Jack Wall is an American video game music composer. He has worked on video game music for over 20 games including the Myst franchise, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and majority of Treyarch made Call of Duty starting with Black Ops II. Wall earned a degree in civil engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and, after a brief stint working in civil engineering, transitioned into music production. He worked with musicians such as John Cale, David Byrne, and Patti Smith, and, after performing increasingly complex production and sound engineering tasks, moved into music composition in 1995.
Wall's first video game composition was the soundtrack to Vigilance. Primarily composing in an orchestral style, by 2001 he composed the soundtrack to Myst III: Exile, which was the title he says put him on the map as a video game composer. In 2002, Wall became one of around 20 co-founders of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) as well as senior director. In 2005, Wall, along with G.A.N.G. founder and fellow composer Tommy Tallarico, produced the Video Games Live concert series, having served as the conductor for the international concert tour. His soundtracks for Myst III: Exile, Myst IV: Revelation, Rise of the Kasai, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 2 were nominated for and won multiple awards.
Early life Jack Wall, born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania,Information obtained from Intelius . earned a degree in civil engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia and began a career "planning out sub-divisions and shopping malls". At the same time he was in a rock band, as he was also interested in music. After recording a demo tape with the band, he was inspired to change career paths and quit his job to work in the music industry. He initially worked as a bartender and later started working in recording studios in Philadelphia and later Boston and New York City, where he worked for Skyline Studios. In 1991 Wall left Skyline, and until 1994 worked as an independent music producer and sound engineer in New York City, working with musicians such as John Cale, David Byrne, and Patti Smith, as well as local bands. Over those three years, Wall consistently worked with Cale, eventually handling arrangement and orchestration of Cale's compositions as well as producing and working as a sound engineer. While working with Cale on the soundtrack to a movie, House of America, he watched as Cale composed thirty minutes of music in almost real time, and was inspired to begin composing music.
Career
By late 1995, Wall was living in Los Angeles and was married to singer Cindy Shapiro, who he had met in 1994. She knew Ron Martinez, who was starting a video game company, PostLinear Entertainment, and he asked Wall to work for it as a composer. He composed the soundtracks for several games for PostLinear; the first released was Vigilance in 1997. His daughter Gracie was also born early in 1997. After leaving the company, he composed the soundtrack to 2001's Myst III: Exile, which was his first orchestral score and the work that he said put him on the map as a video game composer. It was also interesting to him, as it was a sequel to the first video game he had ever played, Myst. Myst III was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition" award, which it lost to the Tropico soundtrack.
In 2002, Wall became one of around 20 co-founders of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) as well as senior director. The group works to promote the appreciation of video game music, as well as serve as a professional resource for video game music composers and musicians. It was developed and headed by Tommy Tallarico. As of 2010, Wall serves as vice chairman, after stepping down from heading the board of directors in 2007. He continued to compose soundtracks for games such as The Mark of Kri and Unreal II: The Awakening. His work on Myst IV: Revelation in 2004 earned him his first three awards, those of "Best Live Performance Recording", "Best Original Vocal Song: Choral", and "Music of the Year" from the G.A.N.G. awards.
Wall, along with Tommy Tallarico, has produced the Video Games Live concert series, which began on July 6, 2005. The two had been planning the concert series, which presents orchestrated versions of music from dozens of games, for three years. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects, as well as several interactive segments with the audience, conducted by Wall. Video Games Live was intended to take the idea of a symphonic video game music concert, which was popular in Japan, and combine it with a rock concert to make it appealing to western fans. The series is international and ongoing, with more than 70 shows planned for 2009. Wall composed the soundtracks to three games released in 2005 including the award-winning score to Jade Empire, and some of his works released since then have been 2007's Mass Effect and 2010's Mass Effect 2. Mass Effects score earned Wall several awards and nominations, as did Mass Effect 2.
Musical style and influences
Although many of his works are orchestral, Jack Wall has worked in a wide variety of styles, including "heavy metal meets orchestral" and "tribal percussion". For Jade Empire, he focused on using Chinese instruments and Taiko drums. When writing a video game score, Wall prefers a collaborative approach with the game designers to creating the music, as he feels that the "tug back and forth of ideas" makes the music stronger. He notes, however, that he has to be flexible, and willing to create his own vision for the music. As part of this, he prefers to be able to see illustrations and game design documents before beginning, as they provide insight into the feel of the game so that his music can mesh in with it. He also believes that a good video game music composer needs to have a lot of technical sound production skill to be successful. Wall has said that the Myst and Mass Effect soundtracks are his favorites that he has created. Wall stated that he was primarily interested in scoring games that are "interesting", and that his main concern was creating something original. Although he has worked with live orchestras and synthetic orchestras, Wall recommends that game developers use a live one, despite the expense, as he feels they add a much more dynamic sound to the music and allow the composer more freedom than synthesizer samples.
