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WT: Could you tell us a
little about yourself and how you first came into contact with chiptune please?
softRESET: Yeah, my name's
Casey and I'm 20 years old. I really got into chiptune a few years ago; I was
making really awful nintendocore under the alias Red Gyarados, and ended up
befriending PANDAstar on Myspace. From that point on, I was completely hooked.
I remember going right out and buying a used gameboy and a flash cart, only to
be entirely discouraged by LSDJ's learning curve. Fast forward to last year, I
decided to pick it back up and softRESET was born!
WT: How did the name
softRESET come about?
S: Ah, the name
softRESET was one that I had in my head for quite a while now. The act of soft
resetting is pressing a certain button combination on an electronic device set
in place by the manufacturer to restart the device without physically turning
it off and back on again. (It's also a great tactic in the Pokemon games) I
think it ties in well with my music, in that I've essentially done the same
thing with my life through making chiptune; restarting and paving a new, much
better path.
WT: What prompted to
choose and continue to use LSDJ and the gameboy over other formats?
S: Well, for years
I toyed around with other DAWs, as well as playing instruments in real bands.
It was all well and fine but I never really felt like it was something special.
I wrote so much music, but it was never up to the ridiculous set standards in
my head. It wasn't until I learned the ropes of LSDJ that I felt like I was
actually doing something right. The complete lack of presets and limiting
myself down to 4 channels really sparked something in me, I felt like my voice
was actually coming through my music for the first time since I'd started. At
this point I can't imagine composing in anything else.
WT: Could you please
tell us a bit about the Piko Piko Detroit project and your involvement in it?
S: Of course! Piko
Piko Detroit is a netlabel and a collective of artists who love and embrace 8-bit
cultures: video games, chiptunes, pixel art, etc. We strive to support the
Michigan economy and the midwest as a whole by using local businesses for all
merch and CD production. Our main goal is to help the internet based community
inspire and make a difference to real people and societies. Creating an
inviting scene in and around Detroit, and promoting tourism is our contribution
towards fixing some of the economic and social problems here. I didn't connect
with them until last November, but it seems like everything has been going
uphill ever since. I was recently voted in as the lead sound engineer, with my
first big project being the Midwest Collective compilation put together as one
of the rewards for our Kickstarter receiving full funding earlier this year.
I'm really excited for the future of PPD, and looking at what we have planned,
it's sure to be a wild ride!
WT: What artists have
influenced your work, in particular your track "Conscience"?
S: I take influence
from everywhere, including but not limited to other artists. If I had to choose
though, I'd have to say above all else my number one influence is Bubu. I've
been good friends with him for a while now and his style has always been
something I've appreciated. JuicePouch is up there as well, I feel like his
music is just dripping with emotion and that's something I really like to get
across in my own tracks. From there it gets a little more abstract, emo bands
such as Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) and Mineral, and even as far
out there as Coheed & Cambria. Everything I hear and every situation I
encounter on a day-to-day makes its way into my music in one way or another.
WT: I understand your
debut, 'Transitions', is out soon, could you tell us a bit about how you put it
together and how it came about please?
S: Yeah,
definitely! Transitions is an album that loosely details my life in the past
6-8 months. It's about getting everything back on track. I had a lot of
problems with anxiety and depression, and kind of just became a reclusive
asshole for a while. I lost a lot of friends and my band at the time completely
fell apart. Eventually I realized that was no way to live my life and set out
to mend social wounds and start becoming a productive, functioning human being
again.
WT: So would you say
you find composing and playing music almost therapeutic?
S: For sure, it's
my own personal release from the burdens of real life. I would be composing
whether people listened to it or not. Just from playing shows alone I've made
tons of progress in getting over my anxiety, I'm always meeting new friends and
traveling to new places and I don't feel like I have to be worried about the
unknown anymore.
WT: That's great to
hear. Apart from the upcoming 'Transitions' release, what's next for softRESET?
S: Well, I have a
split EP with Shanebro coming up! We're collaborating on 4-5 songs together,
and it should be out by the end of spring. Other than that, I don't have
anything substantial planned, just playing shows and writing as much as
possible until the details for another album fall into place.
