Instrumental

Background music for an informational video welcoming visitors to the Trans Academy.

The video this was for was intended to be an overview of the Trans Academy and what it does, with several different motifs to indicate the different aspects of the world and community. The video’s scope had to be pulled back somewhat, but this became the basis of the overall musical design and audio logos I developed for the Academy going forward. You will hear the Academy themes and motifs in several of the other songs on this album.

The main theme from Full Course, a canceled visual novel project.

In this game you would have played Morgan, a young adult who experiences multiple mental health challenges, and also "sees" other people as various foods befitting their personalities. This theme song is also Morgan’s theme, and was going to have several variations based on different moods and situations.

Caroline’s character theme from Full Course.

Caroline was to have an interesting story arc, and was going to have two character theme songs because of one of her traits. This particular song is for her extrovert mode ("Candy"), and was inspired by modern anime music. Its working title was "Every Anime Themesong."

She also had an introvert mode, "Strawberry," although I never started work on that theme before the game was canceled.

A soundtrack done for a seasons greetings video for the Trans Academy.

This was done as a stylistic riff on the front half of "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi, with a Motown-inspired jazz sound (and an anachronistic touch of disco, as has been my tendency lately).

The composite soundtrack for Magnolia’s Early Morning Walk, a short game done for a game jam.

The different sections of this piece are the short looping motifs for the various scenes in the intended game, with different emotional variations on two overall themes that represent the protagonist’s state of mind.

An alternate soundtrack for Magnolia’s Early Morning Walk.

This was done as a prototype while trying to figure out the right mood for the game, and was not going to be used in the game itself as it didn’t end up fitting the vibe. I still like it, though.

The screeching "synth" sound for the second half (the "walkies" section) is a guitar whose strings are being excited by electromagnetic coupling. It’s a great sound and I don’t get to use it in my music very much.

Sometimes I compose music just for the heck of it. This is one of those songs that just kinda popped into my head and I had to make it.

This is another track that I composed Just Because. I was treading on the edge of consciousness and then this just popped into my head. I tend to write a lot of my music that way.

Main menu music from Spooky Sushi, a VR game jam game.

In this track I decided to play with the idea of having the same simple looping melody that repeats while being recontextualized by the changing chords underneath it.

Gameplay music from Spooky Sushi, a VR game jam game.

In this game you play the part of a conveyor sushi restaurant waiter, and must quickly tally up the bill for patrons based on the colors of their plates. I was trying to evoke the feeling of having to juggle several things at once while being simultaneously single-minded about it.

A lo-fi background music track for a series of videos by the Trans Academy.

This is the primary "logo" motif of the Trans Academy, with my favorite gimmick of using an evolving chord progression to recontextualize the simple motif in different ways.

Caroline’s date scene from Full Course.

The idea I had for Full Course’s soundtrack was that each character would have a musical theme and a style, and different situations would cause one theme to play in another one’s style. I had decided that the dating scenes would be in the style of cheezy lounge jazz.

I also had started a jazz version of "Water to Wine," Morgan’s theme, to represent their inner thoughts when alone in the restaurant, and I planned on completing it for this album, but without the impetus of completing the game it felt a bit gratuitous.

A looping background motif for an augmented art installation.

I composed a prototype of this while playing with a Sawbench, a minimal MIDI-controlled analog synthesizer, and eventually repurposed it for the art piece, making it a bit more ambient in the process.

People keep comparing it to Boards of Canada, which seems like a band I need to actually listen to someday.

Paige’s character theme song from Full Course.

The request for Paige’s theme from the game’s creator was that it should be "That Distant Shore" from Steven Universe, which I took to mean being a nice gentle bossa nova tune where you can relax while swaying in the breeze.

Diana’s character theme song from Full Course.

Diana was meant to be a very posh, aristocratic person with refined tastes, and this is the music that popped into my head based on that description.

Music made for the obligatory underwater level of an abandoned game jam prototype.

There are a few game james where I regularly sign up to make a lot of music for others, and usually err on the side of making too much because more often than not, the music I make ends up going unused in the jam itself. It’s always a little disappointing when that happens, but at least it gives me more music to release later.

Prototype battle theme made for an abandoned, untitled Pokémon fangame.

I ended up using this in one of my own games, although it was basically a last-minute shitpost meant specifically to have something that actually used the music in it.

Prototype battle theme made for an abandoned, untitled Pokémon fangame.

If I had a nickel for every time someone wanted me to make battle theme music for a Pokémon fan game for a game jam and then disappeared on me without apparently having even started to make the game, I’d have ten cents, which isn’t a lot of money, but it’s annoying that it happened twice.

An extended/enhanced version of the battle theme from Deck of Desire, an extremely NSFW card trading game.

In the original game there was a much shorter version of this song, in both chiptune and symphonic versions, as well as a bunch of other music. The game itself has been essentially abandoned as a "prototype" (despite having been very popular, and still tops my download analytics on itch.io years later!), but I had some ideas about how to expand the soundtrack into a full musical experience.

Maybe someday.