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Diffstat (limited to 'album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml')
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1 files changed, 39 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml index 7f7213a..604038e 100644 --- a/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml +++ b/album/homestuck-vol-8.yaml @@ -152,7 +152,11 @@ Commentary: |- The countdown sample is from a NASA recording, I believe it's the launch of Apollo 11. - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1809), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + Okay, Homestuck Volume 8. Calamity. Awesome tune. I don't know what else to say about that. I thought [[track:walk-stab-walk-r-and-e|Walk-Stab-Walk]] was a cool contribution from Erik, and I just wanted to create something that wove that and the honking and all that, and build up to this big showdown moment between Karkat and Gamzee that never happened! You know, we were all just guessing at what [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]] was gonna do next. And sometimes we got it, and sometimes we got it wrong. But at least we got this epic piece of music out of it, huh? + + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt, 10/28/2011) I had a lot of fun working on Calamity which gave me an opportunity to adapt a very classic Marvel comic book style to Homestuck. My favorite part of the piece is the small touch in Karkat’s eyes where the background shows through, coloring them. As [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|Bowman]] worked on Calamity I was developing the composition for the art. [[flash:4085|The moment when Karkat and Gamzee lunge at each other]] got my heart racing in the sheer epic-ness of the sight. It had to be the track art. --- @@ -381,6 +385,10 @@ Commentary: |- <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, Bowmantown Discord, excerpt, 8/20/2017) I was inspired by [[artist:mark-j-hadley|Mark Hadley]] announcing that he had a baby on the way + + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1837), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + Ocean Stars Falling - I liked Mark Hadley's [[Ocean Stars]]. I thought it was this incredible little moody thing, and taking it in kind of this indie rock direction was cool. --- Track: Escape Pod Artists: @@ -405,6 +413,10 @@ Commentary: |- The track also pulls a lot from actual rock music - the Roxy Music track ["Street Life"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_dTFdRAvN0) was a big cue here, and the start-stop structure on the second chorus was really inspired by Tally Hall's track ["Greener"](https://youtu.be/8sV1EOJQTEI) of which the effect can only be described in exotic dance. I really wanted to pull out the stops on this one and make it catchy as hell, but apparently the [[track:ocean-stars-falling|two]] [[track:davesprite|tracks]] book-ending it on Volume 8 steal its thunder. What more can be said about it? This is about as totally poppy (or perhaps J-poppy) as I get. Compared to stuff like [[track:greenhouse|"Greenhouse"]] and [[track:squiddle-samba|"Squiddle Samba"]] this track is right up my alley. It in contrast with some of the other stuff that I've made appearing on the very same album (the minimalist piece [[track:gust-of-heir|"Gust of Heir"]] which I collaborated on with [[artist:james-dever|James Dever]] comes to mind) you'll see that I can go just as far in the saccharine direction as I can into the abstract. For me range has always been an asset I've felt was important to nurture, so with Volume 8 I set the pace for my work ethic on [[album:ithaca|Ithaca]] in terms of never settling to have "found my sound" no matter how well any one idea works. + + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1849), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + God, I'm just looking at the list of stuff that was on that record. Escape Pod - with Homestuck Volume 8, it was almost like I, uh, said, you know, it's the eighth volume, so I'm going to write eight songs! *(Caption in post: "I only got to 7")* --- Track: Davesprite Artists: @@ -452,19 +464,19 @@ Referenced Tracks: Sampled Tracks: - Amen, Brother Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track artist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt, 10/28/2011) So, Volume 8 came out and I did art for four of the tracks [one of which might look familiar](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/10881819098/thought-they-looked-rather-nice-together). *(contined below)* - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/10881819098/thought-they-looked-rather-nice-together)) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/10881819098/thought-they-looked-rather-nice-together), 10/1/2011) <img src="media/misc/airtime-original-designs.png" width="300"> Thought they looked rather nice together! - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt, 10/28/2011) *(continued from above)* @@ -495,7 +507,11 @@ Commentary: |- The point of this song was to kind of put the action, the drama, and all that teenage chemistry on hold so I could focus on a moment in the story that might be just a little bit more peaceful. Going on a safari for frogs on a newly-awakened alien forest world seems to beckon a very different angle than the heated stakes typically associated with Homestuck. Plus, I've always felt that the environment of Homestuck deserves a little more attention given that nearly 99% of all art generated by the fans are homages to their favorite characters and not the fantastic places imagined by [[artist:andrew-hussie|Andrew]]. - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track arist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1864), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + Frog Hunt was atmospheric and kind of based on, like, a weather report. + + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> (track arist, [Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt, 10/28/2011) Frog Hunt was, like [[Calamity]], one of the more challenging pieces since I opted for a much cleaner (And much more Disney) look for the piece. I totally saw Jade and Dave on the frog hunt, dressing for the part as adventurers and explorers. Jade, in her excitement, may have dragged Dave through a couple of bushes and thorned plants. --- @@ -784,7 +800,7 @@ Cover Artists: Art Tags: - John Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer) Two of the tracks I put on Volume 8 were collaborations with other Homestuck musicians, something I've been meaning to do more of because two heads are usually better than one. The first of the two was "Gust of Heir", a track that James Dever wrote and for which I did the production. @@ -793,6 +809,12 @@ Commentary: |- Anyway, I knew right away where James was coming