Interview No. 90

Interview By: The-Great-One

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]

Q: When it comes to exposure, do you feel that the Symphony of Specters is well-known or do you think more could be done to get your name out there?

A:

MaestroRage: Depends on the market. In the indie flash scene I believe we are one of the strongest names out there. Maybe we have waned a bit since we've shifted focus in other markets but without arrogance I can claim we are one of the best in this scene. When it comes to the other game markets we are still an unknown face. We plan to drastically change that this year.

ZStriefel: I think for how little we've invested (both time and money) in marketing, we're doing okay. We're still a pretty tiny blip on the radar though.

NickPerrin: Symphony of Specters is a name in the Flash game community that gets recognition, for sure. And with Selcuk (MaestroRage) speaking at the Flash Game Convention in Feb 2012, and myself speaking at a videogame convention (still in planning stages, top secret!) taking place August 2012, that exposure is only going to grow bigger! Beyond that, we've had some recent expansion, such as having one of Zach's (ZStriefel) tunes place in a TV ad from Disney, and other big placements like that. We're planning increased advertising and an even bigger presence than ever before in the near future, so yes, more could be done to get our names out there and we are in the process of doing it now. We really want to expand our horizons and make this a sustainable full-time business for everyone involved, it's a shared goal.

sorohanro: Well, game and movie music is not all what I do, so, yes, as for my music career can be done more but that's not really a Symphony of Specters thing to do, is more on my side. I have already an album "out there", collaborated with some other artists on their albums, produced a album for Timohi, album that got signed to one of the biggest record labels in Lithuania.

Q: What is the process that an animator or developer must go through to acquire music from you to put into their game?

A:

MaestroRage: Depends on the circumstance. In most cases we deal with small indie guys and so we kind of skip through all the super lengthy procedures. They give us an asset list/project overview. We provide them with an estimate along with what license those estimates are for and what they entail (in easy to understand English). And we go from there. If they agree, great, lets get started!

ZStriefel: Shoot us an email! Tell us about your project, what your needs are etc.

NickPerrin: Pretty simple, actually - they can email any of our symphonyofspecters.com email addresses if they have them (group member's name, with @symphonyofspecters.com afterward), contact our NG account, or simply go to our website's contact form (http://www.symphonyofspecters.com/contact) and you can send us a message explaining who you are, what you're looking for, and when you need it! One of us will get back to you ASAP and fill you in on our current rates, and from that point on email correspondence is the name of the game (we are also open to talking on the phone if you want to go that way and have lots of money for long-distance calls).

Remember that we're not just composers, but sound designers too - so SFX and voice acting are all part of our group's skill set as well, and we encourage animators and developers to contact us as a one-stop shop, making it easy and convenient to get all of your audio needs handled at once. Discounted rates for multiple services help you save cash, too.

sorohanro: Go on my Newgrounds profile, search for a suitable track, click "download". Well, if they would like more customized then it gets more complicated than that, but not much more.

Q: What advice do you have to give to those wanting to get more into music?

A:

MaestroRage: This bit of advice will not be warmly received, because had I told myself this a year or so earlier I would not have liked it either. Honestly if you want to get into music, and I mean really get into it in such a state that you can make a living you need to recognize that music is a craft. Every great painter must first learn how to draw a circle. Every great architect must first learn to draw a straight line. In such a sentiment every composer must learn his theory. I have written a much more indepth post about this in our blog but the short jist of it is this.

A composer in this day and age writes music on demand. (S)He cannot wait for inspiration to hit and save the day. For years I used to do this, muddle around until I found a streak of inspiration that kept me going. While it is not IMPOSSIBLE to make a living this way you are going to waste a LOT of time. You will not be able to further your craft as quickly as those who have put in the effort to learn the basics. There are many great self taught composers today that give me the belief you can learn all this without going to expensive colleges/universities.

ZStriefel: Don't let anyone tell you that you can't. Work hard, and be humble.

NickPerrin: You have to be nuts to consider music as a full-time career, especially in this economy. So be nuts, first off. All of us at SoS are totally f-ing insane. That out of the way, I can definitely give a little advice, but take it with the following points in mind: first, I'm not yet at the level of professional work that I plan to be in the foreseeable future, and second, there is always more to say than can be fit into an interview answer. Be on the

lookout for more advice from veteran industry professionals of all sorts, who will be much more qualified than myself to give you rock-solid advice.

