{"id":7630,"date":"2015-10-05T13:30:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T17:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.videogamedj.com\/?p=7630"},"modified":"2015-10-02T19:25:01","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T23:25:01","slug":"ddrkirbyisq-the-ecstasy-of-life-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/ddrkirbyisq-the-ecstasy-of-life-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"DDRKirby(ISQ) &#8211; The Ecstasy of Life [Interview]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Long time chiptune artist, DDRKirby(ISQ) gives us his first full album: <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This massive 21-track album is packed with delightful chiptune dance hits and lush, introspective \u00a0and features remixes by Flexstyle, WillRock, johnfn, dekune, and EL. <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1090027581\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" seamless=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-ecstasy-of-life\">The Ecstasy of Life by DDRKirby(ISQ)<\/a><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDRKirby(ISQ) is known mostly for his One Hour Compo contributions, but for the first time has created a full album. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> features a myriad of styles and sounds. The hard-hitting and exciting dance tunes are loaded with rocking percussion, energizing chiptune leads, and pumping basslines. On the other hand, the slower tunes feature warm and spacey pads, beautiful and organic melodies, and tender harmonies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was able to interview DDRKirby(ISQ) about himself and the album.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: Where do you get your name from and what is the (ISQ) component of it?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DDRKirby(ISQ): Ah yes, this ever-present question. \u00a0My online alias is pretty straightforward actually &#8212; as I was growing up I was a huge Kirby fan after being exposed to Kirby&#8217;s Dream Land 2 and Kirby&#8217;s Adventure, and I was also getting into Dance Dance Revolution at the time, so I put the two together and had &#8220;DDRKirby&#8221; as a name for quite some time. \u00a0Later on I realized that I probably needed something else to ensure that my handle was unique, so I added on &#8220;ISQ&#8221;. \u00a0Technically, it stands for &#8220;Io Squad&#8221;, a silly old crossover fanfic universe that I used to daydream about, but really it&#8217;s just a random added tag for uniqueness, which is why it&#8217;s in parentheses. \u00a0It&#8217;s a bit silly and if I could go back I&#8217;d definitely try to go and think up a better alias for myself (it&#8217;s hard!), but for now I&#8217;m just DDRKirby(ISQ).<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: How would you define your &#8220;9-bit&#8221; sound?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: &#8220;9-bit&#8221; is a term that I believe was first popularized by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/halc.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">halc<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, referring to chiptunes that utilize modern, non-chiptune elements instead of strictly adhering to the limits of video game sound chips, but within 9-bit there&#8217;s still quite a bit of diversity. \u00a0My own flavor of 9-bit tends to incorporate modern drum sounds along with a lot of echo and reverb effects to form a much more lush soundscape than you would find in traditional chiptune music. \u00a0At the same time, a lot of my instruments and sound effects are rooted in simple waveforms like pulse waves and triangle waves, so the chiptune flavor still carries through.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: For someone who does not know, what does your usual compositional output? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: My mixing skills were forged in the fires of <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/compo.thasauce.net\/compos\/view\/OHC\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One Hour Compo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a weekly timed competition where mixers are given one hour (!) to create a song matching an assigned theme. \u00a0Over the 5 years that I spent actively participating in OHC, I got more and more practiced at putting together tracks very quickly, to the point where I was creating full (3-6 minute) tracks every week, in just an hour! \u00a0Until recently I would release these OHC entries as part of my <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Monthlies&#8221;<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> collection on Bandcamp, so I was churning out an album with 4-5 full songs every month!<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the beginning of 2015 I decided to focus my production efforts a little more on polished tracks (rather than whatever I could get down in an hour), so I&#8217;ve stopped releasing the &#8220;Monthlies&#8221; albums and instead try to use One Hour Compo time for whatever musical projects I happened to be working on (such as my <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> album).<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: What has the process for putting together your first original album been like and how was handling such a huge number of tracks?