Interview with Jason Hayes

A multiple award-winning composer, Jason Hayes is best known for his long-standing relationship with Blizzard Entertainment. You can hear his music in all of Blizzard's recent games set in the popular worlds of StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft. Most recently, he was the lead composer on World of WarCraft. Among other contributions, his specialty has been to write the musical score for the widely acclaimed short animated movies produced by the Blizzard Film Department. In this context, he's won the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) award for “Best Cinematic / Cut-scene Audio” two years in a row.

MasterD: First can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Jason: Hi! I'm Jason Hayes, the lead composer for World of Warcraft. I've also worked a great deal on the music for the cinematic cut-scenes and promotional trailers for all of Blizzard's games ever since Starcraft.

MasterD: How did you get in the Game Industry?

Jason: I sent out a couple introductory letters to game companies via e-mail from my apartment in Lafayette, Louisiana (a southern state in the U.S., near the city of New Orleans). About two or three weeks later, someone from the corporate offices at Sierra On-Line in Seattle, WA wrote me back, saying they had forwarded my inquiry to the Oakhurst, CA division (right outside of Yosemite Valley), because they thought that team was looking for a composer. I couldn’t believe it! Soon after that, I got another e-mail from Human Resources in Oakhurst saying they had received my letter from their corporate headquarters and would like me to send in a demo. I was thrilled, and promptly sent in a CD of music representing a variety of styles.

Another 3 weeks went by, and I was starting to wonder if I’d ever hear from them again. Then all of a sudden came one more e-mail from HR, asking if I could send in another demo, this time focusing on orchestral music. I replied enthusiastically, assuring the representative that it would be in the mail right away. I then proceeded to panic because I didn’t have any more demo material to send in!

To make a long story short, I worked around the clock on a new demo, sent it in, and eventually was flown to Oakhurst to interview with Sierra On-Line. I was hired about a month later. I’m very grateful to them for giving me my start in the game industry!

MasterD: How long do you worked by Blizzard?

Jason: I was a member of Blizzard's game development team for 7 years.

MasterD: In which games you were involved?

Jason: I've worked on all of Blizzard's games ever since StarCraft. On that title, I was able to contribute in a variety of ways- from music, to sound design, to voice direction. I've helped write many of the lines the units say, and I even got to do some voice acting! (Firebat, Arbiter, the hero Artanis, and others) At the time I started the company was a lot smaller, and it wasn't uncommon for people to wear many different hats. As Blizzard has grown, the development team members have become a bit more specialized. So, it was natural for me to gravitate more exclusively toward music because it's my greatest passion.

MasterD: What was the funniest thing that ever happened at the Blizzard Office?

Jason: There are a lot of funny and wild stories! Most of these I probably shouldn't go into, because some are pretty embarrassing ;) One thing that comes to mind that I can share about the Blizzard office is a goofy tradition they have about birthdays. Everyone crowds around a birthday cake, just like they do at many companies. But when they start to sing "the birthday song" they only get through about 2 lines. Then, in mid-sentence everyone starts clapping and saying "Yay" as if they finished the whole song. My first day at Blizzard, they were celebrating birthdays, so it really took me by surprise! Over the years, I think the duration of the song has gotten shorter and shorter, so that now you're lucky if you're able to sing two words before the song gets cut off. I know, this story isn't as wild or interesting as the drunk and disorderly ones, but it'll keep me from getting in trouble with friends ;)

MasterD: How many people work at the Blizzard Sound department?

Jason: During World of Warcraft, there were 8 people in the sound department. A truly great group to work with! Since then, that number has decreased substantially.

MasterD: Where do you get your inspirations?

Jason: I love to look for the dramatic potential in anything I need to write music for. This can come in many forms, but most often it involves meeting with the director for the project, and learning more about the situation or story. With the cinematics, there is a rough draft of the animation with very primitive block figures called an animatic. Sometimes this is interspersed with live footage of the cinematics guys running around in the parking lot or hallways acting out the parts, just to get the concept down. So I'll sit down with the director and view this animatic, and have a discussion about the story and characters. I always find this process very inspiring. Often times, I'll have a small voice recorder handy, and I'll hum ideas into it.

MasterD: How long does it take from the first concept to a final composition?

Jason: It varies greatly, because of the iterative process. For example, I'll work on a rough piano sketch for one of the movies, and get that to the director. Then, while I'm waiting for him to check it out, I'll be working on something else. Once he's had a chance to approve it, then I'll continue working. So project timeframes get all interspersed. But if I'm just working on one thing, I generally like to work at least one day per finished minute of music, to develop the production fully.

MasterD: On which composition you are most proud of?

Jason: I find it very difficult to get any perspective on anything I write, at least not when I'm working on it or even for a while after. It's not until a long time later that I can listen to something I've worked on and really get an idea what it sounds like. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, but usually I find a hundred things to nitpick! Besides, the Blizzard game worlds are so different from one another, that it's hard to compare them. There are aspects from each that I get very excited about, making it impossible to pick favorites.

MasterD: Which music do you listen to in your free time?

Jason: I enjoy a wide variety of music, from classical and pop to rock and jazz! I love modern film scores too ;)

MasterD: What do you missing personally on WoW?

Jason: I miss working with the team every day. Blizzard is an exciting place to be, with a lot of talented people who have a real passion for making games.

MasterD: Why did you left Blizzard Entertainment?

Jason: I continue to be very good friends with the guys at Blizzard, but now just feels like the right time for me to go out on my own, spread my wings a little, and try and get involved with different types of projects. In addition to staying very active doing music for games, I plan to start taking on film projects as well.

MasterD: What's next?

Jason: Well, there are a couple very cool concerts that will take place this year:

One is "Video Games Live", an event which includes performances of game music, video and specially designed laser and light sequences from between 15 and 20 different games in a wide variety of styles. There will be a "Warcraft" segment that features my music from the series. The first concert in this series will be on July 6th at The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA., and will be played by the L.A. Philharmonic!

The other concert is the 2005 Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany. It will take place at the Gewandhaus symphony hall on August 17th to coincide with the opening of the GC games convention. World of Warcraft will be featured with a special suite of music from the game.

It's a real honor to be included in both of these events! There is some other news that I can't quite disclose just yet, but very soon I'll be updating my website (www.musicbyjason.com) with more information...

MasterD: I saw at your webpage www.musicbyjason.com that you are currently working on an album with ten fan made stories on it sets to music by you. Can you tell us about? When will it be released? How can we get it?

Jason: I'm currently starting production on a new album of original music compositions, a project I'm very excited about! I'm basing it on a unique concept that involves creative members of the game community. Basically, I've recently held a contest for short story writers, who signed up on my website and submitted their stories for a chance to be a part of the album. On March 11th, there were ten winning entries selected, and I'm going to compose a piece for each that dramatically tells the story with music. I think it's going to be a lot of fun "scoring" these short stories!

MasterD: Which role play music in computer games in your opinion and why?

Jason: I think that music in games, like in movies, helps to set the mood and infuses emotion into the experience. When I work on the music for a game, I hope to generate an aesthetic environment that is evocative, and heightens the player's feelings about the situation and story line.

MasterD: Final Word

Jason: Thank you for the interview! I hope everyone is enjoying World of Warcraft, and hopefully I'll see you online sometime soon ;)