Frank Klepacki (; Polish: [klɛˈpat͡skʲi]) is an American musician and video game composer, best known for his work on the Command & Conquer series. Having learned to play drums as a child, he joined Westwood Studios as a composer when he was 17 years old. He has scored several games there, including the Lands of Lore series, Westwood Studios' Dune games, The Legend of Kyrandia series, Blade Runner, and the Command & Conquer series. His work in Command & Conquer: Red Alert won two awards.
He lives in Las Vegas, where he has shaped a solo career and played and produced for several local bands. His personal and band work touches upon several genres, including orchestral, rock music, hip hop music, soul music, and funk. He has dubbed the style of music he writes as "Rocktronic". His work has appeared in various media, including the Spike TV program The Ultimate Fighter.
Klepacki is currently the audio director of Petroglyph Games, where he scored Star Wars: Empire at War. Klepacki was contacted to score Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, but was too busy with Petroglyph to take the project, and declined to mention the offer. Klepacki composed three songs for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 by EA Los Angeles. His solo CD entitled Viratia is packaged with a comic he helped produce.
Klepacki was raised by a family of musicians of Polish and Italian descent who played on the Las Vegas strip. He drew art as a hobby, but music prevailed in his early interests. He received his first drumset at age 8 and began performing professionally by age 11. Among his early influences were electronica and heavy metal groups, including Depeche Mode, Afrika Bambaataa, AC/DC, and Iron Maiden. Seeking to master guitar, bass, and keyboards, he formed local bands and created a demo tape of original material by age 17. His impetus for diversifying his instrumental abilities was "not being able to communicate with other band members on ideas...for original songs." His first piece of audio gear was a TASCAM 4-track cassette recorder, which he used to record demos, band practices, and live shows.
After learning to program BASIC on a Tandy 1000 and becoming interested in computer and video games, he applied for a job as a game tester at Westwood studios. He submitted his demo tape—described as "an acoustic guitar song with electric guitar leads and keyboard strings, and raining sound effects"—to the company's audio director. The growing company enlisted him as a composer for the NES port of DragonStrike and the computer game Eye of the Beholder II. He later composed with MIDI sequencing for several other Dungeons & Dragons games. In 1992, he helmed the audio of Dune II, attempting to complement the music of the original Dune. He later noted that he pushed the sequencing program on his Amiga to the limit while scoring the game. While working on Disney's The Lion King in 1994, he and the Westwood team were shown sketches of the unfinished feature film. Film composer Hans Zimmer later praised Klepacki for reworking his scores. After finishing the third entry into The Legend of Kyrandia series, Malcolm's Revenge, Frank Klepacki met with Westwood leaders to discuss the upcoming game Command & Conquer, the first in a series which would bring him wider fame and critical acclaim.
In 1994, Klepacki met with Westwood Studios developers to discuss the soundtrack of the company's next project, Command & Conquer. To define the game's style, Klepacki listened to a number of bands, including Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, which would supply the iconic industrial style found in the majority of the songs. He combined various elements of this music and added his own touch to create a unique sound. With the company's recent shift to 22 kHz audio, Klepacki composed with an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler, a Roland S760 sampler, a Roland JD-990 synth module, and an electric guitar. The first few songs he composed for Command & Conquer contained voice samples, including the notable pieces "Act on Instinct" and "No Mercy" (which featured wild declarations from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey). The samples were later found to interfere with the game's spoken audio, and were replaced with versions lacking the voices, although the original versions (and several other unused pieces) can still be found on the DOS C&C and Covert Operations discs. Complete versions of the songs later appeared on the game's commercial soundtrack. He would continue to sample clips from film and other media throughout his career, using a quote from The Brain from Planet Arous in the Yuri's Revenge track "Brainfreeze", for example. Klepacki next composed instrumental pieces for Command & Conquer, drawing influences from orchestral, house, heavy metal, and hip hop music. For the credits, Klepacki wrote "Airstrike", featuring a hook later used in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun for the Global Defense Initiative. Conversely, the Brotherhood of Nod ending used the song "Destructible Times", written by Klepacki's local band, I AM. The developers requested the song because it "reflected the war aspect and bad-ass vibe of Nod's side." The C&C expansion pack The Covert Operations featured seven new ambient pieces, all of which were also included on the disc in high quality CD Audio format. Though the soundtrack was not released through retail, Westwood sold it by special order through its website and in game catalogues.
