Ian’s musical influence began at an early age. Born in Toronto, Canada, his family soon moved to Detroit. It was there that his parents took him to his first concert, The Ramones, when he was 2 years old. 

He played in his school band and orchestra through middle school, and was 15 when he received an electric guitar. Later he started a rock band, All’s Hallow, and with them recorded an album (his first and only glimpse into the audio world prior to Ex’pression).

“Making the audio and music sound natural and transparent is extremely important in my field of work.”

An avid gamer from a young age (with Tetris and Super Mario Bros. on the NES), Ian continued playing music and video games throughout high school. It wasn’t until he played Final Fantasy VII, scored by Nobuo Uematsu, that he realized how moving a game score could be. Uematsu had a big impact on Ian’s music when he started experimenting with Fruity Loops 3, a computer program which assisted in composing electronic music.

Unsure of what to do after high school, Ian began researching schools for music composition. Ex’pression College was the most outstanding, and along with his mother and a friend, he visited the Bay Area. After a tour, he was convinced that Ex’pression was the right place for him, and in 2005 he began classes.

Recent projects from Ian’s portfolio.

After a challenging 3 years of working and studying, the school’s Industry and Career Services set Ian up with an interview for the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. The John Lennon Tour Bus is a non-profit mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility supported by Yoko Ono and multiple corporate sponsors. This led to a job at the Toronto International Film Festival for 1 month. After the film festival, he continued for an additional month on the bus. They did not hire him for the following season, but Ian applied what he learned on the bus to composition and live sound. Through the school’s Grammy University program, he attended a sound check at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco; there he spoke with the lead sound engineer and received an opportunity to do sound for occasional gigs. His persistence and expertise paid off and eventually led to regular work at Yoshi’s.

About 5 months after graduating, Ian was hired for a 6 month internship at the video game company Namco, after which he was hired on full-time creating sound effects and music for games. Namco is known in particular for rereleasing the Pac-Man franchise on a variety of gaming platforms. “Making the audio and music sound natural and transparent is extremely important in my field of work.”– all skills that he learned in the Sound Arts program at Ex’pression College.

Ian can be contacted via e-mail at: