If you are facing hard decisions in your life, don't be afraid to make a change. The new door might lead to something magical.
Time to share some Gratitudes… and a story that I’ve been waiting to tell for more than five years.
I am so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to work with so many amazing people in the music industry. This announcement is going to be really hard to top and I finally get to talk about it after nearly 4 years.
The big news?
I’ve had the opportunity to play a small part in the music development for the video game: Hogwarts Legacy (Harry Potter) over the past 4 years. I’ve seen and heard many pieces of the music for the game go from an idea, evolve and then come to life with so many talented musicians.
I’m so proud of my friend and producer Chuck E. Myers who has been the lead composer on this project. He completely knocked it out of the park and captured the magic of Harry Potter with this music.
Warner Brothers just released a behind the scenes video about the music development for the game and its so fun to see so many friends in the interviews. https://youtu.be/68DCCdzFxjM
My great friend JohnnyˋK aka “John Knudson” plays the intro theme for the game on his Viola as well as violin. It’s sounds so good.
Some of the songs in the video feature the voices of my talented friends Alexandria Sharpe, Lynn Hilary, and Edel Murphy of CaraNua and CelticWoman and Riverdance who I’ve been privileged to record multiple albums with over the past few years. Their voices and Irish accents are Amazing! Jake Bowen is a master audio engineer who’s played a key role in in bringing magic to all of my recordings as well as this project.
This new video game takes place more than 100 years before Harry Potter lived. Some of the inspiration for the music came from questions like, “What if there was an older melody that might have been an earlier version of Hedwig’s Theme by John Williams? What might music from this time period sound like?”
Take a minute to check it out this amazing new music and give a listen to what talented people can do when they work together!
It’s crazy to see my name listed next to so many amazing people in the credits!
What many people don’t realize is the many sacrifices that took place that led me to this project.
As this opportunity presented itself to be part of the Hogwart’s Legacy Harry Potter Music project, I found out that my business partner at my software company Kadince that I founded was having emotional issues caused by a variety of factors. These led to disagreements in ways to treat employees, treat each other, run the business and the ability for me to have flexibility to work on music when I wasn’t working. The idea of spending time on music which at that time was my hobby, led to disagreements that reached a boiling point and eventually led to me exiting the company.
While I loved serving my friends in the banking industry and I had never intended to sell my ownership shares and leave, the decision to move on and leave a toxic environment has led to many doors being opened. It gave me the opportunity to spend more time growing my music career and because of that decision I’ve been able to have my music heard by millions of people around the world.
The doors leading to music opportunities would not have presented themselves had I stayed in my software company. Leaving was the most painful experience I’ve lived through so far in my life. The scars caused by my business partner may never fully heal, but I am happier now because of the decision to move forward to new opportunities and people to serve.
I’m proud of the work my team did at Kadince and proud of the impact my software has had. For those not familiar with the software, it allows organizations to track their community impact. I never expected that my idea for tracking service would lead to more than three million hours of volunteer service at more than 200,000 organizations and more than a half billion dollars in community support requests being submitted.
I’ve included a snapshot of the impact our software has had on others by tracking community service and donations.
It is interesting how we sometimes have to go through difficult things and be willing to make a hard change in order to see the opportunities that might be on the other side of the door.
I’m so thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given to be a small part of such an amazing music project like Hogwart’s Legacy and that I was given the chance to share my talents with others to make such an exciting thing happen.
If you are facing hard decisions in your life, don’t be afraid to make a change. The new door might lead to something magical.
I’ve included some of the videos from the early recording sessions that took place while Chuck was dreaming up ideas for music for the game and allowing us to add our creativity to the project.
