the time, so I sent Chris and game director Frank Savage MIDI files of my early compositions.

The next day I was summoned to Chris' office, just me, Chris and Frank in attendance. At first, Chris played the Kilrathi music I created based on Martin's advice and they both burst into laughter and started strutting around the room like big, lumbering cats as the music played. I smiled but sunk deeply into my chair, feeling TOTALLY embarrassed and thought I was going to be fired right then and there. Then they opened another track I gave them which I called "Patrol", and they were transfixed. Both Chris and Frank both said, "THAT is the sound!" Thankfully from that moment forward I was not second guessed for the next 1 hour of gameplay music plus 3.5 hours of cutscene (movie) music. And thus an artistic relationship was born that transcended that and the first sequel.