MAY 2025

From recording at the legendary Abbey Road Studios to composing for acclaimed titles like The Lamplighters League and BattleTech, Jon has carved out a distinctive place in the world of video game music. His career so far is anything but ordinary - marked by bold decisions, creative risks and a passion for storytelling through sound. 

We chatted with Jon to hear about his journey from early musical influences to award-winning projects, his creative process and what excites him most about the future of game audio…

MASA: Can you tell us about your path from early musical experiences to becoming an award-winning composer for video games like BattleTech and The Lamplighters League? What challenges did you face along the way?

JON: Early video games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3 on SNES initially sparked my interest in music, and movies like Total Recall, Indiana Jones and Bladerunner really solidified my obsession. I was influenced by artists like MF Doom, Aesop Rock, Bjork, Aphex Twin and Radiohead. I loved game and film music but I never put it together that "this is a job I could do for a living" until I was much older. I think the orchestral side of things really intimidated me. If you told me that years later I'd be recording at Abbey Road Studio 1 with some of the best musicians alive, it would have just made no sense. I was encouraged to keep music as a hobby and pursue a 'real' job so that I could survive and pay bills. But when I was 26, at a job I really hated, I had a defining moment where I had to decide: "Is this what I want my life to be like? When I'm on my deathbed, will I have regrets about not pursuing a composing career?". So, I did a very irresponsible thing and quit my job, sold my small retirement I'd built up for 4 years and went back to music school. Skipping over all the near-fatal brushes with financial ruin and ups and downs of going back to school in my late twenties, I scored a lot of student games and worked sound design assistant jobs (and drove a cab at night) and, eventually, I got a very lucky break to score Shadowrun Dragonfall by Harebrained Schemes. That break sort of started it all and led to a bunch of games with them, including BattleTech and eventually Lamplighters League.

MASA: What an incredible story! It’s amazing how you turned that big leap of faith into such an inspiring career. Can you share what you’re currently working on or if there are any exciting upcoming projects or collaborations?

JON: I just finished working on a DLC for Star Wars Outlaws with Will Roget (I was co-composer on the full game) called A Pirate's Fortune. I'm also composing the score to an upcoming game from Harebrained Schemes called GRAFT. It's a very cool sci-fi horror game that has an very neat aesthetic and interesting story.  I've also been continuing to collaborate with Blizzard on Overwatch 2, recently scoring their new game mode called Stadium. 

MASA: Sounds like you’ve got some really exciting stuff in the works! Next question…when starting a new project, how do you begin developing the musical identity for the game? Do you start with character, story, or something else? And how do you collaborate with the game developers to achieve this? 

JON: I like to start with a combination of story and concept art. Those two ingredients together really get my creative mind activated. I prefer to be involved with a project as early as possible. The way I write music is inexorably tied to how it should function and support the game and its mechanics. For a project like Lamplighters League, for example, I designed the music system myself. I will usually start a project with a suite of music that flows between major themes and arcs but, almost more importantly, I'm also trying to capture a signature sound. I want a major piece of music to draw someone in with a treatment of sounds or recorded instruments that are unique and evocative. Collaboration is key as a composer. It's very important to try your best to understand and distill what developers are telling you and how they think people will feel playing their game. The collaboration goes both ways as well - a good creative or audio director is hiring you to make artistic musical choices and not just to write what they are hearing in their heads. Composers are story-tellers and our job is to elevate, support, surprise and sometimes get out of the way.

MASA: Your scores often blend live orchestras with analog synths and experimental textures. How do you decide on the right palette for each project?

JON: One of the reasons I love using synths and especially analog synths is that they have a very physical quality to them. With proper design they can easily sound like a physical instrument. They can work with almost any genre (though Lamplighters League had no synths). The music for GRAFT, for example, is a heavy mix of analog synths and a stripped down orchestral group of low woodwinds and strings. The behaviour of these synths in this project is intended to blur the line between what's real and what's synthetic. The recorded soloists and sections are also sometimes heavily processed through the same synths, further blurring the lines. I really love the idea of blending genres and not being too prescriptive with how I approach a score's perceived genre. 

