For starters, let me clearly state that “Thugs” didn’t turn out at all how I intended.  I was working on a deathmetal battle theme and instead it turned out like this.

<sigh>

Rather than throw it out and start again, I decided to wrestle with the piece a bit longer and flesh it out as more than just an 8-bar theme.  Maybe someone out there can find a use for the cheesy rock style as the theme song for… something?

“Thugs” is awfully repetitive for my taste, but it did end up being fairly catchy.  Unfortunately.

(last updated 27 May 2010)

There are several noticeable differences between this and the original; I’ve tried to rewrite some of the weaker sections without changing the song too much (it is, after all, a theme song hehe).  Also, the change of the lead instrument to a Spanish trumpet turned out as good as I could have hoped…  Spanish trumpets are awesome!

Many thanks go out to Kroc for all he’s done to help me out these past few years.  This song – as well as Leaving Millie and Retribution are my small way of saying thanks!

My hope for this was to accomplish several things.  I wanted a piece that sounded pretty and pleasant (not dark or dreary), but I didn’t want to go so far as “happy,” per se.  I wanted it to be the kind of song you could contemplate to.  I also wanted it to start simple, then gradually progress into a more complex ending that stayed true to the simpleness of the melody.  It’s designed to be a sort of musical conundrum.  :)  I’m rather fond of it.

Again, thanks go out to Kroc for all he’s done to help me out.  This song, as well as The Journey and Retribution, are my small way of saying thanks.

By request, the mp3 version of this song includes a “live piano” track.  This version of the piano part was recorded as MIDI through my keyboard and recreated via soundfont – so it’s not entirely “live”, but the notes are an exact replica of me at my keyboard.  In my opinion, this version has more grandeur than the all-electronic version, and although some dissonant notes appear toward the end (oops!), I find this to be a nice improvement on an already excellent song.

As soon as I heard it, I knew this would be a perfect female character theme for the lead character of Defiance, one of the story premises discussed by the video game team I was working with at the time.  The protagonist of the story was a girl named Cara, who I see being comparable to the main character in “Underworld” (if you haven’t seen the movie, you should – it’s good).  Cara was a strong, action-oriented girl who ended up falling in love with a man she thought she was saving.  Thus the song is a mix of electric guitar and other rock instruments but with a mellow melody.

Technically speaking, the song may not be anything outstanding – but I’m pleased that my first attempt at producing a realistic alternative-type song using nothing but MIDI instruments worked out.  The mp3 version uses a mix of soundfonts and multiple VST effects to create a very nice, surprisingly realistic sound.  I think you’ll like it.

I’ve not done much to change it from the piano version to the MIDI version, and I don’t know that I’ll ever change this theme much.  There’s something invariably nostalgic about compositions from early in your career, and messing with songs from that era just seems…wrong, you know?

“Fate, it seems, is a funny thing, in how it creates both nightmares and dreams…

What once was black may now be white, as blinding dark becomes brilliant light…”

The only way to really understand this song is to understand Clint V. Franklin …and I don’t think anyone – Clint included – really understands that.  Kinda like this song, I guess.  It’s not meant to have a unified theme or style or feel or anything of the sort.  It’s meant to be…”different.”

You may recognize the theme at the end (if you don’t, I won’t spoil it for you).  It was included because Clint said that particular song was the only one of my compositions that “really stirred his soul…”

Whatever, Clint.

Anyway, I love the acoustic sound this song draws out of terrible MIDI acoustic instruments.  The ocean SFX were an afterthought that seemed to match the flow of the melody, and I think it comes together nicely.

I would love to someday do an epic orchestration of this piece but have yet to amass the soundfonts to do it correctly.  When I do, it’s gonna win an award.  It’s just that good. :)

There isn’t.  I promise.

“Crossroads” has been the character theme of several unfinished game characters.  Generally, it seems to embody a secondary party member who – in typical fashion – has something to prove but not necessarily the means to prove it.  Using what was, for a time, my trademark mix of instruments (gotta love the ol’ charang), this is another harmonically simple piece with a simple but catchy melody.  I firmly believe that the best “theme” songs are actually thematic in nature…something often lost in modern video game and film scores.  Theme songs should have a recognizable “theme”, i.e. something that you could sit down and plink out on a piano and know right away what it was from.

I’d like to think that “Crossroads” has such a theme.  Something simple, something memorable.