Grant Kirkhope

Grant Kirkhope
Background information
Birth name	Grant Kirkhope
Born	(1962-07-10) 10 July 1962 Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Origin	Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Video game music
Occupation(s)	Composer
Instruments	Keyboards, guitar, trumpet
Years active	1995–present
Website	www.grantkirkhope.com

Grant Kirkhope (born 10 July 1962) is a British BAFTA, ASCAP, and IFMCA nominated composer.

Early life and education

Kirkhope was brought up in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire from the age of 5, and attended King James's School (like his fellow trumpet player and good friend, Simply Red's Tim Kellett). Kirkhope played in various bands after leaving the Royal Northern College of Music, including Zoot and the Roots along with the saxophonist, Snake Davis. Kirkhope also spent many years as part of "the Big Bad Horns" which were part of UK rock band Little Angels. At the age of 33 he was employed by Rare. Before joining Rare, in October 1995, he played for two bands called Syar and Maineeaxe where he played guitar, and already knew Robin Beanland, another Rare composer. Kirkhope's music featuring an electric guitar is played on an Ernie Ball/Musicman EVH given to him by Eddie Van Halen. Kirkhope's skills on guitar can be heard on Killer Instinct Gold, Perfect Dark, Star Fox Adventures or Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

Career

When Kirkhope joined Rare, due to being the "new boy", he was assigned to convert the music of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest for Donkey Kong Land 2, he finished the conversion in December of the same year. He was later asked by Graeme Norgate to finish composing the music for GoldenEye 007 so that Norgate could focus on Blast Corps. Norgate taught Kirkhope how to get music and sound effects into the Nintendo 64. His work on the game eventually reached Tim Stamper and Gregg Mayles, who reassigned him to compose for Project Dream with David Wise, who left the project shortly after to work on Diddy Kong Racing.^[1] On 14 July 2008, Kirkhope stated in his MySpace blog that he was resigning from Rare to become a freelancer composer.

Big Huge Games was acquired by 38 Studios in May 2009, the company founded by Curt Schilling. Kirkhope went on to compose both the music and sound effects for Big Huge Games's million selling role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was released in February 2012.^[2] On 24 May 2012, 38 Studios announced that it would be laying-off its entire staff, including Kirkhope and the employees of Big Huge Games, due to the effects of the financial downturn.^[3] In June 2012, Grant Kirkhope played at several festivals with fellow members of the reunited band Little Angels.

In August 2012, he moved to Los Angeles, California to further pursue his music career. In June 2013, Kirkhope was signed to the prestigious Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency in Los Angeles. In 2013, Kirkhope appeared as a guest on the webseries, Game Grumps, where he talked about his work at Rare.^[4] In January 2016, the album Big Bad Bosses was released with Kirkhope guest starring on one of the tracks with a rap about himself. In April 2016, Kirkhope appeared on Super Beard Bros for the two-part finale of "Super Banjo Bros" where he talked about his work on Banjo-Kazooie and some fun trivia about the game and his part in its development.

Several of Kirkhope's compositions are included in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.^[5] At EGX Rezzed 2015, it was confirmed by the development team at Playtonic Games that Kirkhope will be involved with co-producing the soundtrack for their new 3D platforming video game, Yooka-Laylee.

Works

Kirkhope also voiced several characters in the games he has worked on, such as Mumbo Jumbo, Bottles, Jamjars and the Jinjos in the Banjo-Kazooie series, and Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong 64.^[9][10][11] Kirkhope was also involved in choosing which voices by the team at 4Kids would be used in the Viva Piñata cartoon.^[12]

Awards and honors

• In 2004, Kirkhope was nominated for "Best Interactive Score" at the 2nd Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards Ceremony for Grabbed by the Ghoulies, as well as "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition" at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awards Ceremony for the same game.
• In 2007, Kirkhope was nominated for "Best Original Score" at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for Viva Piñata.
• In 2012, Kirkhope was nominated for "Best Original Score" at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, "Outstanding Achievement – Western Composer" at Square Enix Music's Annual Game Music Awards for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and CityVille 2.^[13]
• In 2013, Kirkhope was nominated for "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media" by Movie Music UK and International Film Music Critics Association for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Kirkhope was also nominated for "Best Original Score" at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.
• In 2014, Kirkhope was nominated for "Outstanding Achievement – Western Composer" at the Annual Game Music Online Awards for Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Desktop Dungeons.
• In 2015, Kirkhope won the award for "Best Video Game Score" from Movie Music UK for Civilization: Beyond Earth.
• In 2015, Kirkhope was nominated for "Video Game Score of the Year" by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for Civilization: Beyond Earth
• In 2015, Kirkhope won the award for "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media" from the International Film Music Critics Association for Civilization: Beyond Earth.
• In 2015, Kirkhope won the award for "Best Score - Video Game" with The Cue Awards from Tracksounds for Civilization: Beyond Earth.

References

External links

• Official website
• Grant Kirkhope discography at MusicBrainz
• Grant Kirkhope at the Internet Movie Database