Born in a small town in upstate New York, Jezza Roddy was practically born into music. In the very early stages of childhood, his parents purchased him a very tiny keyboard, and he began to play around with it, unknowingly training his ears to prepare him for what the future was to bring.

After years of playing electric piano, he decided to begin playing saxophone in 7th grade being inspired by his father who was also a saxophone player back in his day. Within his first year in band, Jezza would move up to 1st chair, surpassing the other students who had a full year’s worth of a headstart on him.

The following year, Jezza became enamored by heavy metal which prompted him to pick up electric guitar. After going through a SOAD (System of a Down) phase and then an extremely heavy (death metal) phase, the guitarist really got into bands like Killswitch Engage and Trivium. This catapulted his musicality, and he truly began to grow in his musicianship thanks to the genre of metalcore.

After graduating high school from a small town called Del Rio, Texas, Jezza entered Texas State University as a business major but quickly switched to the School of Music once he began to grow a love for live performance after joining the salsa band. This was a period of gigging and playing live for Jezza, for he also joined a metal band called Fear Control years later, being featured in their music video for Masks.

The live performances and gigs really began to take a toll on Jezza, so he rested for a well and decided to take up the Japanese language. He quickly fell in love with it and got involved with the local Japanese Community in Austin, TX. As a reward for winning a Japanese speech contest, Jezza was able to visit Japan for 3 weeks with the sponsoring company completely covering his plane ticket for over $1300! Japan’s beauty was striking, and the experience was unbeatable, so the former musician decided to make the move to the land of the best video games in the world as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher).

From 2022 to present, the saxophonist, electric pianist, and guitarist has been teaching English and enjoying life in Kyoto City. Starting in 2024, however, Jezza decided it was time to get back into music. After deep reflection and weighing his options, it became clear that he had two passions that he could combine together:

1. Video games

2. Music composition

It was decided! The time came to become a music composer for video games! Jezza uploaded his very first work as a composer to YouTube, not thinking that anyone would take notice. Instead, Squire, the head indie developer for Godgear Ragdrahod, a side-scroller mecha beat’em up, reached out and provided Jezza an opportunity to work on the project together. This was the start of the new composer’s journey.

Since then, Jezza has been very active in his career as a composer, joining the OST Composing Jam #7, Ludum Dare 56 (still working with the team he entered with), and Mind Dive (a VR stealth/sneaking game led by a team in Kyoto City).

If you want to meet the composer in the flesh, you can find him at C2Kyoto or Kyoto Playroom during gamer meetups. If you decide to work with him, always remember these words:

“I work hard to make your BGM sound good.”