Story
After playing electric bass and guitar in my school’s Rock band for a couple of years, I passed the admission exam for electronics and audio engineering, which is an interuniversity study between the Technical University and the University Of Arts in Graz, Austria, and obtained my Masters’s degree in 2016. In the course of the Audio-Engineering program I did not only gain deep knowledge about the technical aspects of music, like signal processing, electronics, recording or acoustics, but as a creative mind I also wanted to further improve my skills in composition and music production. I took piano lessons at the University Of Arts, and, amongst others, completed courses in music theory, arrangement and orchestration.
In 2016, I was admitted as one of only 20 students from all over the world to the prestigious Screen Scoring (formerly called Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television) program 2016/2017 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. This one-year Master’s degree course is widely considered to be one of the world’s finest and most comprehensive film music programs, including faculty members like Christopher Young (Spiderman 3, Ghost Rider), Bruce Broughton (Silverado, Lost in Space) and Garry Schyman (Bioshock, Shadow Of Mordor). I am a grateful recipient of the Harry Warren Scholarship, awarded by USC Thornton and obtained my Master Of Music from USC summa cum laude in 2017.
Overall, I enjoyed a very comprehensive education and gained a lot of experience in many aspects of composition, production and music technology. From developing reverberation algorithms and measuring room acoustics to recording and mixing orchestral music, to pages and pages of hand-written orchestrations.
I’ve always been a big fan of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal and thus those genres have of course influenced my musical career. In 2006, I founded the Austrian Symphonic Metal Band Illuminata. Originally, the band tried to combine heavy guitars with the theatric, almost musical-like performances of their two female vocalists.
So far, Illuminata released three longplayers: From The Chalice Of Dreams (2008), A World So Cold (2011) and the most recent Where Stories Unfold (2015). Around the same time when I started working on the songs of ‘A World So Cold’, which was the band’s first professional release, I also discovered my passion for film music. From this point I learned a lot about working with orchestral sample-libraries and soon invested in professional tools. In consequence, ‘A World So Cold’ already features a lot of moments which are strongly influenced by epic blockbuster soundtracks.
The whole concept of combining Heavy Metal and Film Music culminated with the release of the band’s third album Where Stories Unfold. The compositions and arrangements on the album are heavily influenced by the recent ‘larger than life’ film-score sound and its production not only involved orchestral recordings with the prestigeous 60-piece Czech Film Orchestra in Prague, but also two different choirs, some soloists and various other guest musicians. Being responsible for the compositions, orchestrations, score preperations and most of the recordings, the creation of this album was quite challenging, but also a great experience. ‘Where Stories Unfold’ received very favourable reviews by major international magazines and webzines. You can find more information about the project here.
Beside Illuminata, I have been working for other bands in the genre as well, like Serious Black (AFM Records), Serenity or Dragony (Limb Music). However, my scope of work is not limited to Heavy Metal. I also produce music for the media industry, including trailer cues, music for advertising and compositions and orchestrations for motion picture. A selections of my works can be found here.
After moving to Los Angeles, I continued working on films, games and trailers and was fortunate to cooperate with the top orchestras in town.
Before I start working, I like to meet my customers and learn about their requirements and their vision for their individual projects. Continious communication is the key, and this initial discussion usually forms the beginnig of an ongoing dialog from start to finish, as I consider it very important to keep clients up-to-date about my progress. Consequently, I also strongly believe that deadlines are there for a reason and delivering quality work in time is one of my key principles.
My work process of course largely depends on what is required, but generally I like to start with at least one or two main musical ideas. The development and recycling of such thematic material throughout a piece is not only a main characteristic of my compositional workflow, but for me it is also an overly enjoyable part of the whole writing process.
In order to be able to deliver the hightest possible sound quality, I use professional music production tools, including a high-end digital audio workstation equipped with state-of-the-art audio-hardware and software, a reliable monitoring system and tons of modern sample libraries. Though the quality of virtual instruments has improved dramatically in recent years, I always encourage my clients to involve as many live musicians as possible. The expression, authenticity and emotion of a live performance is still unparalleled, and even a single real player layered on top of the samples can greatly enhance an otherwise digitally produced track.
Generally, I’m a very active, open-minded and creative person. The world is full of adventures and wonder, and I can count myself lucky to travel around quite frequently. I have visited many countries all around our planet and love to discover new places and cultures. It is so exciting to meet new people and listen to their stories and indeed, many unforgettable impressions of what I’ve seen and heard on my journeys have somehow found their way into my music.
As an engineer, I’m also very interested in new technologies. I generally bring a lot of motivation to aquire new skills and gained basic knowlegde in fields related to digital media, including programming, webdesign and video and photo editing. Beside music, photography is another way of expressing my creativity and I love taking pictures from all the beautiful places I visit on my journeys. Pursuing outdoor activities, such as skiing, playing soccer or jogging, is something I enjoy throughout the year and apart from that, I like to hang out with friends, go to the cinema and visit concerts.
Alltogether, those activities are invaluable inspirational resources for my creativitiy and have contributed well to my life and wellbeing.
Signalment
Favourite things to do beside music: Hanging out with friends, Photography, Travelling, Sports
Favourite Bands/Musicians: Afi, Within Temptation, Sonata Arctica, Avenged Sevenfold, Epica, Dimmu Borgir and many more!
Favourite Composers: Too many to list!
Favourite Orchestral Instruments: Cello, Horn, Flute
Favourite Movies: Avatar, The Lord Of The Rings, Marvel Film Series, Mad Max, Inception, …
Favourite Books: The Lord Of The Rings, The Song Of Ice And Fire
Favourite TV Series: Big Bang Theory, Game Of Thrones, Two And A Half Men
Favourite Sports: Soccer (passive and active), Skiing, Jogging