FlatOut Wii soundtrack . . . New album done :)

FlatOut is a popular video game series that has had some impressive titles to its name. So when I was contacted to possibly write some music for the game, I was extremely humbled.

I began to listen to past Flatout soundtracks for some inspiration. With such huge bands as "Yellowcard", "Audioslave", "Zebrahead", "Motley Crue" and more; I knew I wouldn't be able to compete with the past soundtracks. Surely fans of the series will be expecting another ass-kicking soundtrack. It will be impossible for a relatively unknown artist to meet those expectations, so I knew I just had to write something I was proud of and let the chips fall where they may.

Deciding how to approach the soundtrack was a tough decision. On the one hand, most of the series' past music has been decidedly "rock". I wouldn't describe my music as rock, but instead "rock influenced".

I decided to take those rock influences and exploit them, while keeping true to my electronic big beat roots. Since I enjoyed writing the music for Calvin Tucker's Farm Animal Racing Tournament's soundtrack so much, I decided to call my dad up and request some "rock riffs". Rock riffs are certainly more up his alley than playing the banjo was.

My pops sent over 1 large wav file of over 15 minutes of improvisational rock guitar work. As he put it, "I just hit record and started playing some shit, I hope you like something."

I was impressed with the sound my dad had achieved and quickly was able to write this track...
I Think It's Gonna Rain by Redshirt Theory

Unfortunately, my dad chose not to record to a beat click track. This meant countless hours of editing the rock riffs with a fine tooth comb. Computers are very unforgiving if the guitar is not 100% exactly on the beat. But since the sound my dad achieved was very pleasing to my ear, I battled through the tedious process of micro-sampling.

At first I didn't have any vocals in this track, nor did I think a vocal was necessary. Unexpectedly I was shifting through old samples and came across a vocal that was recorded for one of my older songs "Traveling Man". I never thought the vocal was the right fit for Traveling Man so I never used it. Luckily I didn't delete the vocal file as (like locusts) it sat idle for years. When I heard the vocal sample again I immediately recognized that it would be a great fit for the song. The vocal added a bit of a neo-punk vibe to the track which really spruced it up. One minor vocal pitch correction later, "I Think It's Gonna Rain" had vocals, and a title :)

On a side note, the new album is all done! It will include all of the Flatout
soundtrack titles and a few new mixes of some older songs---Like this new mix of Bring it Down...
Bring it Down 2010 mix by Redshirt Theory

The album will be uploaded as a zip pack and available for a free download to all my facebook followers.

Be sure to follow my blog so that you can get the updates! Or you could always Like Redshirt Theory on facebook