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Interview with Back-From-Purgatory - Part 2

Posted by TheInterviewer - September 2nd, 2012


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Interview No. 101

Interview By: @The-Great-One




[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]




Q: One of my favorites by you has to be When in Doubt. You said it was something to show your band mates. What was the process in writing and making this song? Also what did your band mates think of it?


A: The writing process for When In Doubt was actually quite a bit different for me than it was previously, as it's really the first metal/rock song that I included drums in. The drum track, as is blatantly obvious, was basically nothing more than a click track, as I was using a drum preset on the pedal I was using at the time (Digitech GNX3000, which is now deceased unfortunately... RIP), but it helped to fill in the song a little bit, which allowed me to give the song a bit more of a consistent theme.


In this case, I was shooting for some what of a eerie/suspenseful sound, which was something new for me, and personally, I think it turned out pretty well... save the boring drums.


And my band mates at the time, well, really, it ended up only being a drummer, because the other people who were going to be involved ended up bailing out... Well, the drummer loved it. I've jammed on and off with him for a couple years, and I'm generally the creative force behind the jams, I write music, bring it over, and we record or jam on top of it. I have 2 songs up currently that I wrote with him on the spot, being "The Unknown" and "Dreamcatcher".


I've actually been through a lot of potential band mates, none of them ever seem to work out, so I generally just do things solo now, save a collab here and there.




Q: Your first Classical piece to be submitted would be Castle. Why the urge to play around in Classical a bit?


A: Well, as mentioned before, I really do enjoy a lot of different types/styles of music, and classical is a big one for me, I love classic Beethoven, Bach, Chopin. I have an entire section in my personal playlist dedicated to classical piano pieces. So I guess it was inevitable that I'd eventually try write my own.


I'm also extremely fond of the piano as an instrument, I love the sounds it makes, I love how it makes them, and I love how diverse it can be. It's a beautiful instrument, and really the only reason I didn't learn piano growing up is because my family didn't have one that I could learn on. However, I now practice piano nearly every day in hopes that I can write better and better classical pieces and maybe even work my way up to play some of my favorite classics.


I also tend to include piano and orchestral elements in nearly everything I do, part of that could be my love for classical music, and I guess part of it could be due to my time in an orchestra in the past. Either way, I think classical instruments go well with pretty much everything. So it would only benefit me to learn to use them properly on their own as well.




Q: Who is your friend Abi? What was it like working with her in some cover songs?


A: Abi is actually a friend I met through another friend who I met in Highschool. The two are recently engaged and I spend nearly every Friday over at their place now for a retro gaming night, playing board games and oldschool video games.


Abi is actually classically trained on both the piano and vocals, and she was interested in doing the covers you mentioned, and I figured why not. For me, it was a bit of a break from my usual style, as none of the songs we covered are anything alike what I usually write, so it was a new experience for me. And despite her training, she has never actually written a song, or recorded before, so when I had her over to record the vocal parts (She also played the piano for "Into The West"), it was a new experience for her as well, as I had to coach her through the actual recording process. And as you can probably hear, she was quite nervous, as any first time recorder is.


In the end, it was a lot of fun, I got some experience out of my norm, and she recorded for the very first time.




Q: You seem to me as a drifting bard. For you would now jump into Trance with your song -Wait-. A fun little song and quite good for your first step into Trance. Why make this jump next?


A: Yes, yes I am. Really, it was only natural, as I've mentioned time and time again, I listen to practically everything, trance is no exception.


Really, I just like to keep things interesting, I don't like the notion of being a "one trick pony" so to speak. I may not be amazing in any one genre of music, but I like to think I'm pretty decent at a bunch instead. While metal/punk/rock was where I started, now, I don't think I'd say I'm specifically a metal artist, I try to divide my time between all sorts of different genres, just because it's what makes me happy, constantly trying new things, being able to come up with a song in multiple genres.


I really enjoy being able to sit down and think, "I'd like to write an upbeat trance tune" or, "Today sucked, I'm gonna write an angry metal song", and just.. go. It gives me countless ways to express myself, and really, that's what music is all about, is expression.


I've also recently taken a liking to what I call "Melodic Dubstep", I don't know if there's an official term for it or not, but either way, sometime in the near future, after I'm finished my album, I hope to start putting up songs along that line as well.




Q: Darker Than Black is an anime you would draw inspiration from for the song -Yin-. What about this scene and show brought out this song from you?


A: Darker Than Black was something my sister originally introduced me to, and for whatever reason, I have a great fondness for stoic characters, and Yin was such a character.


So not long after watching both seasons of the anime, I decided to try writing a song to a picture, extract the emotions I felt from the picture and make them audible. And seeing as it was fresh in my mind, I chose to write a song based on the picture of Yin, leaning on a piano in a seemingly empty (Save the piano) and darkened room.


Really, the picture really captured Yin's character perfectly to me, a blind girl, somewhere between human and artificial being, with a fairly depressing past. I don't want to spoil the show for those who have yet to watch it (Because you should... go watch it), so I won't go into much more detail... But the picture screamed all kinds of melancholy to me, which fit just perfectly with her character in the show. The piano was a bonus, in fact, the song she plays in the anime I am currently learning to play on my own piano.


