Gamertell

If you are a fan of videogame music in any capacity, you owe it to yourself to check out OverClocked ReMix – a completely free-to-download site that offers some of the most professional sounding remixes (more accurately, re-arrangements) of game-based music anywhere in the world. Recently, the community-run site featured a full album of remixed music inspired by Doom II – titled Delta-Q-Delta, which was completed entirely by a small team of dedicated musicians and artists. Gamertell.com recently had the opportunity to speak with the project leader, Lee Barber (aka “The Orichalcon”) about the nature of “fan art”, crafting professional-grade work on nothing but blood, sweat, and tears, and how the soundscapes of classic games like Doom II lend themselves to such varied musical styles.

Gamertell.com: First off, what got you involved in the OC ReMix community? Were you a musician or a gamer first (or is this a “chicken-or-the-egg” situation?)

Lee Barber:  I was drawn to OC ReMix as a gamer. I hadn’t really tried my hand at music making or remixing at all until I came across OCR. I’m a big fan of the Doom series, as well as Final Fantasy. I’m pretty sure the first mix I heard on OCR was a remix of Ultimate Doom‘s E1L8 music, the music to which you fought the two barons of hell. From there, I downloaded Mazedude‘s Doom 2 remixes (this is going back to around 2002-03). Because of his high quality work, I was pretty much hooked to the remixes in general, and started remixing and producing music as a result.

GT: When you’re putting together a project like this, what is the workflow like? Do you assign pieces of music to individual artist, or is it a more free-flowing process?

LB: This project in particular was very free-flowing to begin with. I started with the idea that every mixer, no matter how new or experienced, could have a go at a track. So I had a lot of people signing up for tracks whom I’d never heard of before. A lot of those people disappeared after signing up, or simply weren’t showing the quality or integrity I wanted. So I culled the list of artists who weren’t up to par and started asking certain people in particular to take certain tracks, with the rest left open. The most frustrating part of putting together the project is the complete lack of control I have over the mixers involved. There was an incident about a year before we released where one of the artists had completed two very awesome remixes for the project, but due to a certain rule on OC ReMix regarding the originality of the source, those mixes couldn’t be added to the site. I really wanted to keep his tracks on the project, but he decided to withdraw them completely. I feel the project suffered without his input, as it would’ve sounded a lot more complete with the sound he had. I think it’d be easier to work with a specific cast of mixers in future, and especially if I’m in a position where I can pay them. But for now, remix projects will never flow terribly smoothly.

GT: Why Doom? What specifically went into the decision to remix the music of this game over other classics?

LB: After the first Doom ReMix project (The Dark Side of Phobos), it was inevitable that Doom 2 would be next in line. The project was actually started by another person, but he left shortly after starting it and I took over from pretty much the beginning. As I mentioned above, I love the Doom series, and the music is just so simple to work with when it comes to remixing. Slow, brooding tunes that adapt themselves easily to all sorts of styles, as demonstrated on Delta-Q-Delta. As for other classics, well, there are plenty of projects in the works for classic games right now at OCR, so we can look forward to hearing them in the near future.

GT: As a follow-up, how would making this album compare with other OC ReMix projects you’ve worked on in the past?

LB: This is the first project I administrated right through to the end. I participated in the joke Duck Hunt remix project on OCR, and had three tracks on The Dark Side of Phobos. In terms of the actual remixing, I felt that DQD was a lot harder, because I pushed myself really hard to make my tracks sound the way I specifically wanted them to sound, whereas my previous work was more relaxed and fun. I also think that DQD in general was a far slower process compared to other projects. A few of the projects released before DQD were actually started up to a year after ours started. This is mostly my fault by choice. I could’ve released much earlier if I’d wanted to. But I felt it necessary to wait until I was absolutely certain I couldn’t make the project any better by waiting longer. The victims of this long process were the mixers who got their mixes to me early, such as Mazedude’s “Westside Archvile” and Evil Horde‘s two tracks. They were both completed early in 2006, at least two and a half years before the release.

GT: The work done at OC ReMix is consistently excellent, often of professional quality – and I do know that some members have indeed branched out to do music for high-profile games. Is this a big change for what was once “just” a collective of fans?

LB: Indeed, David Lloyd (djpretzel) and Larry Oji (liontamer) have worked incredibly hard to turn OC ReMix from a general collection of fan tunes into a professionally run website. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve found OCR to be a good launching pad for the mixing talents of the artists involved. We’ve definitely seen improvement in artists as a result of the critique provided by Dave, the judges, the other remixers and the fans in general. Personally, I think it’s amazing just how much of an impact community websites can have when it comes to individual careers and lives. In 10-20 years time, who knows how many artists who started out at OCR might be high-profile names in the music industry. I don’t know if OCR will still be around then, but I’m sure there are plenty of mixers, including myself, who will credit OCR significantly for teaching and launching their careers in this industry. Although it’s not as though we’re a school of learning or anything. Really, it’s just a group of friendly people sharing thoughts and opinions in the search for the best we can produce.

GT: On a more philosophical note, do you see the work you (and others at the site) do as “fan art” or is it something more lofty?

LB: Well this is a point of contention for us, specifically because of Wikipedia. Once we’ve released albums, we’ve created Wikipedia pages for them only to find them up for deletion soon after, specifically because they’re classed as “Fan art”. Even with high publicity (including magazine reviews and praise from high-profile people in the music community), we struggle to keep the articles from being deleted. I think game music still has a long way to go before it loses the scorn of the general public, and as such the remixes and remix albums will be tagged as “fan art” and nothing more for the near future. I personally don’t mind the tag, as technically we are fans, creating art for what we love. However, when a community comes together in such a focused effort of professionalism to create a remix album, I think that effort alone raises it to a loftier level. There are remix albums for mainstream artists after all, such as Nine Inch Nails. But nobody calls those remix albums “fan art”.

GT: Finally, could you tell me a few favorite pieces of music from a game (any games, any platforms, any composer)?

LB: Haha, only a few? I could recite for days and not even come close to covering the music I love. My favourite tunes from games change from day to day, week to week. Specifically, I’d say that the chocobo theme from the Final Fantasy games is one of my favourite melodies. It’s such a broad-spectrum melody that lends itself to so many styles, both in the games and in the remixes for it at OCR. If you have a chance, grab Draggor’s “Chocarena” mix from OCR, by far the best chocobo remix out there. Recently, BioShock has impressed me with its musical score. Game music tends to be taking a cinematic approach with music lately, and they tend to sound best when the music seamlessly fits into the background as it does in BioShock, rather than hogging the attention in the foreground. Ultimately though, probably the most unique and fun artist out there would have to be Terry Scott Taylor, who is responsible for the music to The Neverhood and Skullmonkeys. Two games whose soundtracks remain untouched by remixers, if only because they’re already perfect in their own right, and I’ll be damned if I could think of how any remixer could make them better. If you haven’t heard them, then find a way to get them. That goes for everyone!

Read [Delta-Q-Delta] Also Read [OverClocked ReMix]