Dren McDonald

Dren McDonald (born May 28, 1967) is an American songwriter, Arrangement (music), music producer, and composer.
McDonald’s music work spans a variety of mediums, from experimental indie rock to Video game music to string quartet chamber music to film and VR animation soundtracks. McDonald has composed music for video games, working with game studios and publishers such as Valve Corporation, Ubisoft, Glu Mobile, DeNA/Hasbro, Romero Games, Zynga, Tapulous, and more. McDonald has also released albums with a number of different projects, including two as a member of Giant Ant Farm and two as a member of Grndntl Brnds which were released on the label he founded, Vaccination Records. As a solo artist he has issued several original game soundtrack releases on Nerdtracks Recordings, as well as instrumental recordings for Appearing Records, and has been the organizing force behind fundraising music projects The String Arcade and polyheDren, and has taught at University of California, Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
== Biography ==
Dren McDonald was born in Long Beach, California, and raised in Southern California until he moved to Oakland, California, in the mid-90s. He started studying music (piano) at the age of 5 and got serious about music by the age of 12. While in college he started to experiment in interactive audio with a Macintosh Plus and a game called Crystal Quest where he recorded sounds directly into the Mac Plus and used them in the customizable game project. He later played in bands and started a record label, Vaccination Records, before getting into the game industry after the mid-2000s.
== Early music career ==
McDonald’s discography began in 1994 with the release of Giant Ant Farm’s Fortune on Vaccination Records. The album was reviewed in the LA Times, with critic Mike Boehm writing “[i]n contrast to the overt expressions of anger and dread you get in most punk songs about the declining state of things, McDonald offers symbolic and metaphoric dreamscapes”. In 1995 McDonald made an appearance as a turntablist on John Cage’s Europeras|Europeras 3 & 4 with the Long Beach Opera on Mode Records. In 1996 Giant Ant Farm’s second album, an EP titled Dressed in Milk, was released in two versions, one with a long cover that included a comic by Chuck Squier and one short version with no comic.
In 1996 Giant Ant Farm also made an appearance on the compilation record, Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (a tribute to the art collective The Residents), appearing with artists such as Primus (band)|Primus, Cracker (band)|Cracker, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Stan Ridgway, Mommyheads, Utotem, Snakefinger, Gino Robair, Heavy Vegetable, Amy Denio, and Vaccination Records labelmates Charming Hostess, Eskimo, Poxy Boggards, and Idiot Flesh, and The Residents themselves. The release also featured liner notes from longtime Residents fan, Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller). In a 1997 interview, the spokesman for The Residents, Cryptic Corp’s Homer Flynn, said that The Residents were “quite flattered by [Eyesore]”. McDonald also served as the producer/organizer of the Eyesore record.
Vaccination Records bands created a bit of a music community, and were responsible for many large event shows in the Bay Area at the time, including the Making Waves Festival in 1997 and Idiot Flesh’s last show. McDonald also spoke at NXNW in 1998 and held a Vaccination Records showcase at the festival that year in Portland, Oregon.
McDonald’s next releases came with the band Grndntl Brnds (pronounced Grand National Brands) with Communicating for Influence (2000) and The Great Dumbening (2002). The band debuted in 1998 and often changed the second half of their name for shows. Besides McDonald, Grndntl Brnds included members of Fibulator, Little My, and The Molecules. The Great Dumbening would also be the last title released by Vaccination Records.
As Vaccination Records was winding down, McDonald took over The Residents’ Ralph America merchandise business, brought it online, and began a new internet business called Clamazon. Clamazon featured collectible, hard-to-find albums and music packages and included internet radio stations of the music on the platform and a complex database of music credits that helped record hunting enthusiasts find related music and releases. During his time running Vaccination Records, Ralph America, and Clamazon McDonald was involved in the design and layout of CDs, DVDs, and box sets released by the labels. Clamazon has since closed down, but when going to Clamazon.com there is an auto-redirect to Amazon (company)|Amazon.com.
As the music industry was rapidly changing in the early 2000s, McDonald began to change his career and looked towards video game music and sound as a new direction.
== Video game industry career ==
McDonald’s video game career began with Tap Tap Revenge (2009), an early iOS game; he soon went on to work on more titles, including Ravenwood Fair, List of Ubisoft games|Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Commander, Skulls of the Shogun, Dangerous Dave|Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout, Ravenshire Castle, Pettington Park, Desktop Dungeons, and more.
