Dren McDonald

Richard Dren McDonald is an American songwriter, arranger, music producer, and composer.

McDonald has composed music for video games such as Ravenwood Fair, Skulls of the Shogun, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Commander. McDonald also has several music kits in Counter Strike 2, including music from Gunman Taco Truck, Death's Head Demolition, and Coffee! Kofe! Kahveh! McDonald has also released albums with several different musical projects, including two as a member of Giant Ant Farm and two as a member of Grndntl Brnds, which were released on the label he founded, Vaccination Records.

Career

Early career McDonald began his music career in 1994 with the release of Giant Ant Farm's Fortune on Vaccination Records. thumb Giant Ant Farm photographed in downtown Los Angeles in 1994. Members photographed here are Dren McDonald, Diane Barkauskas, Hannes Giger, Sherri Solinger, Jerry Wheeler and Mike Flanagan. The album was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, with critic Mike Boehm writing "n contrast to the overt expressions of anger and dread you get in most punk songs about the declining state of things, McDonald offers symbolic and metaphoric dreamscapes"

McDonald served as a stage manager at the 1997 Making Waves music festival in San Francisco, which featured multiple performers from Vaccination Records. McDonald also moderated a panel at the North by Northwest media conference and festival in 1998. Dren McDonald and Nina Rolle of Giant Ant Farm performing at the Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents record release party at The Stork Club, Oakland, CA in 1996. McDonald's next releases came with the band Grndntl Brnds (pronounced Grand National Brands) with Communicating for Influence (2000) and The Great Dumbening (2002). The band debuted in 1998 and often changed the second half of their name for shows. Besides McDonald, Grndntl Brnds included members of Fibulator, Little My, and Molecules. The Great Dumbening would also be the last title released by Vaccination Records.

McDonald also took over The Residents' Ralph America merchandise business and founded a new e-commerce business called Clamazon. Clamazon sold albums and music packages and included internet radio stations and a database of music credits that helped users find related music. That same year he also contributed to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Music Kits and released a fundraiser album of video game music arranged for string quartet, entitled The String Arcade. The String Arcade release gave 100% of its sales and streaming revenue to Alameda Music Project (now known as Bay Area Music Project). It won an award at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards in 2015 for Best Game Music Cover/Remix.

In 2015, McDonald contributed soundtracks to Pontoco's Gathering Sky. Many of the game's reviews recognized McDonald's interactive score. The score was recorded at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where McDonald would later teach as an adjunct professor; it was the first project recorded at SFCM's brand new Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) facilities.

In 2016, McDonald won three awards at the Game Audio Network Guild Awards for his work on Gathering Sky, namely Best Audio for an Indie Game, Best Sound Design in a Casual/Social Game, and Best Game Audio Article, Publication, or Broadcast.

That same year, McDonald appeared in the documentary Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound which included a compendium book. He also wrote began a game project called Fire Child which remains unfinished, though a trailer for the game has been released.

That year he also began work on another game with John Romero, Gunman Taco Truck, which was designed by Romero's stepson, Donovan. The Gunman Taco Truck soundtrack used unusual recording techniques to help create the sound of a dystopian mariachi band, such as mechanical filters while recording live musicians.

McDonald released a new music kit for Counter-Strike 2, titled "Coffee! Kofé! Kahve!" (part of the Masterminds 2 box set), in August 2024. This marks his third contribution to the franchise.

He composed the soundtrack for the mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) game STAY: Forever Home, which was released in April 2025 for the Meta Quest headset featuring vocal collaboration with Sophia James and Amelie Anna.

Film scores In 2019, McDonald scored the full-length documentary The Edge of Success, which was shown at the Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival.

Academia McDonald was an adjunct professor in the new Technology and Applied Composition program (TAC) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

McDonald has contributed to the academic publications The Game Audio Strategy Guide: A Practical Course and The Beep Book: Documenting the History of Game Sound.

Other projects McDonald composed the jingle for Instagram's Superzoom feature. In 2019, McDonald spoke on the subject of AR audio at AES, In 2020, McDonald spoke at the D.E.W. conference about AR and audio/music.

In 2022, McDonald scored and audio directed the VR animation, Mescaform Hill: The Missing Five produced by Oculus/Meta. The animated VR project was created with Quill and premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June 2022.

McDonald also scored the VR animation Perennials, which was produced by Meta and premiered at the Venice Immersive section of the Venice Film Festival in September 2023.

In February 2024, the Stranger Things VR game was released and the MR chapters of the game have music and sounds written, designed and produced by McDonald.

polyheDren In 2020, McDonald began a music collaboration project, polyheDren, with a series of musical guests as a fundraiser for Bay Area Music Project. polyheDren's first full-length record was released in April 2022. The album was produced, mixed and written by McDonald, with each song featuring a different music collaboration. Collaborators include Josh Freese (Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails, Sting, Devo) and The Residents.

After working together on polyheDren, in January 2023, McDonald joined Josh Freese at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a 50th Anniversary concert for The Residents, along with several other guest performers including Les Claypool (Primus), David J (Bauhaus), Ego Plum, Pamela Z, and The San Francisco Girls Chorus. The concert was organized by SFCM's Edwin Outwater and the concert recording and concert video of this show was released by Cherry Red.

Guitar orchestra In 2022, McDonald began releasing a suite of instrumental singles emulating the sound of a guitar orchestra, layering guitar parts to create this sound. A full-length album of these pieces, titled Pterous, was released in April 2023 through Appearing Records. 2011: Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) Awards: Distinguished Service Award 2015: Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Remix/Cover Song – "Grasswalk" (Plants vs. Zombies), The String Arcade 2016: Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Game Audio Article – Audio Journals: Gathering Sky (GamaSutra) 2016: Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): Best Sound Design in a Casual Game – Gathering Sky

Discography Giant Ant Farm Fortune (Vaccination Records, 1994, CD) Eyesore: A Stab at The Residents (Vaccination Records, 1996, CD – compilation) Original Soundtrack – Gathering Sky (Nerdtracks Recordings, 2015, digital) D. Part 1 (Appearing Records, 2022, digital) Stay: Forever Home Soundtrack (Appearing Records, 2025)

Contributor John Cage, Europeras 3 & 4 (Mode Records, 1995, CD) Moe!kestra!, Knormalities V. 2 Exclamatories! (DephineKnormal/Amanita, 2000, 7") Robot Arm, Giant (Motherf**kingjackson Recordings, 2002, CD) Star Stunted II, Mahogany Wood (Melodic Virtue, 2024, 10") The Residents: Secret Show (Live In San Francisco), Double Vinyl Edition, 2024

Film

2017 - Fingerprints, Composer 2019 - The Edge of Success, Documentary score 2023 - Soundtrack for Mescaform Hill: The Missing Five, Titled: A Mescaform Hill Music Story