Who’s This Klanger? An Interview with Julian Hellmann

Our Klanger this month is Junior Sound Designer, Julian Hellmann! Besides his passion for making interactive audio systems, Julian talks to us about his love of dancing and his unique path to Klang.

How did you find your way to Klang?

A few months after I finished university I started looking for people to contact on LinkedIn for job positions. Because I don’t have a classic sound design portfolio (I also have experience with programming and game design), I searched for a lot of different companies to see where it would make sense for me to apply. When I learned about Klang I thought that this would be a great fit for me so I reached out to David Magnusson (Klang’s Audio Director) on LinkedIn. At the time he didn’t have any open positions in the Audio Department, but about a year later I circled back again and that time he had something for me!

What is your favorite part about working as a Junior Sound Designer?

I really like the mixture of things that I get to do, which fits really well within my skill set. In the past, I worked as a developer for a music game for about a year. In it, the music and sound design was very integrated into the development process, which is also how it is at Klang. So by the time I started at Klang, I was already accustomed to reaching out to developers and problem-solving things on my own in regards to audio systems.

What excites you most about SEED?

The thing that excites me most about SEED is the emergent gameplay. I think it's so cool that everything that you see and do in the game is created for the players by the players. This also affects all of the audio. In the beginning, you don’t have any buildings or Seedlings but then it grows as the game continues, so the sound is emergent as well. Instead of just creating a 2D sound to play in the background you have to actually think about what makes a specific sound. Making interactive audio systems like this is much more interesting.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I really like dancing, couples dancing mostly. I’ve been dancing Lindy Hop and Blues for a few years and I recently started learning Balboa as well. So basically I enjoy dancing all the different kinds of Swing. Besides that, right now as a little side project some friends of mine from University and I are making a VR horror game. I’m also working on a short video for my mother for Christmas.

What is your favorite part about living in Berlin?

I love the fact that you can find anything you want in Berlin. For example, there are a lot of different dance socials and festivals that I can partake in, which just isn’t as much of a thing in smaller cities. Apart from dancing, there is still so much to explore. I even went to a worm compost workshop the other day. Super random I know, but it was actually really cool! It just goes to show that you can find whatever you’re looking for here.