In 2014 McDonald created the musical sound design for Elevate (video game)|Elevate, Apple’s pick for App of the Year in 2014. That same year he also contributed to Rebuild3: Gangs of Deadville, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Music Kits, and released a fundraiser album of video game music arranged for string quartet, entitled The String Arcade.
The String Arcade release gave 100% of its sales and streaming revenue to Alameda Music Project (now known as Bay Area Music Project). It was well received and won an award at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards|Game Audio Network Guild Awards in 2015 for Best Game Music Cover/Remix. Later that year McDonald organized a Music in Schools fundraiser with Humble Bundle, putting together a large bundle of music and games that also went to support Alameda Music Project. The collection included The String Arcade along with releases from Jello Biafra (and three other titles from his label, Alternative Tentacles), Eyesore; A Stab at The Residents (long out of print at the time), The Residents’ I Murdered Mommy, unreleased cues from Sam Hulick’s Mass Effect 3 soundtrack, soundtracks from Fez (video game)|Fez, Dear Esther, FTL: Faster Than Light|FTL, Spelunky, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Escape Goat|Escape Goat 2, film soundtracks like Super Size Me, and games like Audiosurf|AudioSurf and Sequence.
In 2015 McDonald contributed soundtracks to John Romero’s reboot of Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout and Pontoco’s Gathering Sky. Dangerous Dave was first released in 1988, and it had several incarnations and sequels until in 2015 Romero rebuilt the game with new graphics and McDonald’s score and made it available on iOS and Android (operating system)|Android. The blend of computer generated 8-bit waveform sounds and Appalachian music|Appalachian-influenced instrumentation (fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dobro guitar, standup bass) resulted in a genre McDonald referred to as “chipbilly”.
Gathering Sky gained a reputation as a calming, experiential “game”, with no killing, dying, scoring, or points. For a small independent game it received a lot of positive reviews, many of which recognized McDonald’s interactive score. The score was recorded at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where McDonald would later teach as an adjunct professor; it was the first project recorded at SFCM’s brand new Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) facilities.
In 2016 Gathering Sky won awards at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards for Best Audio for an Indie Game, Best Sound Design in a Casual/Social Game, and Best Game Audio Article, Publication, or Broadcast. The soundtrack was released with the game on Steam, and on streaming music services. During an episode of Minnesota Public Radio|TopScore Podcast covering the recording of the Gathering Sky soundtrack, it was announced that SFCM, where McDonald had recorded the soundtrack, was launching the inaugural class of its Technology and Applied Composition undergraduate program.
That same year, McDonald appeared in the documentary Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound|BEEP: A Documentary History of Game Sound which included a compendium book. He also wrote a three-part audio development blog journal on Game Developer (website)|GameDeveloper (formerly GamaSutra), and began a game project called Fire Child which remains unfinished, though a trailer for the game has been released.
That year he also began work on another game with John Romero, Gunman Taco Truck, which was designed by Romero’s stepson, Donovan. The Gunman Taco Truck soundtrack used unusual recording techniques to help create the sound of a dystopian mariachi band, such as mechanical filters and junky microphones while recording live musicians. The game received positive reviews and many video reviews due to the comic nature of the game. McDonald worked on several games with both John Romero and his wife Brenda Romero between 2010 and 2017.
== Film scores ==
In 2017 McDonald scored the documentary short Fingerprints, which was part of the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival, and is “the story of two music programs for kids – one in Haiti and one in California – that come together, discovering that music is a universal language that connects us all.” The two songs (produced/arranged by McDonald) featured in the documentary were released under the artist name of Fingerprints World Orchestra. At the Mill Valley Film Festival premiere of the film, Bob Weir and other musicians played after the film's screening at the Sweetwater Saloon|Sweetwater Music Hall. In 2019 McDonald scored the full length documentary The Edge of Success, about “two high school suicide clusters in six years that [rock] the affluent town of Palo Alto, California. Emotions run high and while no one has a silver bullet solution to this crisis, students rise up to make sure their voices are heard.” This film was part of 2019’s Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.
== Academia ==
In 2013 McDonald began a stint in academia, teaching Audio Direction in the Games and Playable Media department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2015 he began as an adjunct professor in the new Technology and Applied Composition program (TAC) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music along with composers Laura Karpman, Jeff Beal, Austin Wintory, Jessica Curry and recording engineer Leslie Ann Jones. The TAC program became known for its combination of technology, classical musicianship and experimentation.