So, listen attentively and critically to music. Don't just hear it, listen to it, dissect it, understand it, know it. You give me an mp3 of a Tchaikovsky waltz for strings and I will tell you what the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the basses are doing at any given time. Maybe orchestral music isn't your thing, but whatever your preferred genre, develop an ear for what's going on, recognize the idioms and events that are taking place under your eardrums, and use their strengths to your advantage when creating your own work.

Don't limit yourself to one or two genres. It pays to have a localized strength, for sure, but take in influences from everywhere. Good music is good music, throw away any prejudices you have. I always believe that if you truly love music you will not care how it is categorized. My always-expanding music library contains ambient, classical, electronica, film & game scores, flamenco, jazz, funk, metal, etc. etc. If you don't like it, don't listen to it, but you might be surprised what you find if you dig enough and have an open mind. I absolutely LOVE finding (quasi) new genres to explore.

Ask yourself, why do you want to make music? Is it for people to love you, or to love what you create? Even if your first efforts suck (and they probably will), do you still enjoy making it, the feeling of accomplishment with a job well done, and the process of getting better and better at your craft? That's the way to go. It's not about getting girls. You want that, learn to play some mediocre uninspired songs on a cheap acoustic guitar.

Always take criticism in stride, but don't be too ready to accept ALL the advice you get - especially from less experienced people who may not know what they're talking about. Self-tutelage from trusted sources, as well as outside teaching from trusted instructors is the best way to keep learning more, and of course straight-up application by continually composing!

This is always going to be difficult, but don't look at music as a competition. When you hear or meet, whether online or in real life, musicians who are better than you, be able to admit to yourself that they're better. But don't get angry, learn everything you can from them and work even harder.

Now, these are all points regarding getting into music, as the question asked, not really the industry. But they're essential points to consider for that as well. As far as getting into the industry goes, well, that's a whole other topic for another time, and one I really haven't even figured out properly yet myself! (Please refer to first line, IE you must be crazy!)

sorohanro: Learn what you do. Theory, instrument playing, song writing, recording/ mixing technique, listen to TONS of music and try to reverse engineer it but at the same time don't rip off other artists. Learn from them but be original.

Q: MaestroRage - You have had different accounts in the past, one being MaestroSorrow. I want to talk about your last song on that account and what you said would be your last song on Newgrounds. It was the first song I heard by you and on the Audio Portal and it was _-=[The Maestro's Requiem]=-_. There is an interesting story to tell here and I want to know as much as I can about it.

A: Ah TGO, to tell this story would be a short novel in of itself and it is not a new and fresh one. It was around this time that I was battling inner conflicts. My new budding love for music waged fierce struggle with my old idealogy of coding. Even then I knew music was a very difficult career path. I could find work much easier as a coder, my life would be much simpler. But... the passion just wasn't there anymore. I had also used music as an escape for my entire MaestroSorrow career. I did not have the happiest childhood and I realized this escape should not be what dictates my life moving forward.

But music saved me. Music in it's abstract and formless shape molded me without me even knowing. At some point I had to come back. If only for a short while I said to myself, I had to keep writing.

That short while, has been 5-6 years and counting.

Q: ZStriefel - When JAZZA was here we talked about his works on The Kill Kar and the LARRY series. It seems you got to do some work with him on these? What can you tell us about your involvement with these and what is it like to work with JAZZA?

A: I did the sound design on both of those projects. Kill Kar was actually the first game I ever worked on. I had no clue what I was doing, but it was a blast. I love working with Jazza. He's a pain in the ass sometimes when he makes me stay up for 2 days in a row while we do last minute crap before a release, but he's a great guy, and a really great friend. Absolutely love working with him.

Q: ZStriefel - Your recent news post states that one of your songs was licensed by Disney and used in a Club Penguin commercial. How did Disney come about contacting you? What was your initial reaction then and now that the song has been used? Also have any doors been opened for you upon this?

