It sounds like video game music!

How am I supposed to respond when people say: “your music sounds like video game music?” I usually smile and thank the person, acknowledging it as a complement. But honestly, I’m not convinced it’s a good thing. As cool and as some video game music is, I think that there is reason for this to worry me. Sure, a lot of people love some of the classic Nintendo songs, but that’s probably just because they grew up hearing them and they were simple and catchy tunes.

I have always tried to lean towards writing “happy” sounding music. For whatever reason I feel like naturally I come up with minor melodies and cords easier, so in a sense I enjoy the challenge of trying to put a major/positive twist on my tunes. In addition, hope is a theme that is very important to me, and I like to express it as much as possible through my music.

In one sense, I would agree that my music is similar to video game music because it usually has an overwhelmingly “happy” vibe. Which I think I am okay with. I want that vibe in my music, I put it there for a reason. But my skepticism continues.

Is video game music usually super simple as well? I think back to the levels that I have played over and over, and recall hearing and eventually memorizing the songs in my favorite games. Usually there is a repetitive nature to them. Having my own music labeled as repetitive isn’t exactly a complement…

When I first began writing music, I took inspiration from a lot of other things I listened to. I found that I really loved what a lot of artists did with their intro’s. Many times, a song would have a super catchy, fun building intro but then would get dull once the verse started. So, when I began to write, I wrote with the idea: “what if the whole song was just a long intro that kept building and getting more exciting as it went?” and that’s still how I tend to think when writing.

I think that to some extent this could cause my music to feel repetitive, as there may not be as much changing between verses and choruses, but I’d still like to think that my full-song-intros are enjoyable. Song structure is something that I am constantly experimenting with, however.

Beyond these things I’m not quite sure what else brings people to compare my music to video game music. And despite all of my back and forth thoughts on the matter, I still am inclined to believe that it is not a complement. Because if people can only envision my music in video games, and not in places like on the radio then isn’t that a bad sign?

Climbing up the Slide

When I was a kid, I always loved play-places that some of those fast food restaurants had. It was fun to explore tunnels and passageways as I began to make the place my own. Slides were fine too, but I always just preferred to use them as additional tunnels to get from place to place. My joy was exploring, not temporarily being pulled down and out of the maze. I had fun my own way, why should someone tell me how to have fun anyway?

I got upset when places started to enforce the rule that you had to wear socks while you played in the tunnels because that ruined everything! Socks have no traction to help climb up those steep slippery tunnels other people call slides. That didn’t stop me however, I continued to explore every inch of those labyrinths by climbing around until I inevitably outgrew them. For a while I still used my little brother and younger cousins as an excuse to have my fun exploring the tunnels while I said I was “watching them.” But soon they grew up too.

This song is all about that childlike joy. With a hint of rebellion, it reminds me of the times I didn’t care and just had fun. The world gets so complicated as we grow older with so many new things to worry about and rules to follow. When we were kids, we were all more honest with ourselves and didn’t get caught up as much in what other people said or thought. Kids don’t have time to worry about life, I didn’t put any lyrics in the song because kids barely have enough time to sit around talking either. There’s just fun to be had and adventures to go on.

Listen to "Climbing up the Slide" on iTunes or Spotify.

Dragon in the Distance

There are two ways to approach a creative project. Either by thinking up an idea and then working to create what you imagined or by simply sitting down and spontaneously creating something new. Despite my need to think through nearly everything else in my life before I act, I usually fall into the second category when I create. I have learned that there are many ways to process life, and while I have been trying to learn how to journal better for the past several months, I believe that when I sit down to write music I am usually subconsciously putting my thoughts and feelings into my work, which is basically what journaling is.

I wrote the song “Dragon in the Distance” during the spring of 2016, and while it just felt like another song to throw on top of the stack of other songs I had written that year, I soon realized it was more. I wrote it pretty quickly, in only a few evenings, after long days of college classes. But while the aware part of my mind was busy keeping track of my schedule and the assignments that were due, my subconscious was tackling other things.

Earlier that year my maternal grandfather was diagnosed with non-smokers lung cancer. He was getting older and was starting to show signs of dementia, so we knew that in one way or another he was going downhill. We just didn’t expect him to die less than 6 months later.

It’s hard to know what to do while you wait for someone to die. But my decision was made for me because the school year wasn’t going to pause for my family emergencies. That week I went about my usual activities, with added visits to the hospital in between commitments. Usually with big life events, I force myself to become numb in the moment so that I can process the feelings later, and this was no exception. Little did I realize, choosing to sit down and write a song with my sporadic moments of spare time would serve to capture and remind myself of the feelings that I didn’t know I had.

The day after I wrote it, it rained; no news from the hospital. The next day he died.

I named the song later, after I came up with the concept for the album. But the title and meaning behind the song ended up fitting together like two perfect puzzle pieces. The dragon in the overarching story of the album refers to the threat of danger, trials, and pain. The dragon is in the distance, you can see it. Life is filled with trials, and they are painful. We must prepare ourselves for the looming threats that we see in our lives and in the lives around us. Much like a warrior preparing for battle against a dragon that may or may not be on its way.

Listen to "Dragon in the Distance" on iTunes or Spotify.