Life & Work with Zac Tiessen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Zac Tiessen.

Hi Zac, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born to Canadian parents working in Russia. My Russian nanny’s teenage daughters were in the ballet, so we would get front-row seats, and I sat mesmerized by the symphony orchestra. Back in Canada, school and sports distracted me, but after a ninth concussion at thirteen, I started playing electric guitar and shortly thereafter moved to 8-string. My first two solo EPs were in the progressive metal genre, and by seventeen I was opening for bands such as Animals As Leaders. I studied online through Berklee College of Music for guitar performance and audio production and was influenced by jazz. I was approached by guitar luthier Rick Canton to collaborate on a signature 8-string model, which took three years to complete. While most 8-stringers tend to play metal, I experimented with ambient sounds and techniques.

I was set to record my third EP when I developed tendonitis from too much performing. My brother was headed to LA to exhibit his art, and since I was unable to play my guitar, I decided to tag along. At the exhibition opening, I met my screenwriting/producer relatives at Hayes Brothers Films (Conjuring 1, 2). After visiting at their Malibu home and introducing them to my music, they connected me with Andrew Lockington, a composer from Toronto they had worked with (San Andreas, Mayor of Kingstown). He has mentored me since then, and I’ve helped on a few projects (sample editing, guitar playing, etc.). My new music became more orchestral in nature, still blended with the energetic and complex harmonic elements of prog. When the pandemic lockdowns hit, my brother and I worked on a passion project called “Streams in the Wasteland,” a collaborative art and music experience. I composed an original soundtrack for the 17 paintings in his series, which each had stories accompanying them. We crowdfunded an art monograph book and CD and were overwhelmed by the support. The soundtrack has now amassed over 1 million streams and been licensed in various productions.

During the pandemic, I also took the opportunity to further my education through a few courses online at UCLA extension. My favourite one was “Composing Music for Video Games” by Nima Fakhrara (Detroit: Become Human, Evil West, Lou). I learned so many new ways of approaching adaptive composition and went on the following year to compose my first video game soundtrack: a StarCraft II mod called “UED: First Light” that had been over five years in the making at NexusCore. The mod and soundtrack (“Supernova Original Soundtrack”) were received extremely well. Alongside composing projects, I have worked as a sound engineer, mixing and mastering thousands of songs over the past ten years, including billboard charting albums, BBC documentaries, and video game OSTs. More and more composers are now especially reaching out to me for score mixing since I offer atmos. I am very excited for the future of this format on the streaming side of things for soundtracks to be enjoyed to their full potential!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have had my fair share of struggles, but I wouldn’t change those character-shaping experiences. It was the tendonitis and LA trip that really started me on my journey to become a composer. Then a setback occurred the following year when I was in Montreal to watch my Russian nanny’s daughter perform the lead in Swan Lake with the Polish National Ballet. The next day, right in front of the cafe where we took her out to lunch, my laptop and external drive were stolen from our car (I was mixing an album at the time, so had my mobile setup). Losing most of my own music was devastating, and I did not produce any new original music for at least six months. The silver lining was an insurance claim that allowed for huge upgrades to a professional studio. When I returned to writing again, I had a fresh outlook on why I wanted to create music: to inspire and bring hope. Rather than ‘showy’ previous releases that were technique-based, I started becoming intentional in conveying emotional impact above everything else.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I first started out composing, Andrew Lockington gave me career-shaping advice: “Zac, don’t feel like you have to be proficient on piano: playing guitar is what makes you unique and seeps through into your melodies.” I’ve kept this approach, although I do incorporate piano more these days (when doing mockups, etc.) But most of my initial ideas still tend to originate from guitar (chord progressions, scales, counter-melodies, etc). I also get inspiration from playing through my pedalboard with a couple dozen fx units, each taking me on different spectral pathways. These pedals also get lots of use in running my analog synths through them, such as the Yamaha VSS30 8-bit sampler that I utilize in similar ways to Sigur Rós for their albums.

In recent years, I have been inspired by the approach to the sound design of Ryan Lott (Son Lux, composer of Everything Everywhere All At Once). I used to get overwhelmed by sampling every note on an instrument, but when I started using only a single ‘performed’ note (random trems, unusual plucks/scrapes, etc.) per custom instrument and then resampling it through Kontakt, it became a much more fluid workflow for me. My most recent experimentation has been taking nature sounds I’ve recorded (caves, wind, snowflakes, bird chirps, etc.) and processing them as a single oscillator (like a synth), then pulling out specific octaves to design the sound from the ground up (like an organ stop). I also love incorporating live musicians (percussionists, vocalists, etc.) and ensembles (such as Budapest Scoring Orchestra) but then processing them with multiple different sound design approaches (resampling, granular fx, etc.). I am super excited to have these sounds featured on my latest project, “Vanitas + Viriditas,” another collaborative art/music experience with my artist brother Josh Tiessen. The project was exhibited at Rehs Contemporary in NYC, with me performing the soundtrack live at the opening. Like our first project, “Streams in the Wasteland,” I have scored a custom soundtrack inspired by the narrative stories that accompany the paintings. The album releases on February 2, 2024.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Perseverance. There have been some cool opportunities in the past year to work on some very exciting big projects, but unfortunately they did not end up panning out due to various reasons (for example, on one of the projects I pitched on, the producers and directors were vying for different people). It’s obviously disappointing at the time, but success in the film industry isn’t short-term; it’s long-term. I am intentional in between composing projects to always be creating new opportunities through connecting with directors whose work I adore, fellow composers that would be great to collaborate with and promoting my previously released music to licensing companies. I am thankful for the community of creatives I have surrounded myself with that give me words of reassurance in all seasons, the good and the bad.

Pricing:

• $100 Atmos Mastering/Per Song
• $200 Atmos Mixing/Per Minute

Contact Info:

• Website: www.zactiessen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zactiessen/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006078494553
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-tiessen-80401bb3/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHqvoxmaEb2uqPkRLEkkU8Q
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/44VIiKcvL7jtY8hcWIraKc