Pixel Masterworks: Announcement

I'm very excited to announce that I was commissioned by Dr. Marco Schirippa to join the PIXEL MASTERWORKS project!⁠
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While most of what I write for games doesn’t necessarily show it, I’ve been a lifelong appreciator of classical music. My primary instruments are piano and viola and I’ve studied classical music since I was a child, so I’ve spent a lot of time performing on stage and mingling with other classical musicians. I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be writing a piece for marimba with live delay pedal as my contribution to the project (and my first official release of concert music!)⁠
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From Marco:⁠
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“The PIXEL MASTERWORKS Project seeks to expand the marimba repertoire with pieces bridging the gap between genres, creating music that may appeal to a wider audience while maintaining high technical and musical demand for the performer. All of the pieces commissioned through this initiative are heavily inspired by (or in some cases, adaptations of) video game music. Every composer featured in this project is either a credited game composer, a recording artist for game soundtracks, or someone whose compositional voice encapsulates VGM on a deep level.⁠
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The first PIXEL MASTERWORKS consortium will create 6 new works for marimba, totaling approximately 50 minutes of music, a full recital! A studio album recording will follow, along with these new pieces being released into the world! Each composer has been thoughtfully selected in order to represent a wide variety of relationships to video games and VGM, presenting each with an opportunity to express their unique musical voice through the marimba.”⁠
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I look forward to sharing more details about my contribution as it develops. Stay tuned! ✨

labwork

"Labwork" is another one of the 'gameplay' themes from the EyeWire soundtrack - and it's actually the first one that I finished! I'm not sure what inspired me to work in 5/4, but I like the feeling of it.⁠
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That said - this is admittedly one of the weaker tracks from the album 🫠 - hahaha I think I was still getting used to the genre I'd designed for the game and, truthfully, this was the first piece of truly professional work I'd ever done. I guess you could say this is the first track I ever had in a game, so it's reasonable that I've come a long way since. (and it doesn't sound too bad)⁠
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If you'd like to explore more of my earlier work, Tunes to Trace by (named after the Portal 2 album, Songs to Test by) is available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and wherever you get your music!

Seattle Indies Spotlight

I was featured in the November 2024 update from Seattle Indies! Read the interview below and read more about Seattle Indies at their website.

Star Victoria Power (aka Slide20XX) is a lifelong composer who writes colorful music for colorful games! They've been working professionally for about a decade and their work includes a track in Bloodstained’s new DLC: Dominique’s Curse, the soundtrack for Calico (a game about magical girls running a cat cafe), the anti-racist PSAs put out by Steven Universe, and electro-swing & jazz-hop for the visual novel Penny Larceny: Gig Economy Supervillain !

What inspired you to become an indie developer?

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of my time listening to video game music midi files and reading webcomics made out of video game graphics. Specifically, I listened to a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog midis and read a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog sprite comics. It wasn’t long before I got curious enough to try to make my own (Sonic) sprite comics, which led to me beginning to view the computer as a creative tool and eventually thinking to myself, “Well, I know how to make sprite comics. I wonder if I could make midis. I wonder if I could make.. video game.. midis… I want to make music for video games.”

I played piano and viola at a public fine arts school I attended and started teaching myself to write classical and electronic music. I also spent a fair amount of time making video games with a friend of mine, who I later worked with professionally, and learning about indie games specifically through places like TIGSource and following developers I liked on the brand new website, Twitter.com

What is one important lesson you have learned in your time as an indie developer?

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. I think it can be easy to look around at the state of things, or at a career that isn’t progressing at the rate that you might like it to, and come to the conclusion that whatever dreams or goals you have are impossible to achieve. I grew up in poverty in an unremarkable city in Georgia, so by my estimation, I’ve already done the impossible by getting as far as I have. I didn’t get here by thinking that I couldn’t do it, so that’s the lesson I have to share. As cliche as it sounds, believe in yourself and never give up and you’ll probably get further than you’ve ever imagined.

What is the one piece of advice you would share today with your younger self before you started your career as an indie developer?

