Rob King & Paul Romero
Owner/Producer and Composer/Concert Pianist respectively
Green Street Studios

Home: Sherman Oaks, California

Email: Rob@greenstreetstudios.net

Web: http://www.greenstreetstudios.com

Lords of Everquest from Rapid Eye Entertainment/Sony is our latest project. We did all the sound and music for the title. Recently we just wrapped up the new expansion pack for the Everquest game series from Sony entitled Everquest: Gates of Discord.

1994 - Hammer of the Gods (New World Computing - NWC), Inherit The Earth (NWC) Iron Cross (NWC), Zephyr (NWC)

1995 - Anvil of Dawn (NWC), Wetlands (Hypnotix/NWC), Heroes of Might & Magic (NWC), Multimedia Celebrity Poker (NWC)

1996 - Angel Devoid (Mindscape), Monster Dunks (Mindscape), Heroes of Might & Magic II - The Succession Wars (NWC), Vegas Games (NWC)

1997 - Family Card Games (NWC), Meridian 59 - Online multiplayer game (3DO), Heroes of Might & Magic II - The Price of Loyalty (NWC)

1998 - Heroes of Might & Magic II - Gold Bundle (NWC), Might & Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven (NWC), Deer Avenger (Simon & Schuster)

1999 - Deer Avenger II (Simon & Schuster), Heroes of Might & Magic III - The Restoration (NWC), Heroes of Might & Magic III - Armageddon's Blade (NWC), Might & Magic 7: For Blood & Honor (NWC), Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Brat Attack (KA/Simon & Schuster), Army Men (3DO)

2000 - Might & Magic 8: Day of the Destroyer (NWC), Heroes of Might & Magic: Millennium Edition (NWC), Might & Magic: Millennium Edition (NWC), Heroes of Might & Magic III - The Shadow of Death (NWC), Who Wants to Beat Up a Millionaire (Simon & Schuster), Heroes Chronicles: Clash of the Dragons (NWC/3DO), Heroes Chronicles: Conquest of the Underworld (NWC/3DO), Heroes Chronicles: Master of the Elements (NWC/3DO), Heroes Chronicles: Warlords of the Wastelands (NWC/3DO), No One Lives Forever - Additional Music (FOX), Vegas Games 2000 (NWC), Crusaders of Might & Magic (3DO), Warriors of Might & Magic (3DO)

2001 - The $100,000 Pyramid (Hypnotix/Sierra), Heroes of Might & Magic: The Dragonbone Staff (3DO), Legends of Might & Magic (NWC/3DO), Jungle Book - Lou Bega (Disney Interactive)

2002 - Heroes of Might & Magic IV (NWC), Might & Magic 9 (NWC), Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza - Trailer (Universal Interactive), Everquest: Planes of Power (Sony Online), Heroes of Might & Magic IV: Expansion Pack (NWC/3DO)

2003 - Everquest: Legacy of Ykesha (Sony Online), Everquest: Online Adventures PS2 (Sony Entertainment), Planetside - V.O. Direction (Sony Online), Everquest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath (Sony Online), Lords of Everquest (Rapid Eye/Sony)

2004 - Maximo vs. Army of Zin - Additional Music (Capcom) (with Tommy Tallarico Studios), Black9 - Additional Music (Majesco Games/Taldren) (with Tommy Tallarico Studios), Everquest: Gates of Discord (Sony Online)

Rob:

Rob King has produced several successful dance re-mixes, including People Underground's "Music Is Pumpin'" and DJ Dado's "Give Me Love". Both of these singles went to the Top 10 on the Billboard Dance Charts. He and Paul have also produced and re-mixed tracks for Donna Summer, David Gordon, Devone, International Hooligans (Tony B! & DJ Orlando) and Walt Disney Records; in addition, they had a Top 10 hit in Taiwan on EMI Records with Gigi Leung's "Short Hair".

Rob King has been engineering and producing for the past few years, working with several different bands including Elektra's Moonpools & Caterpillars. Recently he engineered the strings which Paul Romero did the arrangement for the Chris Vrenna remix of the hit Cold song "Stupid Girl" released in April 2003. He has also produced music and sound for many popular and award-winning CD-ROM titles. Rob has produced music and sound for over 50 game titles including all of the Heroes of Might & Magic games in the series as well as the past four Might & Magic Games for New World Computing. He has also contributed the score to Sony's Everquest: Planes of Power and Everquest: Online Adventures as well as voice directing for Sony's Planetside. More recently Paul and Rob finished the 160 minute score to Lords of Everquest from Rapid Eye Entertainment/Sony. Rob is also a member of the band Red Delicious, who's CD is due out in 2004.

Paul:

Award-winning classical composer/pianist Paul Romero is a graduate of three of the world's great music conservatories: The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (alma mater of Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber), the Paris Conservatoire of Music, and the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama in London.

Romero is the winner of the 1999 BMI-Jerry Goldsmith Film Composers Award, and recently was the Grand Prix winner of the 2002 Paris International Competition for Outstanding Pianists. Paul Romero is also the past recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Grants and two Gold Crown awards from the Pasadena Arts Council.

