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As WeeklyTreat Fatigue begins to settle in post-halfway point, we decided that the 'over-the-hump' track best be a brilliant one. So, who better than Spaceman Fantastiques!? When he isn't making fake accounts he makes outstanding music, so be sure the grab the track here!
WT: To
begin with, what was your first contact with the chiptune scene?
Spaceman
Fantastiques: Well I grew
up playing video games since as long as I can remember, but I would say my
first interaction with the chip community was about three years ago. Summer of
2010 was when I found 8bc.org.
WT: Your
back catalogue features tracks written in both 100% chip and chiptune/guitar,
what prompts the choice between the two?
SP: I started out just making chip, and feel like I really pushed a lot
of what I had at the time (8bit magic plug in) to its limits in terms of sound
(even though I am still finding new ways to make it). I write most of my
material on guitar and so it was only a matter of time before I decided to
combine them. I try to select what needs live instrumentation based on the
feeling and ideas behind the song itself. if it is for a retro styled game then
I would go all chip, if it was something experimental (my fav ~__^) I would use
what I have at my disposal to make the best music possible.
WT: Could you run us through ‘I
Hope...’ and ‘The World...’, how you were inspired to write these albums and
how they came about?
SP: Well...
"I Hope the Stars Can Hear
This" started out as me just messing with chiptune stuff. Exploring the
sounds. The more music I made, the more ideas started forming. I really enjoy
having a unified theme for music so when I started to form the album I just had
an idea about a spaceman. A man on a journey. He wakes up, can't remember
anything and then just heads out on his journey. Halfway through he remembers
some things about who he is and what happened to him. Vows to seek revenge. Gets
it but then the bad guy gets the last laugh.
Once I had the basic outline I
just thought of how to actually put these ideas into a musical format. That
part is actually kind of hard to explain... I try to use instruments as
characters or ideas. For instance in the song "Nice to Meet You! Please
Call Me Namec Aps!" the beginning of the song is being told from the perspective
of someone else. A man is telling the main character about his own past but is
mostly wrong until one line and in the middle of the story the Namec has a
realization; then remembers his past correctly. So in the song the first build
up eventually breaks down and comes back with one part the same but the rest of
the music changed.
It’s representing ideas like that
that lead me to start the second album (along with having extra material). I
wanted to make something better and more cohesive from the first album. The
only problem I had starting out was that "I hope the stars can hear
this" was a looped album. I made it so that our hero was stuck in his
eternal hell...so how to make a sequel...one day I just had a great idea to
have the albums start and end the same way so that they can loop into
themselves and into each other. I really think it worked out well. I drew a lot
of inspiration from rock on the album. It is a lot heavier than IHTSCHT. It was
also written a lot more on guitar than the first album and because of that I am
working on a remix to the whole album involving guitar, but that’s something
for the future :)
WT: Musically, what are the main
specific influences that find their way into your work?
SP: I really like a lot of shit haha. I find myself picking out parts
of music I really like no matter the genre. But I am a very technical
guitar player and I guess I always have been. making music on my own I wanted
the songs I wrote to sound as full and awesome as they good so I adapted some
weird half rhythm half lead style and I think it works out nicely. I also
always want to tell a story. So most concept albums are something I really
listen to and soak in. I love being able to have a story flow into the next
chapter and hearing that happen really does it for me. I think the first real
instance of me hearing that was Mars Voltas De-Loused in the Comatorium. And
you can probably hear a lot of their style in mine.
WT: Do you play live often, or do you
have plans to do so in the future?
SP: I don't play live often. I would like to for sure just haven't really
done it. Once I finish the reworking of 'the world according to Mr Meleon' I
will probably try a little harder to get out and play some shows.
WT: Could you tell us a
bit about the creative process that went in to making your WeeklyTreat?
SP: Well, honestly it just kind of all worked itself out. I started with some
chords I had been messing around with on guitar. (Which I wrote mainly in a
subway station after a drunken man asked me to play something he could meditate
to). I set up stuff in my room and just started playing. Once I got the first
chord progression I transcribed it into GarageBand. Then started to build from
there. I used a bunch of effects on guitar and used a moog rogue, which I had
found in the trash, for some of the bass, and just let the music flow from
there. A lot of the ambient soundscapes are just me messing with some delay
pedals. I wanted to have something that was epic in a way so I had the build-up
change into a trippy epic march. The slide guitar that plays there was actually
just an accident when I had dropped my guitar. The sound of it sliding off my
bed made me think to use a slide (improvised by a cologne bottle). And really
at that point I was just having fun. I really enjoyed making the song. There is
an alt take that I might submit to the B-sides of the weekly treats as well
:)
WT: Could you tell us a
bit about your most recent release, [sleep]?
Of course! I had a lot of fun
making [sleep] actually. It started out as an idea of making music to represent
a sleep cycle of someone through one night of sleep. So I chose myself as the
test subject haha. I generally get a shit nights rest so I started out the
tracks at 1am and continued forward. After making mostly chiptune music for the
past few albums (besides the drum tracking and a tiny bit of ambient guitar) I
really wanted to explore the marrying of other instruments with chip
instruments. The album starts out the moment I fall asleep and just kind of
drifts off from there. I set a schedule for myself and really stuck to it. I
worked hard pretty much every day on whatever track I was currently on. I tried
to work in order just having the pieces build into themselves but I did a
little bit of jumping around when writing. I tried to use a lot of continuing
themes and the entire album is based around the C chord. As a dream
interpretation, I really tried to make it as progressive as possible, having
even the riffs be a little different when they repeat. I really enjoyed doing the
'play' in the middle of 5am. I had written some stuff and got some friends to
do some voice acting for me. Add in some crazy ambient randomness and it became
something pretty cool.
The end of the album was
something that I had in mind right from the beginning of writing. It is a shame
that a lot of people on my bandcamp will listen to that first, but such is
life.
WT: Any future release
planned for Spaceman Fantastiques with details you don’t mind divulging?
SP: I am working on reworking 'the world according to Mr Meleon".
I plan on having it be two versions. One with guitar in a lot of places and one
with only chip. My hope is to have them be identical note wise but we shall see
how it all pans out. I am working on something for The Drunken Moogle, in which
I am excited for, but can't really speak about just yet :). I have an EP idea
that I might pick back up. Most of the songs ended up on my last bsides album
but I was thinking of reworking some of those as well. I also have a few
projects in the works for some friends that are doing video blogs and podcasts
but I don't have too much information to divulge at the moment.
I am looking for people who need
some scoring done for a game, but maybe that's not too far off.
