CALL FOR SOUND DESIGNERS – Final Fantasy VI Musical/Audio Drama

Hello everyone!
As many of you may know, Jeff Swingle (@Jeff_Swingle) and I are hard at work on Project ESPER, a musical theatre/audio drama hybrid adaptation of the classic JRPG, “Final Fantasy VI”.  We’ve assembled a fantastic production team so far, and now, as we prepare for our upcoming Kickstarter, we’re once again recruiting!
We’re looking for sound designers; people to help us bring the world of FF6 to life through audio.  Since the story is told entirely through dialogue, song, music, and sound, we need to be able to conjure and illustrate worlds and situations through skillful sound design.  Everything from footsteps to Magitek machinery, to magical blasts and monsters will will be up to you to help create and place on our virtual theatre stage.
It’s a paid position, post-Kickstarter success, and we plan to include a revenue share in the project as well.

If interested, please fill out the application form below and submit your demo reels and credits before Midnight PST, on Sunday, July 30th.
Thank you!

https://goo.gl/forms/JqxpyjjJzDDU3pxE3

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Fireside Chats and Interviews!

Wherein the fire is the blistering Chicagoland sun. 😉
I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with J.A. over at ObsoleteGamer about my music, and I mostly appeared intelligent! You can check it out here:
http://obsoletegamer.com/obsolete-gamer-show-john-robert-matz/

In addition, I had the opportunity to offer some more nuanced takes on my work on Fossil Echo over at Realm of Gaming:
http://www.realmofgaming.com/interview/JohnRobertMatzInterview/75.html

Devolver Digital’s E3 Press Conference

Hello all!

Those of you who follow me on social media know that the cat’s out of the bag now, and I had the pleasure of working with Imagos Films to bring Devolver Digital’s first ever E3 press conference to musical life.

Check out the presser here:

https://youtu.be/WqPT9hyPANs

And the score to this wonderful nightmare is here:

It was a blast to be a part of something so fantastic, and I hope you all enjoy/are not permanently scarred from watching it.

Auditions Open for Final Fantasy VI Musical/Audiodrama

Hello all!

As some of you may know, Jeff Swingle and I have been working on a top-secret project for the last few months, and it’s finally time to announce it to the world and open the doors for auditions!

PROJECT ESPER is a fully licensed Musical Theatre/Audio Drama adaptation of the beloved JRPG Final Fantasy VI (or III, if you’re in the US) 😉 being produced in conjunction with the Materia Collective.

Here are a few collaborations between myself and Jeff that informed our vision for the project:
“Ovelia & Delita” (from Final Fantasy: Tactics)

“L’Histoire d’un Mercenaire” (from Final Fantasy: Tactics)

We’re gearing up to launch our Kickstarter (yes, this will be a paid gig once it’s funded!) and, as such, we’re looking for anyone interested in submitting auditions for the multitude of colorful heroes and villains of the Final Fantasy VI universe.

This audition process will focus on Voice Acting and Singing, and is open to EVERYONE, not just members of the Materia Collective.  (The only hard and fast requirement is that auditionees need to be able to record their own vocal performances.)

Auditions run until Midnight PST, June 4th.

Please feel free to share this, and good luck!

Project Esper Audition Form:

https://goo.gl/forms/PY6yJly9NVQgZaA42

Fossil Echo Nominated for ASCAP’s 2016 Video Game Score of the Year!

Wow.

This took me entirely by surprise.  Even now, days later, I find words fail to express how honored and stunned I was when I found out that I was nominated for the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards for “Video Game Score of the Year” for my Fossil Echo score, alongside a host of my idols, colleagues, and friends.  Thank you, everyone, for thinking enough of me and my work to nominate me for this amazing honor.
I’ll do my best to live up to it.

I’d also like to congratulate all of my fellow nominees; every single one of them is an outstanding composer with a brilliantly unique creative voice, and they’re the people that continue to inspire me in my own work.  I am humbled and couldn’t be prouder to be included in their number.

