Site Contributors :: Ryan

Biography

Being a huge lover of all music in general since coming into the world, video game music has always very much been a part of me. When I was young, I would spend hour upon countless hour playing the old 8 bit NES with nary a care or thought in the world. The melodic material in the old NES games was top notch and was just as amazing as the gameplay and twice as catchy... Although at the time I could say that I loved the NES music, it was more of a subconscious realization in that it didn't take precedence over my reverence for graphics and gameplay. As I grew older I began realizing a simple truth about the best games: they all had amazing music! I find even now that a lackadaisical story and sub-par graphics can be enhanced with an amazing soundtrack. In 7th and 8th grade I was exposed to Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI and my life was changed forever. Nobuo Uematsu moved me in a way that I could never express. His music became the foundation of my dreams...

I used to play a bit of baseball and dreamed of playing in the major leagues one day until a rotator cuff injury kept me from pursuing my dream. I played a year of college baseball as a pitcher at Butler County Community College in ElDorado, Kansas before I hung up the cleats. I spent an abysmal day or two wondering what I would do next and in those next few days I realized that music was my calling. I picked up the piano relatively quickly and although I am still not skilled, I can figure out quite a few pieces of music in a relatively short amount of time because I have absolute pitch and a near-photographic musical memory, as I've recently discovered. (Which serves in dire contrast to my short term memory which some of my friends can tell you, is virtually nonexistent!) Moving on, through a strange series of events that I can't explain as consequence, I was given the chance to write some music for a play at my community college. The title of the play was called Fuddy Meers and the music was received very well. I have recently received an award for Excellence Achieved in Sound Design and Original Composition from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival XXXVII. I've been running with composition ever since! I am working on a few projects at the moment and the future looks very bright so life is once again looking very promising. Anyways, I intend on utilizing my gifts (as everyone should) so I am busting my brain with music studies trying to make up for lost time in the hopes that I can touch people in the same way that I was touched by Mr. Uematsu.

Since I was young I have been imbued with the idea that art is the innermost glimpse into a person's soul. Where words oftentimes fail, a piece of art can sometimes indicate truth on a more grand and yet intimate scale, which is a quality that I have always admired. My dreams often fuel me and my creative explorations and I credit this to my mother and her need to express herself to the world on a very spiritual level. I guess that kinda rubbed off on me. If I could offer any kind of advice to anyone, it would be to follow their dreams with conviction. "Dreams are journeys that take one far from familiar shores, strengthening the heart, empowering the soul."

Anyway, Nobuo Uematsu's music has touched me on a very spiritual level. Not that I didn't love soundtracks such as Mega Man or the Super Mario series, but the Final Fantasy VI soundtrack is ultimately what convinced me that video game music had the potential to be absolutely profound on so many levels. I still get chills when I go back through Final Fantasy VI to experience it all over again. I will add that it was the culmination of a life long dream to experience Nobuo Uematsu's music in orchestral form; a need that was met during the Dear Friends concert in Fort Worth, Texas on July 1, 2005. My eyes were moistened the entire time and my heart was in perfect congruence with the emotive performance contributed by members of the Fort Worth orchestra, which played an incredible concert. I also attended the world premier of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, in Chicago. Indeed, video game music is becoming quite an amazing avenue for expression and I would never have realized this fact if not for the music of Nobuo Uematsu and the incredible Final Fantasy games.

I am very much looking forward to making a positive contribution to what is becoming a very excellent close-knit community of video game musicologists and hobbyists alike in the Square Enix Music Online Forums. Thank you for suffering my boring dribble!

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