About Frank Klepacki

Frank Klepacki (born May 25, 1974) is an American musician, video game music composer and sound director best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was only 17 years old. He scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, the The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards. He lives in Las Vegas, where he has shaped a solo career and played and produced for several local bands. His personal and band work touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music, hip hop music, soul music, and funk. He has dubbed the style of music he writes as "Rocktronic". His work has appeared in various media, including the Spike TV program The Ultimate Fighter. Klepacki is currently the audio director of Petroglyph games, where he scored Star Wars: Empire at War. Frank Klepacki was contacted to score Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, but was too busy with Petroglyph to take the project, and declined to mention the offer. In regards to his commitment to the C&C franchise, Klepacki most recently composed three songs, including "Hell March 3", for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 by Electronic Arts Los Angeles. His most recent solo CD is entitled "Conquering 20 Years", a musical retrospective of his career so far, featuring tracks from the style of 8-bit composition all the way to symphonic metal. When composing for video games, Frank Klepacki spends a few days to compose and master one song on average. He feels writing music for games is somewhat difficult as only early software builds are available to play; he sometimes must compose songs based on vague descriptions. Composing for cut scenes is easier by comparison, and Klepacki enjoys drawing inspiration and direction from game design art. Nonetheless, he prefers to compose for a game throughout its development rather than write songs for a finished product. He feels that game music has been harder to compose than film or solo music as he must compose for all situations a player may discover or engineer. Klepacki maintains templates with a base of common instruments prepared for sudden bursts of inspiration, as he resents "having technical issues...as an obstacle."