Heroes Interview: Good, Clean Fun
Two weeks ago, GameGrooves and Pixel Mixers released Heroes, a special album raising money for Child's Play Charity. Featuring the remixing talent of over 20 musicians, some of the best game music has to offer is covered with tracks from Mario, Pokémon, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot and Mega Man along with indie favorites Celeste, Shovel Knight, and Undertale. For this article, I caught up with five musicians from the album to ask about their experience with Heroes.
How did you choose your track?
TorbyBrand (Route 1 from “Pokémon RBY”): I’m a huge fan of the Pokémon game soundtracks, but I haven’t covered any of it yet, so I was happy to debut my very first Pokémon cover with this album.
2 Players for Life (Main Theme from “Shovel Knight”): Shovel Knight has a lot of really good songs, but we chose the “Main Theme” because it’s still the most memorable for us.
RichGC (Spiral Mountain from Banjo-Kazooie): For those who know me in the Pixel Mixers community, this was a very obvious choice. I chose “Spiral Mountain” specifically because I thought we should choose the most recognizable tracks from the respective franchises, but that’s not the only reason why I chose this track. “Spiral Mountain” is probably the track that made me fall in love with Kirkhope’s work and probably VGM in general. The Nintendo 64 was my first console, and I have strong ties with the few games that I owned for it.
Justin Thornburgh (Opening Theme from “Mega Man 2”): The intro is very memorable to me. It has a great melody, and I love the energy of it.
Fredrik Häthén (Forest Interlude from “Donkey Kong Country”): I have always loved the Donkey Kong Country 2 soundtrack, and this track in particular is my clear favorite. The idea of using a full string orchestra to simulate the sounds of the forest was an idea that had been buzzing around in my brain for a long time, so when the opportunity came to implement it, I jumped at it!
What memories (if any) do you have of that game/game series?
TorbyBrand (Route 1 from “Pokémon RBY”): Pokémon was a huge part of my childhood, particularly Gen 3 and subsequently, Pokémon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen. So, while it may sound cliché, the Route 1 theme is incredibly nostalgic for me.
2 Players for Life (Main Theme from “Shovel Knight”): We haven’t play a lot of Shovel Knight, but we enjoyed what we’ve played. The 8-bit art is gorgeous, and the music is catchy.
RichGC (Spiral Mountain from Banjo-Kazooie): Banjo Kazooie is one of my favourite games ever because it made me realize how important video game music is. Before playing Banjo-Kazooie, I’ll admit that I didn't pay much attention to the music. One thing I noticed about the OST is that tracks have “versions” depending on the context. For example, the same music will alternate flawlessly when you dive into water or approach a certain point of interest or character. Hearing the normal “Treasure Trove Cove” track suddenly add accordion chords while removing percussions when approaching the pirate ship in the level was an amazing detail. And it happens everywhere in the game!
Justin Thornburgh (Opening Theme from “Mega Man 2”): I never played the original Mega Man II, but there was a fan-made platformer game called I Wanna Be the Guy that had levels based on different classic games with Mega Man being one of them. This track would play in the title screen of that game, and of course, it hyped me up to play the game.
Fredrik Häthén (Forest Interlude from “Donkey Kong Country”): I played the first game a ton when I was a kid, and for the longest time, I wasn’t even aware that there were sequels. After looking them up and playing them, I loved them just as much! My clearest memory of the original was definitely swimming around in the first water level and just listening to the music. I was never that impressed by the graphics--the game’s most touted feature--but the music stirred all sorts of emotions in me (and still does to this day).
How did you approach the arrangement?
TorbyBrand (Route 1 from “Pokémon RBY”): Because this album was getting licensed, it was particularly important to hit the deadline, even more so than in the Pixel Mixers albums I’m used to. That’s why I went with piano, focusing on adding my own twists and motifs to it while embracing the original.
