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Archived here for posterity, A short, sweet interview with some interesting tidbits about January, FEZ, and work philosophy.
On FEZ' Music
There’s certainly a bit of ambient music in Fez, and this left some ripe moments for turning up the energy level, so to speak. I also let silence do a lot of the ambient work. Another composer probably could have squeezed out another hour of really sparse ambient material, but I chose to use silence and locational sounds in lots of places instead. I think a big part of trying to convey the appropriate atmosphere had to do with letting things breathe, and letting the player take things in on their own terms. I really tried to give the music this sort of feeling, where the tempo drags along at times, and is not always begging the player for attention. I have trouble making it through most albums/soundtracks for this reason, because they ask for too much energy from the listener. I’m usually spent about 20 minutes in, so I wanted to do something that could stretch further.
On Working in a Niche
All of the greatest and best opportunities I’ve had in my life have come through writing music for games. Working in niches can often be a benefit rather than a detriment, because if you have something to say, you’re less likely to be thrown into an endless sea of obscurity. Staking out territory on your own in the general realm of “music” is much more difficult. When we can share a common interest, like video games, I think it makes it easier to communicate with people.
On January
January was an idea I doodled in my notebook, about a kid walking through town licking snowflakes. One day a couple of years ago I decided I would try to run through a tutorial for Flixel, and I was able to morph some space shooter code into the beginning of a little game about licking snowflakes. I shortly thereafter decided to make it a musical game, which seemed like the most natural progression for me. I really wanted to capture the feeling of being alone in the snow, which is something I have fond memories of as a kid. The music system generates new notes based on the previous notes, keeping things relatively fresh and ambiguous. The player controls the rhythm of the music (with his virtual tongue), and can lick special snowflakes to generate octaves and chords, as well as change the wind patterns.