Jeremy Soule facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jeremy Soule
Soule in 2010
Background information
Born	(1975-12-19) December 19, 1975 (age 49) Keokuk, Iowa, U.S.
Genres	Orchestral classical ambient
Occupation(s)	Composer arranger symphonist
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1994–2019
Labels	DirectSong (2005–19) Materia Collective (2017–19)

Jeremy Soule (sohl; born December 19, 1975) is a famous American composer. He creates music for movies, TV shows, and especially video games. He has composed music for over 60 games. Some of his most well-known works include the soundtracks for The Elder Scrolls, Guild Wars, Icewind Dale, and the Harry Potter series.

Jeremy Soule started working at Square, a video game company, in 1994. After working on Secret of Evermore, he joined Humongous Entertainment. There, he composed music for many children's games. He also created the award-winning music for Total Annihilation. In 2000, he started his own music company, Soule Media. Later, in 2005, he founded DirectSong. This company sold digital versions of his music and classical pieces. Jeremy Soule's music has even been played in live concerts around the world.

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Jeremy Soule was born in 1975 in Keokuk, Iowa. His father was a music teacher, and his mother was a graphic designer. Jeremy became interested in music and orchestras when he was just five years old. He started taking piano lessons very early. He loved music so much that he would even write music notes in his math homework!

His teachers and father saw his talent. So, he began taking private lessons with university professors. He felt that video games could be much better with amazing music. After high school, he spent a year creating a music demo tape. This tape showed what he thought video game music should sound like. He sent his music to game companies like LucasArts and Square. Square loved his music, and he started working there just two weeks later.

Jeremy Soule's Career Journey

Starting Out in the 1990s

At Square, Jeremy Soule's first big job was to create the music for Secret of Evermore. The game's music was unique. It mixed ambient sounds, like wind and ocean waves, with a calm orchestral style. He had to be very creative because of the sound technology limits at the time.

Later, he joined Humongous Entertainment. There, he composed music for popular children's games. These included games in the Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, and Freddi Fish series. While at Humongous, he met game designer Chris Taylor. Jeremy then signed on to compose music for Chris's big project, Total Annihilation.

Jeremy convinced Chris that an orchestral score would make Total Annihilation stand out. Many other real-time strategy games at the time used techno music. He even bet part of his pay that his idea would work! The music was a huge success. It earned Jeremy his first award for "Best Music" in 1997 from GameSpot. This was also the first time he worked with a full live orchestra.

Success in the 2000s

In 2000, Jeremy and his brother Julian started their own music company, Soule Media. It's now called Artistry Entertainment. Julian works as a sound engineer and composer, often helping Jeremy. Their first major project was Icewind Dale in 2000. This game's music won "best music of the year" awards from IGN and GameSpot.

From 2001 to 2005, Jeremy worked on five Harry Potter games. His music for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was nominated for an award. His scores for Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban won or were nominated for BAFTA awards. He also composed music for other big games in 2002. These included Dungeon Siege, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and Neverwinter Nights. Morrowind's music earned him another award nomination.

Jeremy Soule had a car accident in the mid-2000s. This experience made him think deeply about life. He said it gave him new ideas and inspiration for his music.

Artistry Entertainment continued to score many successful games. These included the Guild Wars series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. His music for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was especially famous. It was nominated for BAFTA and Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awards. It also won MTV Video Music Awards and Official Xbox Magazine soundtrack awards.

In 2005, Jeremy and Julian Soule started DirectSong. This company sold digital music downloads. By 2007, DirectSong had over a million registered customers. Jeremy also used DirectSong to sell "music expansion packs" for games like Guild Wars. These packs let players enjoy more of his music while playing.

Projects in the 2010s

In the early 2010s, Jeremy Soule worked on major titles. These included The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Guild Wars 2. The Skyrim soundtrack is one of his most praised works. It received a BAFTA nomination and many other awards. He also composed music for Skyrim's DLC packs, Dragonborn and Dawnguard. The Guild Wars 2 soundtrack was released as a four-disc collection.

In 2013, Soule started a Kickstarter project. He wanted to fund a classical music album called The Northerner: Soule Symphony No. 1. He asked for $10,000 but raised over $121,000! The project was planned to feature vocals in Old Norse. An album of sketches was released in 2017, but the full symphony has not been released yet.

In 2014, Soule signed a deal with Sony Online Entertainment. He composed music for EverQuest Next and Landmark. EverQuest Next was later canceled. In 2015, he and Julian composed a music pack for Dota 2. This music helped fund the prize pool for a huge e-sports tournament. In the following years, he mostly worked on smaller independent games.

In 2014, Jeremy and Julian Soule also started an audio company called Virtual Sonics. They partnered with Roland Corporation in 2016. Virtual Sonics created digital instruments for Roland Cloud.

Live Performances of His Music

Jeremy Soule's music has been played in many live concerts. His music from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was performed in Germany in 2003. Music from Morrowind was played at concerts in 2005. Pieces from Morrowind and Oblivion are part of the international concert series Play! A Video Game Symphony. Jeremy Soule attended the first Play! concert in Chicago in 2006. Music from Oblivion was also played in Japan in 2007. The first live orchestral concert just for his Skyrim music happened in London in 2016.

His Impact and Style

Jeremy Soule's music has been in many best-selling games. He once guessed that about 10 million games with his music were sold in 2006 alone.

Fans often create remixes of his music online. Jeremy Soule supports this community. He even made his own remix of a Final Fantasy VI song. He did this to encourage younger and newer composers.

Jeremy Soule often starts composing music before a game is fully finished. He bases his music on the company's past games and the game's visual style. He loves to see storyboards and concept art. He feels these give him the "pure emotional intent" for the game. When he starts, he first decides the tempo and energy of the music. Then he composes smaller tracks. He tries to compose all of a game's music himself, but sometimes works with his brother.

Even though much of his work is orchestral, Jeremy Soule doesn't like to call it his "style." He feels that limits him to only one type of music. He prefers to be called a "music practitioner." This means he creates all kinds of music. He sees music like a language that can be arranged in many ways. He doesn't have a favorite game genre to compose for. Instead, he likes to work on "ambitious" games with "new ideas."

Soule's biggest musical inspirations include Claude Debussy's harmonies, Richard Wagner's grand operas, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's forms. He says his favorite composer is John Williams. Critics have even called Soule "the John Williams of video game music." He also credits Square and Nobuo Uematsu for teaching him about quality in game music. His favorite music to listen to is British pop and rock. His favorite video games are the ones he has scored, especially those by Chris Taylor. He also loves The Legend of Zelda.

Works

Video Games

Film and Television

Albums

• The Northerner Diaries (2017)

Theater

• Storyeum (2000)
• Ecstasy (2003)

Awards and Recognition

Images for kids

• 

  Soule in 2010

See also

In Spanish: Jeremy Soule para niños