Eric Heberling was raised in Highland Falls NY, 50 miles north of New York City in the Hudson River Valley next to the West Point Military Academy. His father had been stationed there during WWII as a bugler & trumpet player in the West Point Military Band when he met and married pianist Alice Lydia Murphy. This musical background provided an early appreciation of the classic and jazz idioms. Eric studied piano early on with his mother and then later with Henry Harvat, pianist in residence for the West Point Band. He also played piano, clarinet, percussion and baritone horn with the Highland Falls school bands.

During junior high Eric developed a passion for creating his own compositions and his parents nurtured this enthusiasm by hiring private composition & theory instructor Emmitt Yoshioka, arranger and saxaphonist for the West Point Band. Eric's high school music director Douglas Burris also encouraged him to write for the high school band. "Emmitt Yoshioka and Mr. Burris were wonderful and inspiring teachers," recalls Eric. "Mr. Yoshioka was being payed for an hour lesson, but typically spent several hours with me each week. Mr. Burris gave me invaluable experience by allowing me the opportunity to have the high school band perform a number of my compositions. I owe them both a debt of gratitude for their caring and encouragement."

During high school Eric also developed an appreciation of rock and pop music. Because of his piano skills he was asked to join a local rock band 'Love Power' (this was the late 60's) with some other schoolmates who had already been together for about a year. "I bought a cheesy little organ with my parents help that I payed back out of my earnings. We averaged several gigs a month. They were mostly local area school dances." Shortly after Eric joined 'Love Power' they entered a 'Big Break' contest sponsored by WABC radio in New York City. They recorded a song that was broadcast along with other entries, and were chosen to go to the finals held at Carnegie Hall, where they won 1st place! It didn't lead to the big time but it did open up some opportunities for touring. In the summer between Eric's junior and senior years 'Love Power' toured Navy bases in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Later, again for the Navy they traveled to Spain, Iceland, Newfoundland and back to Cuba and Puerto Rico again.

After graduating high school at the age of seventeen Eric went to the Berklee School of Music in Boston for a semester but left after the first semester. "I enjoyed the classes and did well but wasn't adjusting to the environmental change very well, so I returned back home and struggled to find my way." Eric took some music classes at the New School and Manhatten School of Music in New York City, and was in and out of several bands that included some of his earlier bandmates and new faces from the West Point Band who were now his peers. "I continued to write music prolifically but getting musicians to play it proved difficult. Eventually Eric joined a Top-40 road band from Queens, New York and lived on the road for a few years during his mid-20's playing clubs and lounges up and down the east coast.

In 1979, Eric spent a good part of the year with a dance band in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. There he met some musicians that were working the show room of the resort hotel at which they were all playing. Upon returning to the states they formed 'Infinity' in the Baltimore-Washington DC area where they played gigs in local bars, hotels and lounges until about 1987 when Eric opted for a cushier gig on a Potomic River dinner cruise ship. "That meant no more shleping heavy electrical gear!" says Eric. "It stayed in one place all the time on the boat. It was a singing waiter thing and broadway show review with lots of standards and jazz thrown in." This was a larger variety of music than Eric had performed in previous bands and would prove to be invaluable musical experience.

During the 80's Eric did a lot of song writing and arranging using the affordable new technological tools becoming available to the masses. He was building synth arrangements now, first with a 4 track tape recorder and later an 8 track and was one of the early adopters of computer sequencing by purchasing one of the first such commercial systems available for the Apple II computer. "This was the beginning of the 'One-Man-Band' phenomena and I took to it like a horse to water" says Eric. "No more waiting on musicians, and the drum machine keeps perfect time all the time." Eric's work with sequencing led to writing and arranging projects for 'The Monroe Institute" (meditation music or MetaMusic as they like to call it), ZM Squared (production music), and Guernsey Music a Washington DC area music production company. Eric collaborated on many jingles with composer Tom Guernsey who also gave Eric a writing assignment for an HBO feature "How To Prevent A heart Attack" narrated by Walter Cronkite.

Around 1993 Eric became aware of the audio possibilities in video games so he sent out a few demos to game publishers and developers. The feedback was quick and positive and before long he was writing music for several clients in the game industry. Shortly, the contracts with game companies were occupying all his time and so he said goodbye to the 'Spirit of Washington' and performing for a few years. Soon he was producing sound effects and recording and editing voice-overs as well. From 1993 to 2001 Eric produced audio for several dozen video games which are listed on the credits page of this site.

In 2001 Eric was hired by Bally Gaming as a full-time employee to produce audio for their slot machines and as a result moved from the Washington DC/Northern Virginia region to Las Vegas, Nevada where he now resides. "You might be surprised at the level of quality in our latest games. We routinely record live Vegas musicians in a local studio. I then bring the recordings back to our facility to mix, edit and import into our software. There's all kinds of music to write. It all depends on the theme of the game. I've written everything from Classical to Zydeco at Bally. It really keeps me on my toes." Examples of Eric's work at Bally Gaming along with many other video game music and other recordings can be listened to at the audio demo page of this site.