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: Although this may disappoint some people, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is actually more of a hodgepodge of my different works than a coherent experience. \u00a0*nervous laugh* \u00a0The earliest finished track, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignition<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, was actually written *five years ago* &#8212; it was originally an attempt at creating a menu theme for a game I was working on at the time, but ended up being too energetic and with the wrong feel, so I just saved it, knowing that I&#8217;d probably release it on my first &#8220;real&#8221; album. \u00a0Of course, I didn&#8217;t know that I&#8217;d go on to release a multitude of game OSTs (mostly for my own games) as well as a ton of free &#8220;Monthlies&#8221; releases (mostly One Hour Compo entries) before finally getting to my first original artist album! =P<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although it may seem like it has a lot of tracks (indeed, it just *barely* fits on a single CD), <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> actually contains less songs than some of my other albums, such as the the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All in a Day&#8217;s Work<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> series (24 tracks each). \u00a0The tracks were pulled from a variety of different places&#8230;in addition to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ignition<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I&#8217;ve also included some songs that were originally written in an hour each for OHC, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Midnight Marauder<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which I made for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/9bitrecords.bandcamp.com\/album\/9-bit-nightmare\" target=\"_blank\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">9-bit Nightmare<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s Have an Adventure<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which I wrote as a sort of musical &#8220;Hello!&#8221; to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/aivisura.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aivi &amp; Surasshu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u00a0It&#8217;s sort of all over the place.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: There seems to be a noticeable dichotomy between the tracks on this album between high-energy dance tracks and slower, more intimate and emotional tracks. Would you like to comment on your experience composing the two different types?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: That&#8217;s an interesting question; one that I&#8217;ve never thought about myself, actually. \u00a0To be honest, I think I take about the same compositional approach towards either (though tracks with faster tempos tend to require more work, since more complexity is generally happening within any given time interval). \u00a0When it comes to music, I&#8217;ve found that I definitely tend to work best when I&#8217;m not really thinking about it too much &#8212; following my instinct and intuition, so to speak. \u00a0I often like to think of it as me helping the song naturally write itself, and that&#8217;s true for both the more dancey tracks as well as the contemplative ones.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: What are your influences as far as melody, harmony, and form in your work?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: In terms of process, my workflow tends to be as straightforward and quick as possible, both because I&#8217;m used to time pressure from One Hour Compo and because of the aforementioned feeling about having the song &#8220;flow naturally&#8221; &#8212; I&#8217;m always afraid that if I stop writing a song midway, or if I take too long worrying about small details, that the natural creative flow of the song will sort of peter out and it won&#8217;t really go anywhere (I have my fair share of failed WIPs that never made it for that exact reason), so I really prefer to finish the full draft of a song in one sitting if possible, usually taking 3-4 hours.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of melody and arrangement techniques, it&#8217;s hard to pinpoint too many specific influences, but the NES Mega Man OSTs were a big part of my childhood growing up, so I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ve taken cues from those, including my use of vibrato and echo effects on most of my leads. \u00a0There are also some structures I&#8217;ve taken from trance music and EDM in general, some random techniques I picked up along the way from various artists such as <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/flashygoodness.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">flashygoodness<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/a-zu-ra.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A-zu-ra<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of my more significant influences is the chiphouse style of <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.shemusic.org\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shemusic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Lain Trzaska), which was a direct influence for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Infinity<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (and to a lesser extent, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convergence<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: How did the remixes by other artists come to be on the album?