GA M E AUDIO NETWOR K GUILD
AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT INDIE G WLAD MARHULETS FROM UNF A GRADUATE OF THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL AND A FORMER COMPOSITION STUDENT OF OSCAR AND PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING JOHN CORIGLIANO, WLAD HAS WORKED ON SUCH FILMS AS AMBITION, DIRECTED BY BOB SHAYE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY); HITMAN: AGENT 47, STARRING RUPERT FRIEND AND ZACHARY QUINTO, MARSHAL FROM DETROIT, STARRING EMINEM; THE GIVER, STARRING JEFF BRIDGES AND MERYL STREEP; NOVEMBER MAN, STARRING PIERCE BROSNAN; SABOTAGE, STARRING ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER; AND OTHERS. A FEW YEARS AGO, WLAD STARTED HIS OWN VIDEO GAME DEVELOPMENT COMPANY. HIS FIRST GAME, DARQ, WAS RELEASED ON PC, PS4, PS5, XBOX ONE, XBOX SERIES S|X AND NINTENDO SWITCH TO BOTH COMMERCIAL SUCCESS AND CRITICAL ACCLAIM. HAVING WON A NUMBER OF AWARDS, IT BECAME THE 42ND MOST SHARED PC VIDEO GAME OF 2019 (METACRITIC). G.A.N.G. Staff (GS): Please tell us about your background and musical upbringing. WLAD: I was born in Belarus and relocated to Poland at a very early age. My father was a music lover and an amateur songwriter. My brother, on the other hand, was a world famous musician by the time he was 6. I had no interest in music until I turned 16, when I finally decided to give it a try. I was lucky to have gotten accepted to a local music school without knowing a thing about music. My instrument of choice was the clarinet, although I was interested in music composition above all else. It took an incredible amount of work to make up for the years of music education I had missed out on, but ultimately, I did manage to write quite a lot of music in that period. It was a time of indescribable struggle, as my family ended up falling apart. We went bankrupt and couldn’t afford food and utilities. I’ll spare you the details, but to this day I have a memory of having to wear layers of winter clothing at night – it was the only way to fall asleep. During this challenging time, I borrowed a bit of money and went to New York to audition for The Juilliard School to study composition with my favorite composer, John Corigliano. I had only studied music for a couple of years at that time – I knew my chances were nonexistent, but I was desperate. I found myself
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in the middle of Manhattan in March of 2007 with $300 of borrowed cash in my pocket. I spoke no English – literally, zero. There were periods during which I was nearly homeless and starved for days. Long story short, with a lot of struggle and much luck, I was accepted to The Juilliard School as a full scholarship student to study composition exclusively with John Corigliano. It changed my life forever and I couldn’t be more grateful to him for giving me this chance. After graduation, I was fortunate to have been introduced to Sam Schwartz (of The Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency) by John Corigliano himself. This allowed me to start working in the film industry soon after moving to Los Angeles. I loved working in film and I’m incredibly thankful to my agents for creating opportunities for me that would have been out of my reach otherwise. GS: You shared that when you first got started in this industry, you didn’t know anything about game development. How did the formation of Unfold Games come about and what were your expectations? WLAD: I was in the early stages of my film scoring career when I decided to try something new. In late 2015 I had a month off in between film gigs. I decided to download the Unity engine and play with it a little bit. I had no intention of creating a commercial game at first – it was supposed to be just a hobby. I knew
GAME AUDIO NETWORK GUILD • THE AUDIO SOURCE MAGAZINE • FALL 2021 • ISSUE 04
