THE STATE OF MUSIC IN MEDIA:
VIDEO GAMES
Featuring Steve Schnur (Electronic Arts), Katie Byam (Activision), Trevor Morris (Composer)
Moderated by the Jonathan McHugh (Music Supervisor, "Saw" series, "Spare Parts")
Steve has always been in the business of music. He was born outside of New York City and by age 7 he began to study guitar, piano, composition, production and arrangement at Carnegie Hall. By the time he attended college he became a full time intern at MTV in its earliest days where he helped to influence the programming decisions behind the debuts of Madonna and Michael Jackson, amongst many others. He went on to hold various executive positions with Warner Music Group, EMI and BMG, and was behind the debuts of artists ranging from Metallica, to Sarah McLachlan, to Coldplay. Steve also worked for many years in Nashville when he ran the label Arista Austin, which was a part of the Arista Nashville family of labels. There he worked with artists ranging from Brooks and Dunn to Brad Paisley. Steve also produced several records while in Nashville such as Radney Foster’s “See What You Want To See”, which included Keith Urban future hits “Raining On Sunday” and “I’m In”. Additionally, Steve went on to work as music supervisor for Sandra Bullock’s production company, Fortis Films, where he supervised and produced music for the hit comedy MISS CONGENIALITY (which garnered a Golden Globe nomination for best original song).
Steve is currently the Worldwide Executive and President of EA Music Group for Electronic Arts where he has been responsible for the launch of artists ranging from Thirty Seconds to Mars, to Katy Perry, including his own co-production of Florence + the Machine’s “I’m Not Calling You A Liar”. His hands-on approach with composer selection and score production has earned EA well over 50 soundtrack nominations over the last 10 years in which Steve has produced over 200 EA soundtrack albums. With the formation of Artwerk Music Group, through which EA now directly signs, develops and launches artists for publishing, master recordings, sync deals and distribution, Steve, as its President, has signed alternative breakthroughs Matt and Kim, Chromeo, and Ladytron, amongst others.
Steve has been profiled by the New York Times, London Financial Times and CNN. Additionally, he was selected as “One Of The Most Creative People In Entertainment” by Entertainment Weekly, both “One of the Most Powerful People in the Music Business” and “One of the Top 20 Power Players in Digital Entertainment” by Billboard Magazine and “One of The Top 25 Power Players in the new Hollywood” by The Wall Street Journal. In 2009, he was awarded “International Music Person of the Year” at MusExpo’s annual music conference in Hollywood and in 2015 “Music Supervisor of the Year”. On Grammy day in 2012, Steve received the Music Supervisor of the Year Award from the Guild of Music Supervisors.
Steve Schnur
(President of Electronic Arts Music Group)
Katie Byam
(Music Supervisor, Activision)
Since 2009, Katie (Sippel) Byam has served as Music Supervisor at Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest video game publisher. Katie is responsible for sourcing, clearing and licensing music for all videogames published by Activision, including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Skylanders, Destiny, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peanuts, James Bond and several others. She works with licensing existing music, sourcing original pieces, pitching and licensing music for marketing campaigns, as well as hiring and supervising game composers. Additionally, Katie oversees Activision’s internal Activisionaries series, where she books up-and-coming bands & artists to play at Activision’s Santa Monica Headquarters as a part of an enriching creative showcase. She has booked bands such as Walk the Moon, The Madden Brothers, Holychild, Milo Greene and several others.
Before Katie came to Activision, she spent 3 years at 3 Artist Management (3am), doing day-to-day management for artists such as Paul Oakenfold, The Crystal Method and Henry Rollins.
Katie is also an avid singer-songwriter and performs in solo shows across Los Angeles. She is releasing her first singles under the artist name RYN later this year.
Trevor Morris
(Composer)
Trevor was born in London ON, Canada, a few hours outside Toronto. He was accepted to St. Mary’s school for the arts as a child, where he studied violin and choir daily. At age 13, Trevor was commissioned by his school to compose a piece for his graduating class to perform in honor of the Pope John Paul’s visit to Canada. His fee, $50. “Beloved Young People”, a book authored by the Pope aimed at the youth of the generation became the source for adapted lyrics, and Trevor’s senior class performed his composition for Piano and 4-part Choir at St. Mary’s cathedral at graduation. It was a defining moment that would shape Trevor’s future. College saw Trevor attend Canada’s most prestigious school for recording and production, Fanshawe’s “Music Industry Arts” program. Trevor graduated top of his class and upon graduation immediately moved to Toronto to start working.
Trevor spent his 20’s in the music production circles of Toronto, where there wasn’t a top studio or production company he didn’t work with. He eventually turned his attention back to music and over to composing full time, music for Television & Radio commercials. Another choice that would change his future direction. Wanting a longer format for his music ideas, scoring Films and Television series were next up in Trevor’s ambitions. A notion that in 1999 would lead him to make the most dramatic and impactful choice of his career, the move to Los Angeles. Trevor made the move to Los Angeles in 2000, and started his early years working with top Film Score composers such as James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer. Amassing over 25 major screen credits on some of Hollywood’s top block busters in various capacities along that path. As Trevor’s own composition career developed, so did the opportunity to directly collaborate with some of the industry’s top names such as Jerry Bruckheimer, Neil Jordan and Tony and Ridley Scott. 2010 marks the 4th Television series Trevor has collaborated with and scored for Jerry Bruckheimer. He also recently completed the Epic mini-series “The Pillars of the Earth” with Tony and Ridley Scott producing. In 2011 Trevor composed his largest feature film to date, "Immortals" passed the $200Million dollar mark worldwide. The same year he built himself a brand new State of the Art creative facility in the heart of Santa Monica, complete with a world class mixing stage.
Trevor Has won Two EMMY awards and Two GEMINI awards for his compositions on the Television productions "The Tudors", "The Borgias" and "The Pillars of the Earth". He maintains a production company in Toronto complete with a duplicate writing suite to allow him to spend time and work there and need or muse dictates. Trevor currently lives and works in Santa Monica with his family.