from when he sent me a midi demo of "Gust of Heir" though originally it was arranged as a piano solo. Without access to a pro recording situation as on the [[album:sburb|Sburb]] piano suite, we knew there would have to be an alternate solution, hence the electronic approach. I played pretty heavily with a set of new sounds, specifically the soundfonts of Ethan Winer, an audio professional whose work was recommended by [[artist:toby-fox|Radiation]] a good while back. As I have on many occasions I took cues from [Oblique Strategies](http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/) to get some ideas for the arrangement. Part of the intrigue in producing this piece was that it was fully written, meaning that in some ways I was boxed-in to a complete journey for the song to take musically yet in others free to really explore and discover a unique sound for the song. I really played toggling a slew of effects until this tune became rendering hell for my computer. I stepped a bit outside my own range of comfort and got some drum loops from [[artist:clark-powell|Clark Powell]] to really polish off the piece, adding a touch that otherwise would probably have eluded me. + + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1872), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + [James] was, ah, such a huge fan of Philip Glass, and we really connected on that. Gust of Heir was me taking a MIDI, I think, that he'd written, and setting that to some electronics, and I just thought it was so cool that somebody else got the appeal of that kind of composition style. + + *(Continued in [[album:sburb]])* --- Track: Afraid of the Darko Artists: @@ -819,7 +841,7 @@ Cover Artists: Referenced Tracks: - Even in Death Commentary: |- - <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt) + <i>Tavia Morra:</i> ([Tumblr](https://seeyoutmorra.tumblr.com/post/12054861967/homestuck-volume-8-track-art), excerpt, 10/28/2011) This one has a bit of a story behind it.<br> I am a belly dancer and most mornings I make it a point to drill choreography and fundamentals. At first I was drilling to [some](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1BG8NspIOM) [dance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTx3G6h2xyA) [music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfvIE2pVn3w) to get my blood going, [slowed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQWYrq6LSs) [things](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCVJ-uoGOAY) [down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcofrLg1GxI), then moved to some [more traditional music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUGMxkgIGb0). In the process I found [[Even in Death]] made it’s move in to the playlist as the Kodo sound naturally caught my ear. I let [[artist:clark-powell|Plaz]] know this and soon I found her picking my brain for what I listen to when I’m developing a choreography. She sent me versions of Even in Death for my own use. Luckily she decided to stick the new “Belly Mix” version on the latest album. @@ -1023,7 +1045,7 @@ Referenced Tracks: - Dirgeish - Sburban Jungle Commentary: |- - <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer) + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer) "Revered Return" began as a track called [[track:dirgeish|"Dirgeish"]], a .pxtone composition that [[artist:nick-smalley|Nick]] had completed some time ago but never managed to squeeze into an album. Because as a chip tune it had been long overlooked, I decided to take a whack at producing it in a different style for inclusion on Volume 8. I had been looking for a piece that would work as a rock tune, and "Dirgeish" really struck me because of the heavy involvement of drums, its steady pace, and dynamic structure. @@ -1031,9 +1053,13 @@ Commentary: |- The structure I think might be the most unique part of "Revered Return" - it doesn't waste time by really repeating itself a lot. Nine out of ten times I work on a song I find myself writing or arranging something that moves in a very basic structure like ABAB or AABA or other variants, etc. "Dirgeish" gave me the challenge of establishing coherency in a piece that seemed to move almost completely linearly, and I made sure to preserve its sort of ABCDEFGBA-type structure in arranging "Revered Return" for Volume 8. - <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (composer) + <i>Nick Smalley:</i> (co-composer) [[track:ohgodwhat|Remember that thing about ORGMaker?]] Yeah, this song, too. Except add me asking [[artist:andrew-huo|Andrew Huo]] to help finish it and [[artist:michael-guy-bowman|Bowman]] to ramp it up, and you've got Revered Return. :3 + + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (co-composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1915), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + Revered Return, that was a piece of Nick's music that I arranged out. That was one where I rewrote the piece, basically, from beginning to end, from this chiptune. At the time it was literally just me going through the haphazard, not really built for multitake thing on FL Studio and trying to write guitar lines that would, you know, go through, nearly one measure at a time, just to get it down. But I was so pleased with the result. --- Track: Judgment Day Artists: @@ -1241,6 +1267,10 @@ Commentary: |- The trick to this one for me was cutting out all the bullshit really - the ridiculous key change is removed and the drums are minimal to the extent of sounding like a funeral march. Rather than starting off with chipper little electric organs and keyboards, this version takes a cue from ["Purple Rain"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Y1gohk5-A) and uses only electric guitar and vocals for the first minute. The vocals start off sounding a million miles away and are subtly brought closer and closer until the other instruments join in on the second verse. I added a new bridge section in so that [[artist:thomas-ferkol|Thomas Ferkol]] could have a chance to play some real guitar in this one, and of course he showed his colors as a metal guitarist, sending me a duet between harmonized voices. [[artist:david-ko|David Ko]] also appears on this track as the gently-spoken backup vocalist. + + <i>Michael Guy Bowman:</i> (composer, [Michael Guy Bowman Talks About His Homestuck Music](https://youtu.be/85VXWZTg-vo?t=1940), adapted to text, 7/20/2024) + + The D8 Night version of How Do I Live, that was like a [[track:how-do-i-live-bunny-back-in-the-box-version|more serious]] attempt with it. I played with the key change a little bit, because I always thought that like, the massive key change on the choruses was like, really corny. So I, I got rid of that, and I added guitar from Thomas Ferkol on that one. The result, I think, is much spacier, much more serious. --- Track: Cascade (Beta) Artists: |