DREW ANTHONY NYQUIST
About Drew
Drew Anthony Nyquist was born and raised in a music-loving family, and always felt an intimate connection with the art of making music, whether performing or creating. Inspired by classic rock hits he heard on the radio, he first learned to play drums at the age of eight. He started playing bass guitar at age thirteen. He sang in choir from the time he was in fifth grade all the way until he graduated college. He also participated in six musicals at his high school. He played drums in the local heavy metal scene from the time he was fourteen up until right before he turned sixteen, when he started seriously pursuing his faith. Starting at age fifteen, he regularly served on the worship team at his church, which he continues to do to this day. As time went on, he would go on to pick up the keyboard, guitar, ukulele, and cajon.
Drew fell in love with the music of video games as a young adolescent, and started composing music when he joined his high school’s video game design club at age 16. After graduating high school, Drew attended Great Lakes Christian College from 2017 to 2022, earning a B.S. in Bible/Theology and Music (Vocal Performance emphasis). It was during this time that he started to learn audio production with Ableton Live, and thus began to make his works sound more professional. After quitting his day job in November of 2022, Drew embarked upon being a full-time composer and producer, and he devoted all of his time and energy into learning the ins and outs of audio engineering, mixing and mastering, orchestration, and being a musician in the professional world.
Drew is proficient at composing in a variety of genres, such as rock, heavy metal, electronic, orchestral, atmospheric, horror, choral, and acapella, to name a few. Drew’s compositions are heartfelt and made with a deep love, appreciation, and empathy for the art form of music-making. For him, listening to music – regardless of the genre – is a God-given, emotionally intimate experience; thus, with each piece, Drew seeks to take his listeners on a journey through the ethereal landscape of the human experience. Musically, Drew’s biggest influences on his compositional work are Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori, the legendary composers of the first five games in the Halo franchise. In addition, Drew draws heavily upon the influence of Japanese video game composers, such as Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu, Yuka Tsujiyoko, Koji Kondo, and Kow Otani.
