Inspirations
If you know me personally, you'll know that I listen to a lot of music. It motivates me, helps me focus and gather future ideas.
I listen to a wide range of music: mainstream, classical, and game or movie soundtracks. Most of my music taste is recommended from other people and it's rare that I find something on my own. Out of the artists I listen to, there are a few ones who I find really interesting and through listening to their music, it has influenced various structure elements that I use to compose my music now.
Patricia Taxxon
If you are unfamiliar with the name, you might know them from the 'sd_bbb' or 'EEEAAAAOOO'. I frequently listen to their albums while I'm out and about. It's the experimentive nature of their tracks that has inspired my works. Each album I make is a chance to try a new concept or idea that I've had. There have been times where I've not used something because I'm unsure about it and didn't want to experiment with it at the time.
Each time I listen to their music, I always seem to hear a new thing I haven't noticed before. You know how when you get new headphones and can hear frequencies that were missing because the old pair was used a lot? That's how I feel on each new listen.
I have remixed 'sd_bbb' twice: once in the 'spacious' album, and once as a standalone called: re_bbb. For the first remix, I introduced the samples and layered them over the music. The second remix was more experimentation with the audio track, cutting samples in half to create funky rhythms, and experimenting with ping pong echoing between the left and right audio channels.
Lena Raine
Two of the biggest games that I've heard her music from are the Celeste and Minecraft soundtracks. I've seen someone play Celeste and I absolutely adore its concept, mechanics, art and most importantly: its music. I have the game myself but I have yet to find time to sit down and play it for myself.
The biggest inspiration I've taken away from her music is an appreciation for arpeggios. An arpeggio is just a broken chord where you play each note of the chord seperately. In 'Resurrections', the beginning section starts with a rising arpeggio which then repeats itself at the top of the scale. It forms the structure of the background for most of the song.
I'm also an avid player of Minecraft, and I've been playing since release 1.2.5. When new music was introduced to the game, it instantly hooked me. 'otherside', 'Pigstep' and 'Creator' are among my favourites from Lena Raine. If you listen to them closely, you can find that they contain those distinct arpeggios in the background.
Reading list
"The Best Day" · Patricia Taxxon
"Wavetable" · Patricia Taxxon
"TECHDOG" · Patricia Taxxon
"Resurrections" · Lena Raine
"otherside" · Lena Raine
"Pigstep" · Lena Raine
"Creator" · Lena Raine