Halo music composer Marty O’Donnell is working for Congress in Nevada

Marty O’Donnell, the creator of the music for Bungie video games like Halo and Future, introduced he’s working for a seat in Congress in Nevada.

O’Donnell lives in Lone Mountain, a neighborhood in Las Vegas, and he’ll run in opposition to incumbent Democrat Susie Lee in November in Nevada’s third congressional district, assuming O’Donnell prevails within the Republican main in June. O’Donnell has to formally file to run in March.

He stated in an interview with GamesBeat he desires to revive sanity to Washington so we will rebuild our financial system to have a thriving center class, convey safety to the nation and the border, and restore the values that result in robust households and powerful communities.

O’Donnell is fairly well-known in online game circles as a composer and audio director for video games equivalent to Riven, Fantasy II, Halo: Fight Advanced, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Attain, Future and Golem. He’s new to politics, as he’s by no means run for an workplace earlier than.

“Politics has at all times been a form of passion,” O’Donnell stated. “I simply don’t actually just like the poisonous divisions which are taking place in our nation. I don’t like every of that stuff. And I used to be form of reaching out to some native folks if there was a way I may assist out. I obtained a bunch of calls from individuals who requested if I might take into account working for Congress.”

That is within the “imagine it or not” class of tales I’ve executed over time. The final sport developer I wrote about working for Congress was Brianna Wu, who ran for a seat within the eighth congressional district in Massachusetts in 2018. She misplaced. O’Donnell hopes his personal fame in gaming will assist him and he thinks his lack of expertise in politics might be a bonus. O’Donnell acknowledges he hasn’t lived in Las Vegas for very lengthy, however he hopes to have the ability to signify it properly.

“We perceive what it’s like out right here and we love Nevada. I like Las Vegas,” he stated. “I’d by no means thought I’d be saying that being from Chicago and Seattle. I’m very proud of the climate right here.”

I requested him if he helps Trump. He stated sure. That’s going to be a sizzling button.

“America loved a safe border and no inflation within the Trump administration 4 years in the past,” O’Donnell stated. “I’ve voted for President Trump twice and can vote for him a 3rd time this fall. However regardless of who’s elected this November, if I’ve the privilege to serve, I plan to work with them. That’s what voters anticipate and that’s what I’ll do.”

Background

O’Donnell, 68, grew up in Chicago. He earned his grasp of music diploma in composition with honors from USC in 1981. Then, a number of months later, Marty began his first profession by founding the Chicago-based industrial music and sound manufacturing firm O’Donnell/Salvatori Inc.

In 1997, Marty launched into his second profession, producing music and sound design for video video games. He created sound design for Cyan’s Riven, the sequel to Myst, and the entire audio for Bungie’s award-winning Fantasy sequence. In 2000, he moved to Seattle after Microsoft purchased Bungie, whose Halo become probably the most profitable sport franchises of all time. At the very least 81 million copies have been offered so far.

The audio and music for the Halo sequence have obtained quite a few honors and awards, together with the Recreation Builders Alternative Award, the Edge Award, Rolling Stone Journal’s Finest Recreation Soundtrack, and Finest Sound/Music from the AIAS, IGDA, GANG, TEC, and Spike TV. The critically acclaimed soundtracks, produced in partnership with Nile Rodgers, are additionally greatest sellers.

In July of 2007, O’Donnell helped lead Bungie to regain its independence. His ultimate undertaking with the studio, Future, featured music in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. The stand-alone soundtrack, Music of the Spheres, was recorded at Abbey Highway Studios. Along with creating and overseeing sound design, music, and implementation, he additionally forged and directed all of the voice appearing for Bungie’s video games. The music and audio from Future have received a number of awards, together with Finest Audio and Finest Music from the AIAS. He was awarded GANG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

Just a few years in the past, he moved into semi-retirement and relocated to Las Vegas to be near his grandchildren. His final undertaking was working for Highwire, creating the VR sport Golem. And he labored on the controversial sport Six Days in Fallujah. That sport is in early entry.

Earlier than video games, O’Donnell labored in tv and radio, writing jingles for Flinstones Nutritional vitamins, Mr. Clear and different adverts.

Requested about politics, he stated, “This isn’t one thing I ever anticipated to do. I wished to spend extra time with household. And now I most likely must spend much less time with my household. At the very least that’s what my household is telling me. I don’t suppose I’m the form of man who actually desires to retire endlessly. However I don’t wish to do any extra crunching within the sport enterprise.”

He stated he’s a civic-minded particular person. He has served on jury responsibility a number of instances and he stated he at all times hated profession politicians who spent their complete lives working.

“I’ve at all times thought that Congress must be like a civic responsibility, proper? You must go in after which and do your bit after which get out. It was like anyone was asking me to place my cash the place my mouth was,” he stated. “I used to inform my youngsters there must be Congress responsibility, identical to jury responsibility.”

His daughter runs a nonprofit, Foster Kinship, and he or she inspired him to take the step. The district itself is on the northwest facet of Las Vegas, in middle-class neighborhoods. It doesn’t embody the Las Vegas Strip, nevertheless it does embody Summerlin, Lone Mountain and elements of Henderson.

“One of many issues that’s so miserable to me is once I watch TV or the information. I begin yelling at all of it on my own. The simply the quantity of poisonous divisions which have occurred within the final decade — I simply don’t prefer it,” he stated. “Now we have disagreements on political points. We agree on what video games we like, or we agree on music, or we now have widespread floor on plenty of stuff. We don’t need to demonize one another on a regular basis.”

