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 in opposition to incumbent Democrat Susie Lee in November in Nevada’s third congressional district, assuming O’Donnell prevails within the Republican major in June. O’Donnell has to formally file to run in March.

He stated in an interview with GamesBeat he desires to revive sanity to Washington so we are able to rebuild our financial system to have a thriving center class, deliver safety to the nation and the border, and restore the values that result in robust households and powerful communities.

O’Donnell is fairly well-known in online game circles as a composer and audio director for video games akin to Riven, Delusion II, Halo: Fight Advanced, 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 all the time been a form of passion,” O’Donnell stated. “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 kind of reaching out to some native folks if there was a way I may assist out. I obtained a bunch of calls from individuals who requested if I might contemplate 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 shall 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 properly.

“We perceive what it’s like out right here and we love Nevada. I like Las Vegas,” he stated. “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 stated 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 stated. “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 business 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 Delusion sequence. In 2000, he moved to Seattle after Microsoft purchased Bungie, whose Halo was some of the profitable recreation franchises of all time. At the least 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 Sport Builders Alternative Award, the Edge Award, Rolling Stone Journal’s Greatest Sport 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 finest sellers.

In July of 2007, O’Donnell helped lead Bungie to regain its independence. His remaining mission with the studio, Future, featured music in collaboration with Sir Paul McCartney. The stand-alone soundtrack, Music of the Spheres, was recorded at Abbey Highway Studios. Along with creating and overseeing sound design, music, and implementation, he additionally solid and directed all of the voice performing for Bungie’s video games. The music and audio from Future have received 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 mission 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 stated, “This isn’t one thing I ever anticipated to do. I needed to spend extra time with household. And now I most likely have to spend much less time with my household. At the least that’s what my household is telling me. I don’t assume I’m the form of man who actually desires to retire eternally. However I don’t wish to do any extra crunching within the recreation enterprise.”

He stated he’s a civic-minded particular person. He has served on jury responsibility a number of instances and he stated he all the time hated profession politicians who spent their entire lives operating.

“I’ve all the time thought that Congress ought to be like a civic responsibility, proper? It’s best to 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 stated. “I used to inform my youngsters there ought to be Congress responsibility, similar to jury responsibility.”

His daughter runs a nonprofit, Foster Kinship, and she or he inspired him to take the step. The district itself is on the northwest facet of Las Vegas, in middle-class neighborhoods. It doesn’t embody the Las Vegas Strip, however it does embody Summerlin, Lone Mountain and elements 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 stated. “We now have disagreements on political points. We agree on what video games we like, or we agree on music, or we have now widespread floor on a whole lot of stuff. We don’t must 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 usually.

As for why he’s a Republican, he stated, “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 in opposition to 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 folks to be violent.

“They only made fools of themselves. There’s a whole lot of speak about AI coming into these industries. I really feel like there are lots of folks in politics who haven’t any clue what AI is,” he stated. “It could be good to have no less than 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 hundreds of followers on Discord. He’s saying his candidacy on the Discord channel within the audio chat. Likely don’t stay within the district, however they may be capable 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 yr 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 received a lawsuit in opposition to them and obtained his choices again. That mattered as a result of Bungie ultimately offered itself to Sony for $3.6 billion. O’Donnell stated 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 mother and father and need assistance. O’Donnell stated he desires 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 desires to reverse the development and assist center class residents and small companies. He desires to handle financial stagnation. He thinks his district is concentrated on the identical issues. (Here’s a truth verify on the state of the center class within the U.S.).

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

Immigration problem

On prime of that, O’Donnell stated, “I don’t like what’s occurring on the border. I have a look at the border and marvel how are these hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands 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 preventing the federal authorities over the best way to 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 verify on the border scenario.

As for options, O’Donnell stated he has a whole lot of learning to do.

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

O’Donnell stated that he believes players are extra on the left, as they’re youthful. However he has by no means hid that he’s a conservative relating to politics.

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

Republican roots

He acknowledged they may be “just a little 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 believe larger points will rise to the floor relating to tech and the long run. And, frankly, I simply hope to be any person who may very well be ready to not be fairly as uninformed as I believe some persons are proper now in Congress,” he stated.

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

“Large enterprise influencing large authorities is is a nasty factor, interval,” he stated. “I’m going to inform you proper now I can’t take any cash from large 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 form 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 stated he believes he can have endorsements from fascinating folks, however he received’t disclose that for now. And he’s excited in regards to the marketing campaign.

“I’m attempting to mentally put together for it,” he stated. “I don’t want to do that. I’m not doing this to make cash. 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.”