Today we’d like to introduce you to Troy Giebel And Joshua Cloward.
Hi Troy and Joshua, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Troy – Josh and I have known each other for a few years since meeting as music majors at Brigham Young University, but we didn’t bump into each other much until we met again at the 2024 Game Developer’s Conference (GDC). In the later part of 2024 we did a few game jams together with Josh in the role of sound designer and I as the music composer (in a game jam, you form teams with random people and build a small video game in somewhere between 3 days to a week or more, depending on the jam), and in March of this year we decided to join forces and make our own game audio company, Mountain Totem Audio Solutions. Our goal together is to broaden our professional network and market ourselves as a more complete game audio package, able to do all (if not the majority) of audio-related tasks required in making a cohesive videogame.
Regarding my own personal development, I have been writing music since the age of 10 and have always had a deep love for music. I wrote music intermittently throughout my teenage years, ranging from pieces on the piano to random ensemble combinations to a piece for full orchestra that I was able to conduct for a concert in 9th grade. As a budding trombonist in high school, I was introduced to classical music by a friend who invited me to join a local youth orchestra, and unbeknownst to me at the time this would have an enormous impact on my musical psyche, giving me the orchestral foundation I have greatly relied on in my writings. Between that and encouragement from my trombone teacher at the time, I decided to pursue a degree in music composition, and with some later influence during college, I began to dive more specifically into the world of video game music through networking at GDC and other industry events. Meeting Josh and his presenting me with the idea of making a game audio company together has really expanded the potential opportunities we can have in the future, and I’m really excited for what is to come as we jump into this!
Josh – I grew up playing video games since my Dad has been working in the industry since I was born. I quickly found excitement in the music and the sound. I started learning the basics of
music production when I was 13 (I wanted to write songs for a girl I liked). I continued to practice my music production throughout my high school years and was happy to be accepted to the commercial music program at Brigham Young University with the intention to study music composition. However, as I trudged through grueling music classes, and struggled to find my place as a composer, I discovered that I was better able to harness my passion with storytelling through sound design. Combined with my love of computer programming, I instead opted for a future in technical sound design (creating sounds for and implementing them into a video game). During the 2024 Game Developers Conference, I learned that teaming up is essential today to find work. I knew I needed a composer to complement my sound design skills, so I reached out to my contacts from the conference to see who would like to participate in game jam competitions together, and after a few with Troy, I found we work really well together.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Josh – The largest struggle we have faced so far (we are still rather new) is finding paid work. The video game industry is really struggling right now with mass layoffs, studio closures, and fierce competition. And living in Utah, we aren’t near any game development hotspots, so in-person networking opportunities are few and far between. We hope that through increased exposure and as we continue to put ourselves and our work out there, we can eventually open the right doors to work on more and more projects that will be paid.
A second struggle we both face is work-life balance. We both have day jobs that take up 20-40 hours of our weeks, and we both are parents of 2 children each. With Mountain Totem Audio being a side passion project, we often have a hard time finding time to dedicate to it. Frequently our meetings together happen later than when we plan since we are delayed putting kids to bed or taking care of household responsibilities.
I also have ADHD and Bipolar 2, which means I have periods of extreme productivity and periods of excessive burnout. The work I can contribute to our business is inconsistent, where some weeks I can crank out many hours, and others I don’t have the mental energy. Learning to organize myself has been a challenge that I’m still making efforts to overcome in order for Mountain Totem Audio to be successful. I have been working to be patient with myself during my low periods, and pace myself during my high periods which allows me to work more sustainably.
Troy – My greatest struggle right now, similar to Josh, is working around time constraints. I am the main caregiver of my two kids as a result of my amazing wife’s difficulties with mental health, which unfortunately prevent her from being able to help much of the time. That, coupled with being the only primary breadwinner, makes for a complicated lifestyle, but I don’t let that deter me because I know that I have a lot of time (like 40 years or more!) to accomplish my aims, and I work what bits of music I can into my schedule to keep my mind fresh. Adjacently, an unfortunate sentiment in the music industry (and perhaps even other creative industries) is that you have to put all your eggs in that basket all at once if you want to “make it,” and while I do admire that kind of drive, I am a firm believer in a more moderated approach that relies less on sheer luck and focuses more on stability. I am ok with the fact that I have to work a day job to make ends meet right now, which while it is challenging to merge with another line of work that isn’t bringing money (yet!), I am ok with allowing things to happen naturally with time as I meet and work with and increasing number of people in my professional network. Josh has been awesome and has been pushing me well with the projects he brings for us to work on, and I have been able to begin building a pretty solid network of friends in the industry who may help us land work as time goes on, so I feel like we make a really good team and balance out each other’s struggles well. I feel the future, albeit laden with many difficulties, looks quite bright for us, and I am excited to face it head on!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Troy – As a composer, I specialize in orchestral and hybrid orchestral music. I enjoy combining, either in small or in large part, orchestral instruments (brass, strings, and/or percussion) with choral and vocal parts, electronic synths, and instruments from around the world, leaving at my disposal a smorgasbord of sound and musical effects. Combined with my love of a plethora of musical genres ranging from classical and renaissance choral to metal and European folk, I have a rather unique musical pallet to offer to the world.
I particularly enjoy the dynamic nature of video game music as opposed to the linear nature of most other media formats – when you play a video game, you as the player character can encounter a large combination of different events in different orders, which means that the music that goes along with those events must also often times be adaptable through layering and transitioning different things together to help create a seamless experience for the player. This is all usually completed in looping form where the music jumps back into itself, and I love that aspect in particular because it stretches me to think differently about what I am writing. Perhaps my proudest piece to date is one that I wrote for a passion project video game my brother-in-law is making called Reflection of Shadow; In one part of the game, the player character encounters a ruined cathedral in a country that has been destroyed, so to capture the somber and also vindictive nature of this place, I wrote a slow-moving piece for solo organ, and it turned out really well! I feel deep emotion whenever I listen to it, not just because of the music itself, but also because of the meaning it takes on in this particular setting. I liked it so much that I adapted it for a recital setting and had it played for my senior recital in college; hearing it live was an especially beautiful moment for me. If you would like to listen to it, feel free to follow this link: https://youtu.be/_yj0iMtYYBM?si=A7zMiJQE6KneRiYJ
Josh – I am a sound designer. As a sound designer, I record, synthesize, splice, and edit sounds in order to create any non-musical (and sometimes even musical) sound present in video games. Additionally I frequently provide the computer programming necessary to put all sounds including music into the video game. My favorite sounds to design are for monsters and creatures. I’ve recorded myself making zombies sounds and biting into a variety of fruits and vegetables in order to accurately display zombies tearing into a player on the screen. It was quite messy, but very fun. I am a story teller at heart, and with that I aim to create sonic environments that don’t only show people what is happening, but helps them to feel what the story should make them feel. My proudest example of audio storytelling was in the production of my own personal Audio Drama, a short radio or podcast story I called The Music Box. In this Audio Drama, a young boy and girl seek refuge in a post-apocalyptic world. The sound design is eerie, lonely, and dangerous as they fend off gangs and robots in an attempt to find safety and grow closer together.
Pricing:
- Sound Design – $40 per 5 sounds with implementation
- Music – $350 per finished minute of music
- Combined rates negotiable by project
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mountaintotemaudio.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mountain-totem-audio-solutions/posts/?feedView=all
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MountainTotemAudio
- Other: https://clowdsound.godaddysites.com | https://www.troygiebelcomposer.com
