| Peter McConnell | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Background: | non_performing_personnel |
| Birth Name: | Peter Nelson McConnell |
| Birth Date: | 19 April 1960 |
| Instruments: | Keyboards, synthesizer, guitar |
| Genre: | Various |
| Occupation: | Composer, musician |
| Years Active: | 1991–present |
| Alias: | Peter Mc, Pete McConnell |
| Associated Acts: | Clint Bajakian Michael Land The Gone Jackals |
Peter Nelson McConnell (born April 19, 1960),[1] also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician, best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every Sly Cooper game since the second installment.
McConnell was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Peter studied music as an undergraduate at Harvard University in the 1980s under Timothy Vincent Clarke, Curt Cacioppo and Ivan Tcherepnin. In Harvard McConnell befriended the future LucasArts composer Michael Land, who composed many of the company's titles, and worked with him at the audio company Lexicon. While beginning his career in the Sound Department at LucasArts, Land needed someone who would both compose and implement music into his second project and McConnell stepped in.[2] McConnell and Land co-invented iMUSE, LucasArts' patented interactive music system.
During his time at LucasArts, McConnell composed many soundtracks for games such as those in the Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and Star Wars series. Notable titles from this time include Grim Fandango, scored with unique Mexican influenced jazz, klezmer and traditional film score style, and Full Throttle, featuring rock soundtrack which McConnell scored with rock group The Gone Jackals. While composing music for these two games, McConnell worked closely with Tim Schafer, who later hired him to compose scores for the titles Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Costume Quest for his company Double Fine Productions.
McConnell left LucasArts in 2000, but contributed to Escape from Monkey Island and special edition of The Secret of Monkey Island. Since then, McConnell has composed scores for Psychonauts, , (about which McConnell says that he was influenced by Henry Mancini works),[3] and Kinectimals.
McConnell is one of the founding members of G.A.N.G., the Game Audio Network Guild. He is also a known live-action music performer, playing the electric violin.
In 2013, McConnell returned to the Sly Cooper franchise to score the fourth game, , which was released in February of that year. The score of the game is performed by the Nashville Music Scoring orchestra. Also, for the first time ever, McConnell's entire score was released on iTunes to accompany the release of the game.
Recently, McConnell has worked on the Double Fine titles Broken Age and the remastered version of Grim Fandango, both of which include performances by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He scored the 2021 Psychonauts 2, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Games Award[4] and D.I.C.E. Award.[5] He also wrote music for 2020 film Intersect.[6]
He married Amy McConnell and they now have two children, Eben and Alice.
| Title | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | With Michael Land and Clint Bajakian | |
| Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis | 1992 | |
| Star Wars: X-Wing | 1993 | |
| Sam & Max Hit the Road | ||
| Day of the Tentacle | ||
| Sound advice, with Michael Land | ||
| 1994 | ||
| 1995 | Sound Quality Control | |
| Full Throttle | Orchestral Composer & Music Producer, Additional Programming | |
| The Dig | iMUSE Music System | |
| Shadows of the Empire | 1996 | Music Editor/Sound Quality Control |
| Afterlife | ||
| 1997 | ||
| Herc's Adventures | Music Consultant | |
| Special thanks | ||
| Music Editing | ||
| Star Wars: X-Wing - Collector Series | 1998 | |
| Grim Fandango | ||
| 1999 | iMUSE Music System | |
| Music Editing | ||
| Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | ||
| Star Wars: Yoda's Challenge - Activity Center | ||
| [7] | With Michael Land | |
| Star Wars: Anakin's Speedway | With Clint Bajakian | |
| 2000 | Additional Music Composition, Lead Music Production and Editing | |
| Escape from Monkey Island | With Clint Bajakian, Anna Karney, Michael Land, Michael Lande | |
| 2004 | Music editing | |
| The Bard's Tale | With Tommy Tallarico, Clint Bajakian, Jared Emerson-Johnson | |
| With Bill Wolford | ||
| 2005 | ||
| Psychonauts | ||
| Thrillville | 2006 | With Alistair Lindsay, David Collins and Jesse Harlin |
| Calling All Cars! | 2007 | |
| The Sims 2: Celebration! Stuff | Stereo Object Music | |
| Additional music | ||
| Pain | ||
| Insecticide | 2008 | |
| Music editor | ||
| Tornado Outbreak | 2009 | Musician Magician, Composer Extraordinaire and all around "Groovy" Guy |
| The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition | Violin, special thanks | |
| inFAMOUS | ||
| Brütal Legend | Original Music Composer, Orchestrator and Production | |
| Costume Quest | 2010 | |
| Kinectimals | Music Supervisor, with Jared Emerson-Johnson | |
| Sports Champions | Additional music | |
| Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Special Edition | Original music, special thanks | |
| Kinect Disneyland Adventures | 2011 | With Paul Lipson, Laura Karpman, Mark Griskey, Wataru Hokoyama and Lennie Moore |
| Cantina Music | ||
| Stacking | Music composer, orchestrations, production | |
| Iron Brigade | ||
| With David Earl | ||
| PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale | 2012 | Sly Cooper music |
| 2013 | With Michael Bricker | |
| With Laura Shigihara, Korby Sears, Dave Cowen, Christopher Ballew and C. Andrew Rohrmann | ||
| Hearthstone | ||
| 2014 | ||
| Costume Quest 2 | ||
| Broken Age | With Karim Elmahmoudi | |
| Grim Fandango: Remastered | 2015 | |
| 2016 | ||
| Day of the Tentacle: Remastered | Original music, special thanks | |
| Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin | 2017 | |
| Full Throttle: Remastered | Orchestral Music Revoicing | |
| World of WarCraft: Battle for Azeroth | 2018 | Additional music |
| Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love | 2019 | With Arkadiusz Reikowski |
| Psychonauts 2 | 2021 | |
| Goblin Stone | 2022 | |
| Voodoo Detective | Music producer | |
| Return to Monkey Island | With Michael Land and Clint Bajakian |
| Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yoda | Voice | |
| Admiral Ackbar | ||
| Double Fine Adventure | Self | Documentary series |
| Documentary |