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D: This is my first time requisitioning remixes by guest artists, so I really didn&#8217;t know what to expect, but I reached out to some friends and artists whom I knew &#8212; mostly from the larger VGM\/VGM remix community as well as the One Hour Compo scene &#8212; and was pretty excited when they said that they were on board. \u00a0There were some other artists who unfortunately couldn&#8217;t find enough time in their schedules for remixes, but I had also reached out via social media channels to any other producers who might be interested and was able to fill in the slots that way.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the end I&#8217;m super happy with how the remixes turned out and I think everyone did an awesome job. \u00a0It was a real treat hearing all of the different riffs and interpretations of the themes that I had composed!<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JR: What is the reasoning behind naming the album <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and what do you think is the ecstasy of your own life?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The title track of the album, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, was one of my first OHC entries that I thought was really good, and also happened around the time when I started getting used to the idea of really being &#8220;in the zone&#8221; when producing music. \u00a0Although my style has evolved a bit since then, I still think the song (and the name) is representative of that flow state that I get in when I&#8217;m working on a good song, where I just lay down the notes as they come to me, without stopping to think.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside of music, too, I think I really thrive on that feeling of flow and being in the zone, and you can see that in the video games that you usually find me playing: games with a steep difficulty curve that demand quick thinking and challenge you at every moment (Tetris: The Grand Master series, IWBTG-style games, etc.). \u00a0Some of the games that I&#8217;ve programmed, too, tend to emphasize this as well: see <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ddrkirby.com\/games\/melody-muncher\/melody-muncher.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Melody Muncher<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ddrkirby.com\/games\/ripple-runner\/ripple-runner.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ripple Runner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. [\/end self-plug] \u00a0As it turns out, a lot of people (myself included) find electronic music great for achieving that &#8220;in the zone&#8221; feeling. \u00a0I think it would be super cool if other people used my music for that purpose, too. =)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Without a doubt, this is now one of my favorite albums and something truly spectacular.<\/p>\n<p>You can buy\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ddrkirbyisq.bandcamp.com\/album\/the-ecstasy-of-life\" target=\"_blank\">The Ecstasy of Life<\/a>\u00a0on Bandcamp for a $2 Digital download, or $5 Physical CD. \u00a0Visit DDRKirby(ISQ)&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/ddrkirby\/\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>\u00a0for more music, games, and other things. Also check out the featured remixers on the album:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/flexstyle.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\">Flexstyle<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/willrock1.bandcamp.com\" target=\"_blank\">WillRock<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/johnfn\" target=\"_blank\">johnfn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/dekune\" target=\"_blank\">dekune<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/soundcloud.com\/eunleemusic\" target=\"_blank\">EL<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long time chiptune artist, DDRKirby(ISQ) gives us his first full album: The Ecstasy of Life. This massive 21-track album is packed with delightful chiptune dance hits and lush, introspective \u00a0and features remixes by Flexstyle, WillRock, johnfn, dekune, and EL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":7634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1582,10,3177,55],"tags":[3,57,2350,1893,4459,4460,609,1272,8,1857,1243,1739,11,588,1853,53,583,4448,4450,4452,1567,4451,3538,519,1837,4454,4449,181,2925,1836,2728,1297,4455,4462,4292,235,4457,4453,3149,658,24,4463,4464,4458,4456,4461,365,188,1821],"class_list":["post-7630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albums","category-chiptune-music","category-dance-music","category-music","tag-8-bit","tag-8bit","tag-9-bit","tag-9bit","tag-a-zu-ra","tag-aivi","tag-album","tag-bandcamp","tag-chip","tag-chip-tune","tag-chip-tunes","tag-chiphouse","tag-chiptune","tag-chiptunes","tag-compo","tag-dance","tag-ddr","tag-ddrkirbyisq","tag-dekune","tag-ecstasy","tag-edm","tag-el","tag-flexstyle","tag-games","tag-halc","tag-hour","tag-johnfn","tag-kirby","tag-life","tag-man","tag-mega","tag-melody","tag-modern","tag-muncher","tag-music","tag-nes","tag-ohc","tag-one","tag-original","tag-ost","tag-remix","tag-ripple","tag-runner","tag-shemusic","tag-soundscape","tag-surasshu","tag-synth","tag-vgm","tag-willrock"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/The-Ecstasy-of-Life-cover.jpg?fit=700%2C700&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7660,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions\/7660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamechops.com\/vgdj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}