Video game arranger OverCoat discusses his ‘Gardens EP’ release

by JH Sounds

I had the chance to chat with Scott Porter, who goes by the artist name OverCoat, about his recent release Gardens EP. He certainly has made a name for himself in the arrangement community since he started making music in 2001; his remixes of Cave Story and Seiken Densetsu 3 appear on OverClocked ReMix, and he contributed to the Tales of Symphonia tribute album Summoning of Spirits. His new EP consists mostly of original material he composed as early as 2008.

Conceptually the EP is considered an extension of OverCoat’s 2007 album Garden Art, and carries the same botany-themed naming system. Regarding the garden numbering, he said: “I imagine back then I felt like each track was like its own little garden, with its own personality and style.” The effect of isolated environments is evident in the first two tracks of the Gardens EP — the “Fifteenth” and “Sixteenth” gardens, respectively: track 1 offers a minimal groove and arpeggio while track 2 displays an ambient soundscape driven by percussion. OverCoat mentioned that a “big break” occurred between producing those two songs, and he picked up where he left off in March 2011. The rest of the EP was composed “on and off” within a 2-month span.

A number of tracks in the release originated as entries OverCoat made for composition competitions, or compos. He spoke about his background in the compo community. “I’ve been entering one hour compos since at least 2003, even hosting a lot of my own for #soundtempest and #mod_shrine on IRC. I must have at least several hundred compotunes by now.” He stated that he gained interest in compos through IRC, “since really that’s where the whole idea came about way back in the 90s. I was in #vgmix and virt used to host these compos called “kwakfests” which were all general MIDI. My first one was in 2003 sometime. After 2004 I started getting into trackers and doing compos in #mod_shrine using MODPlug, and samplepacks.”

OverCoat revealed that the Gardens EP was spurred by a particular compo theme. “My first JHCompo that I did I believe the theme was “The Secret Garden” so I was like, hey … let’s make a sixteenth [garden] … and then week after week the themes just kept matching up with that album’s style in my head, so I kept going until I had about 6 tracks.” Once the musical content for the EP was put together, OverCoat commissioned the cover art illustrated by Min ´Keiiii´ Kwon.

Aside from the original compositions, the EP includes a cover version of the Yellow Magic Orchestra song “Epilogue” under the name “The Twentieth Garden”. OverCoat expressed that “YMO is probably my favourite band ever, and I figured it was about time I paid homage to them. I was trying to learn to play some of their songs and “Epilogue” was fun to play. So I covered that. I also felt like I needed to release a song utilizing Vocaloid, and while it’s not the most creative use of the tech, I killed two birds with one stone there.” The synthesized vocal leads a conservative rendition that de-emphasizes the industrialized rhythm of the original “Epilogue”. The singing eventually overlaps and builds to a crescendo, signaling the end of the album.

Gardens EP is OverCoat’s first commercial release, and he hopes that people from the community will support his creative endeavors. “I know, it’s hard to pay for something when you’ve been getting it free for so long, but I gotta start somewhere.”

JH Sounds is an artist and lover of art. He is also an avid follower of the compo community and documents his experiences therein. Aside from being a contributing writer at ThaSauce, JH publishes his reviews of creative competitions each week at his blog, My Compo Life.

Raptr Interviews the Mustin

No, that’s not a typo. No, I’m not talking about the rapture. I’m talking about Raptr, the video game community of over 8+ million users (and incidentally home of the former head truck driver). They’ve recently started a weekly podcast and in their latest episode Mustin talked a bit about the OneUps and what’s in-store for them in the next coming months.

You can check out the full interview in the podcast on Raptr’s blog:

http://blog.raptr.com/2011/05/12/raptr-podcast-2-%E2%80%93-all-things-gaming-featuring-mustin-from-the-oneups/