MASA: The Lamplighters League was recorded at Abbey Road Studios - and won a Music+Sound Award! Can you tell us about your experiences on it? 

JON: It was a labor of love that I worked on and off on for nearly 5 years. Standing in that room was truly surreal. So many of my favorite scores were recorded there. It was incredibly nerve wracking!  As mentioned earlier, I decided to not use any synths in the score except for a late-game track that is actually the orchestra itself processed through modular synthesis. I loved the challenge and I was really happy with the result. I had just finished a score, Disintegration, that was nearly ALL synthetic, so it felt like a nice creative cleanse to dive deep into the orchestra. 

MASA: Recording at Abbey Road must have been surreal. The result was certainly fantastic - congrats again on the award. Looking back at your work on BattleTech, which was nominated for multiple awards, what do you think made that score resonate with both players and critics?

JON: I think there were two ways I could have approached the score. The first approach was I could try my best to carry the weight of this massive multi-decade IP on my shoulders and focus on fan-service, nostalgic references and what had come before. The second approach, which I took, was to pretend like I had amnesia and erase all my memories of BattleTech and Mechwarrior (Mechwarrior 2 was the first PC game I ever played) so I could score the game relying solely on the info I was getting from the writers and the art team. Ultimately, this is a war story. This is a story about a dreadful future where capitalism has run completely amok and normal people are forced to face death on a daily basis just to pay back bank loans. It's this fascinating mixture of medieval feudalism and hyper capitalism. This approach just sounded more fun and less stressful. I'm just lucky that diehard BattleTech fans seemed to appreciate it.

MASA: Are there any new technologies or trends in game audio that excite you or influence your work?

JON: I recently relocated to Barcelona from Seattle and I was very concerned about converting my studio to a mobile setup while I completed the move. I have been so amazed though at how far we've come with powerful mobile computers. My mobile setup worked so well for me that I continued to use it to finish Star Wars Outlaws, even though my studio had been completely relocated here. It feels really nice to know that I can travel somewhere and pack everything into a Pelican case and still be able to write. I don't have my giant wall of synths with me and outboard gear, but the tech is so good that all of that is really not necessary.

MASA: Where do you find inspiration when you hit a creative block or need to invent a new sound for a project?

JON: Creativity for me comes from trying new things and not being discouraged if it doesn't lead somewhere. Often times I just need to sit down, set a constraint or pick a patch and see where it goes. If it's not feeling right I will just move on or take a break. I think it's very important to take breaks and take care of yourself. If I'm not feeling well physically and emotionally, I won't be able to write good music. I tend to disagree with the notion that composers are the type to always be ‘burning the midnight oil’ or working 18 hour days. If I did that, it would kill me. Honestly, I do my best work when I get enough sleep, go to the gym or do something active, eat well, and hang out with friends and family. I find myself being able to be very creative in a 4-6 hour period during the day, doing admin work for a few hours and spending the rest of the day building up my creative reserves again by living and enjoying my life.

MASA: What do you hope players feel or remember most about your music after they finish playing a game?

JON: I want them to feel something. The biggest compliment I can get from people are that they got ‘chills’ or felt something while listening. That is what I search for when I'm writing music. What timbre, harmony or orchestration make my hairs stand up. I approach writing music like I'm searching for something. When I hear something that gives me a bit of a chill, I know I'm heading in the right direction. That is the thread that I'm always trying to pull when I'm writing. 

MASA: Chasing those ‘chill’ moments is such a great goal. Your music definitely delivers on that front! And what we end all our chats with, what will you be looking for when judging? What makes a piece of work worthy of a Music+Sound Award?

JON: I really enjoy hearing a composer's voice. I want to feel what they are trying to say with their music, whether it's through the notes themselves or the timbre of the instruments they choose and how they mixed things. I want to listen for those "AHA" moments where my ears perk up and I have to say "ooo, that was interesting!"

MASA: So inspiring! Thank you for generously sharing your experiences with us here. We’re also really grateful for your contribution as a member of this year’s Music+Sound Awards jury. Looking foward to seeing where your talents lead next…

Visit Jon’s site HERE