The complete nominees for 2016 are:

2016 ASCAP Film Score of the Year

 

• Jóhann Jóhannsson – Arrival
• Matthew Margeson – Eddie the Eagle
• Hauschka – Lion
• Lesley Barber – Manchester by the Sea
• Nicholas Britell – Moonlight
• Michael Giacchino – Zootopia

 

2016 ASCAP TV Composer of the Year

 

• Jeff Cardoni (The Grinder, Silicon Valley, Speechless)
• Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (Stranger Things)
• James S. Levine  (Bloodline, Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles, Royal Pains, Star)
• Bear McCreary(Agents of SHIELD, Black Sails, Damien, Outlander, The Walking Dead)
• Dave Porter (Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, Preacher)
• Didier Lean Rachou (Bering Sea Gold, Deadliest Catch, Food Network Star, Gold Rush, Edge of Alaska)

 

2016 ASCAP Video Game Score of the Year

 

• Michael Salvatori, Skye Lewin & C. Paul Johnson – Destiny: Rise of Iron
• John Robert Matz – Fossil Echo
• Tom Salta (aka Atlas Plug) & Klayton (aka Celldweller) – Killer Instinct: Season 3
• Neal Acree & Adam Burgess – Overwatch

Thank you, everyone.
Voting is open to all ASCAP members and runs until midnight EST next Sunday, April 16th.
You can vote here:
https://www.ascap.com/composerschoice

FOR THE KING out on Steam Early Access!

Yes, at long last, you can play For The King on your PC or Mac right now.

If you’re a fan of co-op (and single-player) roguelike strategy RPG boardgames with Final Fantasy-esque combat, FTL-style encounters, a world packed with lore and mini-adventures, charming art, and renaissance-inspired music, this game might just be for you.

You can purchase it on Steam today for $15, or drop by our table in the Indie MEGABOOTH at PAX East this weekend, give the game a try, and meet the team!

Finally, here’s the score from our EA trailer; based on the initial Kickstarter trailer score, but with live brass (I’m rather proud of it) and a variety of other tweaks and improvements.

Enjoy!

GDC 2017 and the Game Audio Network Guild Awards

Last week, I attended the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco.
It was wonderful. A week of learning, reconnecting with friends and colleagues, and making new ones.

I got to see friends take the IGF stage to accept honors and awards, I played the weird and wonderful ALT.CTRL.GDC games, I attended the spiffy CarouselCon run by Matthew Marteinsson of Klei games, and got to dine with some of my compositional idols.

Something else also happened.

“Fossil Echo“, a game you may have noticed me posting about from time to time, won “Best Interactive Score” at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards, winning over such amazing, brilliant fellow nominees as “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End”, “Overwatch”, “INSIDE”, “Tethered”, and “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided”. I’m still in shock. Those teams and composers are the ones I look up to, that I’ve tried to emulate, whom I’ve learned from and been inspired by. To have the music that I wrote in my basement studio, recorded and performed nearly entirely myself (thanks, Mklachu!) be recognized in this way is incredibly humbling, and I am so incredibly grateful to the game audio community and the members of G.A.N.G. who did me this honor. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the team, Philippe Crifo and Thierry Boura of AWACEB, Gordon McGladdery and Em Halberstadt of A Shell in the Pit Audio, and Michaela Nachtigall for lending her violin to the score.

Gordon and I, post-awards

Furthering the honor, G.A.N.G. awarded me the title of “Rookie of the Year”, alongside Mikel Shane Prather, (Co-rookies? Madness!) another talented composer I had the pleasure of meeting at GDC.

Gesticulating dramatically whilst improvising an acceptance speech.

It was quite arguably the best night of my life.

Adding to the GDC awesome, I had the privilege of chatting with Kate Remington of Music Respawn the morning after the awards and getting to talk a fair bit about Fossil Echo’s score, game music philosophy, musical theatre, and a dozen other related subjects.

That interview can be found here:
http://wshu.org/post/music-respawn-john-robert-matz-rookie-year

Finally, last but not least (and getting it’s own post shortly), “For the King” has been released on Steam Early Access!!!