A lot has happened in the last two weeks, and I've been taking a while to process them all. I think I'll write about them all here in this one post.
Rebellion Festival
First of all, the punk band in which I play drums, Those Fucking Snowflakes, opened Rebellion Festival in Blackpool!
For those of you unaware, Rebellion Festival is the punk festival in Britain. A selection of acts across various stages of their career, from the new and undiscovered to the absolute stalwarts, perform in different stages at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, and it typically spans four days in the start of August, from a Thursday to a Sunday. (Just before that, you have Rebellion Fringe, where various venues across Blackpool host punk bands and people party through the night.)
This was us when we were done with our set. We were on a high of emotions and we felt this was our best gig yet.
As we were the opening band altogether and we were playing on the Introducing Stage at the Pavilion, we were surrounded by merch shops on the outer perimeter. We were expecting to have numbers not far different to what we were used to playing to by this point. What we weren't expecting was a 200-, 300-strong crowd and people from outside looking in. This was our biggest audience yet.
The audience was wonderful. Some were singing our lyrics, people who previously weren't familiar with us even. Some were dancing. The atmosphere was very electric. The crew – the crew were absolutely wonderful. The help they gave us was invaluable, and a number of them rooted for us individually and as a band. They kept a well-oiled machine from start to finish, with so many bands performing and so many moving parts to worry about, and they gave us a great sound. I have nothing but massive respect for them and just how tight they were.
The food was great, too. We had a selection of vegan meals: nachos, butter “chicken,” a burrito whose fillings I don't remember… I don't even remember the full extent of the menu but I went for the burrito. There was also a cake on the side, with the lightest whipped cream I'd ever tasted. Once we'd eaten and hauled gear away, we could enjoy the rest of the festival, hopping from stage to stage to enjoy the music of a good few other bands.
I can only speak for myself in these situations; I will cherish this experience forever.
Inkfinity Festival / SATUR-8
For the last several months, a bunch of us creatives banded together to make a modded Splatfest (for the uninitiated: a Splatfest is an event in the Splatoon games, typically structured like a festival with lights, in-game music performances, two straight days of matches, where people get into teams and battle each other.) We called it Inkfinity Fest.
This team had the likes of Caitlin Koi, riji monogatari, tacoyaki, other people who knew what they were doing – 3D modellers like LegendofLonk Studios and Nami so 95, scriptwriters and lyricists like Sally Strings, modders who knew the battle mechanics like Alessio798, composers and arrangers like Lumiflag and Xion … and two meeps, Christoph Jakob and myself. I don't think I've cited everyone in this team – it's an extensive team, to be sure.
Christoph mixed a few tracks, notably our crown jewel, Three Wishes, which is due to release on 13 September.
As for me, I composed a number of the SATUR-8 songs, first drafting them on piano. I'll provide the current strongest example, a battle track called Deepsea Rainbow Trihards, which is based on three songs from Caitlin's, riji's, and tacoyaki's bands – Rainbow Rumble, Deepsea Graffiti, and Triumphant Trihards.
The whole thing includes all the team shouts – ordinarily, if a particular team is winning and there is only one minute left to go, their specific fragment plays at the end of the battle in-game. For illustration purposes, here is Trench's:
The themes were all arranged by Xion, but to demonstrate how they began, below is the behind-the-scenes video that shows the piano sketch that began it all. All themes that I composed for Inkfinity Fest follow this process: I open FL Studio, make sure the piano is connected, and then chordbash until I'm happy with what I hear, then I send the MIDI over to either Xion or Lumiflag for arrangement.
The above video premiered last night to a small audience – my YouTube channel has been small for a long time – but Caitlin hopped on, which made my day, and riji watched it soon after the premiere had ended.
Footage for Inkfinity Fest is hard to come by, especially footage featuring SATUR-8 songs specifically, as the songs are typically played randomly. However, if you want a taste of what Inkfinity Fest looked like, a stream or two of it exists.
My sincere hope, from all of this, is that everyone in this team gets hired for games industry work. There are a good few people who specialise in narrative here and they've all but smashed it. Christoph's mixing takes several leaves from the bands he loves, notably Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bear's Den. Lumiflag and Xion are powerhouse arrangers. Lonk and Nami so do wonderful 3D work, and they, riji, and Caitlin have done excellent work compositing their videos. WiglahWoo has a sexy voice (they are Mito from Trench). Caitlin, riji, tacoyaki, and Sally Strings are great wordsmiths. tacoyaki is a great organiser, for the project wouldn't have come together or the ship wouldn't have been nearly as tight without them. I am the least of these, but I daresay I composed and I composed and I composed.
Games industry people? If you're reading, you've got a pool of people here to hire!
A renewed vigour for solo stuff and Two Meeps
Things are cooking in the background. Watch this space!
