GREENSBORO, N.C. — "When they announced it, I immediately turned and looked at my wife, and she just immediately started bawling. And I just kind of like blacked out," Matt Yocum recalled the moment when "The Last of Us" was called.
Yocum is a-part of the HBO show's sound design team, and that night, the team walked away with gold. The group won an award for Outstanding Sound Editing for A Comedy or Drama Series (One-Hour) at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
"They're gonna mail the little black plaque with my name on it," Said a beaming Yocum while holding up his golden trophy with pride.
However, it's not just the Emmy that Yocum holds with pride, it's also where he comes from.
"I went to Weaver Academy right there in Greensboro and I graduated back in 2012 ... And one of the things that my teacher at the time Mr. Gill, who has since retired, used to emphasize for us all the time was that even though we were there for music production, but there were many possible career paths within the general umbrella of audio," Yocum said.
With that, his love of sound design was born.
"I enjoyed sort of like selecting sounds and trying to like, build those layers to create something that felt real and visceral and tangible. And audio really helps do that. It's like you said it helps ground the world and make things feel physical. When things sound physical, they feel physical like you believe even if it's visual effects, zombie, or robot or whatever you have in front of you," Yocum explained.
Yocum later went on to graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design, where he's put his skills to work in works like Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania, American Fiction, and of course, his Emmy winning sound work on The Last of Us.
"If you love what you do, and it's something that that inspires passion within you, then I can just say that there's no greater gift than getting to being able to wake up and do this as your career like, you know, I wouldn't trade this for anything,"
Yet, Yocum knows, that he wouldn't be on that Emmy stage without the unconditional love and professional support he's received over the years. It took a team to make a dream.
"The fact that my parents and my teachers and you know my wife who supports me as well through all of this, you know, like I said, the sound can't be done without a team, but neither can achieving your dreams be done without a support system. So I'm very grateful for all of it," Yocum said.
Matt Yocum currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife. His current work, Amercian Fiction, can be viewed in theaters nationwide.