#74 - David Wise Interview (Composer On Donkey Kong Country Games)

[@thejeromeo-pn9fj]

David's contribution to video game music is simply amazing. Absolute legend.

[@petervanrooden8388]

Totally agree!

[@CyanideSublime]

A mind that can come up with Aquatic Ambience and Stickerbrush Symphony is a beautiful mind.

[@Link-ji7kx]

I love this man. He changed my life with the music he made for those monkey games.

[@phaedruslive]

David Wise, Kenji Yamamoto and Alexander Brandon are the on the Mount Rushmore of game music.

[@blue-guy333]

@@phaedruslive jesper kyd is also amazing he made soundtracks for hitman assassins creed and warhammer

[@KIWITALKZ]

TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:33 - NDA’s 01:12 - Work Post Donkey Kong 01:58 - David Didn’t Realise How Big His Donkey Kong Soundtrack Was Until The Internet Blew Up 02:29 - OC-Remix 02:47 - Donkey Kong Country 2/Pushing The Tech For SNES 03:52 - Jamming Sam Miller/Compressed Sounds 06:06 - Delay Had To Be Simulated 06:52 - Chucking Grant Kirkhope In The Deep End With HEX 07:48 - Haunted Hall 09:43 - Being Isolated/Covid 10:14 - David Would Hum Tunes Before Recording In HEX 11:05 - Krooks March/Castle Theme 12:15 - Problem Solving 12:45 - Tropical Freeze Is What DKC Would Sound Like Without Limitations 13:29 - Live Instrumentation On Tropical Freeze 14:04 - Collaboration With Retro 14:45 - Kenji Yamamoto’s Involvement In Tropical Freeze 15:56 - Translators With Kenji Yamamoto 17:08 - David Praises Kenji’s Music On Metroid 17:47 - Time David Would Spend At Retro 18:28 - Writers Block 19:20 - Visual Cues To Composing Well Working On Donkey Kong 20:55 - Time It Would Take To Compose On One Track 21:33 - High Tide Ride 22:36 - David Was Largely Left To Do What He Wants 23:23 - Felt Nice To Do Tropical Freeze As Donkey Kong Put Him On The Map 24:14 - Doing Different Genres 25:34 - David Would Like To Work On Film/Advantages Of Scoring For Film 26:50 - Film Scoring Process Vs Game Scoring Process 27:40 - Escaping The Stigma 28:05 - David Would Like To Score For Smash Bros 29:00 - David’s Time In Japan/Nintendo Are Secretive 29:46 - Rare & Retro Culture Difference 30:40 - So Many Rappers Sampling His Music In Hip-Hop 32:05 - David Is Working On Multiple Projects Right Now 32:50 - Covid Has Caused Him Delays 35:40 - David’s Process To Compose 38:30 - What Instruments David Uses To Compose 39:06 - Collaborating With The Former Rare Composes 40:25 - David Tries To Outdo His Previous Compositions 41:45 - Working Under Pressure/Mixing 43:39 - A Lot Of Different Instruments Used In Tropical Freeze/Quantising 45:26 - Stickerbrush Symphony Credits Music In Tropical Freeze 46:33 - Nintendo Told David When To Remix Previous DKC Tracks For Tropical Freeze 46:55 - Aquatic Ambience 48:17 - How Remixes In Tropical Freeze Ended Up There 49:58 - No 2 Days Are The Same When Composing 50:39 - Aquatic Ambience Took 5 Weeks To Write 52:38 - David Will Never Go Back To HEX 53:20 - Saving Time When Composing 55:17 - Where To Follow David Wise

[@optical_flames]

David Wise is such a beast with his soundtracks

[@astrotrain3332]

I've been binging all your interviews, thank you so much for these!! Amazing to hear from the minds of these geniuses who contributed so much to our childhoods. Looking forward to more amazing interviews! 👍

[@DGFTardin]

The Man, The legend!

[@aldair15x]

THE LEGEND!!

[@galenburnett9791]

please get this man the best bike in the world and a lifetime’s supply of his favourite walking shoes-the more David Wise writes, the better are our lives!

[@ricardoalmeida986]

Awesome!

[@DanIel-fl1vc]

I think the best way to come up with good music is to harmonize a simple tune, until it sounds fine. Cut away all the harmony but keep a copy of it, redo the process. You'll end up with something different, see what works, see what doesn't. Join them together in a jigsaw fashion. Keep polishing until you got a good A and B section. Add fat to it, cut away, add fat to it, cut away. And also to make note of genre specific tropes like, percussion, a solo, minimalism, how the left hand is working on a piano piece etc.

[@SnevilGrey]

Great tips, thanks ^^

[@DonkeyKongCountryTV]

Very very good

[@Link-ji7kx]

Where are these interviews that he’s asked about Stickerbush or Aquatic Ambience? It killed me that those were skipped over 😂 I doubt David would’ve minded. Btw I love this man. He changed my life with the music he made for those damn monkey games.

[@WWIIKittyhawk]

Nice man!

[@Robbiehondros]

Brooo David!!!!! People will always make music trying "trying" to out preform your dk1 and dk2 tracks

[@crazygoji]

kiwi u da man

[@scrowfunk8109]

I love how much of a normal average guy David Wise is. You ask him these questions on how he made his tracks and how he gets inspired to do them and he’s just like “ya so I started and just kinda went on with it ya know”

[@MarioBro15]

Into “HEX” what exactly does that mean? Is there a video where it explains that process? I have no intention of learning haha I am just curious.

[@galenburnett9791]

if all culture were to perish in armageddon and i could only save one playlist, this would be it: castlevania’s simon bellmont’s theme [the arcade]; a few anime openings, including pokemon and fullmetal alchemist; too many first-party nintendo themes to mention, i guess i’d need to pick just ten or so of them; finale of mozart’s symphony in e flat; beethoven’s 9th and his moonlight sonata; vivaldi’s four seasons; tchaikovski’s swan theme; and tropical freeze’s amiss abyss. thank you so much David Wise!!!

[@shortfilms5667]

The master that created the soundtrack of our childhoods🙂 and why does he look so much like Patrick Stewart?😆

[@GenderBig]

The love child of Picard and Joe Rogan actually

[@Doommaster1994]

@@GenderBig I always thought he looked like Murray from Impractical Jokers.

[@cactuarrockman]

DAve Wise i love you so much. Music changed because of you .

[@ljones2087]

That's an overstatement. Perhaps video game music but not contemporary music.

[@pedjamigrant7189]

love how you didn't thank the legend for responding and accepting the interview, but it ok.

[@KIWITALKZ]

I thank every guest, sometimes its on air and sometimes its off air. We chatted quite a bit off air.

[@brian-jv1nw]

Metal gear solid theme was stolen from the movie Speed.

[@GenderBig]

No doubt they interpolated the Speed theme

[@tangotanjomusic]

Cool, but why are you talking about metal gear solid? David Wise had nothing to do with that game.