Insaneintherainmusic Interview: K.K. Cruisin'
Whether you’re an Animal Crossing fan or an insaneintherainmusic fan, there’s no denying that Carlos’s cover of “K.K. Cruisin’” is one for the history books. You might be wondering, how does one person collaborate with almost 300 participants? Let’s find out!
What lessons did you learn from your last Crowdsourced Collaboration video and how did you apply them to this cover?
Before “K.K. Cruisin’”, I did three Crowdsourced Collaborative videos: “Home” from UNDERTALE (released November 2015), “Alight (Storm)” from Fire Emblem Fates (released July 2016), and “Big Blue” from F-Zero (released April 2017). I’ve also done a few Jazz Challenges, in which I encouraged members of my community to produce their own jazz arrangements of music and enter them into a competition judged by myself as well as other special guest judges. Doing these various community activities helped me understand efficient ways to convey information to the participants and efficient ways to collect their submission! For example, I wanted to make the “K.K. Cruisin’” submissions as easy as possible, so I simply asked people to record their submissions using their phones and had them listen to a backing track that was provided in the YouTube announcement video itself, so nobody was required to download any files!
You mentioned in your video description that you were inspired by The Consouls cover of K.K. Cruisin’. What about their cover did you find inspiring?
The Consouls’ cover of “K.K. Cruisin’” was one of the first examples of video game jazz being uploaded to YouTube that I can remember. The original version was uploaded on Zorsy’s now-taken-down YouTube channel, but has fortunately been reuploaded on The Consouls’ main channel. I just remember being so struck by this cover when I first saw it, and thought it was the definitive cover of the song. I’ve played this song many times during video game jam sessions, and I always think of this version when I do!
Was it difficult to learn the talkbox? How did the talkbox inform the arrangement?
The talkbox was pretty difficult to learn at first! I watched a lot of YouTube videos and even took a private lesson on how to use the talkbox effectively! The hardest part is matching up the lengths of the notes that you’re singing/saying with the actual note length that you’re playing on the keyboard! Fortunately, I’m already a keyboard player, so I just had to focus on the enunciation of words when performing. I basically arranged this song as if it were a typical vocal arrangement, as I’ve done several vocal arrangements on my channel before.
How exactly did you transcribe K.K.'s lyrics? How accurate do you think your lyrics are compared to the original?
I listened to the original “live” version that K.K. plays in-game and did my best to notate the lyrics that he sings as lyrics in the sheet music! It just took a lot of rewinding and listening, but I think the lyrics are pretty close to what K.K. actually sings. I think my voice through the talkbox ended up sounding a bit more deep than K.K.’s is in-game, but it was still effective and conveyed what I was trying to!
You mentioned in your video description that the call-and-response sections were inspired by go-go music. Were there any other musical genres or techniques that you drew upon for this arrangement?
Go-go was the main one. I became aware of Go-go music a year or so ago and have been wanting to do an arrangement specifically in that style for some time. Roger Troutman’s music and Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” were inspirations for the talkbox section of this arrangement.
This isn't unique to this video, but I really enjoy your arrangement overview that you display at the start of your recent covers. How did you develop that idea?
Well, thanks! I was trying to think of ways to make my videos more interesting for people who may not know who I am or have any existing interest in my videos. I wanted to create a way to entice a viewer to watch the video for longer without introducing any unnecessary audio introduction to the videos (since that would disrupt people who put my music into playlists on YouTube!). I created this arrangement overview to do just that--provide a brief overview of the arrangement at the beginning of the video that entices a viewer to stick around for longer without spoiling exactly what the arrangement sounds like from the outset.
Are there any lessons that you learned from making this Crowdsourced Collaboration?
Yes! I learned that many of the systems that I put in place to make the crowdsourcing part easier were, in fact, effective, and I should continue to use them in the future! I also learned that my computer can’t handle playing back over 250 individual videos at once, haha, so I had to find workarounds to make the video rendering possible! I also learned the difference between CC and BCC in email…I won’t go into the details of that, but I did mess that up a bit!
If you had to give advice to other VGM creators on crowdsourced collaborations, what would it be?
Encourage people to have fun and make it as easy as possible for people to participate! Crowdsourced collaborations are a great way to get to see the faces of people in your community (which is a rare event, especially if you don’t play many live shows), and that’s such a rewarding feeling.
You mention that you were originally planning on making a more laid-back arrangement for this cover. Would you ever consider doing a second “K.K. Cruisin'” cover? Alternately, if you had to develop another arrangement for this track right now, what would you do?
I likely wouldn’t make a second arrangement of K.K. Cruisin’, since I’m pretty happy with this one as is! If I had to make another one, though, I would probably opt for a more chill version, similar to Tsuko G’s version. I really like the lyrics that he included, and I think it’d be fun to do a funky lo-fi version of this with some vocals.
In this age of social distancing, collaborations are a way for artists to engage with each other and with their fans. Do you plan to do more interactive videos like this one in the future?
Yes, I would love to! I’m keeping my eye out on Charlie Rosen of the 8 Bit Big Band, who is doing an entire collaborative orchestra with submissions contributed by fans of his! I’ve wanted to do a collaborative orchestra type thing for a while, but I always figured that the logistics of recording and incorporating so many different instruments would make it difficult. Maybe Charlie’s project will change that!
There you have it—all it takes some insane coordination and a lot patience to create a mega-collaboration like this one. Oh, and a talkbox.