I’d probably say to never be afraid to ask for help. I’ve had to figure out a lot of things on my own, so I think that’s led to me to self-reliance before anything else. While there are plenty of benefits to that approach to life, I think I might have had an easier time of things overall had I sought advice and guidance at more of the critical points along my path.

How has the game developer community had an impact on your career?

I think it’s safe to say that I wouldn’t have a career at all if not for the support of the various communities that I’ve been fortunate enough to become a part of. I’ve made lifelong friends, worked with some remarkable people, and made memories that will last me a lifetime. (and I’m not done yet!)

What is something interesting and unexpected that people would be surprised to learn about you?

My favorite ways to enjoy music are quietly in reverence at a concert hall (classical), on a quality pair of headphones (any genre), or as part of an incredibly good DJ set at a nightclub, surrounded by a crowd of people who are dancing and just as enthusiastic as I am (hip-hop, pop).

Music Box (Introspective Groove)

⁠Music Box is another track from my days at Berklee! This one was written as one of my assignments in an electronic composition class. Each week, we’d explore a different technique for generating musical ideas, sort of like taking a painting class and painting a picture with a different (pre-selected) color palette every week. I had a habit of adding drums and melodies to my experiments (and this one is no exception), but the main focus of this week was playing around with playing very similar motives in different instruments but at different times - kind of like a fugue or a round (think, “row row row your boat”) but significantly less involved. I think it came out alright⁠
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Music Box is available on my bandcamp and coming to everywhere else later this year - enjoy!

Update: and now available on Spotify!

Calico Pawsome Collection: DX

Introducing… the Calico Pawsome Collection: DX! ⁠
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This updated version of the Pawsome Collection release features those five original tunes premiered in the Calico: Pawsome Edition update and the recently announced Calico: Neat Things DLC! Eagle eyed (eared?) listeners will recognize a first look at a special new area revealed in that annouuncement. But wait! There’s more!⁠
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In addition to those tunes we’ve also included the original demo versions of the Heart Village theme, which were written before we worked with Emily Anderson to turn them into the song version included in the game! If you were an attendee at XOXO in 2019, you might recognize the daytime version of the theme, but the nighttime mix is never before heard. As an added bonus, I’ve also included the instrumental version of A Cat is a Cat (finally!) and the two alternate “kitchenette” mixes of the cooking theme, for good measure.⁠
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The DX version of the Pawsome Collection is available on Bandcamp, Spotify and wherever else you get your music! Enjoy!⁠
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P.S.: Yes, the title is a reference to Sonic Adventure DX, I am nothing if not consistent

ivory

I was feeling like my grasp of harmony is weak, so I challenged myself to write a piece with chords only, "no melody." (It's a little silly as an idea, but I think I got the point across)⁠
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It was neat to spend time in the emotional space created by chords like these - I realized that a lot of the music that I get hired to write doesn't call for the kind of tone generated by, say, jazz chords with a ton of tensions (which I tend to associate with a "strong" approach to harmony)⁠
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It was a productive exercise! It got me thinking more about harmony in general and approaching chords the way I used to (I have a tendency to think in stacked triads vs thinking about my 9s/11s/13s) - and it led me right into writing another tune that I'll share in the coming weeks. Or months. who know⁠
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"ivory" is available wherever you get your music!

making connections

making connections is another piece of "gameplay" music from the EyeWire soundtrack - and it's one of my favorites! I wanted to write something more insightful here but honestly I ended up staring at my computer and saying, "I don't know I just like the way it sounds"⁠
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In all seriousness, by this point in my career I'd gotten thoroughly used to using drum loops in my work - after originally thinking that using any sample of any kind was somehow "cheating," utter foolishness - and the collection of loops in Logic is an excellent resource. I've even taken my logic loop diving to the extreme of extracting kicks from pre-existing loops instead of loading a pack into a sampler. The drums in this track (especially that kick) are super fun - and I think they contrast the chords pretty nicely.⁠
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making connections is streamable on Spotify / Bandcamp / everywhere - have a listen! tell me whatcha think

time

“time” is a piece I put together for a class at Berklee and, interestingly enough, it’s actually one of the few ‘rejected’ compositions that I wrote during my studies.⁠
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We were introduced to ambient music and tasked with putting something together in the genre and this was my very first stab. But, as the professor pointed out to me, it wasn’t quite ambient enough. I think it’s an apt criticism (there’s quite a bit going on in this) and, after taking a deeper dive into the examples he gave us, I was able to write something closer to spec.⁠
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I’m still satisfied with it though, so like many a reject, it makes a good addition to an album.⁠
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Meditations is currently streamable on Bandcamp and headed for Spotify later this year.