A: I'll never forget that day. I was sitting on the couch, and I got a text message from Selcuk saying "omfg go read your emails". So I go to my computer and I'm like "okay.. whats the big deaaaa-- OH MY GOD". So my first thought is, "yeah, that's hilarious Selcuk.. F**K you too." But after a few mins I realized that it was seriously Disney emailing me and I spent like 20 mins running around the house giggling like a little girl. When I saw the commercial I was pretty jazzed. I had never seen my work on TV before, so it was a real treat for me.

As for other doors opening, not so much. I've done a couple other commercials since (I'm not sure if it's safe to talk about them yet so I won't), but nothing really major.

Q: NickPerrin - Heavy Troopa is Ready to Launch! in an interesting project of orchestrating the music from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. Two entries from you would be Super Mario RPG - Moleville and The End (Super Mario RPG). How did you come across this project and what was it like working on it? Also will the Symphony of Specters ever create a project like this?

A: Wow, that's ages ago, 2008 in fact! For me that feels like a different lifetime in music-making. My process and understanding have really evolved a lot since then.

Back then I started a project called 8-bit Philharmonic, which was orchestral arrangements of 8-bit music from NES games. It was very purist. I loved the NES growing up and today I still love it, partly because of nostalgia, but also because the games were great and the music is fantastic. It was also purist in its arrangements. I didn't want to simply copy over notes into orchestral instruments, but instead really arrange the 8-bit pieces so that they sounded as if they could have been written originally for the orchestra. To some degree I succeeded.

Super Mario RPG is of course a 16-bit game on the SNES, but it was Anthony Ruybalid of gamemusic4all.com who contacted me about the compilation album. He found the 8-bit Philharmonic page and asked me to choose some tracks from the OST to arrange. There were only a few left that hadn't been taken, but I knew I had to make a big epic arrangement out of the ending track. The Moleville track ended up as a more last-minute afterthought, a track that still needed to be done near to release but didn't have any takers, and I think it shows that it was rushed.

I did contribute to another compilation album from gamemusic4all.com, which was Welcome to World 2 (http://gamemusic4all.com/wordpress/gm4a-records /gm4a-compilations/welcome-to-world-2/). On this album I contributed probably the best arrangement from the old days under the 8-bit Philharmonic name, a symphonic suite of music from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That arrangement is available on my account here on NG. (Disclaimer: It's also pretty old, and as such also not indicative of my current work).

Now as far as I know, Symphony of Specters isn't working on any projects like this right now. Or we might (or more specifically just me) - but that's top-secret! Suffice to say, something is in the works on a slow burn, will make NES music fans like me very happy, and revive the "8-bit Philharmonic" project back from the grave... Stay tuned!

Q: NickPerrin - I believe my favorite song by you has to be - Horizon -. It is a beautifully rendition of many genres and elements combined together seamlessly. You stated that it was inspired by many film and video game genres. It strays from your usual style, but your skill more than makes up for it. Your girlfriend's voice is also quite beautiful. What was the process on working on this behemoth? How did you come to have your girlfriend supply her voice in it? And can we expect more of her voice with your music in the future?

A: Horizon was a fun track to put together. Up until that point I'd been desperately holding on to Logic Audio as my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software) of choice, except that the program had been bought by Apple and made an Apple exclusive years ago. This meant I was running a really old version of the program. Luckily, it was years ahead of other DAWs, but full of glitches, lack of support, general instability, and investment in a nice new custom-built PC tower meant it was time to switch. So I picked up Cubase 5, and intimidating as it can be to start with new software, Horizon was like my boot camp. After creating the track I felt a lot more confident on my new platform (which now today I love).

I was inspired by a lot of sci-fi minimalist scores that were floating around at the time and got cracking on my own ideas. The song is and was admittedly musically very simple, but that was always the point. I wanted to make something that sonically delivered a lot of punch, and compared to anything I'd made before it was a big leap. I also knew I wanted a live element to it, and a big soaring vocal section with lush strings was part of the plan. For that I enlisted my girlfriend, writing out her parts in advance with a synth, having her listen to that then giving her specific directions for the phrasing and nuances of the notes when she sang them (which notes to bend, hold, vibrato etc), so it wasn't a straight verbatim performance of the guiding synth's notes.

