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As you may know, I’ve been entering the [Dwelling of Duels] video game music cover competition for five years now. On my fifth anniversary of first entering, I finally won the competition with a [Philistine on the Sidewalk] track covering a couple themes from the Super Nintendo game [Brawl Brothers], which is a personal favorite of mine. The entries were rather limited with last month’s competition, but it’s more a symbolic victory for me. It shows that in persevering with my music, I’ve finally achieved a goal that has eluded me for a long time. I think the problems that I faced in not going further in earlier months may not only have been stiffer competition (which there certainly was most months), but that I was holding myself back by limiting myself to certain musical elements within certain musical projects. I’ve entered Dwelling of Duels with Forfallen, Natthimmel, Concrete Mutant, Kuribo’s Shoegaze, Jovian Maelstrom, Amaranthine Skies, Kodiak Attack, but never made it to the top. I’ve done well before with Forfallen, Concrete Mutant, and Amaranthine Skies, but when I finally shrugged off the musical constrictions I put on myself and put everything I do into one project, I won. That said, I don’t expect to win the competition again unless some similar circumstances arise or something changes in the way I arrange video game covers. The competition is generally geared towards showing off one’s technical prowess on one’s chosen instruments, though the main goal is to create a song using mostly live instrumentation. While I certainly follow the latter guideline, I haven’t really followed the former. I try to make my rhythms somewhat complex and groovy, but leads haven’t really been something I’ve been especially interested in playing in the past. I’ll do them on a rare occasion, but they usually end up rather simple or sound like I’m playing them backwards (thanks to Meshuggah’s influence). A lot of the guys that enter Dwelling of Duels are really talented players with somewhere between great and amazing guitar skills. I’d say I’m a good player because I haven’t devoted the time to training myself to play those leads, mainly because of what I mentioned before. I like to chug, I like to play arpeggios and melodies, and I like to groove. I’m also a lot mellower these days and like to make music that represents the way I feel rather than ascribing to a certain style (or blend of styles) of music like I used to. As for whether or not I’ll start incorporating leads into the Philistine on the Sidewalk – I’ll say it’s likely. A heavy groove with a great solo over the top can be some amazing stuff and they’d fit fine into the project because everything goes. I don’t know how soon I’ll start incorporating them or with which instrument (my keyboard solos are stronger than my guitar ones), but they will be coming along eventually. Once I lock that element into my playing, I might be in the running to win Dwelling of Duels once again. Wish me luck! Discuss this post at [The Forum of Jason Vincion]! Posted on May 3rd, 2010. |
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