Dewey Newt Interview: A Maverick of Destruction
Organizing a community album is a colossal task—it involves planning, coordinating, and communicating with dozens of people. Any number of things go wrong, and it takes a special kind of person who can handle all of that. Today, I talk with one of those special people, Dewey Newt, who coordinated his first community album, Mavericks of Destruction: A Mega Man X Tribute Album for Pixel Mixers.
How did you become involved with Pixel Mixers?
Way back in July 2017, Pixel Mixers did an album recruitment drive for the Final Fantasy VI tribute album. I saw the Twitter post, thought it would be fun to join one of these community efforts, and messaged Hashel about claiming a track. Once I was in, I never left, haha.
Had you ever released an album (covers or originals) before Mavericks of Destruction?
This is the absolute first album project that I have ever directed, haha. I have released a few covers as singles and made community album tracks before this album, but nothing on this kind of scale.
How did you become album producer?
Back in March, Hashel was looking for people who were willing to serve as album directors for Pixel Mixers projects in the near future. Piano Game Knight and I offered to help at the time. As we got closer to the Mega Man X album start date, the decision was made that I would be directing the album, and here we are!
Did you have any help with organizing the album?
Hashel helped me out a great deal on getting started and understanding his methods for Pixel Mixers releases. He also helped out with posting the album video and making social media posts on Pixel Mixers' official accounts. I also had Pixel Mixers' Quality Control Team to help me screen tracks and offer critique to ensure an acceptable quality. As far as the day-to-day tasks like contacting music artists, knowing where tracks were in the submission process, and answering any questions that came up, those were all handled by myself.
How long was the album in production?
The album was in production for a little over four months. We started at the beginning of June and released the album mid-October.
Did you have any particular genre/style requirements for the album?
There were no style requirements, but everybody brought the rock and metal anyways!
Album art by 2 Players for Life.
How did you recruit the artists on the album?
A majority of the album participants came from the Pixel Mixers Discord server. Beyond Discord, the rest of the artists typically came from Reddit. I am not exactly sure which subreddit people saw the recruitment post and contacted me from, but I am going to assume it was r/VGCovers, haha.
Did you have to cut any tracks? If so, was that difficult?
There were a few tracks that were cut due to quality and time concerns. Having to cut somebody from a community album was the least fun task as a project director. I am thankful that those who were cut respected the decision and made the process as painless as possible for me.
What are some of your favorite tracks on the album?
I enjoyed all of the tracks, but “Launch Octopus”, “Spark Mandrill”, “Boomer Kuwanger”, and “Commander Yammark” are the tracks that stand out the most to me.
Was the album production what you expected or were there any surprises?
Being a “Rock Man” album, I definitely expected the album to have quite a few rock/metal tracks, haha. There were a few tracks that subverted that expectation, though!
What was the hardest thing about producing Mavericks of Destruction?
Cutting tracks was definitely the hardest part of directing the album. Honorable mentions go to editing the album video for YouTube and all of the communication between the artists as we moved through the quality control process.
If you had to give advice to a first-time album producer, what would you say?
Do not underestimate the amount of work it takes to direct an album! Clear expectations and communication go a long way. Be sure to have some fun while being the director as well! #TornadoTurkey
Did you handle the album arrangement (i.e. track order)?
I did! I hope that you enjoyed the order of the tracks. I tried my best to balance the music styles, as well as try and keep an “8 Maverick then Sigma Stages” theme progression.
Who handled the mixing and mastering?
Mixing was handled by the individual artists. Mastering for the album was done by Dacian Grada. The artwork was by 2 Players for Life.
Are you happy with the album’s reception?
Yes! The general reception to the album has been quite positive. I am very thankful to those who listened and gave us kind words.
Would you produce another Pixel Mixer’s album?
Sure!