McDonald has contributed to the academic publications The Game Audio Strategy Guide: A Practical Course and Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound|The BEEP Book: Documenting the History of Game Sound.
== Music and sound in AR/VR ==
In 2017 Instagram released the Superzoom camera effect, the first Instagram audio effect, which featured McDonald’s musical stinger; he later added it to a full length song for the Facebook Sound collection. In 2018 McDonald began experimenting in audio for augmented reality, specifically with List of software related to augmented reality|Spark AR Studio, and he spoke at F8 about the possibilities of music and audio in AR. The same year saw the launch of Meta Platforms|Meta’s Meta Portal|Portal device, which included an AR launch feature called Story Time, to which McDonald contributed music and sounds. In 2019 McDonald spoke on the subject of AR audio at Audio Engineering Society|AES, and at Abbey Road Studios during a weekend hackathon featuring Spark AR and the power of audio immersion. In 2020 McDonald spoke at the D.E.W. conference about AR and audio/music.
In 2022 McDonald scored and audio directed the Virtual reality|VR animation, Mescaform Hill: The Missing Five produced by Oculus/Meta. The animated VR project was created with Oculus Quill|Quill and premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June 2022. The VR project was ported to a web viewing platform and made publicly available.
== polyheDren music collaboration ==
In 2020 McDonald began a music collaboration project, polyheDren, with a series of musical guests as a fundraiser for Bay Area Music Project. The first four singles were released in 2020, with the full length record being released in April 2022. The album was produced, mixed and written by McDonald, with each song featuring a different music collaboration. Collaborators include Josh Freese (NIN, Sting, Devo), The Residents, Nels Cline (Wilco), Iva Bittová, Rini (Harini S. Ragavan), Sangin’ Sara Williams, Moorea Dickason, Ali Paris, Misha Khalikulov, and Daria Novo. The song “Sixteen Gold Candles” with The Residents and Josh Freese received some notice due to its blend of funk and spoken word, and its eerie music video.
In January 2023, McDonald joined Josh Freese at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a 50th Anniversary concert for The Residents, along with several other guest performers including Les Claypool (Primus), David J (Bauhaus), Ego Plum, Pamela Z, and San Francisco Girls Chorus. The concert was organized by SFCM’s Edwin Outwater.
== Guitar orchestra ==
In 2022 McDonald began releasing a suite of instrumental singles which seek to emulate the sound of a guitar orchestra by using many different guitar instruments such as acoustic guitar, classical guitar, 12-string guitar, baritone guitar, fretless bass, and e-bowed guitar, layering these parts over and over to create this sound. A full length album of these pieces will be released in April 2023 on Appearing Records.
== Public Speaking ==
McDonald has spoken at several conferences since 1998, largely about interactive audio and music in video games.
* North by Northwest (NXNW 1998) – Promoting Your Band: How to Publicize, Not Antagonize
* GameDesignCon (2012) – That Magic Moment: When Design and Audio Make Music Together
* Game Developers Conference (2012) – Audio Evolution in Social Games: Not Just a 15 Second 60 kpbs Loop Anymore
* Game Developers Conference (2012) – Sound Design Demo Derby
* Game Developers Conference (2013) – Sound Design Demo Derby
* Game Developers Conference (2014) – Sound Design Demo Derby
* Game Developers Conference (2014) – Audio Bootcamp: Small Team Game Development
* Game Developers Conference (2015) – Demo Derby Interactive
* Game Developers Conference (2016) – Outside the Studio Walls: Microtalk Exploration of NonAudio Ideas and Experiences
* GameSoundCon (2016) – The Music and Sound of Gathering Sky
* Game Developers Conference (2017) – Rising Tides: Stories in Audio, Mentorship and Community MicroTalk
* Game Developers Conference (2018) – What’s Next? A Game Audio Microtalk Series
* F8 (2019) – AR Music
* Audio Engineering Society (2019) – Interactive Audio Using Spark
* Abbey Road Studios Hackathon (2019) – The Power of Immersion
* Digital Entertainment World (2020) – Fireside Chat with Sony Music and Spark AR
== Awards ==
* 1997 SF Bay Guardian Best of the Bay: Best Reason to Graft a 3rd Ear to Your Forehead – Vaccination Records
* 2011 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Distinguished Service Award (WON)
* 2011 GDC Online: Best Audio in an Online Game – Ravenwood Fair (nominated)
* 2014 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Sound Design in a Casual Game – Diner Dash 2015 (nominated)
* 2015 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Soundtrack Album – The String Arcade (nominated)