What's cool is just about each bar of music is a separate take but combined sounds seamless. We did it this way because I wanted really long sustained notes with a lot of power and vibrato behind them, which might not have been possible had she been forced to do it all in one take and breathe quickly in between notes. Today I would definitely record her in much better acoustic conditions, but at the time I got excited and recorded her in a crappy space which really killed a lot of the body and width her voice could have had. Luckily the musical content of the section meant I could drown the imperfections in reverb and get away with it ;) You'll definitely hear her again in the future, recorded better and in very different styles, just when I'm not sure.

I'm glad you really enjoy the track but the truth is today I find most of it bad, personally. I really like the mid-section (atmospherics and the string orchestra/vocal section) for soundscape and atmosphere, but the two ends of the track (beginning and end sections) really don't do it for me anymore. I recognize a lot of the issues now and don't feel that I can hold that track up as a calling card anymore, without feeling its inadequacies that sound truly amateur in my opinion. I suppose this is a good thing, it must mean I'm improving or something. Windswept is definitely my favourite of my own tracks right now, and I hope in a year's time I can look on it like I see Horizon now, and continue to progress as a composer.

Q: sorohanro - Well, one of your songs is being used as The Interviewer's main theme, however the first song I ever heard by you would be the old version of Paper Dragon. Where did the song come from and what is a Paper Dragon?

A: O, that's an old one with a long story. Is not only the first song you've heard from me but it's also one of the first tracks made by me on my first computer. I remade that one several times. the oldest version is actually a remake of an idea that I made on a friend's keyboard (I think it was a Roland JV 80) and then he lost the floppy with my project... so, first time I got a PC with a FL (at that time was Fruity Lops 2.3 or something, found it on a CD from some French computer magazine) I tried to remember it and remake. Soon, this one became a favorite of my friends, they liked it so much that they wanted it as their wedding song.

Then, when I got more "pro" I decided to remake the remake and made THIS

Soon, I had to make a wedding version for each one of my friends, so, this came up. Now I think to make it again, for my new album...

Q: sorohanro - Listening to your music I tend to find an exotic style with each song you make. Like I'm in Casablanca. However one song that seems to set itself apart from others is Good Morning America. Now this is an interesting song. I and others expect something like a news show to start, but it can spell so much more such as military and patriotism. You say it was an attempt at something "Epic" and although you hit the nail on the head one must wonder how you came to make this? Is the inspiration just simply "America" or is there something else there?

A: He he... the title is actually random. I really can't come up with titles, I always end up with stuff like "the third track in f minor, jazz with guitar solo like Scofield". This one was like "that with trumpet solo in Bb, like in Star Trek".

I made it as a request for some WWII themed game, somewhere here on the Audio Forum. After finishing it, I asked my wife, how should I name it ? I want to post it on Newgrounds, and she answered "Good Morning America", without any kind of second thought I named it like this and... the rest is history...

Q: What can we expect from the Symphony of Specters in the future?

A:

MaestroRage: We can expect some serious ass whoopings haha! We're charging into this industry with our guns blazing. We've spent years honing our skills and we're ready to show them off.

ZStriefel: Good question.

NickPerrin: We'll have more flavour and be 3 times as crunchy! Now with less trans fats!

Nah, but we WILL be in bigger and better projects as the years go on. We are at an interesting point in our development (and this is a fact far more apparent to the guys who have been part of the group longer than myself), where we are taking the first steps to being truly big players in

custom audio. Our skillset and team is ready for this, getting there can be difficult but we have full confidence in our abilities.

Plus we'll be enriched with B vitamins for your metabolism!

sorohanro: I hope a future

This interview has been one I've been wanting to do for quite sometime now and I feel very honored to be able to speak with these four people, seeing as how sorohanro was generous enough to let us use one of his songs as our theme and MaestroRage being an old dear Newgrounds friend, who helped me out here when I was new whether he knows this or understands it or not. These four live and breathe music and they're not the only ones. The Symphony of Specters has gotten a redesign lately and not all of its members are listed from the previous design the one I mainly used for information in this interview. With all that is said and done, these four are just the tip of the iceberg that upon further inspection, is a vast mountain filled with music and wonder. If you're a game developer and you're looking for some grade A music, or even just an animator... you can't go wrong with these guys.

[ PART 1 | PART 2 ]