Martin O'Donnell
Martin O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955)[1][2] is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's titles, such as the Myth series, Oni, the Halo series, and Destiny. O'Donnell collaborated with his Michael Salvatori for many of the scores; he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy.
For the English snooker player, see Martin O'Donnell (snooker player).
Martin O'Donnell
May 1, 1955
- Composer
- audio director
- sound designer
1982–present
2
O'Donnell began his career in music writing television and radio jingles such as the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins jingle and scoring for radio stations and films. O'Donnell moved to composing video game music when his company, TotalAudio, did the sound design for the 1997 title Riven. After producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell to work on their other projects, including Oni and the project that would become Halo: Combat Evolved. O'Donnell ended up joining the Bungie staff ten days before the studio was bought by Microsoft, and was the audio director for all Bungie projects until he was fired in April 2014.
O'Donnell's score to the Halo trilogy has received critical acclaim, earning him several awards, and the commercial soundtrack release of the music to Halo 2 was the best-selling video game soundtrack of all time in the United States. He composed the scores for Halo 3 (2007), Halo 3: ODST (2009), and Halo: Reach (2010). His final work for Bungie was composing music for the 2014 video game Destiny. He successfully sued Bungie for unpaid wages and stock ownership. Subsequently, he co-founded Highwire Games and composed the score for their debut virtual reality game Golem, which was released in late 2019.
O'Donnell unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in Nevada's 3rd congressional district in 2024, placing fourth in the Republican primary.
Early life and career[edit]
O'Donnell describes his upbringing as "typical"; he received piano lessons and wanted to start a rock band when he was in junior high school.[3] His father made films while his mother taught piano.[2] Despite his interest in progressive and fusion rock, O'Donnell studied the classical component of music and composition at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music[2] and received his Masters of Music Degree in composition with honors from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s.[4]
After getting his degree, O'Donnell moved to Chicago, where he expected that he would teach at the American Conservatory of Music. The job fell through, and instead he worked as a grip in the film and television business.[4] O'Donnell began his musical career in the field after one of his colleagues who knew of his music background approached him to write for his film. O'Donnell talked to his friend Michael Salvatori, who had his own recording studio, and offered to split the profits from the job with him; the two became constant partners.[4]
After completing a film score and a few commercials, the two decided to quit their day jobs and produce music in Chicago;[4] they founded a production company, TotalAudio. O'Donnell composed the music for jingles for Mr. Clean and Flintstones Chewable Vitamins.[5] After fifteen years of composing for TV and radio commercials, he decided that he wanted to work on game soundtracks and move on from commercial-sounding music. "I was hoping to find some other medium that would be new and cutting-edge and sort of the Wild West," he recalled.[6]
Video games[edit]
In 1993, Dick Staub, a Chicago radio personality and friend of O'Donnell's, asked if his eighteen-year-old son Josh could visit O'Donnell's studio, as he was interested in computer games and audio. O'Donnell agreed, and in talking with Josh learned that he had friends in Spokane, Washington who were making a game O'Donnell had never heard of called Myst.[4] In hearing the theme music to the game, O'Donnell realized that the game industry was making great strides in creating "legitimate music" that contained dramatic elements.[6] O'Donnell became acquainted with the game's developers, including brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, and was hired four years later[4] as a sound designer for Myst's sequel, Riven.[7] Among the games Riven's developers would play in their downtime was a title called Marathon, created by Chicago-based Bungie. On returning to Chicago O'Donnell emailed a Bungie staffer and pursued them for a job.[4]
TotalAudio produced the music for Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords the same year. The company later composed the music for Valkyrie Studio's Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator, during which O'Donnell met Steve Downes, whom he would later recommend as the voice actor for the Master Chief. O'Donnell described the work for Septerra Core as his most difficult assignment; during the production the TotalAudio studio burned to the ground and O'Donnell had to be hoisted through a window in order to save some 20 hours of recordings.[8]
After producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell for several of their other projects, including the game Oni.[9] In 1999, Bungie wanted to re-negotiate the contracts for Oni, and the negotiations resulted in O'Donnell joining the Bungie team, ten days before the company was bought by Microsoft.[8] O'Donnell was one of a handful of Bungie employees who remained working at the company since then, until his termination as of April 2014.[10] While O'Donnell worked at Bungie, Salvatori handled the business side of TotalAudio.[9]
Post-Bungie[edit]
In 2015, O'Donnell founded video game development studio Highwire Games.[31] He worked on the soundtrack to their debut game Golem, a VR game which was released on November 15, 2019. A musical prequel album to the game, Echoes of the First Dreamer (The Musical Prequel to Golem) was released by video game music label Materia Collective.[32]
Collections[edit]
O'Donnell's music has been packaged into several soundtrack collections. For Halo's music, O'Donnell created "frozen" arrangements that represented an approximation of a play-through of the games.[33] The Halo Original Soundtrack sold over 40,000 copies,[34] and was followed by two different releases of the music to Halo 2. The two volumes of the Halo 2 Original Soundtrack were produced by Nile Rodgers, with the first album being released in sync with the video game in 2004 and became the best-selling game soundtrack of all time in the United States.[8] The second album was released more than a year after the soundtrack had been mixed and mastered.[35]
The Halo 3 Original Soundtrack was released in November 2007, and featured a fan contribution that was the select winner from a pool of entries judged by O'Donnell, Rodgers, and others. All of O'Donnell's work on the series was repackaged as Halo Trilogy—The Complete Original Soundtracks in December 2008, alongside preview tracks written by Halo Wars composer Stephen Rippy.[36] The music to Halo 3: ODST was released as a two-disc set to coincide with the game's release on September 22, 2009.[19] Reach's soundtrack was available in digital formats the same day as the game's release on September 14, 2010; the physical two-disc soundtrack was released September 28, 2010.
On September 26, 2014, O'Donnell's soundtrack to Bungie's first installment of the Destiny franchise was released, several months after his termination from the company.
Political career[edit]
In March 2024, O'Donnell announced on his Discord server his intention to run as a Republican Party candidate in Nevada's 3rd congressional district in the 2024 House of Representatives elections, challenging incumbent Democrat Susie Lee. A supporter of former President (and 2024 presidential candidate) Donald Trump, O'Donnell focused his campaign on supporting family values, strengthening the middle class, and increasing restrictions on the country's immigration.[41] He was defeated in the Republican primary, placing fourth behind Elizabeth Helgelien, Dan Schwartz, and Drew Johnson.[42]
Personal life[edit]
O'Donnell has been married for more than 30 years to his wife, Marcie, and has two daughters, Alison and Christine. His children were part of a singing choir for the Flintstones Chewable Vitamins commercial jingle O'Donnell composed.[4][10] His father did voice work for Myth as the "Surly Dwarf", as well as "The Prophet of Objection" in Halo 2.
O'Donnell is a self-described political conservative, and Bungie coworkers described him as the most right-leaning employee at the company.[9]
Despite his extensive work with Bungie, O'Donnell remained co-owner[8] and president of TotalAudio.[43]
The Nevada Independent reported that O'Donnell has a net worth of nearly $74 million, much of which is held in stock holdings through individual retirement accounts and investment portfolios.[44]