* 2015 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Remix/Cover Song – "Grasswalk" (Plants vs. Zombies), The String Arcade (WON)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Handheld Audio – Gathering Sky (nominated)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Music in a Casual Game – Gathering Sky (nominated)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Interactive Score – Gathering Sky (nominated)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Game Audio Article – Audio Journals: Gathering Sky (GamaSutra) (WON)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Sound Design in a Casual Game – Gathering Sky (WON)
* 2016 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Indie Game Audio – Gathering Sky (WON)
* 2017 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Sound Design in a Casual Game – Gordon Ramsay Dash (nominated)
* 2017 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Music in a Casual Game – Gordon Ramsay Dash (nominated)
* 2017 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Audio in a Handheld Title – Gordon Ramsay Dash (nominated)
* 2018 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Music in an Casual/Social Game – Gunman Taco Truck (nominated)
* 2018 Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Music in an Indie Game – Gunman Taco Truck (nominated)
== Discography ==
=== As Performer ===
==== Giant Ant Farm ====
* Fortune (Vaccination Records, 1994, CD)
* Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD – compilation)
* Dressed in Milk (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD)
==== Grndntl Brnds ====
* Communicating for Influence (Vaccination Records, 2000, CD)
* Rawk Party (Vaccination Records, 2000, CD – compilation)
* The Great Dumbening (Vaccination Records, 2002, CD)
==== polyheDren ====
* Psychic (BAMP Records, 2022, CD/Digital/LP/Atmos)
==== Solo works ====
* Original Soundtrack – Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gathering Sky (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gunman Taco Truck (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2017, CD/Digital)
* J. (Appearing Records, 2022, Digital)
* D. Part 1 (Appearing Records, 2022, Digital)
* H. (Appearing Records, 2023, Digital)
==== Contributor ====
* John Cage, Europeras 3 & 4 (Mode Records, 1995, CD)
* Moe!kestra!, Knormalities V. 2 Exclamatories! (DephineKnormal/Amanita, 2000, 7”)
* Robot Arm, Giant (Motherfuckingjackson Recordings, 2002, CD)
=== Writing/Arrangement ===
* Giant Ant Farm, Fortune (Vaccination Records, 1994, CD)
* V/A, Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD)
* The String Arcade, The String Arcade (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2014, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gathering Sky (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gunman Taco Truck (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2017, CD/Digital)
* Fingerprints World Orchestra, Fingerprints (no label, 2017, Digital)
* polyheDren, Psychic (BAMP Records, 2022, CD/Digital/LP/Atmos)
=== Production ===
* V/A, Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD)
* The Residents, Refused (Ralph America, 1999, CD)
* The Residents, Wormwood Live (Ralph America, 1999, 2xCD)
* The String Arcade, The String Arcade (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2014, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gathering Sky (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gunman Taco Truck (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2017, CD/Digital)
* Fingerprints World Orchestra, Fingerprints (no label, 2017, Digital)
* polyheDren, Psychic (BAMP Records, 2022, CD/Digital/LP/Atmos)
=== Technical/Mix ===
* V/A, Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD)
* The String Arcade, The String Arcade (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2014, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate’s Hideout (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, CD/Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gathering Sky (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, Digital)
* Original Soundtrack – Gunman Taco Truck (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2017, CD/Digital)
* polyheDren, Psychic (BAMP Records, 2022, CD/Digital/LP/Atmos)
=== Visual ===
* Mumble and Peg, Wondering in Volume (Vaccination Records, 1997, CD)
* Frank Pahl, In Cahoots (Vaccination Records, 1997, CD)
* Charming Hostess, Eat (Vaccination Records, 1998, CD)
* Eskimo, Some Prefer Cake (Vaccination Records, 1998, CD)
* The Residents, Refused (Ralph America, 1999, CD)
* The Residents, Land of Mystery (Ralph America, 1999, CD)
* The Residents, Assorted Secrets (Ralph America, 2000, CD)
* The Residents, Dot Com (Ralph America, 2000, CD)
* V/A, Rawk Party (Vaccination Records, 2000, CD)
* The Residents' Combo de Mecanico, High Horses (Ralph America, 2001, CD)
* polyheDren, Psychic (BAMP Records, 2022, CD/Digital/LP/Atmos)
Category:1967 births
Category:American musicians
Category:American songwriters
Category:American producers