bowman commentary additions

fixes #160

1 files changed, 31 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
index f0f38ae..05ecd78 100644
--- a/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
+++ b/album/homestuck-vol-5.yaml
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@ Additional Files:
   Files:
   - vol5.jpg
 Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+    This Volume is a little bit of an oddity in that it's hyper-long and is consisted overwhelmingly of tracks that have not appeared in the comic whatsoever, so you might not be quite so initially motivated to purchase it as you would for one of the soundtracks proper, however, I assure you, there is some really great material on there. The album hits the tip of the creative iceberg that has been the MSPA music project (which I guess is now formally What Pumpkin records) and shows only a fraction of the endless piles upon piles of "other" music that exists on the not-so-secret music forums.
+
+    [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] has been definitely at a crossroads with the music - the response to his open casting call for the music project over a year ago almost immediately exploded with music, initially with the pretense that we were going to be creating short loops (as in the strife themes such as [[track:showtime-original-mix|Showtime]]). However, when the comic started to operate more cinematically and less like an adventure game, more and more the concentration became on how our music could be used to create the numerous extensive flash-animated cutscenes, some of which fans have awaited and anticipated for days on end.
+
+    This pretty much imploded with the [[flash:1149|end of Act 3]], when Andrew informed us all that he was going to cut back on the animations after spending a week working on the accompanying animation for [[track:sburban-jungle|Sburban Jungle]] day and night on end. Since then, the focus has drifted to various new sectors which I guess will just have to be a surprise to all of you. Either way, consider the new album an outlet for you to sample music inspired by and written for Homestuck and as a chance to support this new community that Andrew has shepherded.
+
     <i>Quasar Nebula:</i>
     Track art on these tracks has been uploaded from the <a href="https://sollay-b.tumblr.com/post/188094230423/hello-a-couple-of-years-ago-allyssinian">Homestuck Vol. 5 Anthology</a>! The official release of Vol. 5 didn't come with track art; this collaborative project organized artists to submit their own original art for the album. The art was originally shared in a huge colection on tumblr on 4/13/17 and has now been collected here for viewing convenience and discoverability!
     (Check out the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyxgBfhPEG8">Vol. 5 Anthology Presentation</a> for an awesome animated showing of the anthology art and original tracks!)
@@ -218,6 +225,9 @@ Art Tags:
 - Earth
 Referenced Tracks:
 - track:chorale-for-jaspers
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+    Radiation, or Toby as I've never actually had the chance to refer to him, sent me his midi arrangement of Happy Cat Song, a sort of lighthearted version of Chorale for Jaspers, so I loaded VSTs for each part and balanced it, along with adding a "meow" sample in for good measure. The effect of it reminds [[artist:tavia-morra|Tavia]] of arriving in a village in "final fantasy or chrono cross or something and it's initially all peaceful and then by the end of the game it's totally raped and pillaged." So the calm before the storm then? MEOW
 ---
 Track: Hardchorale
 Artists:
@@ -241,6 +251,9 @@ Referenced Tracks:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Alex Rosetti:</i>
     I've always considered the creation of this song a "classic story". It came about in a strange, almost fateful way, and I think the final product reflects that. It was the first thing that Radiation and I worked on together, and it was through Hardchorale that our friendship started. He approached me with a MIDI file he had made, intending it to be a sort of "boss battle" arrangement of Chorale for Jaspers in the style of Harleboss. He asked if I would be interested in producing it, since at the time he was just starting out and had no means to do so. I agreed, Chorale being one of my favorite Homestuck tunes. So I produced it in a DAW to make it sound "good", and relative to the MIDI file it sounded great, and we were both really happy with it. Radiation got Bowman to record some heavy metal meows, which he apparently almost got kicked out of his apartment for recording and claims to have video of, though I have yet to see it. Once I found out it was going to be on Vol. 5, I added a section to it (roughly the last third of the piece) and at the very end sneaked the Squiddles theme just because I could. I realize that was more of a narrative than a commentary, but it's the history behind this piece that I find fun to talk about more than the piece itself.
+
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+    Harchorale was another Chorale arrangement by Alexander and Toby for which I contributed more vocals. The morning after I recorded the yelping and yowling for this arrangement, I received an ultimatum from my apartment complex, saying that if they ever received another noise complaint they would evict us so hard we would probably go blind. I know [[artist:richard-gung|Richard]] has footage of me recording this somewhere, so I'll surely post it when I find it.
 ---
 Track: An Unbreakable Union
 Artists:
@@ -706,6 +719,11 @@ Lyrics: |-
     Alright now, let's bring it back here, now<br>I need somethin' with a little soul<br>Casey, take us there, bring it back!<br>Alright, come on now!
     And tell me now<br>How do I live without you?<br>I wanna know<br>How do I breathe without you?<br>If you ever go<br>How will I ever, ever survive?
     (Oh, it's- it's done. Oh.)