Romero has studied classical composition and orchestration under some of the world's leading classical composers including Pulitzer-prize winner Ned Rorem, Grammy-award winner Hans Werner-Henze, and Dr. Joel Kabacov. Romero has performed his original music as well as standard repertoire on some of the world's great concert stages including the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, London's Wigmore Hall, Tokyo's Bukka Kan, the Jeux de Paum in Paris, and Tanglewood. Romero has recorded his works on the Yamaha Label in Japan and on the Phillips label in the US.

Romero's career is divided between composing scores for various CD-ROM projects, documentaries, and independent films as well as live concert appearances as a classical pianist. Romero has composed two piano concerti, two operas, fifteen orchestral/choral/operatic scores for CD-ROM games, string quartets, sonatas for the piano, flute, and saxophone, as well as numerous works for various instruments.

We got in the industry ten years ago. We really wanted to do something creative for a living and so far so good. Rob has been in bands since he was 13 and Paul has been composing since age 7.

Rob: I started out as the audio director for New World Computing and brought Paul in on the first Heroes of Might and Magic score. We have been working together ever since.

Paul: Ten years ago I was teaching music lessons, doing historical building restorations with a friend, cooking at a catering company, and various unrelated jobs. I got a call from some guy I just met at a concert, and he said that he was trying to compose a medieval or baroque sounding soundtrack. It wasn't sounding very Vivaldi-esque, so could I come over and give him some critiques on how to make it more "classical and medieval" sounding? I went to his very small apartment which had his make-shift studio in the hallway. I listened to what he had on tape, told him that the music he had shown me needed re-orchestrations in the correct baroque manner. He then asked if I could compose the rest of the score in the baroque style, or in any style, as long as it sounded good with medieval imagery. He told me he was able to pay me $400 for my composing services and to me it sounded like a gold mine! Of course this project turned out to be the score to the very first Heroes of Might and Magic computer game and the guy I was working with turned out to become one of my best friends, Rob King! Ever since then I've done all the subsequent Heroes scores as well as the Might and Magic scores, which of course led to Sony's Everquest scores.

Tools We Can't Live Without:

Rob: I really love the new Sonar 3 Producer edition. It is a fantastic sequencer. We also run (3) Gigastudio machines and a rack of Akai Samplers. The Soundelux U95 mics are also a favorite. For recording we use a Protools 5.1 Mix rig with 5 Mixfarms.

Paul: Rob King and the Green Street Studio

Rob: I thought that Medal of Honor was really brilliant as far as the total audio package. It really set a standard. The new Call of Duty by Infinity Ward is also excellent. The main sound designer on that was Chuck Russom, who was my assistant at New World Computing for a few years and before that an intern at my studio. He really did an amazing job for his first "solo" project. The sound in this game is great! He really deserves some accolades.

Paul:- To this day, I have never played a computer game in my life, not even the ones I score. I listen to movie scores as inspiration when I am preparing a score for a computer game. Some of my favorite inspirational movie scores are all three scores to The Lord Of The Rings, Gladiator, Bram Stoker's Dracula, The English Patient, Star Wars, and of course Richard Wagner's operatic scores to his "RING" opera cycle, especially "Gotterdamerung".

Rob: I listen to everything. Right now in the car there is R.E.M., Norah Jones, Outcast, Peter Gabriel, Lords of the Rings score, and the Red Delicious CD :)

Paul: My other career is that of a classical concert pianist. I always have upcoming concerts scheduled around the country and in Europe, so my free time is usually spent practicing the repertoire that I will be performing on stage. The music of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Franz Liszt, Chopin, Bach, Tchaikowsky, and Ginastera usually figure on my piano solo concerts. So as I am practicing this music for several hours a day, I guess you can say I am also listening to it simultaneously!! When I'm NOT practicing or composing at Green Street Studios, I like to listen to the music of Prokofiev, Cole Porter, Liza Minnelli, Richard Strauss, Alicia Keys, Red Delicious, Puccini, Phillip Glass, Korngold, and old classic movie scores of the 40's and 50's.

Rob: It would have to be magazines - Mix & Eq.

Paul: I cannot say I have a favorite book because I do not read novels. My serious hobby in life is studying and collecting pieces of 18th and 19th century porcelain from the table setttings of various European royal households, such as Tzar Nikolai 1st of Russia, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England, Napoleon III of France, King Louis-Philippe, etc... The majority of material that I read are auction catalogs from Sotheby's and Christie's (catalogs which focus on the important European porcelain sales in London and New York), as well as many books written by porcelain museum curators. I like curators books because they tend to focus on the styles, the shapes, and the porcelain artisians who worked at the of private porcelain factories of various 18th and 19th century European kings and queens. I learn a lot from these books and it helps me to spot a world-class piece of porcelain and not be afraid to fork out good money to purchase it!

Rob: There are way too many to choose from but Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Star Wars, Close Encounters, and American Beauty are up there.

Paul: I generally like most movies. I consider a good movie as anything that can take my mind off the moment. But if I had to rent on DVD to take with me on a deserted island, it probably would be Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. I love the nostalgic old songs in the movie, and it has a happy ending in which all the characters have finally found their peace of mind and happiness!!! Thank you for your excellent and probing questions. It's been a most delightful interview. Goodbye for now!