#but ive been struck with the urge to create like. concept stuff for a game set in the cinomed chronicles universe

[ambersky0319]

I have an idea

Now if I actually execute said idea is a totally different story

[2bstudioblog]

Ed The Boxer - My entrance

2 years ago, I was on a dry spell. Not many things were coming for me despite I had a lot of experience writing music for some of the most major AAA-developers in Japan like Konami, Bandai Namco, Sega, Suda 51′s Grasshopper Manufacture and CAPCOM. I was hoping 2017 would be the year I would finally see some changes to my life.

I received a phone-call at the end of 2016, asking me if I wanted to work and write music for the introduction movie for Tekken 7 and I was so happy to hear that they would consider me. I did let them know about my holiday schedule and what days I would be outside Japan and I was promised that it would start once I got back home. But right before I left for my holidays as usual to Bali, a last minute cancellations happened and that my schedule conflicted with theirs.

I thought I’ve missed one of my biggest dreams of all time, to be one of the first Swedes to write music for a Tekken game of all time. (However, there was another Swedish band on the soundtrack who wrote and performed a song called “Vrede” (Wrath in english) for Lars Alexandersson’s character theme-song. But I didn’t know this until I heard the Swedish Radio P3 gameshow “P3 SPEL” with host Angelica Norgren, do an interview segment about the Swedes who ended up in writing music in Tekken 7. I don’t really go out looking for interviews, but I know I’ve been on nobody’s radar since working in Japan makes me and all the people I worked with a little bit paranoid due to all the NDA’s we have to sign once we start working on a project. That’s why I haven’t posted anything due to the process of that once I’m done producing a piece of music, it is no longer mine. It is the property of the client.

So I wasn’t sure how I would go about it since my major release of Resident Evil 6 and one of the most popular tunes from that game was Mercenaries, it went viral on YouTube. I didn’t feel I needed to pursue and tell them who wrote that song, because I’m so obviously hoping people were doing the re-search and credit the right people. But when I found out that they credited the wrong people, that’s when I thought: - “Somewhere, there got to be a limit, and when people are wrong about the sources and I have the original material to prove it, I should be able to call out for corrections of the YouTube material. I’m not doing it to boast myself, right should be right.”

It’s fun when people talk about music, but when the composer/producer doesn’t receive recognition, that’s where I say ENOUGH. It should be easy as breathing. That PERSON wrote THAT song.

It took 4 years to get my next biggest project since I finished Resident Evil 6. I missed the opportunity to write for Tekken 7. I felt I was down and out. 3 weeks earlier before I left for Bali, I receive a phonecall from a guy from an agency who’d like to talk to me, Mr. Ho. He wanted to ask me some stuff about how I do virtual orchestrations and what you should think about when you are doing those, he took notes and I thought it was a nice little chat. We didn’t talk much about any projects, but it was interesting. But little did I know it would bear fruit to something completely different.

Back in Japan after the missed opportunity to write the opening cinematic for Tekken 7, 2 weeks later I got another phone-call beginning with the words: -”Hey, it’s Mr. Ho. By the way, are you familiar with Street Fighter?” My eyebrows lifted up in a Roger Moore surprise look: -”Yeah, I played it all the way up to Street Fighter IV. How come?” -”The thing is, they are going to include a brand new character for the game. Are you interested, do you have time to have a look at it?” -”Sure, I really have NOTHING going on at the moment.” -”Great. They are actually look for some hip-hop music for this character. Do you have any songs of that nature that we can show them?” -”Well, actually no. But I can have something down within the next 3 hours. What do they have in mind?” The conversation kept going and then I was ready to just do the beat. Hip-hop is one of the most simplistic music styles out there. All you really need to care about are the instrument choices, the samples and how to make it sound heavy and snappy if required.

Within 3 hours I had a demo-ready hip-hop song. Team Street Fighter were actually very shocked about my quick result and said: -”This is the right direction. We like the initial approach, but it’s too close to the song you are listening too. Can you change it a little bit so we don’t get sued?” -”No problem. I’ll see what I can do to make the track really stand out.”

So they sent out the documents, some concept art about the character and a video. This was Ed. The Boxer. The experimental lab-rat from Balrog’s ending in SFIV.

How do you make a hip-hop track stand out? But how? Hip-hop is such a monotone music style, that dynamics doesn’t really exists in its loopable context. I needed to figure out a way to make this track sound more dynamic.

I kept looking for clues in the concept art, but I really had nothing more than the guy in red shoes, black-sports pants and a white shortsleeved hoodie to go on, but then it struck me. Hip-hop has always used orchestral samples. But nobody has done a hip-hop track that actually has a narrative orchestra going throughout the song to really make it dynamic. It was my time to shine. But I still needed to find a way to dirty down a few instruments. I felt that having an old-sounding gramophone piano would be the easiest way to fake an old-sample, but it was actually me performing the piano with an EQ’d in a RADIO/Telephone configuration. Then I added crackles from a vinyl bank from the Stylus RMX library and that pretty much sealed the effect for me. The rest was easy. I needed to make the orchestra sound as good as Don Davis’ one from The Matrix, if I could find the perfect blend between Hip-hop, orchestral and electronica, I felt I would hit the spot.

This was a gamble on my part, but it was the only logical way for me to make the track to stand out. I also changed the bass-line from that 8th beat rock-bass to a solid octave-sweeping synth-bass, reminiscent from my childhood. I remember Digital Underground and The Humpty Dance.(Remember, I was not a hip-hopper) The craziest thing though is that I think they did the right choice. Choosing someone who doesn’t do Hip-hop to create a hip-hop track, will ALWAYS sound UNIQUE. It’s the concept and I thank CAPCOM for their gamble and trust in me.

Now, I was 80% done with the track when I received the next request. -”We’re going to have vocals on this track.” My heart sank a little, because I’ve never really written a rap my entire life. :-”So if I understand you correctly, you want me, a Swedish countryside boy, to write a RAP to one of the most aggressive characters in the game....?”

There was a slight silence on the line but the voice came back on: -”Don’t worry about it. We got a guy who’s on the writing and the rapping. But just keep it in mind when you’re doing the background, ok?” -”Ok, no problem.”

The last 20% turns out that once I get the vocalist tracks into my project, I’ll be done. That was what I was missing. So I just waited. Just a day later I got 2 versions sent to me. But I told myself, if I hear the word FIST in there, it’s going to be a HIT. I was finally thinking like a Music Producer. I dropped the lines in at it’s correct starting points. Version A was playing. The word FIST comes out of my speakers and I was jumping up and down, thinking that IT was EXACTLY what THIS TRACK NEEDED. Did I dare listening to version B? I did another mix and I felt B was a little bit more laidback. As a final request before I was stemming down the final files I urged Capcom to go with Version A, because it was more aggressive and it felt more honest to the character. They agreed on my choice, told me to tell me to prep the files.

And there it was. My first and last song for SFV I thought. But 2 weeks later, I received another phone-call...