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| Interview With Zachary Quarles |
Interviewed by William
'Phoebus' Mull |
As the newly-appointed second half of the audio department,
Zachary Quarles is the newest face
on the Raven Software
team. Therefore, we in the Raven Gaming Community should rightfully get to know
him a little bit, shouldn't we? Why yes, by all means, let's!
 1)
Who is Zachary Quarles (i.e., Where do you come from, how old are you,
what is your education, tell us about your family)?
Zachary Quarles is a short man. I just moved to Madison WI from Springfield
MO, where was going to college and living with my bro, Josh. Josh (JQ) is an artist
and making quite a name for himself within the MOD community for making some kick-butt
skins, i think some of them are posted at www.polycount.com.
We both worked on a couple of MODs together before i got the job here at Raven;
those MODs being "Cthulu Quake" and "Reborn". My oldest bro, Matt is a plastics
engineer with a fam and a mild video game addiction...needless to say all of us
are quite fond of games. I think my parents are a bit apprehensive of me working
at a video game company, however. :)
2) How did you come to work for Raven Software?
I was in my senior year as a Musical Theatre major at Southwest Missouri State
University (SMSU, go lady bears, whoo!)and i was just tooling around the internet
one day, trying to find some info regarding the voice-over industry, since i'm
an actor. I sent emails to a few companies -Raven included - and started a correspondence
with Kevin Schilder - the audio guru here. Over the course of a month, i sent
in a demo cd of my music, had a phone interview, then had the final interview
up here in Madison. About a week later i walked into my house with a message on
my machine. My friends and I danced around like idiots, screaming at the top of
our lungs, and then we drank some beer.
3) What other games or gaming projects have you worked on in the past?
I worked on a couple of MODs (as mentioned previously) entitled "Cthulu Quake"
and "Reborn" as Sound/Music Designer. I also worked on a commercial addon pack
for DOOM a few years ago, entitled HACX. I worked as an artist on that game. Before
that, i just messed around a lot with level editing (which i'm horrible at) and
changing sounds/graphics in the DOOM world.
4) What is your favorite thing to do outside the realm of computers?
My first and foremost love is acting. Hopefully i have found a venue to pursue
that at the same time.
5) How did you become interested and get involved in creating MP3s,
composing music, etc., for public consumption on the web?
Hmmmm...well the MP3.com scene greatly appealed to me. I could post any of
my work online without using webspace on my own personal site, and it's free,
so you can't beat that with a rubber hose.
6) How do you feel about that whole Napster vs. music industry thing?
Do you share Lars Ulrich's point of view, or do you think the online music sharing
system is a good thing, and why?
Well, i definitely see the validity of Lars/Metallica's statements. As everyone
knows, you can get an entire album online without paying for it, and for people
that rely on CD sales for a living, it's a punch to the face; not to mention the
pocketbook.
At the same time, however, i have been disappointed when plunking down sixteen
bucks for a CD that only had one song that i liked. I believe a middle-ground
is being instituted, and i would like to see a Pay-for-Play subscription plan
enacted.
7) What type(s) of music do you listen to? What are some of your favorite
groups? What movie soundtracks?
my musical tastes very eclectic; ask anyone who knows me. Here's a taste -
several musicals (hey i'm an actor/singer, i got a right. ;) ) James Taylor(yeah!),
Ben Folds Five, Jude, Aimee Mann, Ani DiFranco, NIN, Tool, etc, etc.
Some of my fave movie score composers: thomas newman (american beauty), John Williams
(but of course!), Hans Zimmer, Michael Kamen, etc, etc.
8) How many instruments do you play? Do you sing as well? What is your
favorite instrument, and why?
well i play keyboards/piano but my technique kinda sucks, i play by ear and
chording mostly. I play some tin penny flutes, again technique kinda sucks. I
do sing - technique doesn't suck...at least i don't think it does. ;)
also a bit of percussion.
9) What other forms of art are you involved in (sketching/drawing/painting,
etc.)? Do you feel that this adds to or influences your music, and if so, to what
extent, and in what ways?
I actually at one point in my life had aspirations of being an artist, but
i didn't feel i was good enough in that competitive field to do it for a living,
so now i just do it as a personal hobby. Right now i do a lot of Digital photography/art
type stuff. I love working in black and white.
10) Does sound effect creation come secondary to your musical background,
or do you feel this is what you're primarily interested in?
Well, i wouldn't say secondary but it did come a bit later than music for me.
I like doing both - if one day i can't come up with anything cool music-wise,
I'll start working out some sound effects.
11) What is your method for creating sound effects? How do you come
about them; are they culled from pre-existing samples or do you work from scratch?
I have a hybrid method of creating sounds...before raven i did them all myself,
all field recording. Here at Raven we have an enormous resource library that we
can dork around with. If something doesn't blow my skirt up (metaphorically speaking,
of course, i don't wear skirts...except that one time - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...)
then i'll bust out the microphone and do some field work. I also like to incorporate
a lot of ambient/sound stuff into my music as well...if you have heard any of
my previous stuff, you'll see what i mean.
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