Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Meet Nicolas Gilfillan
28 Plays7 months ago
Today, we take a different path. Rather than roll up stats and make up backgrounds, we chat with the creative mind behind our shows music: Nico Gilfillan.
- Ryan Leach
- Moritz Moszkowski
- Modest Mussorgsky
- Clara Shumann
- Frederic Chopin
Comments? Questions? Write to us at btcs.hosts@gmail.com!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Nicholas Gilfillin
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey folks, we're doing a different episode today. Instead of talking about characters and how to build them, we're sitting down with Nicholas Gilfillin, formerly Mason, to hear about his music and how he writes it. We'll be back with more character ideas next episode, but for now, hope you enjoy.
00:00:36
Speaker
You've heard his name at the end of the show. He's the guy behind the music. Please welcome Nicholas Gofillan. Hello. It's so great to be here. We are short a TJ today, but I did bring in our newest host, Nick. Nick, thank you again for joining us. Yep. Hella stuck with me now. So yeah, I want to talk a little bit to Nico today and just hear about, you know, kind of your creative process. I want to talk about, you know, kind of your your whole your whole story. You know, I think part of talking about interesting make-believe characters is talking about interesting real life characters. So so we figured we'd bring you in. Awesome. Fire away. Why don't you go ahead and start us off with just, you know, your your elevator pitch.
Nicholas's Musical Journey
00:01:12
Speaker
Who the hell are you? Hi, so um I am Nicholas Gilfillin. Used to be Nicholas Vason, but then I did get married, so I went through a little bit of a artist name change. I'm currently residing in the Houston Greater Metro Area in Texas. I'm
00:01:29
Speaker
23 years old. My hobbies include music composition, playing piano, or really any instrument instrument I can play. Of course, video games, dungeon dragons, and also an unhealthy amount of baseball. Interesting mix. Okay, I did not see the baseball coming up, but I'm glad you like D and&D. That's what we do around here. Yeah, go go Astros, by the way.
00:01:55
Speaker
So how'd you get your start in music? In music overall, it really started when I ah tried out for public school band and middle school. I essentially got on trumpet. It's actually kind of funny because I wanted to do trombone because it seemed simpler because it was just a slide instead of buttons. And they're like, oh, you'd be really good at clarinet. And I saw all the buttons in the clarinet. I was like, oh, you know what? I think I'll just stick with trumpet then. um So I played trumpet for seven years during middle and high school band. I started my senior year of high school. I started self-teaching myself piano. I've been teaching myself that for six years. I'm on my seventh year now. And I've always tried music composition, but I always started
Composing for D&D and Anime Influence
00:02:37
Speaker
way too big, never finished anything. But it wasn't until I got to community college, went to Alvin Community College. I hung out in the music lab with a bunch of friends and one of them was like, hey, my older sister,
00:02:51
Speaker
it's just middle school english and she runs a dnd club over there you uh want to do a dnd game with us i'm like dnd isn't that for nerds it is for nerds it was ah october 2019 i went out to a coffee shop created my first ever character it was a light blue dragonborn ranger and I have been with the same group for five years now and it's because of that of that D and&D group a month later I was like you know what what if I like made a musical piece for one of the characters because I had just finished watching at that point in time all five parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the point why I say that is because
00:03:34
Speaker
One of the main key factors of JoJo's Bizzare's venture success is how popular the theme songs for all the characters are. um Anime really focuses on character themes. What if I just made one? So i I actually didn't make it for my character first. I made it for my friend's Tiefling Barbarian. And I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. So I made one for everyone in the party. And they're like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. And I'm like, you know what? I could make a little money off of this. That's how do you start. Yeah, the main focus wasn't really to make money, though. um It was just to find more reasons to write more. So when I started it off on Fiverr, I was charging only five bucks a piece. And these are these are only piano solos. And um it wasn't until right after COVID ah started shutting everything down, that's when I started getting a bunch of new commissions. And that's essentially how it all started.
00:04:30
Speaker
So why, um what drew you to like classical music as a genre? Like was it because you were doing band in school? Was it the kind of music you were studying? Like why'd you land here as opposed to any other style?
Classical Music Influence and Inspirations
00:04:41
Speaker
The reason I've been drawn to classical music more so than any other genre is definitely mostly because of band, but I realized when I used to be put in daily daycare, back when I was like seven, eight years old, and they would have the nap times and they would put on the Chopin or Beethoven or Seti or whatever classical music CD to help all the children and babies fall asleep. I did not fall asleep ever. I stayed up and listened to it. It was, I guess, enchanting in a certain kind of way. I really liked what it was being played. And it was, of course, band was a true catalyst. But then the piece that essentially changed my life forever, it was ah Pictures at an Exhibition by Modusz Mzerski. It wasn't the original, it was the Maurice Ravel.
00:05:25
Speaker
um ah orchestra rage bit but it was amazing. I kept listening to it on repeat, especially since the beginning starts on a trumpet solo and I was playing trumpet at the time. So after that, I just really started getting into the the classical vibe, at least for for band's sake. And then once I started self-teaching myself piano, I was like, alright, I really don't care to learn pop music, so obviously the other answer is classical. Of course, um there's there's a difference between the classical genre and then the actual classical era of music. Oh, okay. but The eras that I like for piano is mostly romantic and impressionism, and romantic is like... Right after Beethoven, up to like 1900, and Impressionism is like, I guess 1940s-ish? I don't exactly remember. But basically, so like my favorite piano composer of all time is Claude Debussy. French Impressionism, God, right there. I love his stuff. I find pieces like his, and then other romantic era pieces.
00:06:26
Speaker
more palatable for me to play. So I took the opportunity, my free period, to take an applied piano class. And since I wasn't a beginner by piano teacher, he was like, I want you to learn this Mozart piece. And I'm like, whoa, that's, that's very technical. It was a Mozart's Sonata and F major K 3.32. I mean, that was like the most like technically challenged piece that I've ever played. it's Mozart's music, it's very technical, you have to be very precise. it's ah You really got to think about it. I'm glad my music teacher did that for me because now I've come to appreciate all sorts of classical music regardless of era for from from a Baroque back from from Bach to a contemporary. Very cool.
00:07:22
Speaker
I think a lot of my questions are gonna come sort of like where you draw your inspiration from when you're actually like composing music specifically of are you listening to some of the pieces that you've mentioned um kind of while you've been explaining inspiration um or what inspired you when you were younger but more of like When you're composing now, what do you turn to? Is it more pieces that have already been written? Is it more contemporary stuff? Is it other genres? I've kind of had some of your um music just playing in the background while we've been talking and it's just been lovely to listen to.
00:07:59
Speaker
That's pretty cool. I appreciate that. So for me, inspiration comes from as many sources as I can pull from, whether it's whatever someone has a commission for me, or if I'm writing something original, I usually try to aim for like, not not really specific, but a general vibe. So like if someone pushes me and they're like, hey, I want it to be influenced by Rachmaninoff. I'm like, okay, then I just listen to Rachmaninoff all day and see what facets of his music I can draw from. But even like when I'm not listening to music, I still draw inspiration from my environment. I guess I could say I always hear the music and everything. So a great example is like when you hear the birds singing outside or when
00:08:39
Speaker
Whenever I went to University of Houston and in my dorm of Moody Towers, we had to swipe our card in like this machine. It would have these beeps and I would keep those beeps in my mind for like the next five minutes. I'm like, wow, what can I do with these beeps? It's just two beeps. But there's an endless list of possibilities of what I could do with that. I'm a, I'm a very influenced type person. So whatever I write is very specifically influenced by things that just have happened. So, so whatever I was listening to that day or a few days before.
00:09:14
Speaker
But for for the most part, people just ask me like, hey, can you draw from this? I've had a piece with someone like, hey, can you draw inspiration from Toby Fox in Undertale? And I'm like, I can do that. Someone else is like, hey, can you draw inspiration from this one Japanese rock band that you've definitely never heard of before? I'm like, OK, I can do that. Is that my Spotify playlist will come on? I'm like, i I know what I can do with this. but Yeah, it's inspiration. comes from a lot of places, it's ah i it's very hard to not find inspiration from any facet of life, whether it be music or just random sounds throughout the day, even landscapes. the The amount of places I've seen, that current job is Amazon delivery driving.
Selling Music and Transition to Orchestral Works
00:09:54
Speaker
I don't like it, I'm trying to get out of it, but it pays my bills. I remember this one time, I was listening to the classical channel, there was this piece that was playing, and then I had driven all the way up to like San Leon,
00:10:06
Speaker
which is like very rural and I had to deliver to this construction site and just the vastness of how open the construction site was next to the water with the music that was playing that that was a very inspiring moment I was like wow and of course I get to deliver in Galveston a lot so that has very picturesque places to to look at uh i listen to that classical channel like every single day i want work i don't listen to my phone anymore i just love that channel and they have something new every single day and yeah sometimes they put on some classical bangers the things most people already know but but but yeah for sure i want to say the the type of classical music i've been listening to the most on my own are piano concertos i absolutely love piano ca concertos but my my top four are
00:10:52
Speaker
but Number one is Felix Mendelssohn's number one. um Number two is Rachmaninoff's concerto number two. Number three is Tchaikovsky's concerto number one. And a number four is ah there's another guy who's not really well known. What's his name? Ah, man. but The point point is that I absolutely love piano concertos. I would love to write my own one day. i'm just really busy Yeah, you ah you kind of read my mind because I was like, drop some names like for someone who might be wanting to kind of dive into the genre, especially as like maybe a first time listener um or someone who has always, you know, could be like having elements overlap because I hear a lot of classical music in some of the music that I listen to. And so it's always it's like hearing artists and musicians that I respect then talk about referencing different classical pieces.
00:11:51
Speaker
um both for myself and maybe anyone else who might be listening who might want to jump into the genre, what you recommend starting with? ah ah for For classical or like piano concerto specifically? I was going to say either. Um, you kind of already dropped some for piano, concerto already. Um, if you want to also just drop some general classic, I mean, what you said, classical bangers, which is an incredible phrase. And I love it. Um, what I always respond to when people ask me for recommendations is I try and give artists or it's like, I really wish they got a little more shine. I want them to like, have a little bit of a little more exposure. So if there are, you know, anyone contemporary, anyone classical that you'd like to also call out as a good place to start.
00:12:32
Speaker
Well, uh, I could definitely start out with my favorites. So, Puthka-Shirto was definitely looking at my Spotify place. I got Rachmaninoff, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky. Obviously, you can't go wrong with Tchaikovsky. And there's a, or the other guy was talking about, can you remember his name? but He was like, not really well known. The name is Moritz Moschowski. I think that's how you pronounce it. um But he has an amazing piano concerto and E major that is just completely underrated. I obviously recommend it. It's one of like the newer piano concertos. And I say it with a grain of salt because it was written in 1898. But ah you have like piano concertos, I've listed, were made um before it. I think, I forget, I always forget when Mark Mononoff wrote his pieces. I know he died in the 40s. So I think his technically might be the newest one.
00:13:26
Speaker
but you still can't go wrong with Chopin piano concertos, Beethoven has written piano concertos, even Mozart's written piano concertos. Not not my favorite because like I said, not a huge fan of classical era music, but I mean it's still pretty good. I still hear it on the radio um as well as for just a straight-up classical, um a Modes Mozurski. He has a few famous pieces, but there's some other stuff that people people really don't know about, so like check out most of his stuff. It's it's pretty good. I mentioned Robert Schumann,
00:14:02
Speaker
His wife Clara Schumann has also made some good stuff. She she needs to love that severely underrated. There's a lot of female classical composers that are severely underrated. Unfortunately, she's the only one I can name right now. But I mean, I got like a whole YouTube playlist of like all sorts of stuff. um that could perhaps share with y'all at another time and listeners can find that the link will have included here so that will be available oh behind the scene perk only for us patrons only we don't even we don't even have patreon
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, um of course, ah me. I would also second that. It's also me. you could check out my Yeah, I'll say the pianists who need more exposure. I think we might have one here. Yeah, for sure. i've I've only have like one video of me actually playing stuff, not my own stuff, but just playing stuff. um But for the the timeline of how my music composition has Essentially been so I started off with the solo piano like I said and then I i eventually did start doing that fiber thing where you could do three tier packages so I had like five ten fifteen for one two and three minutes and then I then I eventually got to ten twenty thirty and It wasn't until was until late twenty twenty two mu score um updated to mu score four and
00:15:21
Speaker
And that's when they added all like that nice, good sounds. And yeah, I could have started doing orchestral earlier on a program like FL Studio. I do have FL Studio, but if you want the good sounds, it gets really expensive real quickly. And then MuseScore is out of nowhere just providing all these great sounds for free, rivaling, sibellius and not performer. So I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm going to do a whole demo reel. And I put that out and I was like, all right, let me. um You know what? Let me revitalize by Fiverr. You know, start making just a little bit more money. I'm i'm about to start doing complete orchestral works. I was so hyped. I think I had like, I want to say i thought about 20, 25 orders of solo piano before I started doing orchestral. I will say though, in the one year I did orchestral, I made three times the amount of money than the three years of just piano prior. Oh wow. Oh yeah.
00:16:09
Speaker
Oh, yes, it was it was insane. So I did that. And then, of course, you start getting to like, you know, if you want full symphonies, which people are that people are buying mostly that all the time. I kid I got so many customers that could give me testimonies. It's crazy. But yeah, so but whenever I did start on Fiverr, it was um I specifically and I still specifically cater to a specific audience. And that would be Dungeons and Dragons. I started out the whole title was I can create ah D and&D character themes for you because like I said earlier, I was just finished with our adventure that really inspired me to really think about character themes because I was i was really thinking about it. in the and this In the case of like, you know, ah I guess commercial ventures for stuff like D and&D, you know, you everyone has like art or the characters. That's like the number one thing people will get is art of their characters. but look Like ah above
00:17:03
Speaker
All else they will get are the characters now. I was like, okay So you have the visual aspect and then the creative aspect comes from playing the game with your dungeon master Well, like, what about the, you know, auditorial aspect? I really wanted to provide something meaningful and specific to that one person's character, whoever it might be. So that's where, that's where I get started. And so people were like, hey, can you write for this character, write for this character, write for this character. I think like, actually, I think my second ever ah commission was, it wasn't for a character specifically, it was for someone was making a video game.
00:17:38
Speaker
I like yeah i'll just a straight up video game. From then on, I was like, okay, so not only can I do character themes, I can actually write other things as well. And honestly, recently, I think in the past 10 orders, I've only written like specifically only two, maybe three character themes. Everything else has been boss themes, area themes, intro-outro, campaign themes. Campaign themes are some of my favorites to write, for sure, because the commission, they gave me all this information and I just take it and I just mold it into this little, I don't know, I don't know what metaphor I should be using, but I'm just... Music, you turn it into music. Yeah, I turn it into music. and And there's just so much information that I could take and put that influences that music as well.
Community Engagement and Personal Growth
00:18:30
Speaker
Oh gosh, I got a story for y'all. So um I did piano only for quite a few years. And I will say, there definitely were bumps in a row. And that means some huge bumps, dude. I think i only after um five months of getting orders, I I hated an eight-month drought of nothing, absolutely nothing. The only reason it picked back up again is because I was part of a campaign. Although during COVID, I joined another campaign. We'll call it Campaign B, Campaign A and Campaign B. So Campaign B
00:19:04
Speaker
had ah the DM for that was also a player in campaign A. So I was part of his game and then after two months I was like, ha i mean I really like D and&D, I really do, but I just couldn't find myself doing more than one campaign like at a time. um So I was like, hey, i'm just I'm just gonna go, I need to focus on other stuff. And then so they replaced me with this person named Sly Alexius. and are like okay hi bye you're replacing me whatever um fast forward seven months to super bowl sunday of 2021 yes i say that because i was literally going to someone's house to watch super bowl when i got this message apparently the dm of campaign b got into some beef with the dm of campaign a leading to the dm of campaign b kicking out some players while leaving
00:19:50
Speaker
Campaign a so now that campaign was done for and campaign a we're like, well, we need someone to replace that ah that other guy. So Sylexius who had replaced me. now replace that other guy in that campaign. So now I was playing with them regularly. They found out that I wrote music, but I haven't had anything. And they said, hey, can I advertise for you real quick? And I'm like, yeah, sure, that's totally fine. Go and advertise me. That day, I got not one, not two, but three orders on the same day, three commissions, one from that Sly Alexias, one from one of Sly Alexias friends, and then one just random person. So I was like, oh, my God, I'm making that big.
00:20:32
Speaker
This is amazing. I mean, not not really. But I was like, oh my gosh, I can actually like write some stuff. Yeah, come out with a drought. I imagine it's pretty exciting to have work come back in like that. Oh, yeah, for sure. So after I did those three commissions, Sylexius commissioned me again, and again, and again, like four times. and And eventually, I was like, wow, I mean, we're in the same campaign. We're, you know, commissioning all of a sudden, we keep talking. At first, you know, we were just going to be party members. Now we're kind of like friends. And they're like, yeah, friends. I'm like, OK, cool. So um after I graduated out of community college, I went to U of H. There was a COVID year, and that sucked. But then the next year, I became a resident advisor. I moved in about three weeks before everyone else did to the dorm. And I was showing off how little furniture it had, because it was a big room. I was like, dang, I need some furniture. And then Sly Lexus is like, hey, I live seven minutes away from you. Want to go to Ikea sometime? I'm like, yeah, for sure.
00:21:30
Speaker
Um, long story short, that's why Alexias is now my wife. Congratulations. Hell yes. Yep. A roller coaster from the D and&D campaigns tore each other apart and then formed a marriage on the other end. Yes. thank you it's It's kind of weird but also awesome to say but I technically didn't marry my biggest fan because ah they plate that they were going through relationship troubles before we started talking and they used my music to help them calm down and I thought that was so amazing because ah like I said earlier one of the big beat reasons I love to make music is so it's meaningful to that person and it was obviously meaningful so I was like oh Okay, that that is amazing. I gotta keep writing. But then I hit another skid. This is an 18 month skid. 18 months of nothing. So eventually um I finally went back and I was like, okay, let me let me get this started again. ah Because musical four had just came out. And then my last only piano only,
00:22:30
Speaker
commission was an author. He wanted something for his audiobooks. I do have the orchestral stuff right now so I remade all of his stuff that he commissioned for me in orchestral, gave it to him for free, put it in my demo reel, and then yeah it just started there. I never really had a skid ever again. Nice. I've gotten consistent orders. Yeah, it's amazing. So that like the D and&D helped me kickstart my music career, I guess you could say that, as well as I met my wife. It's to say, to think about how much D&D has influenced my life, even though at first I was like, yo, I don't want to play a game for nerds. that's awesome That's really cool. Because I was one.
00:23:12
Speaker
I mean, ain't that just how it goes. You you start at one level of nerfdom and then you just slowly kind of descend the ladder or ascend. You can think of it that way, actually, I think. I'm just like, well, I could do this because there's another thing just beyond it. And then you start doing doing that thing. and There's a whole sequence of events. Yep.
00:23:39
Speaker
On the subject of your music career, I got one for you here. Where would you like to kind of see your work, you know, I guess, not at the end of the road, per se, but like, you know, if if if you made it, what would it look like? If I made it? Oh, God. Well, I mean, if I made it, I never really thought about if I made it. I thought about, like, potential next steps because I've been looking into once I start Hopefully, once I get a new job and a better work schedule, I can start having time to um not only create original content on top of the commission stuff, but also
00:24:12
Speaker
Inter composition competitions. There's always some kind of competition competition always going on somewhere in the internet. Yeah. I don't have a better name for it than that. but um a Music. cut I don't know. So I started um looking up composition tips, been looking at these like huge 500 page like books from the 1980s like Samuel Atlas Guide to like orchestration. That's been really helpful. There's been YouTube channels like Ryan Leech, who really helped me out with techniques of how to write like a whole orchestra, how to write for strings, winds, percussion. That's been really helpful. So I definitely didn't learn all this on my own. I really had to take the dive into research as well as connect with other composers. This is, um, I currently have this discord channel called Nico's Fan Club. I was getting, it only really came about one because I like a attention, like luck but also two.
00:25:09
Speaker
I wanted to have a central place where I could post all of my stuff because I found myself sending whatever I had a new video from a commission I would send it to like seven different DMs and three different different servers and I was like, what what if I just have my own server and then all my fans could be there? It kind of seems self-centered, but it also just a efficiency wise. It makes sense. Yeah. So I made it, I think September of last year. And oh my God, it was the best idea I've ever had. it's Now it's like, you know, fans, people commission me, my real life friends who are also supporters, they're in there. We're always having a good time talking. And then whenever I have new content, I put it out.
00:25:51
Speaker
The interaction process between me and customers has been, I love it so much. I just love involving them in the creation process. And I mean, if you're on my server, you'll find me like whenever I am working on stuff, I'm streaming it half the time. Honestly, I'm like, hey, you know, come hang out. I'm working on stuff. It's really motivation to help me get stuff done on time. Everyone's just so great to talk to and hang out with and and and they most of them even appreciate you know the involvement in the the process and i get to talk to them and i get to see how the music makes them feel and i just oh god i love hearing about how music makes people feel positively because like i said earlier my wife in the previous relationship they're listening to my music that i made for them
00:26:35
Speaker
to calm themselves down. The author I made music for, I was emailing him one day, ah but he said that his eight-year-old son was playing one of the pieces I made on the piano. And I thought that was so cute and wholesome and so cool. And then one of my re repeat customers, when I made them the second commission, he she said she played it for her grandma and her grandma wanted to print out the sheet music and frame it on the wall. because she loved it so much
00:27:06
Speaker
oh I never really thought of myself it's funny and really thought of myself as a community man before doing all of this. And now I'm just so engrossed in the community. And of course, it helped me becoming engrossed into other communities that I am a part of as well, whether in being college or at work or within families. it's It's been amazing. Doing music has been absolutely amazing. I guess it's because the way music kind of, you know, kind of touches our lives, as you've been describing. It's it's a way to like,
00:27:37
Speaker
I can't think of a good way to describe it, but yeah, it it makes sense that like that is your way to form these connections because it's such a like it's such a visceral thing you can achieve with with these sounds, you know? Yeah. it's It's really touching to see how music has, ah especially my music, has touched other people and in their hearts, in their minds, and it's it's it's been Quite the ride, but it's been a ride that I so welcome.
00:28:16
Speaker
Cool. All right. I got um two more music questions for you. Awesome. Have you ever whiffed a piece? Have you ever gone in on a commission and the thing that came out just just didn't do it for you? Oh, God. What did I even start? I always try to have the best understanding with my commissioners. If they if you are listening to this, if I mention your piece, I am so sorry. I'm glad you love it. This is just just sound like on a technical level. because comemy I mean, obviously, like, you know, things I've written three years ago, I look back on it and was like, I could have done a lot better. But that's how every creative process is. You just get better over time. it's just Yeah, I think that's just creating stuff. you always yeah You're never satisfied with it after the fact.
00:28:57
Speaker
Well, like I said earlier, whenever it's a type of music that I never really have written before, I tend not to do the greatest. So let's see. This is one piece called Votaris' Bar. The the guy wanted some kind of like, you know, jazz-sy type vibe. And dude, it was so simple. I mean, was it wasn't bad. But like, after releasing it, I was like, Yeah, this is definitely something I'm not going to share as often as the other stuff. But hey, you liked it. I mean, I got I got perfect five stars on my fire rating. So that's good. No one really could play. Let's see what else.
00:29:33
Speaker
um If you don't want to do extra, so yeah i we can just move on. If you just want to leave it to that way, I don't want to. I don't like really, really bring it down and like, oh, tell me all your all your failures. Just if you if you got a fun story about it. piar otherwise we ignore us and um is There's this one called Dragon Den. I thought it was all right, but the commissioner, like they said something and then I made it for them and then I never heard from them again. and this isn't This is not the first time where like someone will order something and then you never hear from them again. So whenever you deliver it, they have three days to accept it. And then if they never like respond, it just automatically accepts and then you don't get,
00:30:12
Speaker
don't get a review, you don't get a tip, you don't get like anything from the same like, oh yeah, I like it. It just charges them and then that's it. So that that wasn't so that's necessarily a music thing, but I am kind of iffy about that piece just because how that whole thing transpired. On the flip side then, which piece would you say you're most proud of and why is it this shows music?
Proud Projects and Musical Dedication
00:30:35
Speaker
So there is, I i can't I can't get off of this podcast without telling y'all about one specific commissioner. I mean, I already told you about my wife, but that's a whole other thing. Do you still charge your wife commissions? They haven't commissioned me since then, but oh um I wouldn't say this is definitely the best pieces, but it's definitely something I'm most proud of. I get a message from this guy, Jonathan, I want to see if you could do a 12 theme order. And I was like, that's a whole album.
00:31:06
Speaker
All right, I'm up for it. So we went on like a three hour zoom call later that day. He was awesome to talk to. I was like, yeah, I could do that. So three months later, I pumped out an album called Tales from Fairy. And like I said, they're definitely the best pieces because I have gotten better. But it is the thing I'm most proud of because holy moly, it is 34 minutes of music. It's a whole album worth of music. And it's just amazing how I just was able to create he wanted it for like He had an arc where his like party of elves were going into the Feywilds to find the lost elf god Corellan.
00:31:43
Speaker
and so he had me create a bunch of themes for ah like a campaign theme and then we had like an overall theme and then we had a quite a few boss themes and then like pieces four five and six are called the licious sonata these are definitely the most proud of because he said he wanted like sonata type movements Uh, the first one being for the character, the second one being for like a tea party, Alice in Wonderland from hell type like situation. And then the third movement being like the actual boss battle for that character as well. And so there's motifs that I flipped around in between pieces and then there's even more pieces. And then the last two pieces, this this is my favorite part. This is what he did. So piece number 11 is when the party finds the elf god Corellan, but he's like in shambles, like a, a
00:32:32
Speaker
a show of his former self let's be like brooding sad it's supposed to tell a story however the twelve piece was not even a guarantee for the party to hear if the party has succeeded and like i guess reestablishing him in in a pantheon at gods i'm exactly sure how i went down then they would get ah the twelvelf bonus piece called um Atonement. And so it was supposed to be essentially what Lord of Cowardice was, that that first piece about Corellon, but a lot more triumphant, a lot more, I guess, godly. And it even included motifs from the Licious Sonata because that person that the sonatas was about was one of Corellon's children. and So I had a such a fun time mixing around all sorts of motifs.
00:33:17
Speaker
That's interesting to think about, like, the the music as a campaign reward. Like, yeah, the the thread that the the party follows can determine which pieces out of this album they actually get to experience. That's interesting. But but music... i like I can't reiterate this enough. Music is amazing. They're doing it for D and&D. I still do it for D and&D mostly. That's what I advertise towards. I do want to say this. Whenever I started, I searched up D and&D, music, and fiber. Only one of the person came out. Now there's about 20. People prefer everyone who's listening. I'm not a big, like, you know, in-your-face advertiser, but the one thing I will say, what you will get with me is the real personal aspect of it. I really, and and all the other customers can attest to this, I really care about what is being written. I really care about what the person wants, and I will do my dang diligence to make sure that you get what you want, and I'm gonna pour my whole heart into it.
00:34:20
Speaker
We gotta give the audience what they want. They come here for D and&D characters. So Niko, can you tell me about, you mentioned a character you played when you first started doing it. Can you tell me about maybe what's your favorite character that you've done? Heck yeah, so unfortunately that one character is said the only character he's still playing. It really matters, but I'll tell you about him. So he's a ah lightning dragonborn ranger. His name is Nikos Vastropis. The reason I went with Nikos is because my piano teacher as eccentric as he was. He mentioned that he had a friend named Niko, so it was Greek, and I'm like, okay, sure, I'll make a Greek-centric character. And so Vastrophes was like a combination of Greek words that basically means, like, lightning mountain. I don't know. But this was my first time playing D and&D. I really wasn't into, like, really creative aspect yet, so it was basically just based off me. And so definitely my favorite and really only character I've made in play from a scratch. up I mean, I guess playstyle,
00:35:17
Speaker
I really clutch to that bow. I think I'm like a ah colossal colossus layer. I forgot what the ah subclass is, but basically I get that use that role where like if I'm attacking someone that has less than 100% health, then I get like an actual 1d8 added to it. well but but My first experience at D and&D was really nice, not only you know pretending to be someone who wasn't, even though that person was essentially just based off me. And so I also akin Nikos' theme to basically be my theme. I forgot a theme. I really like it. ah Playing D&D with my friends is just a lot of fun. We're currently in the middle of my arc.
00:35:56
Speaker
where um so basically the story is i was in this city called otter peak i know dragonborn they're usually like very clan centric they don't go away from family but my mom went away from family for some reason and so i was born so single dragonborn mother didn't really grow many of the dragonborn uh met my party there was an undead crisis zombies outside the city undead rats um Going into shops, so I will be taking care of that and then there was a fiend in the government and then he framed us after I found my missing mother in the Underdark, apparently there was a whole Underdark underneath the city. Who knew? Oh my god. We have to flee the city until essentially the last like two years of the campaign have been ah Trying to find help to take back the city of Otter Peak to rescue. Well my mama, I think my mom's fine, but I
00:36:45
Speaker
But basically just trying to like amass an army. So now we're all the way across the whole world across the state in Draconia where all the Dragonborn are. Apparently the family that my mother had fled was like one of like the most powerful noble like Bridgerton-esque families in the entire of Draconia, okay? And so now... Blasted Farrick summoned his Pompski half-dog, half-beam, and patron into the middle of the foyer. And now the whole estate is on lock, magical lockdown. And so that's essentially where we left off. But it's, oh my god, and's it's so much fun. Especially when it's about me. Again, I love the attention. I'm not gonna lie.
00:37:24
Speaker
the Yeah, ah you when it comes to like combat, I just use like in the back, just firing arrows, doing the Sacred Flame. I thought Sacred Flame was a lot more powerful until I played Baldur's Gate 3, and then I missed it like half the time with Shadowheart. I thought Sacred Flame was supposed to be like the go-to. This sucks. i mean typical D and&D group composition. You got your bard, you got your tank, you got your archer, you got the guys really good with like magic and whatnot. We got the beach episodes. We got the library on fire and hell episodes. We got the um you know getting pets. We purchased our own D to this random tower. And then there was a witch that lived in a shoe-sized house that we had to fight.
00:38:12
Speaker
Also, one of them my characters father is Bahamut. Yeah, so so that was a whole kid because I was like a DM. um I only have a single mom do that with information what you will. And of course, that was a mistake for the get go. It's always a ah chance you take leaving gaps in your backstory. Yep. For sure. but But I mean, it it was based off my actual life. So that's why I was like, yeah, we'll just make a character based off me. What could go wrong? Oh, God, I'm a child of a God. That's that's why I'm so short. OK. Do you have any characters you think you'd like to make? Do you want to ever move on from this one you've made? Have you got any ideas kicking around, maybe you think might be fun? Well, I mean, the closest I've gotten to are the ones I made in Baldur's Gate 3. Of course, my first character in Baldur's Gate 3 and my first, like,
00:38:59
Speaker
Playthrough was with Nikos, but I made him a beast tamer instead. I'm not sure why oh I I did have like this other campaign with the vicar DM that we kind of played I made like a human monk Who invented a baseball variant like in a D and&D world called staff ball? because it's because I heard that one of like the official like unofficial sports that are playing a D and&D verse is like I Hey, they knock around this head of a goat. And my character saw that he was like, you we can make this a lot more wholesome than then this. What if I just like took like a little like like tree rubber ball and then hit it as far as I could with the stick really, really hard? And then it just became a whole thing. So yeah, that's how much I love baseball. I will put it into D and&D if I must. Very cool.
00:39:50
Speaker
I would I would follow up with a suggestion of when you do get a chance to ah play characters, some of the the the different options you can get for, I guess, races in D and&D can be at least like it's where I start typically for like inspiration and stuff. There's some fun stuff in there. So humans are honestly great. But you could do some very fun things in there. You could be a robot. Yeah. I mean, I mean, tiefling sounds cool. It's gonna be a while until I get into like half-laying gnome or dwarfs. Definitely wanna stay like humanoid-sized, I guess. But yeah.
00:40:33
Speaker
Okay, do you got anything else you want to you want to plug you want to talk about before we close out? I'm out of questions. That's all I've got for you. Yeah, Nicholas skill fill in on YouTube. I have basically all the commissions I made with everyone's permission. Of course, I don't make any money off of anyone's commission. I just posted there. So one other composers can read it with sheet music because I love score videos. And as well, let's just like, hey, yeah, check my YouTube channel. It's so easy to share with other people. But now I finally have my own Spotify. But there I can only put like my original originals. So I'm planning to put my my old campaign suite on there. And then I'm going to eventually release like three to four volumes of the re the orchestral remakes of that. So I'm going to put that on my Spotify as well. Again, Nicholas Gilfillin. I go by Nico or Nicholas, but not Nick. I gave up the Nick life long ago. OK, so please. then Again, no shame to any of the Knicks out there. It's just that I just and just went back to my roots. Yeah. I'm currently working on another commercial right there, so stay tuned and give me a sub, you know, if you want to see some newer stuff coming out.
00:41:40
Speaker
and uh of course um i will in my description you will find like to my fiverr if you would like to commission me uh yourself i go through fiverr because it just has it's just a great motivator having the time limit there and also you know but the money is nice like i said earlier i really don't do this for money i used musical four to write everything they just had an awesome big update so can't wait for that to happen and and then the next updates plus that percussion Sounds as well added into it. So I can't wait. It's just gonna absolutely evolve how I write music and the things I can write for other people I do mostly um high
Where to Find Nicholas's Music
00:42:16
Speaker
fantasy. That's my specialty, but I also write video games books I can write for podcast. Obviously you heard my music before you heard me start talking in this episode. Yeah and let's
00:42:27
Speaker
I think I'm doing my first piano concerto off of the Pion the character-shaped music. Also, that's also on my YouTube channel if you want to listen on repeat, uninterrupted. Without my annoying voice in there. Well, I mean.
00:42:42
Speaker
No, that wasn't trying to. I'll say it. I'll tell you. If you want to listen to the music without me getting in the way. But yeah, maybe when that when that package comes out and you got some updated instruments, maybe we'll ah we'll come back around. we'll buy a new We'll buy a new round of sounds off you. uh for a new season of the show oh new season you say oh man do they get rid of me due to negative feedback yeah the reviews are in too many nicks I will say every, all my I will say every time you've released the episode, I immediately share it on my server. I'm like, guys, look at this. It's not just so much music on there, but I actually do like the content y'all have been providing. And I listened to it every time at work. I'm like, yeah, I mean, Hey, I'll put this on. I'm like, wow, there's more aspects of D and&D. I really didn't know what it is. It's really good content. These guys have actually really good content. Like, please actually listen for their content. Not just for me. I mean, I don't mind if you're listening to me, but please listen for the content as well. It's actually like legitimately good not that. I should have started making more episodes then. For for real. ah I think that's it. I plugged everything I needed to plug. oh I said everything I needed to say, like, yeah, all my inspirations, why I started. The fact that I married my biggest fan and adorable. I love that. Yeah.
00:44:03
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Oh my God. This is so amazing. I'm so glad you brought me on to your podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was great to talk to you. Yeah. This was, this was like, uh, this was, and how do I, how do I say it in like a word? This, is this was great. This was really like, this was inspirational. This was fun. This was, so this This is great. Thank you again so much for for coming on. And also, highly recommend Tales from Faerie. It's what I've had going in the background during this entire thing. It's been very nice. I would definitely say still, one of my magnum opuses, and I mean though the whole takeaway from here is like, music
00:44:38
Speaker
should shouldn't go in hand with D and&D as much as, you know, getting your character art does. it's an I believe it's an absolute part of central function of the whole campaign. I mean, you can have it to where, like I say, it builds a character, boss battle theme, whatever play in the background, whatever you want. Just have it to yourself. But, I mean, getting alongside character art, I couldn't recommend it enough. Very cool. Well, thanks again. Yeah, thank you. Of course. Thanks for having me.
00:45:22
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Beyond the Character Sheet. We hope this episode has inspired you to create and play someone fun. This show's music was created and provided by Nicholas Gofilen. Find his work linked in the episode description. Contact us at btc.hosts at gmail dot.com with your questions and comments. Join us again next episode for more Legends of the Making.
00:45:45
Speaker
you