Retro Future (Future Past Groove)

Retro Future is another track that I wrote during my time at Berklee. This one, specifically, was an exercise in writing with "hockets" which our friends at Wikipedia call, "the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords" -- basically, you make a pattern out of some notes, but you alternate the pattern between instruments. Think of it like counting to 10 with a friend with one of you saying even numbers only and the other saying the odds.⁠
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At the time, I was exploring default channel strip patches in Logic (because someone else in class was making heavy use of them and I thought they sounded surprisingly good), so I picked a few of those and got started. It ended up sounding to me like a vision of the future as told by the past. Hence, retro future.⁠
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Streamable, downloadble, and buyable on Bandcamp!

Update: and now available on Spotify

This is Slide20XX

I've been uploading long enough that Spotify put together a "This is Slide20xx" playlist!! Feast your ears on 2 hours of star-the-composer goodness ✨️⁠
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Featuring music from 5 game soundtracks, singles from a couple of upcoming albums, and my poetry-including debut on the digital fusion label, Infloresce Records (@inflorescemusic) !⁠
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enjoy and stream on the big green monsta 🎵⁠

Perspectives (Video Game Groove)

Perspectives is a track I put together for Global Game Jam back in the day (I wanna say circa... 2014, something like that)⁠
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The game's concept revolves around playing as a two-dimensional character navigating a three-dimensional world. The player alternates between platforming in 2D and switching to a 3D perspective to align to adjust the positioning of 3D shapes to make a path forward.⁠
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The game is set in a digital environment, where you control a square-shaped character (kinda like Thomas Was Alone) For the music, I tried to lean into that digital theme with a lil electronic piece. There are also two snares (for some reason)⁠
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The dissonant keys a the beginning actually came from me accidentally resting my fist on my keyboard while recording. I thought it sounded neat so I decided to keep it. Here's to happy accidents🍷⁠
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"Perspectives" is part of 'This Shit Grooves,' which is currently streamable on Bandcamp and will be coming to Spotify soon, enjoy 🎵

Update: now available!!

the neural stream

As a lil reminder, EyeWire's soundtrack is divided into two flavors: gameplay and overview tracks; "the neural stream" is one of the more chilled out 'overview' tracks, and it's one of my favorites from that set. It doesn't have a melody in a traditional sense, but I enjoyed coming back to and playing off of the opening keyboard chords⁠
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In addition to thathad one of the happiest accidents of my composition career towards the back half of the track - no idea what I was trying to accomplish with the strings in that section but it is wild. If you check out the whole thing, let me know what you think in the comments 😉⁠
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as always, stream & buy wherever u stream (& buy)~⁠

alternate paths

The music for EyeWire, the massively multiplayer online citizen-neuroscience puzzle game (try saying that 3 times fast) is divided into two kinds of tracks: gameplay and overview.⁠
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The gameplay tracks take place during the more action-oriented segments of the game, when you’re actively tracing neurons in the brain and solving puzzles. This piece, alternate paths, is one of the overview tracks. Think of the overview themes as “main menu” or “lobby” music - they’re a little bit less active and a little bit more ambient - though not completely devoid of, like, drums (love me some drums)⁠

The full track is available as a part of Tunes to Trace by, the EyeWire original game soundtrack (available wherever you get your music)⁠
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p.s. the soundtrack is named after the Portal 2 soundtrack, Portal 2: Songs to Test by⁠
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enjoy 🧠✨⁠

opening motions

"opening motions" is another solo piano composition that expands on some of the neo-impressionist ideas I explored in the beach themes on the Calico soundtrack, written as the opening track for my classically inspired piano-centric album, "flower fields" and available as part of the double-single "echoes" (alongside a lil dark piece named 💀skulls💀)⁠
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This one was almost fully improvisational! One of these days I'll have to record a one-take improvisation and share with the class⁠
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In the meantime, enjoy the full version of the tune wherever you get your music 🎵⁠

update: and now, Flower Fields is out!!

