I've known Mega64's creators, Rocco Botte, Derrick Acosta, and Shawn Chatfield since my first year of high school, and for as long as I can remember they've been doing short films, but it wasn't until 2003 that they decided to work towards something bigger.
One night I got a call from Rocco who was looking to find a composer for his "public access show". We discussed ideas for a moment and later that night I wrote Poque's theme.
Gradually over the next half a year I'd end up composing over 30 songs for five (originally six) full-length episodes. Certain edits for the final release called for new music, but for the most part the bulk of the scoring was fairly condensed. If you keep your eyes peeled, you may even see me in a few of the skits.
Despite the show's comedic nature, most of the music got to be pretty dark, and because it was based around video games, I really got to make use of the classic game music sound. All and all it was a pretty fun mix of styles; I ended up turning to everything from classical to death metal for inspiration.
The biggest challenge about the project was that (with the exception of SMB2: Bloodlust) I never saw a minute of footage prior to composing for each scene, and had to write based on Rocco's descriptions. Fortunately we seemed to have the same vision for the series; he was always happy with the music, and very rarely did I ever have to edit piece before it went into the final cut.
The show was picked up by Something Awful before it had a chance to air on public access, and has since sold thousands of DVD's worldwide. It was really cool to see my name on the back cover of an actual film for the first time.
“Ian always seems to know exactly what kind of mood you're looking for in a song. He just gets it...his music flat out rocks.”
— Rocco Botte, Director
After I scored the first season, Awful Video hired another composer to take over. I had fun contributing for the time that I did, and even as long ago as it was, a few of the themes I composed for the series are still among my favorites.