O’Donnell went to the Tremendous MAGFest, a giant music competition in Washington D.C. However in any other case he hasn’t been to the nation’s capitol that usually.

As for why he’s a Republican, he stated, “I’m a Boomer and I’m a conservative. However I’ve not been a giant fan of politicians. So I’ve a tough time even saying that I’m Republican, however I don’t actually like what the Democratic consultant has been doing right here. And in order that’s why I’m working in opposition to them.”

As for points like online game violence, O’Donnell believes that the federal government was fairly clueless in going after the sport trade for inflicting folks to be violent.

“They only made fools of themselves. There’s plenty of discuss AI coming into these industries. I really feel like there are numerous folks in politics who don’t have any clue what AI is,” he stated. “It could be good to have a minimum of one particular person in there who has a clue.”

Launching on Discord

O’Donnell believes he’ll have a bonus partly as a result of he’s well-known in video games, and he has the facility of what he calls the “Marty Military,” which consists of hundreds of followers on Discord. He’s asserting his candidacy on the Discord channel within the audio chat. Most likely don’t reside within the district, however they may be capable of assist with the marketing campaign.

He additionally plans to push the announcement on Twitter and YouTube and begin a channel dubbed “Marty for Congress.” Throughout the pandemic, O’Donnell had nice success in his first put up on TikTok, the place he launched a piano efficiency the place his outdated canine Baxter howled within the background. Sadly, Baxter handed away a 12 months in the past. That video obtained greater than two million views. As for Halo, the unique Halo soundtrack above has greater than 47 million views on YouTube.

In video video games, O’Donnell had some authorized clashes with former employers. He left Bungie in 2014. At Bungie, he obtained right into a dispute with administration about inventory choices he was owed which the corporate tried to cancel. In 2015, he received a lawsuit in opposition to them and obtained his choices again. That mattered as a result of Bungie finally offered itself to Sony for $3.6 billion. O’Donnell stated he has resolved disputes with the businesses concerned.

Points

Via his daughter’s charity, Foster Kinship, O’Donnell has witnessed how the federal government manages foster kids. It helps navigate the system for kids who’ve misplaced mother and father and need assistance. O’Donnell stated he desires authorities to face up for households higher.

He’s additionally upset that actual wages for the center class have been squeezed whereas the wealth hole has widened. O’Donnell desires to reverse the pattern and assist center class residents and small companies. He desires to deal with financial stagnation. He thinks his district is targeted on the identical issues. (Here’s a reality test on the state of the center class within the U.S.).

There isn’t any specific regulation he wish to go on behalf of avid gamers. He stated, “I simply suppose video games are leisure and federal authorities shouldn’t have a lot to say about leisure.”

Immigration situation

On prime of that, O’Donnell stated, “I don’t like what’s taking place on the border. I have a look at the border and marvel how are these tens of millions and tens of millions of individuals coming in with out us realizing who they’re or the place they’re going? That simply doesn’t appear it’s best to deal with a rustic. Your nation ought to have safe borders. And that doesn’t appear to be a controversial thought to me. I actually am watching state governments preventing the federal authorities over how you can safe borders. It simply looks like one thing’s obtained to vary. That’s simply foolish. That’s horrible.”

Right here’s a reality test on the border scenario.

As for options, O’Donnell stated he has plenty of learning to do.

“I’m a historical past buff, and I’ve rules which are conservative. However my situation proper now’s that I really feel like there’s a disaster on the border,” he stated. “I don’t actually suppose this is a matter for Democrats or Republicans. I believe there’s sufficient blame to go round.”

O’Donnell stated that he believes avid gamers are extra on the left, as they’re youthful. However he has by no means hid that he’s a conservative with regards to politics.

“I’ve spent my whole profession working with people who find themselves fairly left to middle. And I can have constructive conversations with these folks. We don’t demonize one another,” he stated.

Republican roots

He acknowledged they is perhaps “a bit ticked off” that he’s working as a Republican. O’Donnell sees himself as a Federalist, the place he believes the federal government ought to do much less, no more.

“I believe larger points will rise to the floor with regards to tech and the longer term. And, frankly, I simply hope to be anyone who could possibly be ready to not be fairly as uninformed as I believe some individuals are proper now in Congress,” he stated.

Whereas O’Donnell has tangled with companies, he thinks that small companies must be helped. He thinks that enormous companies mustn’t have a lot affect on the federal authorities.

“Huge enterprise influencing large authorities is is a foul factor, interval,” he stated. “I’m going to inform you proper now I cannot take any cash from large enterprise.”

As for acquisitions like Microsoft’s $68.7 billion buy of Activision Blizzard, he doesn’t suppose that the federal government ought to block that form of deal, and he believes the free market will type itself out. He’s writing music nonetheless, together with an acapella Requiem Mass.

O’Donnell stated he believes he could have endorsements from fascinating folks, however he received’t disclose that for now. And he’s excited in regards to the marketing campaign.

“I’m attempting to mentally put together for it,” he stated. “I don’t want to do that. I’m not doing this to generate profits. I’m not doing this for energy. I’m truthfully doing this as a result of I really feel prefer it’s a civic responsibility for individuals who have the power to do one thing like this.”