We catch up with dBs Bristol graduate Harvey Jones to discuss yet another phenomenal professional milestone with his recent collaboration with Nike, namethemachine and Fortnite.
Over the years, we’ve covered multiple pieces on Harvey since he graduated from our BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production degree in 2018. His portfolio includes lecturing for SAE Institute Australia and Morley College in London; sound design and composition for Arturia’s Vocoder V plugin, and collaborator for Ableton’s ‘One Thing’ series.
After creating a new music production alias, Pizza Hotline, Harvey has been making moves into the world of video game composition, which recently resulted in a huge collaboration with Nike, namethemachine and Fortnite for Airphoria Vol. 2.0.
We caught up with Harvey to hear the full story.
Hey Harvey! Congratulations on this amazing achievement. How did the collaboration come about?
“I was contacted by one of Nike’s ‘Global Brand Experience’ team as they had seen my music and mixes on my YouTube channel and felt my style matched what they were trying to achieve within Airphoria 2.0 - their game mode (or ‘island’) within Fortnite.
“[namethemachine] are an LA-based company specialising in tailor made interactive audio and visual media. They managed the project.”
Check out a clip of Harvey playing through one of the levels featuring one of his original compositions.
What was it like working with such a huge brand like Nike?
“Exciting for sure, I still can’t believe it’s happened. They were great to work with and very understanding of my style and vision. They provided reference tracks and asked me to make something similar for Airphoria. I made about six sketches for them and after a few stages of feedback they were happy.”
How does it feel to have original work in one of the biggest video games right now?
“Incredible. Being a huge video game fan and player I’ve wanted to work within game audio since leaving dBs. I tried multiple times to apply at studios with no success. Then, in the pandemic I started Pizza Hotline - which has turned out to be a sort of ‘video game adjacent’ music project - and accidentally fell into the games industry that way. I know, I didn’t expect it to happen that way either, hah!
“I’m now working full time as an artist and for a handful of development studios doing sound design and music. I’m thrilled!”
Can you talk about any other game audio projects you're working on?
“I’ve just finished a big project for a Cambridge based developer who’s commissioned me to make an official remix album of their game’s OST. That’s all I can say for now.”
FIND OUT MORE
Pizza Hotline YouTube
Pizza Hotline Spotify
How to make money as a music producer
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