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+    God knows this is the dumbest thing I've ever created (at least for MSPA). But maybe it's also the most awesome thing because of that? In the process of creating this, I ended up learning a lot about the recording process, but let me tell you, if I ever EVER have to perform this song again, I am officially dropping the key signature a few steps - this song stretched my range pretty dangerously and it shows. Fun fact: did you know [[artist:diane-warren|Dianne Warren]] also wrote "[[track:i-dont-wanna-miss-a-thing-aerosmith|Don't Wanna Miss a Thing]]" from Armageddon? She has like the best career ever, writing the cheesiest, most epic love songs ever for some of the most ridiculous action movies of all time.
+
+    I actually put a lot of work into it, retaking the vocals and guitar parts entirely before extending the song an extra verse. Nick's drunken air guitar solo remains intact, of course.
 ---
 Track: Dupliblaze COMAGMA
 Artists:
@@ -823,14 +841,21 @@ MIDI Project Files:
 Commentary: |-
     <i>Erik Scheele:</i>
     This one is really hardly me, honest, it’s all Bowman. Ruins was this piano recording I’d put up back when I still hardly knew how to record anything, and then Bowman just went and added magic to it. And the piano track, that’s just another one of those “improvisations out of nowhere”, no real purpose or theory-thinking beforehand to delegate anything to it. Especially the descending-thirds, no way I could have just thought about that and been like “Yes that is a good thing to be doing”, it was just spur of the moment thinking.
+
     (Ruins was one of the first things I contributed to the music forum after getting on the team, a small improvisation based around descending seconds which was made back when I still had no idea how to record things properly. Since Earth was kind of a gigantic wasteland planet at that point (and it still is, today), I conceptually tied my recording in with that, and called it Ruins.
+
     Of course, I really doubt that Ruins would have gotten anywhere if it wasn’t for Bowman, who pretty much surprised me sometime before Volume 5 with an updated version of my recording, which made the piano sound better and added a lot of other instruments to it, really adding a lot of depth and atmosphere to an otherwise-shoddy recording. And then, when Volume 5 came around, it was released as “Ruins (With Strings)”, which is what you just heard in the update!
+
     I know I’ve got a better recording of Ruins kicking around here somewhere, I’ll have to see if something can be done with it.)
+
     <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
     Really it’s the “(With Strings)” part that is my doing. When Jit was first inducted to the team, he did not have access at the time to a proper recording environment or midi controller that he could apply a high-quality piano sound to, so he had recorded his piano demo for “Ruins” on what I’m guessing is an on-board laptop microphone. I thought the composition was really great but knew that it would sound too unpolished to make the cut onto a Homestuck album, so I resolved to write a string accompaniment around his composition.
+
     By applying an incredibly enormous amount of reverb to the piano part, I hid the low fidelity of the original recording and made it sound as though it was hauntingly played to the listener from the other end of a cave. Given my lack of any truly convincing string samples, I chose instead to use deliberately mechanical strings, gently de-tuning them to sound a bit reminiscent of early string synthesizers, somewhat inspired by “Crystal Japan”, a creepy instrumental by David Bowie.
+
     Some of the other elements of the ambiance (the wind, the really high notes that echo for a long time) I drew from the soundtrack to World of Goo, specifically the track “Jelly” which I noticed bore a strong resemblance tonally to Jit’s composition. To seal the melancholy, I doubled the piano melody on guitar using a very cool, muted sound with a lot of echoes and pitch bends. I signed the tune by adding a cadence from “Sburban Jungle” at the very end.
-    Really, the track should probably be listed simply as “Ruins” if not for the fact that there is not official piano rendition of the piece. I think it would be really cool to hear such a version of the tune if Jit ever found himself recording material in a studio again (as he did for James’s piano suite Sburb).
+
+    Really, the track should probably be listed simply as “Ruins” if not for the fact that there is not official piano rendition of the piece. I think it would be really cool to hear such a version of the tune if Jit ever found himself recording material in a studio again (as he did for [[artist:james-dever|James’s]] piano suite [[album:sburb|Sburb]]).
 ---
 Track: Ectobiology
 Artists:
@@ -1201,6 +1226,11 @@ Art Tags:
 - Jade
 - Squiddles
 - Earth
+Commentary: |-
+    <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i>
+    Greenhouse ended up being an exercise in what I could do with a handful of new pieces of equipment. Having acquired [[artist:tavia-morra|Tavia's]] old, barely used electric guitar and keyboard, this is the first composition I've really gotten to do a lot of recording for instead of just point and click sequencing. When I listen to this song, I imagine this is what Jade hears every time she starts her computer. Which would be a good song to write!
+
+    "Greenhouse", of course, is the easy winner amongst the tracks I contributed. I think the spontaneity is what makes it really work - I just wrote it as I recorded each little piece.
 ---
 Track: Space Prankster
 Artists: