Interview with Lee Jackson

Gamespy.com has an awesome new interview with Lee Jackson up today. It covers the usual topics you'd expect to see in an interview with an industry person. However, Lee goes into some really good detail. He covers topics about his past job at the IRS before Apogee, how he came to be here, the creation of the Duke Nukem 3D theme song, other games, just a ton of stuff! If you enjoy the music that comes out of our games, or if you just want to read about Lee, you owe it to yourself to read this interview, oddly titled "Music To Play By - Part 5". Here's a few samples:

GameSpy: What have you enjoyed most regarding your career with 3D Realms?

Lee Jackson: Sitting back and hearing a finished product, or at least one that's right on the verge of being finished. For example, going through all of the MIDI files for ROTT or Duke Nukem 3D, or the MOD files for Stargunner, or the CD tracks for Shadow Warrior, just *one last time* before releasing the games. There's a certain rush you get, sort of a combination of panic, relief, satisfaction, and hope that's impossible to come by in any other job.

GameSpy: Your Duke Nukem theme, Grabbag, is now one of the most recognizable PC game themes to date! To what or who do you credit its success?

Lee Jackson: An incredible string of coincidences. I'd started the song as possible level music, after a session of listening to a lot of Ozzy, Pantera, and Judas Priest. I basically drew out a lot of heavy metal idioms from a mental grabbag and put them together, just to see what I'd get. I tossed in a drum line and some Rick Wakeman-esque keyboard riffs, and that was it. The song wasn't even a song in my opinion - just a test. When it came time to save it, I used the name Grabbag, since that's what I thought it was--a grabbag of styles thrown together and mixed up.

If you enjoy reading about behind the scenes stuff, read this interview now! It's one of the better industry interviews that's come along in awhile.

Posted by Joe Siegler on July 7, 2000 at 11:50 AM | Permalink
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