But I digress, the feeling really was that of a lost soul struggling to find her place in the world, and most expressive form she had, was a song she played on a piano, and this really struck a chord with me. And personally, "Yin" is one of the songs I am most proud of, not only because it, to me, captures the feeling of the picture, but because it really does tell a story. Close your eyes, give it a listen, and write your story.


And to this day, Yin remains one of my favorite characters, and you'll often see me sporting her in my avatar/icon/signature on the Newgrounds forums.




Q: -This Is Why We're Here- is a small return to Heavy Metal. What can you tell us about this song and how you went about writing and playing it?


A: Yeah, "This Is Why We're Here" was my first time using EZDrummer, and as a result, in my opinion, is where my metal music started to really take off in terms of quality.


I can't stress enough how much drums influence and form a song, especially when speaking about metal, it's the driving force, and used properly, it can turn a below average song into and above average one. This song was the first time I had used this to my advantage. Not to say that I think the song without the drums would be awful, but it wouldn't be what it is without the more active drums keeping the track flowing.


This was also one of the songs that came as the result of the many jam sessions I had with the drummer I spoke of earlier. The version on Newgrounds has my version of the drums on it, not his, but the song itself was a direct result of my jams with him.


It is also one of the first (If not the first) metal songs in which I utilize a key change. It's something I've been trying to do more often, as it can really add to a song when done right.




Q: As a drifting bard you tend to have trouble staying in one spot for long, because we now move to Drum N Bass with the song -Dropped It, Sorry-. You said you were looking to make something more gritty and you certainly succeeded at that. Why go into Drum N Bass though when you could have done this with Heavy Metal?


A: Around the time that I uploaded "Dropped It, Sorry", I was actually struggling with my identity as a musician, I was disheartened that my metal songs were getting very little attention while my covers (28 Days Later in particular) and non metal songs seemed to experience so much more traffic. I actually went through a phase where I decided I would not bother writing metal anymore, it was so bad that at one point, I was so down that I nearly sold my guitars.


I did get over it, fortunately, I got it through my head that I shouldn't worry about the stats and just do what I want to do, and that ended up working a lot better for me in the end. I had also decided that my album, instead of only featuring a single genre like most artists, would feature 3 different genres, and possibly a couple that were mixed.


Now, I generally just write what I feel like writing in the genre I feel like writing it, and try not to over think how people will receive it, instead worrying about what I think of it. It's a lot less stressful when you write music for yourself and damn the consequences. And I think a lot of people would prefer musicians write for themselves anyways, instead of trying to cater to a crowd that will always have haters in it no matter how hard you try. Write for yourself, bring it out from your very soul, and someone somewhere will inevitably enjoy it.




Q: What can you tell me about K-ON?


A: K-ON... Oh, K-ON... It's a great show, and even more so if you happen to be a musician. It's a slice of life style anime centered around a group of highschool girls who form a "light music club". There's no big dramatic plot line, not overarching conflict. It's just them enjoying highschool life while they can and working towards playing the big stage.


Aside from the show being horrendously adorable and quite funny at times, the struggle to move forward as musicians really struck a chord with me (Hur hur). Mostly because they started from nothing, you watched them grow and develop their skills, it wasn't one of those shows where you tune in and find everyone is already a pro. Being able to watch them grow as musicians and experience a lot of the kinds of mishaps and excitement that real musicians do made it greatly entertaining for me.


So much so, that I ended up covering 3 of the songs from the show: "Touched By An Angel", "Don't Say Lazy", and "No Thank You".


I'm a real sucker for pretty much anything that's more or less a motivational musician story, which I guess shouldn't come as a surprise.




Q: Your best work in Heavy Metal has to be -Stay Thy Hand-. You said a lot of time was spent on this song, so tell us the process from beginning to end.


A: "Stay Thy Hand" was the first time I had really put a lot of time into the drums for a metal song. While "When In Doubt" was the first time I had really started working on drums, "Stay Thy Hand" was the first time I had worked on drums, but then gone the extra mile to really seat them in the song.


I had also made a conscious decision with "Stay Thy Hand" to include a somewhat out of character break in the song, as well as utilize typical metal chugging, not as the breakdown, but as a main feature of the chorus.


On top of that, I had for the first time made use of "selective chugging" to give the breakdown a bit more kick. If you notice at 2:02 when the breakdown starts, it doesn't really sound all that powerful, there are a couple reasons for this, the first being that I'm only chugging on the octave, there is essentially only 1 note (In two different octaves) being hit on the guitar. The bass is using a broken up rhythm, and the drums are hitting a china. As opposed to 2:14, after the quick break, it sounds quite a bit heavier. The guitar is now hitting the same note as before as well as a 7th on the scale, the bass is now a steady consistent rhythm following the guitar, and the drums are now hitting a crash instead of a china.


It's small things like that-that I've been trying more and more to incorporate into my music. While by themselves, they seem insignificant, in the greater scheme of things, when all put together, it can make quite an impact.


