Writing the music was one of the projects I looked forward to the most. Fortunately, I have been writing and composing music for over 25 years, so this came naturally. Most of what I have written in the past is guitar based, and influenced by everything from rock to hip hop, EDM to classical, short jingles to movie scores. I also knew I would incorporate a lot of pieces I had already written, as well as expand on them. This turned out to be incredibly fun and rewarding. I found myself revisiting old pieces, adding more instruments, adding more parts, and giving them more feeling and life!

A Variety of Instruments
I have no formal musical training, and I'm basically musically illiterate, so much of what I write is based on how it sounds. I have always said my only goal in writing any music is to capture that current feeling as accurately as I possibly can. I want to be able to play that piece a decade from now and immediately feel the same feeling. This has always led me to experiment with multiple instruments. Thanks to modern software, I don't have to know how to play the bassoon, or even hold one, to incorporate it into a song (see "Carmine Grove (Modern)" in the Highlights below). Over the years I have composed music for dozens of instruments, with hundreds of effects. When working on the Kovari Legends music, this was extremely helpful in allowing me to set the mood for a particular area :)

Three Variations
After adding the first few background tracks, I got a great idea. I was going to take each piece of music, separate what I deemed was the lead track or tracks (artistically speaking), and create three variations of that piece:

• A "Light" variation, that removes the lead tracks completely.
• A "Modern" variation, which keeps the original instruments the song was composed in, usually guitar, piano, strings, reeds, wind, etc.
• A "Classic" variation, where I replace the lead instruments with synth based instruments, giving the track a retro "video game" sound!

The user can actually change between variations in the Pause Screen. This did require quite a bit of code, and setting up more audio sources and parameters, but in the end was totally worth. It's also now cool that I can have a favorite version of each track!

Looping
Another part of writing the background music, especially for the gameworld areas, was making sure it seamlessly looped. There is multiple ways to do this of course, but again, my number one goal is to make sure the feeling is there. Also, in my opinion, if the track doesn't loop in the "proper place", it can really take the player out of the immersion. For most tracks, this required making sure the musical journey the player was on was complete, and then "winding down". I ensured the last section of the track was coda-like, but also was carrying the theme into a place of wanting to go on the journey again. In some cases this was easy, in others, it took many rewrites. In the end, I believe all of the tracks (that needed it) have a seamless loop in both the music itself, and the journey :)

Jingles
I have to admit, I was quite unsure about this project. I knew I would have no problem "writing" the jingles needed, but I didn't know "how" to come up with them. At least I knew that I could base them on the many great in-game jingles we all know and love, especially one specific "Zelda Puzzle/Secret" jingle :) But, after deciding on what needed jingles (puzzle solved, treasure, heal, cure, etc.) I was able to come up with a "jingle theme". From there I just wrote, and re-wrote, and re-wrote them until they sounded exactly how I wanted them too.

Other Pieces
I also needed to write some short pieces for certain screens. Mainly the Pause Screen, Victory Screen, and Death Screen. I was pretty certain what piece I was going to use for the Pause Screen, but the other two required quite a bit of creativity! Again, I knew how I wanted the player to feel when they heard it, but it also needed to fit the game and theme. I think all three of these pieces turned out well, and the Victory and Death pieces captured the appropriate feeling quite well :)

Influences
Just for fun, here are some of my biggest influences, musically speaking:

• Jack White
• Ludovico Einaudi
• Moby
• Dave Matthews
• Kanye
• Jimmy Page
• Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
• John Mayer
• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
• John Frusciante
• The Glitch Mob
• Hans Zimmer
• Saro, Frosty, BizKit
• Daysailer
• and plenty more!