Last week we interviewed some Pixel Mixers who took part to #21daysofVGM challenge launched by Video Game Music Academy, but not all of them! For those who don’t know, the challenge consists in writing a short piece of music every day for 21 days in a row, in order to make composition part of the daily routine of a musician.
Like the last time, I invite you to press the “play” button here below to enjoy a selection of the entries during your reading!
Lord Bif is a veteran among Pixel Mixers, delving in rock, folk, jazz and wherever his moustache senses the rhythm. “It’s been a while that I wanted to compose more, to work on my skills, try new things, get new challenges. This #21Daysofvgm was the perfect occasion to do it steadily, forcing myself not to postpone it for tomorrow and break my procrastination side! I was surprised how some creativity came out of this challenge pretty easily. It gave me motivation, and this motivation built creativity. It allowed me to create things I didn’t think I would be capable of. So this, as well as self-confidence, was some of the greatest benefits in participating!”
“Finding time was hard somedays, but that was the point: no excuse! It didn’t need to be a polished 5-minute song everyday. That leads to the other hardest part: saying “it’s done, lets’ put it online”, even if it was far from perfect. But it’s a skill to have too, and I’m glad this challenge forced me to do that.”
He leaves us with a final word of encouragement: “Composing is awesome. If you’re a musician, even if it’s just for yourself, for fun, try to compose things sometimes, it will make you do progress in so many ways!
Listen to Lord Bif’s entries
If you say Dewey Newt, you say groove. Despite not being on time for the official subscription, Dewey decided to throw his retro sounds in the ring and have everyone bob their head to them regardless.
“Joining the challenge was a spur of the moment decision: everybody in the Pixel Mixers Discord started posting their tracks, and it looked fun, so I joined in as well! It seems like I got just a general boost in skills (laughs). I feel like I’m a little better at coming up with an idea, a little better at taking what I hear in my head and writing it down, a little faster at producing a track. etc.. Just some overall really good practice!”
“The hardest part for me it was finding the time. I had to travel for my job for two weeks during the challenge, and that really limited how much time I could spend making something. Even with 20-30 minutes, some kind of musical idea was possible! Great job to everybody who participated, I’m glad I could join in on the fun!”
Listen to Dewey’s entries
Last, but hopefully not least, today is Danilo Ciaffi, who is totally not interviewing himself for this article. “I took on this challenge because I wanted to test the part of music making that is more of a craft than just ‘having the inspiration’. I also seized the occasion to explore as many genres as I could, which one does not always do when composing in the little time he has, and this was surely my favourite part. On the other hand this was also the hardest part, because usually composing something in a genre you are familiar with is much faster than coming up with something you’ve never tackled, but again, this was part of the fun! I also had the chance to confront myself with many other talented musicians, give and receive feedback and learning from my peers, which surely gave me much as a composer”.
Listen to Danilo’s entries
To conclude, the moral of the story confirms to be the same: even though finding the time is hard, composing is definitely a rewarding activity for any musician.
If you enjoyed what you heard, I suggest you check out the artists featured or any other artists who took part in the challenge: the amount of talent will surely surprise you!
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