While working on Covert Operations, Klepacki composed "Hell March", from the idea of "a rock tune to marching boots," finishing the song in one day after inventing the guitar riff. Upon listening, director Brett Sperry insisted this song be used as the signature theme of Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Originally intended for use with the Brotherhood of Nod, it features militaristic samples—including marching, industrial sounds, and a commander shouting orders. Klepacki initially scored Red Alert with sci-fi camp in mind, but early songs were shelved. He switched gears to write gritty pieces, prompting the Red Alert team to expand upon the style of Command & Conquer. In preparing to compose, Klepacki acquired new sample libraries for unique and strange sounds. Particular creative moods would result in a few songs at a time. He first wrote heavy songs like "Workmen" and "Crush", then composed neutral, synthesizer-laden music, such as "Vector" and "Roll Out". Klepacki also composed "Fogger" and "Mud", one of his personal favorites, before finishing with "Militant Force" and "Radio 2". He took breaks from working to make cameo appearances as a Soviet soldier killed by Kane and an Allied commander in the cut scenes of Red Alert. He previously appeared as a Nod soldier and the voice of the commando in Command & Conquer and would voice bit parts in future Westwood games.
After completing Red Alert, he took a short break to review his work. He concluded that some songs could be enhanced, but Red Alert had already gone gold, precluding new versions. These remixes later appeared on the unsuccessful Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor. Red Alert's soundtrack was voted best video game soundtrack of 1996 by PC Gamer and Gameslice magazines, defeating Trent Reznor's score for Quake. Reviewers called it "fun to listen to" and "second to none." As of 2005, Red Alert was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling several million units, bringing Klepacki his widest audience. He wrote additional music for the game's expansion packs, Counterstrike and Aftermath. He attributed the success of Red Alert to an infusion of modern styles not found in other games. Klepacki initially wrote off the popularity of his music, assuming that his music "must only appeal to die-hards." He considered it "very surreal" to realize his soundtracks had gained him fame, and has since embraced his fans and critics.
In 1997, Klepacki scored a Blade Runner adaptation. Though Westwood acquired the rights to use the original film score by Vangelis, the company was not allowed access to the original master recordings, and Klepacki had to recreate the themes by ear. Developers were satisfied by his attention to detail, feeling that his digital recreations sounded clearer than the originals. In 1998, Klepacki composed the soundtrack for Dune 2000. He attempted to update the music from Dune II into "this non-blip stuff," and worked in homages to the original style of the films as composed by Toto. Dune 2000 was panned by critics, though Klepacki's score was praised for adhering to the traditional Dune style. Klepacki considered 2000 to be a more definitive work than Dune II, which was constrained by software and hardware limitations. He then composed the soundtrack for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun with Jarrid Mendelson, with whom he would later collaborate on Emperor: Battle for Dune. He began by writing "Stomp", an energetic rock piece intended to recreate the effect of "Hell March" for the new game. Coincidentally, one of the trailers for Command and Conquer 3 featured "Stomp" as the soundtrack. Westwood instead wanted Tiberian Sun to feature darker, more moody music, and "Stomp" was shelved in favor of the current sound. Bereft of ideas due to the stark change in direction, Klepacki asked Mendelson to collaborate; he regards tracks they both worked on as the best. Tiberian Sun ultimately featured dark, ambient techno music and ambient space music suited to the game's post-apocalyptic and futuristic setting. Klepacki cited the piece "Mad Rap" as his favorite. An avid Star Wars fan, he enjoyed scoring cut scenes featuring James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader. The scenes also allowed him to integrate the "Airstrike" and "No Mercy" themes into the game's score, despite the aforementioned shift. With the expansion pack Firestorm, he attempted to "set things right" by writing more upbeat songs and including "Stomp", which would also appear in Command & Conquer: Renegade.