The “Meet the Geek” series is going strong. Introducing you all to the Affiliates and people who create all the media here at The Geek Media. Now, it’s time to meet Nathan Allen Pinard.

TGM: Alright, you know the drill. Your name and what it is you do.
Nathan: My name is Nathan Allen Pinard. I am a profession composer for all types of media from machinima, short films, independent albums, and games. I’m also the Sound Lead for the independent gaming company “Burning Man Studios”

TGM:Nathan, your biggest deal is a composer. Tell us a bit of background of what you’ve done with composing.
Nathan:I’d say it goes all the way back to when I was a kid. My parents noticed things about me in terms of creativity. Even down to when I was a baby tapping my foot perfectly with whatever music that was playing. Often times I always had a keyboard, and created small pieces of music. But it was never anything special. It only happened around my high school years, where the school budget was so low they cut the entire concert band class. However, for some reason the teachers were still hired and working in various other classes. So there was an empty band room sitting there a certain time everyday. So the teachers got the idea to create a composition class, which also ended up being a band as well, which served in various school events. We started by lifting tunes that we thought were great, mainly during the 70’s and 80’s. After learning how to transcribe music onto paper from a tape, we then started to write out own. This band ended up playing songs such as Stevie Wonders “Superstition” at football and basketball games, rather than  your general pep band. We were pretty popular during that time.

It’s only one day when my father and I walked into a keyboard shop just at a random rate, where I started just playing with a very expensive Kurzweil keyboard. Within an hour I had an arrangement of a song we sang in church. It was at this time my mother was working on her own songs for church, and was interested in creating her own album. My father simply asked me if i could commit to writing arrangements for her songs if he invested the money. I simply said “Yes.”

And I did. From about 1997 all the way to 2003 I committed my entire work to the projects of my parents. Starting with a full fledge worship album, then onto 3 years of a theatrical production. I’ve gained so much experience in writing for choir, directing for choir, as well as other things not even related to music such as web design, graphic design, and even acting.

It’s only in the year 2003 where I was hit with an illness that would set me back for about 1 1/2 years. Not touching my studio for roughly that much time, completely ignoring music concentrating on other things. After recovery of that illness, I got back into the saddle again. This time, finally focusing on an actual career in music.

I started by doing small short films for free, then starting charging. Then I got into the world of Machinima doing small films like that. I really started I was making some lead-way when I met Oxhorn through Clint Hacklemam, starting with Inventing Swear Words 3. From then on it was more of a director/composer relationship.

Then of course, there’s Burning Man Studios. A gaming company I’ve been putting a ton of effort into for nearly a year. Although I’m not making a suitable living off of music just yet, I can see it on the horizon.

TGM:What is your “dream job” as far as composition?
Nathan:Before it was more of the big Hollywood thing, where I meet all sorts of celebs, but don’t really have any pressure from the paparrazi. I would see my name in the biggest blockbuster of the summer plastered on the screen. Knowing that only 7% of the people in the theater would really give a damn about the music.

However, lately Hollywood has scare me. I’m not so set at the scary world of Hollyweird. It’s such a huge stressful enviroment that will drive you nuts. Not to mention it’s VERY hard to get into. So I’ve been more towards the gaming world. Since I am a huge gamer at heart.

My dream job would to be in my own officer, making my music, and doing sound design, and making a decent living. I’d love to make the next best game out there, and be a part of it. Essentially, I’d like to do what I’m doing here now for Burning Man Studios, but be in the UK with them in an office and getting a decent living. Working at home sounds great at first right? Wrong. Working at home leads to almost zero social life, and the line between work and play becomes very blurry. I would much prefer an office to go to where people are (as long as they aren’t looking over my shoulder the whole time when I’m working)

TGM:One thing you are currently working on is an upcoming video game. Care to tell us a bit about that?
Nathan:Yes, as I mentioned I’m working with Burning Man Studios. An independent gaming company based in the UK, but outsourced throughout the world. The game we are working on is called Conquest of Heroes, which is planned to be a full fledged MMO. My job is simply everything to do with sound. My job is to determine what type of music and sound there will be, as well as describe and direct exactly the way I want it. I also recruit voice actors for the project as well, as I’m big into voice acting in games. And well frankly there’s a lot of great contacts here at The Geek Media.

TGM:You’ve gotten some criticism in the past for doing “epic” composition for things like small animations and indie games, etc. What do you think of that criticism?
Nathan:Lots of people think things should be simple for things that are simple. Well, there are some cases where that works, but not all. I think the main criticism was Oxhorn’s films. What some people didn’t like was serious element in the music that I had implemented. They were thinking more comedy based. Well, my sense of humor has always been somewhat different than most. I believe when you treat a comical element in a serious way, it’s even more funny. And honestly Oxhorn does exactly the same thing, so it all fit for me.

TGM:How important do you think music is for the background of a video game or a movie?
Nathan:Music in movies half the people don’t realize how much the music affects them. It’s more affects you on a subconscious level. How many times have you cried on a given scene, only to realize that it wasn’t even the scene or dialogue itself that caused it? Nope…it was the music. Music has had such an impact in history, it’s stupid to think it’s not important.

As far as gaming goes, it’s the same thing. I believe it should impact on an emotional level. Most games take advantage of the music being big and huge during battles, to get teh player into it. But there are very few games that tap onto the other emotions you can get in video games. Funcom’s “Dreamfall” is a good example of what you can do. That game hit me pretty hard on an emotional level. And it’s literally changed some peoples perspective on life. The music enchanced that game at a very high level.

TGM:You kind of like the techie side of music a bit too, right?
Nathan:Oh man. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted this and that. In fact, right now I could use some small pieces of software that I would utilize, but not enough to justify the cost. I’m huge on virtual instrument technology regarding mainly orchestral samples. And I never stop at making my engineering in my pieces sound better every time in terms of expressiveness and realism. I’m usually always keeping up to date on music technology.

TGM:Tell us some of your sweetest pieces of equipment?
Nathan:The biggest and best investment in terms of musical or audio equipment is my EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) although using it in writing can shorten my work time daily due to effort, it adds such a huge element of being able to show expression in the instruments such as strings that it would be stupid NOT to use it. And although it causes my to get tired fairly quickly from 5 hours of playing literally an electronic clarinet, I do get way more done in 1 hour than before. it’s either play my strings realtime and do a small bit of editing and be done. Or play strings on my keyboard and spend an hour just editing the volume curves, which are still not as good.

TGM:If you could sum up how powerful music is in just a few sentences, what would you say?
Nathan:Other than social interaction, music to me stirs the emotions more than anything on this planet. With music, or even sound in general, you can paint a picture.

TGM:Do you have a passion for anything other than music?
Nathan:Well other than gaming itself, I’m somewhat of a sci-fi geek. Really big on Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, you name it. Fictional worlds fascinate me greatly. I’m also a huge post-apocolytpic nut, especially when it comes to the TV series Jericho (which isn’t quite post-apoc) and the Fallout series. Also as far as hobbies go, for some odd reason I get this web design bug. It’s something that takes a lot of time, and I can do it for 12 hours straight if need be. This is one of the reasons why I volunteered to make a Conquest Of Heroes Fan Site.