heya, I'm RichaadEB - I make metal covers of video game music for a living. AMA!

Hey dad :) I could always just ask you this in person but I thought your fans as well as me would love to know. Any plans to put together a RichaadEB band and play your music live sometime in the future? <3 love ya

I have considered this!! I've been asked by a few different conventions now to play live shows but I hadn't been prepared. It could still (very likely) happen in the future.

I do have an ONLINE BAND consisting of myself, ace waters, josiah mcdaniel and austin eruption called Involved in the Troubles, and we've also discussed the possibility of playing some of our music live at some point.

MAGFest, do it!!!

they really wanted me to!! I wasn't quite ready though - maybe 2018!

You did a number of collabs for your Determination album. Are there any other musicians would like to do a collab with (e.g. Erock, Jared Dines, Fluff, insaneintherain)?

I've actually already collabed with everyone you mentioned there except fluff! lol

I'd love to work with some non-youtube musicians like paul waggoner or the polyphia kids but as far as youtube goes: Rob Scallon, Steve Terreberry, Fluff, Keith Merrow, Ola Englund, folks like that.

We need a final fantasy collab with Haunted Shores!

super duper downnnnn

Can we get more Chrono Trigger and older Final Fantasy covers?

I very much plan on making many more early squaresoft game covers. Plenty. Maybe even an album or two ;)

[removed]

go to bed rachel

What inspired you to begin making Metal covers to begin with? I am rather curious!

I was sitting in my room at my mom's place with my shiny new Bachelor's Degree in networking whatever watching game grumps back in 2013. I remember I had been thinking about all these YouTubers and speedrunners and other cool people all my age, all doing stuff they're passionate about for a living. I wanted to join in too because passion like that is contagious.

I had been playing guitar in my bedroom for 10 years and realized that maybe I could start making progressive metal covers of video game music like powerglove does - then I just kinda started doing that.

Perhaps you already answered this, but have you been able to make a living out of it? Is it your full-time job, and is it able to support your family? If not, I really hope it does soon, because I just perused your playlist and your work is fantastic.

full time job, with plenty leftover to live comfortably.

have you been able to make a living out of it? Is it your full-time job, and is it able to support your family?

full time job, with plenty leftover to live comfortably.

Ok, but then why does your Patreon state:

As much as I'd love to do this for free forever, I'll likely have to get a job on the side to support myself without some kind of income. This is where you can help me out.

https://www.patreon.com/RichaadEB

That was there a year ago, but it's still kinda true. The wave of popularity those earlier undertale videos brought me has slowed significantly, so I'll likely be relying on stuff like patreon more and more as time goes on - unless my channel gets to the point where I don't need to worry about it. Not sure when that'll be.

Can't forget what started it all when you did your first video of Flight of the Bumblebee.

yes hello who is this

Hey man, I've listened to Determination on Google Play with a subscription. How much do you get from that? Would it be better for me to support you through bandcamp?

I'm not really sure how much I get but honestly it's not a big deal to me - listen to it however ya want to!

Being such a large guitar man now, what are your top tips for small guitar men, boys, people?

Seek out new artists, find other guitarists with styles that click with you. You pick up on their style and it affects your own. Influences are neat like that.

What's your favorite thing to do when you're not working on new music? Love your work, by the way!

tbh I'm usually just browsing reddit or procrastinating some other way when I'm not arranging covers, although I did recently pick up pokemon moon and will likely be playing that a lot.

Other than that I'll go for a lot of walks, it helps me with arranging

What are your favorite subreddits?

rage, cringe, publicfreakout, wtf, quityourbullshit, iamverysmart, justiceporn, justiceserved, basically subreddits which feature people acting fuckin weird

Pizza with pineapple or without?

withouttttttttt wtf i'll never understand

Who's your favorite neighbor in Animal Crossing?

Keep up the good work, my dude.

i cant remember her name but the doe in new leaf was kawaii as heck

Fauna? I have her in my town right now!!

THAT HER

Hi Rich, compared to your UT covers, your covers from other video games have way fewer views than those UT covers. What do you think about it? Also, which guitarist is your biggest inspiration?

