About
About François
François Gérin-Lajoie is a French Canadian composer that has been writing music in the style of video games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Zelda for more than twenty-five years. Aside from maintaining a YouTube channel, he has produced several albums, including the official soundtrack to the indie video game Dungeon Delivered!. He is also proficient with the piano and the classical guitar and often gets the chance to perform.
François lives in Ottawa (Canada) with his lovely partner Isabelle and their son. Apart from being a dad, he enjoys a fulfilling career teaching music and the arts to children ages 5 to 12 in an elementary school.
Musical Education
François has been interested in music early on in his childhood. He started piano lessons at 8 years old with a teacher fluent in the curriculum of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He continued his lessons for eleven years and completed several examinations along the way. During his teenage years, François learned to play alto saxophone and performed with his high school's wind ensemble. He also learned to play the acoustic guitar with the help of his dad. Around that time, he started composing his first songs and instrumental pieces, which he performed with his band. He also got interested in MIDI and started producing music on his computer. François studied music at the University of Ottawa and began teaching piano and guitar in music schools and his own private studio. He also completed a Bachelor in Education and pursued a career teaching music to children ages 5 to 12 in an elementary school.
In 2020, François rekindled his interest in the guitar and started taking classical guitar lessons. He is currently studying with Louis Trépanier of the Canadian Guitar Quartet and has since completed examinations, has been awarded a gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music, has attended the Camp musical du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean two summers in a row, has conducted his own composition with a guitar orchestra and has performed in masterclasses in front of celebrated Canadian guitarists Patrick Roux, Jérôme Ducharme, Steve Cowan and Pascal Valois.
Video Game Composition
During the summer of 2023, François published his very first album of chiptune (8-bit) compositions, A Chiptune Fantasy. This drew some praise from the internet, especially on his YouTube channel, and caught the attention of some game developers. Shortly after, he was offered his first opportunity to compose music for a video game, Dungeon Delivered!. François was immediately enthralled by the collaborative process and writing music according to the specifications of a game designer. He has since collaborated with other game developers on a multitude of projects, has developed asset packs for the indie video game community and has had music appear in other video games.
Aside from composing music for video games, François continues to write orchestral music and electronic music and often collaborates with composer HydroGene. He is constantly refining his skills and knowledge of the orchestra, synthesizers and music production, and has benefited from coaching sessions with prominent video game composers such as Disasterpeace (Hyper Light Drifter, It Follows, Triple Frontier) and Joel Corelitz (Halo Infinite, Death Stranding, Eastward).
Let François compose for you!
François is a composer passionate about collaboration and learning. He loves to work with game developers to help them realize their vision, and he is always seeking new musical knowledge, skills and processes to further his understanding of music-making. If you are looking for a custom soundtrack for your next project, François will work with you to create something unique and fitting.
Contact François