Wise has said that he has had a wide range of musical influences. The first instrument he learned to play was the piano, before later learning the trumpet, and learning to play the drums during adolescence. He played in a few bands during his youth, and he was active in a band as of 2004. His career at Rare began when he happened to meet its two founders; as he explained in response to a question posted on its company website: "I was working in a music shop demonstrating a
Yamaha CX5 Music Computer to a couple of people,
Tim & Chris Stamper. I'd written and programmed the music for the demonstration material. They offered me a job." While working at Rare, Wise gained attention and acclaim for his work on the
Donkey Kong Country series. In addition to the percussive and ambient 'jungle' influences that serve as a thematic undercurrent for much of the series, the games feature a wide variety of different musical styles that are reflective of the various areas and environments they appear in. In the January 1996 issue of
Electronic Gaming Monthly, Wise stated that his travelling experiences largely shaped the sound and mood of each
Donkey Kong soundtrack, further saying that the music for ''
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest was composed during what he called his "experimental Paris phase". Rather than compose the Donkey Kong
soundtracks using standardized MIDI instruments, Wise coded customized instruments to realize his vision for the Donkey Kong
soundtracks, leading him to be described by Pitchfork'' Billie Bugara as Rare's "most ambitious composer". In the book
Playing With Super Power, some influences for the music of
Donkey Kong Country were mentioned. Specifically,
Koji Kondo's work on the
Super Mario and
The Legend of Zelda series; the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System game
Plok, composed by
Tim Follin and Geoff Follin; and synthesized film scores and rock and dance music from the early 1980s. Wise has composed the soundtrack for the
Game Boy Advance port of ''
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!''. In October 2009, it was announced by the
OverClocked ReMix community that Wise was remixing a track for
Serious Monkey Business, an unofficial
Donkey Kong Country 2 remix album.
Grant Kirkhope and
Robin Beanland collaborated on this track, playing guitar and trumpet respectively. On 15 March 2010,
Serious Monkey Business was released and Wise's track, "Re-Skewed", was featured as track No. 33. Much like his contribution to
Serious Monkey Business, Wise later remixed one of his own compositions, the GBA version of "Jungle Jitter", for an unofficial
Donkey Kong Country 3 remix album titled
Double the Trouble!, which was released on 1 December 2012. Wise also provided a saxophone solo for another remix, in addition to mixing and mastering the track. On 14 November 2009, Wise announced his resignation from Rare, feeling that the company had "changed a great deal" and there was no longer an opportunity to create music tracks that Rare is most known for. In December 2010, Wise created a personal studio called the "David Wise Sound Studio". In June 2013, it was announced that he would be composing for
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, after receiving a call from Retro Studios president Michael Kelbaugh, who previously worked at Rare. Wise composed for
Yooka-Laylee along with Kirkhope and
Steve Burke. ==Works==