Meet Hanzhe Zhang | Composer & Sound Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hanzhe Zhang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hanzhe, how do you define success?
To me, success generally involves three key aspects: money, fame, and happiness. Any positive outcome in any of these categories can be considered a “success in career,” and this applies to almost all professions.

However, as a creative individual, applying this principle can be more challenging. Money is difficult to earn at this time of age, and fame is largely dependent on luck and hard to force. In this situation, I would say being happy and not regretting being a creative is a success.

Personally, I have found happiness throughout my entire creative journey. I am passionate about creating, proud of my creations, and enjoy consuming the content (video games, for example) I created. Despite the uncertainties for money and fame, I have never regretted my decision to pursue a creative path. In my opinion, this counts as a success for me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a composer & sound designer, my biggest strength is my versatility. I can do all the work in audio department by myself, not only composing and sound designing in many different styles as my title suggested, but also including a wide range of audio tasks from implementing game audio to set recording for films, from conducting music in recording studio to even coding when necessary. My versatility makes me a great fit for indie teams who do not have the budget for hiring a whole audio team, they can just hire me instead. At the same time, I’m also a good fit for larger teams who don’t need me to deal with everything on my own, since I understand the need for different departments well and can communicate and collaborate really efficiently.

It was not easy to get to where I am now. I was a very late starter. Before college, I had almost no knowledge of music or sound at all. I entered college as an economics student and was originally thinking about switching to CSE later. But I had always been deeply passionate about music, and I felt it would be a real shame if I never even tried to make that into my future career.

Then COVID hit, and I was forced to stay at home for a long time. I decided to use that time to teach myself how to write music from scratch. At the beginning, I was so inexperienced that I didn’t even know how to start learning. I tried randomly watching video tutorials, but at that stage they weren’t very helpful for me. So I turned to online open classes instead, because I needed something more systematic. I went through an entire class series in one week, and that was when I decided to find a private instructor and study once a week. Driven by passion, I improved very quickly. After one year, I had built a portfolio strong enough to get accepted into the Sonic Arts program. That was when I finally had access to more serious and systematic training, and really started learning how to write music for media as a career.

I learned sound design even later. At the time, I saw myself only as a composer and honestly had no interest in sound design at all. But when I started writing music for media projects, I was often asked to do sound design too. As someone just starting out, I felt like I should say yes to everything, so I did. Over time, the more sound design work I took on, the more I started to discover how creative and interesting it could be, so I decided to seriously study sound design. This time, because I already had some foundation, I learned most of my sound design skills through online video tutorials and through working experience.

Looking back, the one thing I definitely could have done to speed up my learning process was to find someone to teach me earlier. A lot of knowledge can absolutely be found online, and it is possible to learn a lot on your own. But when I was just starting, I knew nothing, and I didn’t even know where to begin. That slowed me down significantly. Another major lesson for me along the way was to connect to people as early as possible. In this industry, one could be the most skilled person (whatever that means) but gets no job. It’s the connection that really gets one’s career going and possibly thriving.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Being one of the top tourist cities in the U.S., there are too many places to go in L.A. I would not repeat the ones that people all know already, but emphasize a few of my favorites that I would definitely take my friends to.

Firstly, I would say the Warner Bros. Studio Tour is worth a go for sure. For me, that is a really fun way to experience the film and TV side of LA. It gives you a more direct feeling of the studio world, the backlots, sets, and the actual spaces where the shows were made. For the people who are fans of shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory, this tour is a must-go.

Secondly, I would recommend the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum. It’s a really small but fun and quirky museum in the Beverly Hill area. Different from normal art museums, this museum has nothing “serious” in it and there are so many interactive parts in it. However, I did hear some say they are closed now. I have been to the area lately so it might be better to double-check on that before going (and if they are closed, this paragraph is just for my good memory there).

Thirdly, I would recommend the national parks. Yellowstone is of course the most famous one and it well deserves the fame. However, I would recommend the Joshua Tree national park. It is a completely different world from LA, with desert landscapes, rock formations, and sometimes an incredible night sky full of stars (and even the Milky Way on good days!). I would just be careful at night, because it is still a wild desert environment. While it’s basically safe, there are wild animals around.

Last but not least, I know I said not to repeat the most popular locations, but I would still recommend Griffith Observatory and California State Route 1. They just give you some of the best views in L.A. Just be aware the line for parking at Griffith Observatory could be long so be prepared.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give my shoutout to Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.). Often considered as the largest game audio organization globally, G.A.N.G. comprises a group of talented game audio professionals who are willing to help out and be resource to younger people. Personally, I was lucky to be a recipient of G.A.N.G. scholarship. This scholarship not only covered the expenses of attending the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and providing a travel stipend, but it also served as an important recognition, affirming my ability in the game audio. Through G.A.N.G., I gained my initial confidence in the field and had the opportunity to connect with a remarkable group of people. Therefore, I want to dedicate this shoutout to G.A.N.G.

Website: https://hanzhesonic.com

Instagram: zhanghanzhe35

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanzhe-zhang-96b205295