ZW Buckley makes colorful, catchy, and charismatic music.
Musically adventurous, his recent commissions include a cinematic East-meets-West hybrid electronic score for Keyword 2: Nightfall, a pop soundtrack for Barbie: You Can Be a Fashion Designer VR—the iconic brand’s first foray into virtual reality—and the chamber opera Let's Blow Up a Gas Station! for Seattle Opera.
As an artist, ZW releases electronic music under his own name. His latest single, Run, dropped in 2024, following the 2023 EP Fever Dreams at Ruger Place.
An avid educator, he is on faculty at Point Blank Music School, where he teaches sampling, sound design, and music production. He also runs a private Ableton Live coaching practice and teaches producers how to create better songs and sounds using stock plugins on his YouTube channel.
ZW holds a master’s degree in Creative Technologies from Illinois State University, where he created music-led virtual realities and published research in Japan, the UK, and the US.
Deeply embedded in the game audio community, ZW has contributed to panels, workshops, and roundtables at major industry events like GDC and PAX West. In 2022, he was honored as a member of The Game Awards Future Class, which recognizes innovators shaping the industry's future.
Beyond composition, he is an accomplished sound designer, having released numerous presets for Ableton Live and contributed sound design to Minecraft.
He lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Emma; their daughter, Sloane; and their three cats, Butternut Squash, Piper, and Ravioli.