"You don't outgrow video gaming": Local electronic music composer Jared Hudson
Story and Photos by Paul F. P. Pogue
It was the strange mixture of Dante and Solid Snake that brought
21-year-old Brownsburg electronic music composer Jared Hudson to Internet
fame. "Metal Gear May Cry," his innovative 2001 arrangement and
combination of the themes to the video games "Devil May Cry" and "Metal
Gear Solid 2," was a surprise hit in the competitive subculture of video
game theme remixing and remains a constant presence in Internet file
trading.
Hudson has been composing electronic music for several years now, from his
home in Brownsburg and several semesters at Purdue and Ball State. In
addition to electronic music and video game arrangements, he's expanded
into live and vocal recording, and composing for a number of student and
independent films, and now he's heading out to Berklee School of Music in
Boston for his degree.
"The people they've have there, their alumni alone is impressive," Hudson
said. "Steven Tyler, Steve Vai, Alan Silvestri, Quincy Jones. It's just
pretty impressive. It wasn't a conservatory, and that was impressive. I
like the idea that I'm still getting a bachelor's degree. I'm looking into
either film scoring or games. That's basically the only avenues I see
myself doing. But I want a degree so in case I bombshell out, it's
something to fall on. This is the only thing I can see myself doing in my
life. Maybe computers. I am kind of a computer nut."
How did you get into electronic music?
It was ambition and self-taught. My whole family's pretty musical. I
played violin for five years, and played drums for over 10 . My first
compositions dealt with just general MIDI, percussions. I learned how to
use sound fonts, instruments, I learned to do it all by myself. I'm still
uneducated in a lot of areas of electronic music. But in terms of
learning, I think I've come a long way. So I started dumping all my money
into software and gear. It was like I'd found gold.
One of my friends from directed me to OverclockedRemix ( www.OCRemix.org ,
the biggest of the game remix sites). This was old-school. I took a look
and thought, 'This has got to be a joke.' So I started listening to the
remixes and got a jive for what they were doing. And I'm really into
vintage gaming. So a friend of mine were playing Killer Instinct one
night, and afterwards I was like, listen to this theme! So I did a mix on
that and submitted it to Ocremix, and to my surprise, they accepted it.
One thing to watch in this business is your ego, because if you let that
get out of hand, you're going nowhere. There's tons of talented people in
the remixing community who have amazed me, and a lot of them are
struggling and learning and are easily impressed. Sometimes it feels like
I'm remixing just for an ego boost. The review system feels like it's just
flattery. I don't know if you grow up and realize this, or if you've been
in the community long enough and realize it.
What kind of influences do you draw from?
I listen to anything that I think sounds good. I just listen to what I
like. I don't pay attention to lyrics on the radio. I couldn't tell you
one song I know the lyrics to. It's all good to me no matter how retarded
they sound. If the song is good, I love it. I listen more to production
quality and sound than to the lyrics.
So what's your background with video games and your interest in those?
I started out with Colecovision! I think the stupidest thing I did in
gaming was sell my Nintendo and games for $20. I got a PS2, and then I'm
like, 'Oh my god, I wish I had my Nintendo back!' I just remember games
like Excitebike and even Duck Hunt! I don't get into emulation,
personally. I like to have the authentic deal. I wish I had that Nintendo
back. Just looking at it makes me nostalgic! People don't appreciate it
anymore. Super Metroid was my all-time favorite game. I couldn't put it
down . You don't outgrow video gaming. You just move in a different
direction.
Tell us about the song that really put you on the map in the remix
community, "Metal Gear May Cry."
That came out on a whim. I really don't know how that happened. I just
wanted to do something really big and powerful. This was at Purdue, back
in fall 2001. This was going to be a "Devil May Cry" remix originally. I
started out with a big blasting organ, and I started writing some more,
and then I was like, 'Oh my god, this sounds like the "Metal Gear Solid"
theme!' So I pieced it together, fused it, and figured I'd give it a
snazzy name like "Metal Gear May Cry." I had NO IDEA what the response
would be. I was just making it. I was still a nobody in the remixing
community at the time. So I decided to submit it and just kind of threw it
up there, and the responses came in hordes! I guess everyone loved it. The
mass response was very positive and I was very thrown back. To this day I
have people tell me they joined the remixing community and are blown away
by it.
Today I don't think much of it. I think I can express my ideas a lot
better than I did in that song. I think that's what steers me away from
the remixing community. I think it's better to be complimented on an
original than on someone else's work. It helped me learn. I don't regret
doing it. It allowed me to meet a lot of cool people. I don't know what I
did in that song to make people love it so much! I have no idea. I can't
recreate that on demand.
What's next for you artistically?
I'm trying to go for more live instrumentation. That's always going to be
cooler than samples, no matter how good they sound. You could have
everything sampled in a song and have a real violin solo, and it just
completely changes the song, because the human element can never be
matched by a computer. It just does wonders. I want to do a lot of things
well. If you can't expand your horizons, you're going to lose a lot of
jobs in the future.
I remember I had a job where a client asked me to compose a 20s ragtime
piece on piano. I had NEVER composed anything like that. It scared me out
of my mind. It took me two tries to get it right. Things like that, as a
challenge to me, it kind of scares me because it's so far from what I've
done, but once I've completed the product, sometimes I surprise myself.
It's learning experiences like that that help me grow.
What about getting into film composing, like you mentioned before?
Gaming and film go hand in hand. You'll hear countless times the number
one way to get into it is networking. You can be Mozart, but if you can't
be a businessman and sell yourself, you're not going to get the jobs.
Talent is half the game. You have to be a social person, put on a good
smile, and you have to impress people. That's why you have to know people. They can hook you up and get you the jobs you need. That's why moving to LA is so important.
Video game remixing is still a fairly new and obscure craft. What are your
thoughts on the ever-growing video game remix community?
It's real funny to see people in the remixing community, and I look back
at some of these beginners, and I see myself instantly. There's always
room to improve, no matter how good you think you are. People have to
accept criticism, and if you don't, you'll never make it in this business.
You need to listen to your peers. There was one time when I was getting
like that, and someone got on me about a song and just destroyed me. They hit me down about ten pegs, and it really humbled me, and I couldn't be
more grateful. It really helped me improve.
The music community in terms of electronic music is very tight. Not
everyone can do it, many don't even know it exists, and for some people
it's not even a priority. People need to remember that samples, high
quality samples or good sounds, don't make you a better composer. Good
composition is what's important. I've had that once or twice. If you can start with bad samples and make it sound good, that's an
accomplishment. It's fun to have high quality samples, you can do more
with your ideas, but just make sure you don't ride your whole success on
samples. Because now everyone has them. Your competition just got harder.
Now you actually have to write!
Lately I've caught myself remixing newer games, but I like the people who
are remixing older games when music wasn't really appreciated. I can
really admire someone who can take a song from when music wasn't really
much at all and get a great composition out of it.
Learn more about Jared Hudson and listen to his work at
www.hudsonstudios.net . For more information about video game remixing,
check out www.ocremix.org .
