Steve Kirk is a composer, arranger, guitarist and singer. Throughout his work, encompassing everything from multimedia to modern chamber music, he attempts to redefine pop music beyond the confines of contemporary restriction into a world where the odd and beautiful coalesce, acoustic and electric coexist and nothing is too far-fetched. Born in San Diego, California, Steve grew up with music as the focus of his life from early childhood.
Born in San Diego, California, Steve grew up with music as the focus of his life from early childhood. Later moves to Seattle and Los Angeles gave him the opportunity to study with a variety of teachers. And there were bands. Lots of 'em. Prog rock, hard rock, jazz, alternative, swing. The one that really changed it all was Clubfoot Orchestra, the San Francisco-based ensemble that set the standard for live music/original scores performed with classic silent film. Titles like Sherlock, Jr, Nosferatu and Pandora's Box. Steve not only played with, he consistently composed for Clubfoot, culminating in a mid-nineties stint writing and recording all the incidental music for a Saturday morning cartoon series, The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. It's still running on television in Europe and a DVD of the first season was released in 2002.
This year, Steve composed the music for the Disney/Griptonite title "The Princess And The Frog" and wrote the theme for the Zynga/Facebook game "FarmVille" (currently the largest online multi-player game in history).
Steve has composed and recorded the music for five downloadable PC video games: Zodiac, Realms of Gold, Word Spiral, Four Houses and Flying Leo, all developed by Beep Industries. Before that, Steve was the composer on a multimedia project that required that he compose, arrange, prepare scores, individual parts, and finally mix and master over three hours of music for a wonderfully creative game called Voodoo Vince (developed by Beep Industries for Microsoft Games on the Xbox platform) within a period of only six months. The original soundtrack audio CD is available in the music section at Amazon.com, and has received rave reviews.
In 2005, Steve composed and recorded background score music and pop songs for several independent feature films- "Road" written and directed by Leslie McCleave, "How to Live With a Vegan Without Killing Them" and "Dulhan, Made in the USA" all of which have enjoyed critical acclaim at their respective film festival debuts. During breaks in his music scoring schedule he arranged, recorded and produced album projects for singers Keady Phelan and Jarrett Fenlon, and recently finished recording, producing and playing on the reunion album of Bay Area para-punk notables, the Symptoms.
Steve has taught guitar and composition privately for years and since 2006 has been teaching music at Blue Bear School of American Music and Community Music Center, both based in San Francisco, where his instructional skills are nicely balanced between private instruction, group classes and band workshops.
A resident of San Francisco for almost 26 years, Steve has built a life that allows him to divide his time between composing, recording, teaching and live performance.