2 Players for Life (Main Theme from “Shovel Knight”): My aim was to maintain the upbeat feel, but I also used the mandolin to make it sound a little bit more archaic. Later, I added a melodica and a ukelele to bring some variety and to add more “child-friendly” instruments. Lastly, there’s the triplet section of the song which I tried to make sound like a march, a reference to the main character being a knight. To make this happen, I asked my friend Leo Miyata to provide the drums. I gave him my raw idea, and he arranged it beautifully, giving it his own flavor. I can’t stress enough how thankful I'm for his collaboration
RichGC (Spiral Mountain from Banjo-Kazooie): While this track has the “RichGC” label, it really is a “Gain Over” one. (Gain Over is me, Kain White, Dacian Grada, and PrjzCalavera). I wanted it to be kind of a successor of our “Treasure Trove Cove” cover, and I invited Dewey Newt to contribute his trombone. The arrangement is just us buddies jamming together around the main melody with leads taking turns, always supported by harmonies from the others!
Remember when I talked about flawless transitions depending on context in the game levels? I wanted to showcase this by including a sudden “underwater” moment at 1:15. Overall, what I wanted to do with this track is to make people smile!
Justin Thornburgh (Opening Theme from “Mega Man 2”): I wanted to stay pretty faithful to the original for most of the arrangement and really dial in on the fun and energy of it. The middle section was added to let you take a break from the main melody and make things spacier which I always enjoy, and also to build back up to the main section again.
Fredrik Häthén (Forest Interlude from “Donkey Kong Country”): I knew from the start that I wanted to write an arrangement for ETHEReal String Orchestra (consisting of two wonderful people; Andrew Steffen, who plays all violins, violas and double basses, and Andrew Stern, who plays all celli). I reached out to them and asked, and they were immediately on board.
Next, I knew I wanted to use string instruments to simulate the sounds of a deep forest, so I spent some time reading up on special techniques whereby one could do this. I ended up creating custom symbols (which my wife, an accomplished artist, then improved a lot) that I put in the sheet music, with an explanation page attached. After that, it was simply the matter of writing what I heard in my head.
I knew I wanted the violin and cello to have a sort of solo conversation, I knew I wanted the arrangement to rise to a climax and then fall down again, and I knew I wanted to split the sections into divisi to cover as much ground as possible. I ended up adding notes in the score that describe the different “areas” we go to in the forest to give the musicians a sense of what I was aiming for. I also tried to represent each distinct section of the original track as cleanly as possible while still feeling rich and complex. Normally, I would mix the recordings, but for this track Andrew Steffen took it upon himself to do it, as he is much more familiar than I am with the string orchestra in a live setting. I think the end result sounds amazing, and I am so grateful to ETHEReal for playing on it!
What do you think of the overall album?
TorbyBrand (Route 1 from “Pokémon RBY”): It’s fantastic! All of the tracks have a distinct stamp of quality to them. I’m proud to be friends with so many talented musicians. My favorite is Tremendouz’s “Theme of the Celestials” (Editor’s Note: This is also my favorite track).
2 Players for Life (Main Theme from “Shovel Knight”): The album is awesome, and we couldn’t be happier with the results! We've been listening to it a lot!
RichGC (Spiral Mountain from Banjo-Kazooie): All the tracks are wonderful. I’ve been listening to this album on repeat as background music, and it’s been weeks now! My favourite part is the diversity--from merry beats to melancholic melodies, orchestrations to solo piano tracks. It’s a real journey! Everyone put up their A+ game and should be proud of the result! And that’s not only for the musicians. The quality control team, the album artists, the mastering engineer, the promoters and organizers all did wonders! This album is a gem for our little VGM community that I hope will inspire us for a long time to come.
Justin Thornburgh (Opening Theme from “Mega Man 2”): It's a great album, in my opinion. I initially expected the overall tone to be more lighthearted, perhaps, but really I think it has an awesome variety of styles and moods, and arrangement creativity and sound quality are top-notch.
Fredrik Häthén (Forest Interlude from “Donkey Kong Country”): I think it's an amazing achievement and a great display of the artists’ strengths and styles. It's playful, warm, funny, powerful, gentle, loud, and happy, all at once. It was a huge honor to be a part of it, and I am continually impressed by what everyone created for it!
Would you work on another charity album?
TorbyBrand: Yes! Absolutely.
2 Players for Life: Absolutely! Let us know whenever it happens!
RichGC: Is that even a question? I enjoyed every part of the experience. Hell yeah, I will!
Justin Thornburgh: Of course! I love just creating music, but it becomes something special when there is a greater community and purpose it can contribute to.
Fredrik Häthén: Absolutely, no question! I love being able to give back somehow, and writing music that moves me while simultaneously supporting a charity I believe in is a wonderful way to do that, in my opinion.