The Lights in the Sky

This is another one from The Stars Between Us - and, if I remember correctly, this is actually the first piece of music that I wrote after putting together the main theme for the game. It's a remix of that theme, Across the Stars!

I actually hadn't intended any remixes for the soundtrack, but after the team fell in love with the theme, (and after realizing they didn't like the example gameplay music I'd written for them without doing creative direction on it first, lesson learned there 🫠) they realized that they wanted to hear more of the same. That led to us deciding to make every piece of music in the game a remix of that main theme! This first gameplay interpretation became the foundation for the rest of the tracks, along with a healthy dose of inspiration from the way the Sonic Advance 3 soundtrack handles all of its remixes.

Full version available wherever you get your music 💿✨

Modulations (Double Trouble Groove)

Modulations is a track from my album "This Shit Grooves" which the artist (me) describes (on bandcamp) as "a collection of electronic oddities assembled from my time at Berklee in Boston (and beyond) - interesting electronic sounds, synth melodies, and groovy drums (the grooviest)" ⁠
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I wrote this one for an electronic music composition class at Berklee - the main appeal of modulations is that there's a breakdown in the middle (the end of this lil clip) where most of the instruments fade and the tempo slows down juuuuust a bit before everything comes back in 12/8. (which makes this the only piece of non-classical music I've ever written with a tempo change like this)⁠
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fun fact, i was trying to think of how these tracks tied together and i was listening to one of them and i said out loud “this shit grooves” so here we are⁠
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catch the whole thing over on bandcamp! Edit: and now available on Spotify!

stalagmite

Learning to make art can be an incredible slog. Don't get me wrong - I thoroughly enjoyed each step of the process.. but I am so sure that my early audiences did not ⁠
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Thankfully, the hopeful thing about our early work is that it's impossible to give yourself over to the creative spirit on a regular basis without occasionally stumbling onto greatness. This piece, "Stalagmite" is one of the times in my earlier career that I think I pulled that off. Written circa 2008, at the ripe old age of [redacted], back when my DAW of choice was Cubase. I think it's still a good one⁠
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Here's to the creative spirit 🍷⁠
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(also available on spotify ~)⁠

passage

"passage" is another piece of avant-garde electronic music from my album "mediations" - this was another fun one to work on and one of the only times I've worked like this

Every sound in this composition was created with a modular synthesizer and arranged in Logic Pro X with no external processing beyond a bit of mixing. I found that my approach here was pretty similar to what I do when I work with any kind of art - I collected a big library of interesting sounds, then went through them to find the best ones and put them together into a soundscape. I'll often do the same with my video game music soundtracks - I collect a bunch of references, narrow them down to my favorites, and then take inspiration from there.

The full version of the piece is available on my bandcamp ~ enjoy ✨

skulls

Improvising at the piano is one of my favorite things to do as a musician and lately I've been experimenting with writing pieces that are largely improvised. This is another piece inspired by a concept for my upcoming album, "Flower Fields." It makes use of another of my favorite devices, dipping in and out of traditional harmony to create a more interesting texture. I haven't gotten the chance to do that kind of thing in my video game writing just yet, but we'll get there 💪🏾

Update: "Skulls" is now available on Spotify (etc) as part of my album, flower fields!

crossfading

When I get the opportunity, one of the places I like to experiment with my game soundtracks is on title screens. This tune is actually from the title of a game jam game I worked on a while back - the premise of the game was that the player controlled a 2 dimensional character inside of a world that could be manipulated in 3D.

The game's art was fairly simple (as jam games get sometimes), consisting mainly of geometric shapes. I'm not sure where the inspiration came from, but for some reason I liked the idea of envisioning the game universe as existing inside of an old, broken television. It wasn't a terribly strict inspiration, but I like hearing this tune as different "channels" fading in and out of each other. I also think the static was a nice touch.