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Hands' website, showing credits including Metroid Prime.
Crispin Hands (born July 29, 1971) is a composer, sound designer and audio director for video games, film and television. He was a contract sound designer for Metroid Prime, his only involvement with a Metroid game to date. Hands operates Lionshead Entertainment, a sound design company that was founded in January 1998.
Biography[]
Hands began his career in music by accident. He was a computer science student in university. During Thanksgiving one year, he attended a house party where he met Dino DiNicolo, a musician in Vancouver, British Columbia, who was playing guitar. Hands sang along to his music, and they became lifelong friends. While he was unable to join DiNicolo's band, he continued learning music and played in several bands until he discovered music sequencers, which became his favorite instrument. He used the income from his day job at a law firm to finance his musical activities.
At one point, Hands was approached by university students to compose their film. He received $300 for composing twenty minutes of music. Shortly after this, a friend introduced him to her brother, an employee of Electronic Arts. He received a tour and gave them a cassette demo of his music, which was rejected by their audio director at the time, but he obtained a quality assurance position with them in 1995. Eventually, he was promoted to the audio department, receiving mentorship from Alistair Hirst and working on the Need for Speed series.
Hands has also worked on games produced by Relic Entertainment, EA Black Box, BigPark (contracted by Rare Ltd. for Kinect Sports: Season Two) and Lionhead Studios. Presently, Hands works in Vancouver for The Coalition as the senior sound designer for the Gears of War franchise.