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Interview with Joey Kuras
Even though Joey Kuras insists he is just a guy who found himself in the right place at the right time, it is difficult to argue the fact that he has more than earned his place in the gaming industry as one of its premier sound designers. With credits on over 65 titles, as well as many years working at Tommy Tallarico Studios, he is the man to watch in the coming years as the public screams for more gaming fulfillment. His quiet and generally reserved demeanor in no way reflects the explosive talent that lurks beneath. He can deliver the goods on time, and with an enormous amount of subtle creativity. I met with Joey at his home-based studio in Orange County, California, a no-nonsense, ergonomic space that allows him to function effectively with little wasted motion. A grand piano and friendly feline are both close at hand to provide the appropriate distractions when the time comes. We took a look at several cinematics he was working on for Pac-Man World, which gave me a chance to check out the old playful and loveable 3D characters brought to life with some highly effective sound effects. I was most impressed with the skillful blend of elements that made the animated scenes almost real. I’d say he hit them all dead on. How did this all begin for you?
I started in music when I was about 13. A good friend of mine was playing guitar, and I thought it was pretty cool, so I picked it up. I wasn’t real good at it, but I did have a good time. I met Tommy Tallarico in 1987 working in an arcade back in Massachusetts. I was the assistant manager and he started as an attendant. I was his boss then! (smiles.) We had initially worked different shifts and I finally met him after one of the guys said there was this guy, really into music, had a band, that I had to meet. We started talking music and I found out he was into Journey, Styx, and Boston, and I wasn’t too impressed by that at the time. I was into Ozzy, Black Sabbath all the hard core stuff then, and here I was thinking this guy is a dork. I went to his house later to see his band practice and I was fascinated by Tommy’s keyboard playing. After that he and I became good friends. I had him teach me some chords, and I’ve been playing piano ever since. I picked it up fairly easily, more quickly than I did with the guitar, and now the piano is my main instrument. Now I listen to everything and I play everything, from Chopin to Ozzy Osbourne to New Age. That’s my musical side. What about video games? Did it evolve from your arcade days? Actually, my introduction to video games was the Atari 2600. My Dad got it for me when it first came out, and the only game out at the time was Combat. In 1984 he got me a Commodore 64 which I loved. Me and a friend played games on the C64 every Sunday from 10am to 10pm for almost 2 years. Then in 1980 my dad started working at an arcade as the district manager of 15 stores in the New England area. When he worked nights, I’d go to work with him and just hang out, playing games and wandering around the mall. I started there myself in 1985 and worked my way up to assistant manager, which I did for 6 years. It was great after we closed up, because I used to hang out and play all the games I wanted. With all this practice, I beat every game in the arcade and became one of the best players around. Little did I know this would help me in my career later on. I mentioned to a friend one time that I thought it would be cool to actually make these games we were playing. It never even dawned on us that someone actually did create video games! I look back on that as a kind of premonition. Were you becoming interested in Sound Effects at that point? Sound Effects didn’t enter into the picture until I moved out to California and started working at Virgin. Tommy had moved out in 1991 and landed some great opportunities right away. He kept writing and calling, trying to get me to move out too. I’d make up my mind to do it but would get distracted and wouldn’t think about it again until the next phone call. This went on for about a year before I finally just bought a van, packed it up and left in May 1992. I got a job with Virgin as a game tester. The first job they gave me was for Terminator, the Game Gear version. Nobody in the company could finish it so they didn’t really know if anyone could actually beat the game or if there were any bugs in the last level. They gave it to me and a half hour later I handed it back with a, "Here, I’m done." They were quite impressed, and I secured my job with that little feat. I impressed the game designer so much that he asked me to help with some level designs for Global Gladiators. I did that for about 4 months and Tommy asked me if I wanted to work in the music department. He knew I was organized and fast and thought it would be cool working together again. I still had to prove myself though. The design department didn’t want to let me go so, I had to impress the head of R&D to let me make the move. The first job was Super Nintendo Cool Spot. I had to learn Cakewalk, the Super Nintendo driver, and also how to convert everything to the right format within two weeks. I was able to do it and got to stay in the sound department. I ended up doing that for the next five years with Virgin. Now that you are exclusive to Tommy Tallarico Studios, what would you say your job title is? Sound Designer, if you need to label me. Editor is another title that would work. Watch the end credits on a movie project, and you will discover that there must have been 40 different people who worked on the sound in one capacity or another. I do it all but I try not to hog up all the credit. Sound Design, me. Sound Editor, me. Foley artist, me. Mixer, me. It starts to get a little obnoxious. Sound Designer covers it pretty well so I stick with that. Do you mix music as well? I’m not an engineer, so I don’t bother with mixing the music. I leave that for the people who really know how to do it. When I’m working on cinematics, though, I take on the sound editor's role and mix the music in with the sound effect tracks and dialog. For some reason, the sound effects are always too loud on the first mix. (smiles.) The final mix is nice and balanced though. |
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Features
Introduction