On top of that, "Stay Thy Hand" is the first song where I've ever given the bass guitar the spot light, as you'll notice at 2:26, the melody is coming from the bass, not the guitar. That's also something I wish to do more of, is letting other instruments shine through instead of relying on the guitar at all times.


And while it's probably not noticeable at all, the "verse" (The first thing you hear after the acoustic intro), as I'll call it, makes use of a 5/4 time signature, which was also a first for me. This was not a conscious decision, oddly enough, I had just played the riff before recording, and thought it sounded cool... So I had tried to record it, and just couldn't get it to fit right. Which I later found out is because it wasn't in 4/4 time, but instead... 5/4. The rest of the song however, is in 4/4.




Q: Your best work in Trance has to be -Tick Tock-. Where did the inspiration come for this and what was the process in making it?


A: As implied by the name of the track, "Tick Tock" was actually inspired by a clock.


To be more exact, and more in depth, it was inspired by a song I had played on Osu!, which is a rhythm based music game, free for download on PC. I had been playing the game, and when people create beatmaps for the game, they are given the option to add custom sounds to the notes you hit while playing the game. The particular beatmap I was playing had the beginning of the song playing a "tick tock" type sound whenever you hit a note to the rhythm of the song. And I thought that sounded really cool, and wanted to try it for myself.


So.. I opened up FL Studio and started searching for a way to make my own "Tick Tock", and settled on using a side stick sample that comes with FL Studio, and pitch shifting it a bit to give it a tick tock sort of sound. And of course I couldn't just leave it at that, so I started mucking around on my keyboard to come up with a trance song to put around it, that would hopefully compliment the theme.


To go further, I also decided to, for the first time, actually include an arpeggio that plays through the majority of the song in the form of a sort of bell, which I had hand crafted in the Native Instruments VST Massive.


I also decided to break up the traditional template I had been using for trance and include a section where the bass took the spotlight, much as I did with "Stay Thy Hand". And it turns out this was a good decision, as people really seemed to love that section, and I've even had people ask me how I made the bass (Which I had also hand crafted in Massive).


Overall, I did a lot of new things with "Tick Tock" that I hadn't done before, and it helped me learn a bit about how to really push my music forward. Although I guess every song in the end is a learning experience, just depends on how far forward I push into new territory and ideas.




Q: When I interviewed the Audio Portal. You answered some of my questions in the open thread. Do you wish to expand on your answers?


A: Ha! I wasn't very informative back then, was I?


In any case, I'd just add that my definition of music is more an expression of your soul and experiences through life, you can't have music without emotion in my opinion. It's the same as any other form of art, you can't really do it and do well unless you're passionate about it. The best music comes from people who are willing to let it all out for the world to see.


And how I write music when I don't really have anything to inspire me... My answer there really isn't too far off. I generally just don't bother writing when I don't have any inspiration, but when I really want to get something down regardless of inspiration, what I do really isn't too far off from just mashing my face on my keyboard/fretboard until something nice comes out, and then I go from there.


Sometimes inspiration can strike when you hit a certain sequence of notes at random.




Q: When asked if musicians listen to their own music you had this to say...


"That said... I do listen to my own stuff every once in a while, but the majority of the time I do, it's generally because I want to come back to it and see what I could change to make it better"


What is it about each song that seems unfinished to you?


A: I'm a perfectionist, and my own worst critic, as many musicians are. It's pretty rare that I listen to my own music to enjoy it, because most of the time when I'm listening to my own music, all I can think about is what I could've done better or different.


Sometimes it'll be a certain sequence of notes, I'll hear fret noise, I'll hear a note I missed, or a slight hiccup in the timing, or I'll think something is too loud or not loud enough. I've noticed that I worry over a lot of things that no one else ever notices in my music, but that doesn't stop me from re-recording it until I'm satisfied... and if I notice something else later, I'll worry over that too, even if no one else even heard it.


There was one time, where I re-uploaded a song to newgrounds just because I wanted to fix the velocity of a single note.


In my mind, no song is ever finished, it can always be improved, which I guess is both a blessing and a curse.




Q: What can we expect from Back-From-Purgatory in the future?


A: Well, my album, "To The End Of The World" will be out later this year, and aside from that, as you mentioned, I'm kind of a drifting bard, so I can't really say what could happen in the future, as I'll likely just do whatever strikes my fancy at the time.


Hopefully though, it'll be more music that people can really enjoy!




Throughout this interview I reference Back-From-Purgatory as a drifting bard, and I stand by this statement. He simply drifts from one genre to the next, rarely ever staying in one spot. His range in his talents are both fun and diverse, with each song offering something new to it. He is truly an underrated musician here on Newgrounds and one who has had a lot to offer to us during his time here and hopefully a lot more to offer in the future. If you one day see Hip Hop and Jazz appear within his repertoire, don't be surprised, just embrace the delight your ears are about to receive.




[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]


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Comments

Ok, this is just cool. An interview on BFP, with a lot of informations about his songs, about his opinion, and about him ! A good conclusion, I enjoyed more than when I read the first part ! x)

<3

That is all.