Bio:

Rick Sparks joined AudioMicro as a contributing composer in June 2009. In three short months he had ten of his cues licensed for various projects.

Rick began composing music in high school. Even though he had received very little in the way of formal instrumental training his choral teacher took note of his abilities and collaborated with the school’s band instructor to create an independent music study class with an emphasis on song composition and electronic instrument sequencing.

Sparks founded the experimental industrial music project Suture in 1994 with fellow lover of electronic noise, Tyson Townsend. (Note: Their industrial music project should not be confused with the brutal death metal band “suture” which is active in the hardcore music scene.) The duo’s first release, a forty-five minute cassette distributed in 1995, received favorable reviews from trades such as Industrial Nation and Sonic Boom. In 1998 Suture’s second album, the CD “Symboljism,” was released. The majority of the two albums were composed, performed, and produced by Sparks in his home studio. Tyson contributed lyrics, keyboards, drum sequencing, and some vocals.

In 1996 Rick joined an internet-based team creating a playable conversion for the video game “Doom” inspired by the movie, “Army of Darkness.” He composed & performed nine original cues, one for each of the game’s levels, and adapted a short bit from the original film’s score to play during the score/intermission screen which appeared between each level. The game’s engine utilized standard MIDI files for music playback. Unfortunately, since most computers in that era utilized low-quality instrument samples, very few people heard the tracks as Sparks originally intended. In 2004 Rick released the original recordings on the internet and in 2009 he toyed with remixing the tracks using more contemporary instrumentation. Two of the songs were remastered.

In 2001 Rick contributed a darkwave-influenced version of the XTC song “Dear God” in Suture’s name for a collection dedicated to Andy Partridge’s seminal band. The package featured a hundred and thirty-four XTC covers and was released through Chalkhills.org. Since then, the Suture industrial project has been on hiatus.

Sparks released a jazz CD under the moniker “Rick Sparks Trio” in 2004. The music stemmed from an experiment he designed in order to create pieces limited to no more than three instruments and driven by Thelonious Monk’s concept that all the feeling & passion in a song only truly exist in the initial moments of inspiration. He recorded individual tracks while improvising and produced only minimal edits to remove mistakes such as misplaced or “out of tune” notes. Many of the songs were previewed on the internet and since then Sparks has sporadically added more tracks in the same vein to his catalog.

In 2005 Rick composed an imaginary soundtrack for a non-existent movie. It was released as the CD "Music For A Dark Film (That Hasn't Been Filmed yet)." Themes scattered throughout the album were inspired by middle eastern musical scales and some of the tracks have received praise by representatives of Los Angeles area publishing companies for creative instrumentation.

In early 2008 Sparks began to seriously focus on producing original scores for film/tv/etc. While working as freelance voice talent & attending weekly stage/improv classes, he found the time to compose, produce, and perform over a hundred cues between February 2008 and September 2009. He has worked professionally providing adapted & original scores for commercials & public service announcements, produced an original theme for a reality show pilot, and is constantly inspired to create new works. In late 2008 he joined the scoring group the Composer Collective to further his experience & study in the realm of film, television, & commercial scoring.

Additionally, Rick studies & practices live stand-up comedy, provides work as freelance voice-talent, and has some experience working as a film extra.

Job description:

Composer/Writer/ Performer