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

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

O’Donnell lives in Lone Mountain, a neighborhood in Las Vegas, and he’ll run towards 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 mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat he needs to revive sanity to Washington so we are able to rebuild our economic system to have a thriving center class, deliver safety to the nation and the border, and restore the values that result in sturdy households and robust communities.

O’Donnell is fairly well-known in online game circles as a composer and audio director for video games reminiscent of Riven, Fantasy II, Halo: Fight Developed, 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 type of interest,” O’Donnell mentioned. “I simply don’t actually just like the poisonous divisions which might be occurring in our nation. I don’t like every of that stuff. And I used to be form of reaching out to some native individuals 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 operating for Congress.”

That is within the “consider it or not” class of tales I’ve completed over time. The final recreation developer I wrote about operating 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 will probably be a bonus. O’Donnell acknowledges he hasn’t lived in Las Vegas for very lengthy, however he hopes to have the ability to symbolize it nicely.

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

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

“America loved a safe border and no inflation within the Trump administration 4 years in the past,” O’Donnell mentioned. “I’ve voted for President Trump twice and can vote for him a 3rd time this fall. However irrespective 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 couple 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 one of the vital profitable recreation franchises of all time. No less than 81 million copies have been offered up to now.

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 Greatest Recreation Soundtrack, and Greatest 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 Street Studios. Along with creating and overseeing sound design, music, and implementation, he additionally solid and directed all of the voice appearing for Bungie’s video games. The music and audio from Future have gained a number of awards, together with Greatest Audio and Greatest Music from the AIAS. He was awarded GANG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

A couple of 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 recreation Golem. And he labored on the controversial recreation Six Days in Fallujah. That recreation 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 mentioned, “This isn’t one thing I ever anticipated to do. I needed to spend extra time with household. And now I in all probability have to spend much less time with my household. No less than that’s what my household is telling me. I don’t assume I’m the type of man who actually needs to retire endlessly. However I don’t wish to do any extra crunching within the recreation enterprise.”

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

“I’ve at all times thought that Congress ought to be like a civic responsibility, proper? You must go in after which and do your bit after which get out. It was like any person was asking me to place my cash the place my mouth was,” he mentioned. “I used to inform my youngsters there ought to 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 embrace the Las Vegas Strip, nevertheless it does embrace Summerlin, Lone Mountain and components 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 mentioned. “We’ve disagreements on political points. We agree on what video games we like, or we agree on music, or we’ve frequent floor on a variety of stuff. We don’t should demonize one another on a regular basis.”

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

As for why he’s a Republican, he mentioned, “I’m a Boomer and I’m a conservative. However I’ve not been an enormous 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 operating towards 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 individuals to be violent.

“They simply made fools of themselves. There may be a variety of speak about AI coming into these industries. I really feel like there are various individuals in politics who haven’t any clue what AI is,” he mentioned. “It might be good to have at the very least 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 1000’s of followers on Discord. He’s saying his candidacy on the Discord channel within the audio chat. Most likely don’t reside within the district, however they could have the ability to assist with the marketing campaign.

He additionally plans to push the announcement on Twitter and YouTube and begin a channel dubbed “Marty for Congress.” Through the pandemic, O’Donnell had nice success in his first put up on TikTok, the place he launched a piano efficiency the place his previous 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 gained a lawsuit towards them and obtained his choices again. That mattered as a result of Bungie finally offered itself to Sony for $3.6 billion. O’Donnell mentioned he has resolved disputes with the businesses concerned.

Points

By way of his daughter’s charity, Foster Kinship, O’Donnell has witnessed how the federal government manages foster youngsters. It helps navigate the system for kids who’ve misplaced dad and mom and need assistance. O’Donnell mentioned he needs 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 needs to reverse the development and assist center class residents and small companies. He needs to deal with financial stagnation. He thinks his district is targeted on the identical issues. (Here’s a truth test on the state of the center class within the U.S.).

There is no such thing as a explicit legislation he wish to move on behalf of avid gamers. He mentioned, “I simply assume video games are leisure and federal authorities shouldn’t have a lot to say about leisure.”

Immigration difficulty

On prime of that, O’Donnell mentioned, “I don’t like what’s occurring on the border. I take 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 look like a controversial thought to me. I actually am watching state governments combating the federal authorities over safe borders. It simply looks as if one thing’s obtained to alter. That’s simply foolish. That’s horrible.”

Right here’s a truth test on the border state of affairs.

As for options, O’Donnell mentioned he has a variety of learning to do.

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

O’Donnell mentioned 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 on the subject of politics.

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

Republican roots

He acknowledged they could be “a bit of ticked off” that he’s operating 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 feel greater points will rise to the floor on the subject of tech and the longer term. And, frankly, I simply hope to be any person who might be ready to not be fairly as uninformed as I feel some individuals are proper now in Congress,” he mentioned.

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

“Huge enterprise influencing huge authorities is is a nasty factor, interval,” he mentioned. “I’m going to let you know proper now I cannot take any cash from huge enterprise.”

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

O’Donnell mentioned he believes he can have endorsements from attention-grabbing individuals, however he gained’t disclose that for now. And he’s excited concerning the marketing campaign.

“I’m attempting to mentally put together for it,” he mentioned. “I don’t want to do that. I’m not doing this to earn money. I’m not doing this for energy. I’m actually 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.”