Discography Video games + Year Title Developer(s) Publisher(s) Notes 1998 Vigilance PostLinear Entertainment SegaSoft 10Six SegaSoft SegaSoft Flying Saucer PostLinear Entertainment JoWooDSoftware 2000 2000 Animorphs: Know the Secret Gigawatt Studios GT Interactive Evil Dead: Hail to the King Heavy Iron Studios THQ 2001 Ultimate Ride Disney Interactive Studios Disney Interactive Studios Myst III: Exile Presto Studios Ubisoft Disney's Extremely Goofy Skateboarding Krome Studios Disney Interactive Studios 2002 The Mark of Kri San Diego Studio Sony Computer Entertainment 2003 Ben-Hur: Blood of Braves Microïds Microïds Unreal II: The Awakening Legend Entertainment Atari 2004 Wrath Unleashed The Collective LucasArts Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow Ubisoft Shanghai Ubisoft Myst IV: Revelation Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft 2005 Rise of the Kasai Bottlerocket Entertainment Sony Computer Entertainment America Neopets: The Darkest Faerie Idol Minds Sony Computer Entertainment Jade Empire BioWare Microsoft Games Studios 2007 Mass Effect BioWare Microsoft Games Studios Composed with Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques, and David Kates 2010 Mass Effect 2 BioWare Electronic Arts Composed with Jimmy Hinson, Sam Hulick, and David Kates 2012 Call of Duty: Black Ops II Treyarch Activision Main theme composed by Trent Reznor 2013 Lost Planet 3 Spark Unlimited Capcom 2015 Call of Duty: Black Ops III Treyarch Activision "I Live (Electronic Version)", "Ignition" and "Safehouse" composed by Brian Tuey in soundtrack album 2016 Into the Stars Fugitive Games Iceberg Interactive Additional music composed by Jim Lordeman 2017 Dota 2 Valve Valve The International 2017 Music Pack LawBreakers Boss Key Productions Nexon One of 7 artists, responsible for "Axel", "Bombchelle", and "T.A.S.C Theme" 2018 Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Treyarch Activision 2020 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War TreyarchRaven Software Activision 2021 Call of Duty: Vanguard Sledgehammer GamesTreyarch Activision Zombies score; composed in collaboration with Bear McCreary 2023 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Sledgehammer GamesTreyarch Activision Zombies score; main score composed by Walter Mair 2024 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 TreyarchRaven Software Activision Zombies score composed by Brian Tuey; additional music composed by Jim Lordeman, Big Giant Circles, and Romes 2025 Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 TreyarchRaven Software Activision
Film and television + Year Title Production company(s) Distributor(s) Notes 2016 Hard Target 2 Universal 1440 EntertainmentLiving Films Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Composed with Trevor Morris 2017–2019 Shadowhunters Constantin Film Disney–ABC Domestic Television(United States)Netflix(International)
Awards + Year Award Category Work Result2001Academy of Interactive Arts & SciencesOutstanding Achievement in Original Music CompositionMyst III: Exile Nominated2004GameSpot Best of 2004 AwardsBest Original MusicMyst IV: Revelation NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Interactive ScoreMyst IV: Revelation NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal Song: PopMyst IV: Revelation ("Welcome") NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Live Performance RecordingMyst IV: Revelation WonGame Audio Network GuildBest Original Vocal Song: ChoralMyst IV: Revelation ("Main Theme") WonGame Audio Network GuildMusic of the YearMyst IV: Revelation Won2005Academy of Interactive Arts & SciencesOutstanding Achievement in Original Music CompositionRise of the Kasai NominatedAcademy of Interactive Arts & SciencesOutstanding Achievement in Original Music CompositionJade Empire NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Live Performance RecordingJade Empire NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Original Instrumental SongJade Empire ("Main Theme") NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Original Soundtrack AlbumJade Empire Won2007Game Audio Network GuildBest Original Instrumental SongMass Effect ("The Citadel") NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Original Soundtrack AlbumMass Effect NominatedIGN Best of 2007 AwardsBest Original ScoreMass Effect WonGameSpot Best of 2007 AwardsBest Original MusicMass Effect Won2010British Academy of Film & Television ArtsBest Original MusicMass Effect 2 NominatedGame Audio Network GuildBest Soundtrack AlbumMass Effect 2 Nominated
References
External links