Call of Duty Black Ops II Composer Jack Wall Talks with Phil

Call of Duty Black Ops II composer Jack Wall talks with The ZOEN

Call of Duty Black Ops II is a juggernaut. Launched yesterday it is poised to be one of the biggest entertainment releases of all time. We sat down with renowned composer Jack Wall, talked with him about his career and the future of online education. Jack teaches online courses for Berklee College of Music and has experienced online learning himself.  

Jack's cred in video game music is legendary (Myst, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 2, etc.), and the competitive process for landing the scoring gig for Call of Duty Black Ops II presented an interesting challenge: 

"The first person I called when I got that opportunity was Phil!  I had this whacky idea of doing a piano concerto—something really emotional, that could show some musicality, and I thought it was a really interesting and unique idea.  And they loved it too—Phil did an amazing, amazing job...and I got the gig!"

His thoughts on online learning and the ZOEN:

"Everything is going through a Renaissance right now-- I’m very, very positive on what the ZOEN is doing---I really dig it.  Especially the fact that you can actually play and hear each other [live] over the Internet—that’s a really revelation—that’s something Berklee doesn’t have.

I think it’s the fast-track of learning, I don’t think there’s any wasted space, there's not any wasted time. You get right in there and you learn something really fast and you can just apply it immediately. It’s such an amazing experience."

Full interview coming soon!!

Check out "making of" video of the Call of Duty Black Ops II score, shot at Abbey Road Studio One in London: