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Pixelated Harmony Ep 1 - Chase Bethea
13 Plays4 months ago
In the inaugural episode of Pixelated Harmony: The Voices Behind Video Game Music, I sit down with multi-award winning video game composer, game developer Chase Bethea. A Las Vegas local with over a decade of experience, we talk about Chase's start in music, some of the games that he has worked on, awards that he has won and future plans. Make sure to check out everything that Chase has going on!
Chase Bethea: https://chasebethea.com/
Chase YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/chasebethea
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/chase-bethea-1
Bandcamp: https://chasebethea.bandcamp.com/album/sunken-stones-original-soundtrack
Twitter: https://x.com/chasebethea
Pixelated Harmony YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pixelated-harmony
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smitty2447
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Transcript
Introduction to Pixelated Harmony
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to the first episode of Pixelated Harmony, the voices behind video game music. I am ecstatic to kick this series off.
Meet Chase Bathia
00:00:16
Speaker
And to kick it off, I am joined by multi-award winning video game composer, plus a bunch of hyphens, Chase Bathia. Chase, how are you doing, my friend? Welcome to the show.
00:00:28
Speaker
Thank you, Ryan. I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me, especially on the kickoff episode. So congratulations. Thank you so much. And again, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us and kind of get down into your
Chase's Musical Journey Begins
00:00:41
Speaker
journey. And I don't want to, just want to jump right in.
00:00:44
Speaker
um Obviously, let's start from the beginning and and not necessarily the the tippy top, but let's go from like high school into college. ah You know, you've been in music, you've been doing things. What does that journey look like for you? How did you, you know, decide that this is a path that I want to go down?
00:01:04
Speaker
So yes, thank you for being very specific about it. So from high school, i was working in a DAW or a digital audio workstation called Free Loops 3. Before that was hammer time.
00:01:15
Speaker
And I remember writing a piece of music. I took it to this I was taking a bus to go to school and this girl Tasha, she was a friend of mine at the time and I let her listen to it.
00:01:29
Speaker
We had put it, gave her the headphones and she said, sounds like should be in a video game.
00:01:37
Speaker
That was the first thing she said when she listened the first piece of quote or quote. computer music that I did. and ah really never escaped that sound from that point forward.
Discovering Indie Game Music
00:01:49
Speaker
and I didn't know how to do video game music or when, and and it wasn't until many years later, I would say several years later after high school, I was working at a internet media company called Music Plus Television, which turned into Blaze TV.
00:02:02
Speaker
and the One of my friends, Jason, who was IT, I was his assistant along with doing stage manager and writing music for the company and all this other stuff. He said, it sounds like it should be in Castle Crashers.
00:02:14
Speaker
So I researched and I Googled Castle Crashers. And thought, oh, this is a game that doesn't look like God of War on PS2. It doesn't look like Gears of War. It doesn't look like Shadow of the Colossus. It doesn't look like any of these games that I've known from PlayStation, PS2, Xbox 360, even though Crash Crashers was on Xbox 360. But that was the pivot that showed me this is more of a indie style rather than a triple a style looking form and so if someone thought that my music could not just be in a video game but in a specific video game my curiosity was opened even further so ironically i think i stumbled upon this whereas in
00:02:58
Speaker
I was able to pick up this engine called Mugen.
Early Career and First Game
00:03:04
Speaker
ah are you And No Limit Win Mugen is the actual engine. And you can design your own characters.
00:03:09
Speaker
Well, you could, but you could take your own characters. If you want to see Death Star versus Sephiroth Homer Simpson versus Yusuke Yodameshi from Yuji Hakusho, you could, or any character that is your favorite.
00:03:22
Speaker
and I had music that I already wrote and I implemented it without even knowing what audio implementation was at the time at all or working any games or doing any of that. And it worked. So that was my might test to myself to see, does it really fit in a video game? And I thought like, wow, it really does work. And I played my music to a level in a fighting game that I wrote.
00:03:43
Speaker
music for design and did the code was it was fantastic so from there i decided i'm going go to go back to school i'm going to learn everything i can in terms of how to write music for media because i was already kind of doing film and games and well to to mostly focus on film and games and then i decided i'm not doing film i'm just going to focus directly on games and that's before i graduate Before I graduated from Moorpark College, my last theory class told myself I'm gonna work in an industry. So I bought a book called The Complete Guide to Aaron Marks, Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks, second edition. I read half of the book.
00:04:24
Speaker
I posted my work on a game developer forum and I shipped, I got paid for it and shipped my first game called Electron Flux on mobile. have to say on mobile because there's another Electron Flux game that came out now.
00:04:35
Speaker
So I have to be specific about the one on Android and that's how i it happened. That is. So let me ask, what what made you say, you know what, I'm good on composing for film?
Choosing Game Music Over Film
00:04:49
Speaker
There was a session that my composition teacher knew the film composer Crispy Bacon. That's his name. That is a tasty name. So one of my close friends, Mike Daniels, went to the he got to go to the We both went to a Q and A that was happening as a guest speaking thing. And he actually got to go to the recording session and he told me things about this recording session that just sound extremely stressful and just out of this world. And I thought, I still want to enjoy some type of media because I already had graduated from audio engineering school at the Los Angeles recording school. I already had graduated from that.
00:05:34
Speaker
So already had one degree there and I thought, no, I don't think that's going, I want to, what happened when all the engineering school was they said, you're never going to listen to music the same. And they were right.
00:05:46
Speaker
So I thought, I don't want to not be able to enjoy any other type of media. The only thing we left books. feel So I was thinking, I better just take film out.
00:05:58
Speaker
I don't think that's going to work. And then I'm just going to focus on games ironically, but it's something that with games for me, I've been playing games since I was six years old. Most people get an instrument at that time. And I was writing music on Game Boy camera at the time too. So that kind of just fits right in to just the passion of something that I know, even though I'd seen films along with that time too, but games I just knew better and clearly because like i said from high school the first piece of music I ever wrote someone said that's what it should be like so it's a very divine message coming to me yeah that there's been hints throughout throughout the life like hmm maybe you should do this yes exactly exactly
00:06:44
Speaker
I love that that. That's fantastic. And I love too, because I know that there's some composers that, you know, it's more, not necessarily more about the music.
00:06:55
Speaker
Video games just isn't their thing. So, you know, the fact that you do play, the fact that you've developed games and you have a very unique perspective of video games and then taking it from that, you know, a music aspect, know,
00:07:11
Speaker
You know, how does that kind of help you craft and shape what a game's sound and and environment's gonna be like?
The Role of Game Design in Music
00:07:21
Speaker
just from playing many games in my time, i understand what it's supposed to be based off of playing for so long, playing many different styles, playing different, owning many different games that I've had in my life.
00:07:35
Speaker
And just have a knack of understanding what the game is asking for. So I typically relate this to be like a game whisper hours. And if I'm just knowing or a game psychic even probably of just knowing what this is supposed to feel like and how is it supposed to match the art form yeah because and i guess it depends too because you i mean you've worked with a ton of people um and and so you obviously the conditions are going to change you're going to get a bunch of information you might be able to get your hands on the game beforehand
00:08:13
Speaker
You know, what I guess would you say is something that you prefer when creating ah for a game? Do you kind of like to have a base or an understanding of it or just, hey, you could throw something on a piece of paper. Here's an explanation of what we're going for the game.
00:08:33
Speaker
Run with it. It's changed now since we're doing it for 14 years. And I think what matters to me is actually the personality and the the mindset of the developer before the game was even approached or just what is it called the prompted or I'm getting a vertical slice or game design documents getting to know how people think really matters to me because then I'm able to understand everything else underneath why what they were influenced by why they were influenced by it what is their background what does it come from that kind of connection in terms of a working relationship
00:09:14
Speaker
is
00:09:18
Speaker
Dermot Luddy, Steering the project in terms of how it's actually the music is going to evolve because their thinking process is going to determine i am seeing work ethic and i'm seeing how
00:09:36
Speaker
passionate or focused or serious they are to actually complete it. It's one thing to get something and just, you know, we like your work and we're doing this type of game. But I just for some reason, I think of just mostly matured in terms of who are you really?
00:09:56
Speaker
Who? What have you done? And why are you doing it Well, I think that's an interesting point that you make, especially, and and you're talking, you've been in the industry for a long time.
00:10:12
Speaker
It's changed a ton. And especially now, and I'll say if more
Fun and Creativity in Game Music
00:10:16
Speaker
so from a consumer side, I'm a guy that will sometimes will buy into an early access.
00:10:22
Speaker
I've been, I've gotten into a Kickstarter. So I've invested financially and emotionally a bit too into this game just to see them crash and burn or to never come out. So that's minimal. We're talking about you, you know, going, taking hours of your craft and time so you would have to be more selective about who you're working with hey let me know a little bit about what you guys are about because want to make sure that i'm not just going around wasting my time exactly
00:10:56
Speaker
That's exactly it. That is what i found to be most important because it affects the creativity a lot, at least for me. I'm not one of those video game composers that is hungry for trying to just do the next thing and the next thing the next thing.
00:11:11
Speaker
i think I'm thankful to have made. I mean, I've made things happen out of Plato and right I'm very grateful that I was able to create that and the Plato is work of art that people have appreciated and has changed people lives in a way.
00:11:26
Speaker
And so it's important to me at this point where I'm approached with the project just to kind of have people who have a very specific vision and a mindset and also ah work ethic that it doesn't have to match mine, but it could be similar to.
00:11:42
Speaker
That will embolden the creativity and experience for the player at the end. I feel more because It's not coming from any place that's disingenuous and it's not coming from a place of them just creating a project and making the game. I think a lot of people forgot that what a definition of a game means is that a game is supposed to be fun.
00:12:04
Speaker
It's an escape from something that you are trying to wind down from of a day and have a good time. And what I've discerned from players and developers, team development teams is I'm a developer as well as I work with the music.
00:12:20
Speaker
I was that I just they forgot that it's supposed to be fun. is are you having fun? Is it making you feel good if it's making if it's not doing that, then there's something missing there.
00:12:35
Speaker
You have validated my reason for not playing horror games. It's too much stress. It's too much anxiety. don't need that in my life. So thank you for validating. Yeah, that's fine. Some people find it exhilarating. I will watch people play them. Yeah. See, that's fun for you. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I still get to enjoy it, but I don't have to live it.
00:13:00
Speaker
Basically, Go through it. Yeah.
Dynamic Music and Player Experience
00:13:02
Speaker
i I wanted to ask, and you kind of hinted at it a little bit, you know, being a developer as well, but what does that process, I guess, look like? Are you ever, and and, you know, as you're crafting the music that's going along with these stories, do you ever have any kind of input ah with the devs or, you know, working together to, you kind of married the two together. Cause I I've seen, ah one example that I think of is like a, like a journey, uh, where the music plays such an integral role is in itself a game mechanic.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yes, so I specialize in dynamic music, which is or adaptive or interactive music. And so I've done several games where then that typically has changed with the mechanics overall.
00:13:56
Speaker
And I can speak about, so for the latest game, a Ground Zero, for example, this is a colony sim management game. And so what the program I worked with is that the very first level of this game is that when you have your UI and you have your items, the music is going to change based off of what those items actually, what you're using to get progress through the game, the music is going to change based on what items you select.
00:14:23
Speaker
And when you select those items, based off of that, it seamlessly transitioned to another. I've designed this because I didn't want it to be this basic loops and people are going to be designing for hours and hours and colony management and building based crafting games.
00:14:41
Speaker
So I kind of innovated without knowing that I innovated in that genre. And then I took it a step further, whereas then it's more environmental and combat for the second floor.
00:14:52
Speaker
The third floor then centers around themes in terms of what's happening within the story. And then it continues to musically dynamically design between there as you progress through the game even further.
00:15:05
Speaker
And that's just one example for the game. But I've been doing this since my project on reality, whereas in based on your decisions throughout the game, you'll have a you'll have a different ending based off of what you decided and the instruments will kind of reflect that if you chose to be in the virtual world or the real world within the game itself.
00:15:27
Speaker
And i have real instruments that I had hired a musician for and that I played myself and then then there's virtual instruments that come from the computer. And depending on how you actually progress through the visual novel,
00:15:41
Speaker
there's going to be a specific instrument palette that happens near the end of the game for you. So that's something that I've tied within. me I've always found a way. Starting in the School for Witches is going another game that's out that I did it with a combat system.
00:15:58
Speaker
And I even did this in I Can't Escape Darkness. So um like I said, when i played a lot of games, I'm able to kind of just bring something through a what if thought in an experimental form that I feel the player would enjoy by just being basic loops.
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think what did I have such a great appreciation for, you know, not only not only music, but also like sound design and and other elements that really play into crafting these environments, these moods, and to be able to directly affect the game and the players because like you're right.
00:16:43
Speaker
the loop of something like where you're, you're doing colony management or some sort of management, it's a lot of, it can get monotonous. It can, you know, a lot of the same things being able to have to spice it up and and have some variety, even in the sound keeps that, that loop interesting. It keeps it fun for folks.
00:17:01
Speaker
You know, i think we're going to keep going back to fun um because it keeps it fun for folks. Yeah. And, and, and I love that. Um, you you spoke to that You spoke a bit about um doing digital music.
00:17:17
Speaker
You've also spoke about physically doing music, and I know that you've physically gone places and done music as well. ah What does that look like instrument-wise?
Creating Unique Sounds
00:17:26
Speaker
imagine you play a ton of instruments and...
00:17:30
Speaker
you know how How is it kind of working with a physical instrument and working with the the digital, you know the DAWs, and working in that system and kind of marrying the two?
00:17:45
Speaker
comes from just an ideology of what I had as a child. I had a toy chest and that obviously the toy chest had toys in it. So i kind of recreated that with instruments that I've collected from different places I've visited or that were gifted to me.
00:18:04
Speaker
And I just... have like ah it's basically just a storage tub but the storage tub is has these instruments in it you wouldn't know what it is until you saw it and i open it up and so it has really twos and kalimbas and hand drums and maracas that i've had since the child a native flute and other things that i just tinker with and experiment and the next thing i know i'm i like the sound i want to record it i figure out how to record it and implement it into the score and it really just adds this nice freshness to it now it's now it's just it's the other side of having fun it's the cre it's the playing with your toys and figuring out what is
00:18:52
Speaker
just doing something and then the virtual sound offer just different timbres of things that you typically would have probably eventually create from those live instruments but with a lot of processing but that's already done for you or if it's synthesized which synthesizes our hardware mostly anyway before they come virtual so It's the same thing, just at a faster pace.
00:19:17
Speaker
But to I blend them if they're needed. i don't do things just because I feel like it needs it. unless I do feel, though, at this point that every there's some kind of live instrument in any score that I have.
00:19:30
Speaker
So that actually just brings a bit of humanism to it and also adds to the signature sound that I have because I don't play instruments like other people play. And even though I'm a multi-instrumentalist, I'm still generous in most of it. i mean, the most prominent instruments that I know how to play at least are piano and alto saxophone.
00:19:48
Speaker
But I have a bass guitar. I have a guitar. I have. Yeah. I play sax as well. Nice. Yeah. Well, you're right. but god and youre You're right. I love the fact that, you know, that you have you have those staples, but you're not, you know, bound to that. You you've literally collected instruments and sounds over the years just kind of use them when you're creating.
00:20:17
Speaker
And.
Bossa Nova Soundtrack Creation
00:20:18
Speaker
You know, I really want to ah touch on, ah um I'm totally spaced and off, On the peril of parents. I popped that on and like instantly my body started moving, grooving. I'm making dinner. I got it. The family's in the living room, you know. We're vibing.
00:20:39
Speaker
ah Tell me, what was the inspiration behind that? And such a, I mean, it's such a rich sound. It's so like, you know, it's just, ah, it feels good. It feels good.
00:20:51
Speaker
yeah Thank you, Ryan. I really appreciate that. It's interesting. during the time i was studying the process of it the developer glenn henry of sprite ranch decided he was going to do a game based off of a game jam he started it was called on the peril of scholastic parrots was the research paper by a specific doctor and so he took that concept of what if you played as an ai and you have to prove yourself to humanity
00:21:24
Speaker
by solving puzzles and the reference he gave me was this bossa nova and i was i've always i've if people familiar with my discography and my gamography i've kind of done little boston nova things the past several years ah get one track like in the ground there's a track that i've kind of played around with it to get that there but to do an entire boston nova soundtrack for a game is a dream come true because i love that genre so much and so i felt like I had to bring modernize it, but keep it authentic and honest with it being for a game because I haven't ever heard a bossa nova soundtrack for a game.
00:22:11
Speaker
And I played a lot of games. We hear, like I said, there's some tracks might be there might be a track for a game, but not an entire soundtrack. So studying Antonio Carlos Hobbim and Ivan Lins and Stan Getz and couple other pioneers of that genre it's funny that you were talking about dinners that i was making dinner for someone and i had i was studying it while i was making dinner one time when i really started the project and had that and then i went through the process of
00:22:48
Speaker
then
00:22:51
Speaker
thinking of what instruments would fit in a texture timbre form that is not typical but will sound familiar so actually played penny whistle because it was close to the flute that i of the sound that typically would be in jazz i did play alto saxophone i i mean i wrote everything on but i also ah created different shakers by rubbing my hands together and then i had a solution it's like an african shaker but it wasn't exactly like a shaker you have it so ah by rubbing my hands together and doing the actual like different shakers i combined that so it really has a ah very unique sound specifically i even hired my mom to sing and she wrote a piece
00:23:36
Speaker
in Portuguese. i didn't even know my mom could sing in Portuguese. And she grew for throw gave it it back to me and sang was like, I didn't even know you could speak Portuguese or sing in Portuguese. surprise yeah so it was a big surprise for even the developer he loved it and so that tone and also was say playing mandolin instead of guitar i did hire a musician to play guitar the very first theme but then by meta nuances i had found the tone that i was looking for and that's why i was saying modernizing it keeping it for a game but also keeping all that sensitivity and honoring those that pioneered that sound that i love so much homage in a way is to say to what boston nova really is for the 21st century is is music something that runs in your family
00:24:30
Speaker
Yes. My mom is mostly the musician in the family. My father is a music connoisseur. He definitely understands it very well. But he's not a musician. Right. i was going to say, his my mom, my mom, and and love you, mom, but you sing it? Come on now. let's let's let' thats a Good try. Good try.
00:24:53
Speaker
That's awesome. And I'm so glad you said it was bossa nova because I couldn't put my finger on what genre it was. it It really gave me like Caribbean vibes. um i'm i'm um'm I'm half Guyanese.
00:25:08
Speaker
So I've got folks like in in Trinidad and and in that area and stuff like that. So I'm familiar with that sound. And like, I'm telling you, brother, you nailed it because that's where you took me. That is where you took me.
00:25:19
Speaker
And I'm Bayesian. Well, my mom's side of the family is Bayesian, so family's from Barbados. And the developer's from Jamaica as well. Oh, okay. the sound is very important to kind of also give to what that's supposed to be as well.
00:25:35
Speaker
So, that yes, thank you for mentioning that too. No, I love that that that. I absolutely love that. um That's fantastic to know um in terms of that and and just that game as well.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah. Is there, i mean, let's let's quickly just, is there any other, like, in terms of, I know that you've worked on a ton of games that are out there, but are there any that really, you know, it's hard to, it's like, it's that would be like trying to say, this is my favorite child, but what are some of the, what are some of the games that you've worked on that have really like resonated with you?
00:26:20
Speaker
I know it's such an open, I know it's such an open, open question. Let me, let me, let me narrow it down a little bit. Here within the last, let's just say three years, because we know that music industry, a lot of stuff is changing and is changing quickly.
00:26:36
Speaker
Within the last few years, what, what are two projects um that, that really stood out to you and that really resonated with you?
Emotional Impact of Music
00:26:49
Speaker
It's very hard to answer this question. It's not because it's mostly like you were saying, like choosing your favorite child, but it mostly comes from ah perspective of two things. One, what I went through through the process to create the soundtrack, and the other thing of how it's affected others in their lives and the response that I got externally.
00:27:11
Speaker
So I would have to say those two projects are on the Peril of Parrots and Star at Ander School for Witches.
00:27:20
Speaker
And yeah, and that so can you tell us a little bit you will the second one that you said? Stardander School for Witches. Stardander School for Witches.
00:27:34
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about that game. I am not familiar with that. Sure. It's an early access right now. It's not done. But I finished the score two years ago.
00:27:47
Speaker
Excuse me. And It's about, it takes a Harry Potter of approach, you which is going through witch school for seven years. It's a visual novel RPG.
00:27:59
Speaker
This is a folk hybrid soundtrack that I wrote, and I'll be releasing it this year. so it like I said, is just some magical whimsical game.
00:28:13
Speaker
Whereas in you're just going through the story and the narrative as far as you least can go with whatever is released. But the process of it was,
00:28:26
Speaker
experimenting with folk music and making it magical and then aligning it to what witches typically would embrace. The dynamic music design that comes with the combat system is very unique and it has a very specific sound in terms of instruments aligning to the elements fire ice wind and water and and as well as when you're doing go well in combat all the instruments enter when you're not doing well the instruments are subtracted but also like drums represent earth violins and strings represent fire and mostly kind of fall in line with the rest of the instrumentation that you typically hear when you're playing so that's what started into school for riches is about
00:29:16
Speaker
Okay, that's how I definitely know some people that would be interested in that. um And you said that it's in at early access right now on, is it just Steam or?
00:29:27
Speaker
It's just Steam. Okay, okay. I like that. I like that idea. was was it was it Did you have fun i you know working in like kind of like this magical space and and being able to play in that sandbox?
00:29:43
Speaker
I wouldn't say it was fun. it was very challenging. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. This is coming from like, wait a second. That is work for you. Like he said, this is work.
00:29:54
Speaker
It was work in many different ways, but it took three years to write the soundtrack and went through a lot of emotional things. that you you can hear is like what it resonates with you. And as I wrote through the process, I wrote through what was happening in my life.
00:30:10
Speaker
And so it aligns very well, I think, with that type of game because the those characters are going through, the things they're going through with however the story is progressing too.
00:30:23
Speaker
but i've never written a folk hybrid score before so we've got vocalists my mom is singing on that one again too i'm playing mandolin on that as well i'm playing zither i'm playing other virtual instruments the way that i'm actually conflating the sound and as it evolves, is it's unlike anything I've ever written before.
00:30:46
Speaker
And I think that's what happened with On the Peril Parrots is that when I'm challenged with something that is not a typical, hey, we want these type of, it's OK to have references, but it's it's not so direct and I have a little bit of creative freedom.
00:31:07
Speaker
And whatever comes as the creative, whatever is happening in your life typically seeps into what you are indicting as well. Yeah, absolutely. I think that, and that's in so many different forms of art where, you know, I think every piece has a bit of, of the artists in it as well, but just kind of their ups and down and what's, what's going on in their personal lives at the time can really, you know, affect that art and have some sort of way. And, and to me, that's part of the beauty of it.
Industry Challenges and Collaboration
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah. It's being able to go along that journey, and it's an emotional journey as well for for artists. So just being able to share that art with other folks and then have that, then they have emotions towards it one way or the other and how it affects them.
00:32:02
Speaker
It's such a beautiful process. Yeah, you're right. I think the last deeply emotional, I think, which I guess it' not it wasn't as deep as Stardander, so I have to correct myself there. But then that's emotional experience that I think that started with some of the soundtracks was the reality.
00:32:18
Speaker
And I always wonder, it's good to see people like i've been hired based off of that soundtrack. People with Bandcamp Friday happens, they support my work, they get that soundtrack. And it's good to see that it's kind of the under the radar type of project. lot of people know that one but that was the one i remember hiring musicians i was going through something in that their time too but that was the game where i was saying when i talked about the external part of it like on the peril parrots the one they were for the external and the reality project it made my best friend cry never shares his feelings he never says anything like that he he does play games as much as i've been playing games we grew up together
00:32:59
Speaker
and When you write music for a game and your best friend tells you, it made him cry based off of like I was saying how the decisions that he made with him in the game, whatever instrumentation that came together near the end dynamically for him emotionally brought him to tears.
00:33:19
Speaker
So that is what I was talking about in terms of whatever is coming through from you is going to resonate with someone else. Yeah, absolutely. That is, yeah, that would, especially, especially somebody that's so close to you as well, uh, to be able to have that kind of effect and, and them, ah you know, feeling that as well as, uh,
00:33:44
Speaker
yeah I mean, ah how do you how do you even describe that? That's such a connectivity between people and and art and everything. it's you know i That's the kind of stuff that I i love to hear about and and see because I emotionally connect to that. There's there's songs that you know and music that like I can hear the first couple of notes, instantly my eyes start watering. I'm just like... oh It just, you know it you know, it just takes you somewhere.
00:34:12
Speaker
And to be able to have such a strong effect on people, ah again, to me, is why we need to highlight this. And, you know, kind of...
00:34:24
Speaker
moving away a little bit from the games i want to talk about the fact number one you perform live at indycade and then you started streaming on their channel once a week you've talked about streaming and just being in the industry as long as you have and how much it has changed uh you know tell us a little bit about what that looks like how it is for you and and just being in that space in general yeah
00:34:55
Speaker
um without giving too much away because i wrote a book about this it's coming out this year oh let's go so okay thank you it it's interesting to navigate and it's difficult to navigate as well the reason is because I believe the industry operates off of fear and not as much confidence as it should. Very intelligent people there, but for some reason, fear takes over.
00:35:29
Speaker
and In terms of what just kind of just going back, I've, yes, it performed at Indicative. It a really good opportunity and experience. It's really cool to do that. is streamed on their their channel for about a year or two, showcasing the work that I do as a video game composer. And I've been streaming my work as a video game composer, showing how I write video game music. And I did that to educate people from players to other development teams that you're not just pressing one note, a lot goes into the work. And so I did that for 10 years.
00:35:56
Speaker
And that was where I was mostly just trying to just... It also focused on how I'm writing in different styles, how fast I could write and getting also other pieces of work done while was doing something. It was ah it was like a trifold type of thing.
00:36:11
Speaker
But in terms of navigating the industry up to to this point, ah It goes back to I said like the mindset and mentalities and what I discovered mostly is just a lot of people just need to learn to mature and treat themselves with respect and consistency and.
00:36:33
Speaker
reciprocity before they can kind of collaborate with others and mature in the way of just being do treating themselves well used to be the adage of like treat others the way you want to be treated well i don't think that that's necessarily true because if they're treating others i'm sorry i'm just going to use x but if they treat others like then then I don't know why you would want them to treat you like shit. But then if that happens, then you have all they're in litigation and then all these other just dramatic things are happening for over the years. And so with that comes trauma and trauma comes fear.
00:37:09
Speaker
So would say the maturity aspect comes from stop, think about how you're treating yourself. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you eating well? Are you sleeping?
00:37:21
Speaker
Are you doing things that you want to do not because you have to do? Are you having a quality of life? Is there balance? And if it starts from within, then you mostly will attract quality of people that want to collaborate with you at the level of that.
00:37:35
Speaker
and the fear will dissipate and and the focus and the collaboration will be more creative and proper. So that is kind of kind of summarized in a way.
00:37:46
Speaker
And it can you can be seen as a conspectus of what I may have gone through in the industry, but also where I've matured and in that respect too, because i came into this industry with a lot of professionalism and thinking that that was going to be the case where people respond to you on time or everything happens in life. But it comes to a point where as in, if you're doing at least three follow-ups past that and you're not hearing one response of something that's very quick, you have email on your phones and say, sorry, I want to let you know I saw this, I'll get back you when I can and you do.
00:38:21
Speaker
yeah, that's that whole maturity type of professionalism work ethic thing I was speaking about. So there's so many different avenues. We could do a whole nother episode about this, but it's mostly a conspectus of what it's like and that's yeah typically what it's like and hopefully it will change for the better i think it's very few people that have the mentality of understanding how to work with that rhetoric and that that professionalism that is the standard of how would how do you treat yourself versus you how you treat others and how it perpetuates forward
00:39:00
Speaker
Absolutely.
Seeking Collaborative Partners
00:39:01
Speaker
And speaking of collaborations, I've got to ask, if you had one person you could collaborate with, who would it be?
00:39:11
Speaker
What would you guys collaborate on?
00:39:17
Speaker
It would be the person that understands, respect, consistency, and reciprocity. And whatever comes from that project will probably be a good project. ah Yo, those are the facts right there, my friend. Chase, where can people find you You know, please let people know where they can find, you know, your socials, all that good stuff, brother.
00:39:42
Speaker
Thank you, yes. So the book is called Student of the Game, How to Navigate the Video Game Industry the Past Decade. It will be released this year. And so look out for that. I'll be doing hopefully more runs on press runs about what that's going to be. Hopefully doing a book tour and everything.
00:39:59
Speaker
You can find me at ChaseBethea, bethea c h as s e like the bank, B as in boy, as in Eric, T as in Tom, H as in Harry, as in Eric, A as in Apple, ChaseBethea.com. I also have a YouTube page where I'll possibly be posting more behind-the-scenes work, talks that I've given, and more performances, as well as other cool fun things of when i go to these conferences what my experience is like i also have a patreon where i'll be doing behind the scenes thoughts of what navigating what it's like in the field so you can do patreon.com slash chase bethea support my work on even or chase bethea.bandcamp.com and also pandora and other streaming websites except spotify
00:40:48
Speaker
No, awesome. and And I will make sure we're going go ahead. We'll put those links all up in the description and all that stuff. So you can go and check out everything that Chase has going on again, Chase. Thank you so much for taking the time, sitting down, jibber jab with me. i hope you had a great time, my friend.
00:41:06
Speaker
ah did. Thank you, Ryan. Again, honor to be inaugural episode for you and my best wishes to many more a great episodes. Thank you so much. That will do it for Pixelated Harmony.
00:41:17
Speaker
Until next month, see you next time.