I kinda figured that covers past undertale wouldn't do as well because obviously a cover from a squaresoft game from 1996 is not going to perform as well as one from a hype game from 2015. It's a little disheartening but honestly I'm not too upset about it.

Biggest inspiration guitarist wise would be Paul Waggoner and Luke Hoskin

I am a huge fan of Paul Waggoner as well! He's the lead guitarist in my favorite band, Between the Buried and Me, I assume you're familiar?

of courseeeeee, fave band here as well

Let's say burgers and pizza don't exist anymore. In this reality, what is your favorite food?

;)

Ike's Sandwiches, specifically "The Murph".

SO, Rich, obviously you're probably gonna get asked this question a lot so I figured why not, how long have you been playing guitar? What advice would give to anyone who wants to be a youtube musician? Lastly, do you learn all songs by ear or do yoy sometimes look up sheet music for them?

I've been playing guitar for about 12 years now. My advice is to any aspiring youtube musician is to realize that there's nothing wrong with compromise.

The music industry isn't really dictated by record labels like it was just a decade ago, it's mostly dictated by fan interest - for better or for worse. If you gotta make a justin bieber to get those first views, there's nothing wrong with that! Make it fun and interesting for yourself!

edit: also I learn and arrange by ear.

Thank you for answers to my multiple questions papa, I appreciate you and all ya do <3

Also I realize I forgot one thing . _ ." This one is kinda simple...? If you were a beginner, would you rather just get your stuff out there first, or would you rather have been playing for some time before putting your work there? Sorry for the extra question

I personally had been playing to myself mosty for like 10 years before I even considered playing to other people, I always figured that people would prefer to listen to an accomplished player as opposed to a newer one.

However, if you wanna start doing covers or originals, you should do it! You'll have a catalogue of growth you can reference whenver you want!

What instruments do you play?

Really just guitar and to a lesser extent drums and bass. Past that I mostly use VSTs and synthetic instruments, but I can generally get by with just about any other stringed instrument similar enough to a guitar.

Favorite Pokémon??

What was the first instance where you got into playing music in terms of first instrument or inspiration? Mines was just a silly choice of signing up for middle school concert band, and now I play/make music for a hobby at the moment once I got my guitar and bass. Basically, what was your musical coming (awakening?) to compose/cover tracks from or for different franchises?

~GoldenSilver

First instance of playing music was I was 13 and saw some cool kids playing green day at a middle school talent show and I wanted to be a cool kid too so I asked for a guitar to impress the cool kids but then it was actually fun to play.

Will you cover 7 GRAND DAD and Snow Halation?

i am not familiar with this memery

If you had to play a gig at a Video Game Convention, what songs would you want to play and who's playing with you? (Bass, Drums, Guitars, etc)

[REDACTED]

Oh hi Rich. How does your recording setup look like? What DAW do you use and what plugins? Any tricks you have?

Also, do you ever plan on making original music (as in not covers) in the future again?

I use Reaper for my DAW and mostly use free plugins alongside the line 6 plugins I got from my UX-1 (yes, still.) One fun little trick that was showed to me by a friend is to put a tube saturation plugin like u-he Satin on the master bus in studio mode. It excited the high end really well for metal stuff.

I use an Axe-Fx 2 Ultra+ extravaganza or whatever its called but tbh you can get by with a rocksmith cable as your interface if ya know what youre doing.

are you my dad

I find it difficult to keep motivation to work on my own projects especially when I feel like I'm being held back by my computer running like crap when I get a few plugins down. What's your workflow when approaching a new cover and how do you keep motivated to finish it on time?

can you prove that i'm not

oh man, that's a goodun. I generally approach projects starting with the drum arranging and go from there. I usually arrange in my head instead of laying it down on paper first - then the arrangement feels less rigid and I can just play with ideas as I go.

It's weird but I don't really have a sense of "motivation" doing this stuff, it's just fun for me. I'll find myself in my DAW laying stuff down at like 2am and completely forget that I'm technically working overtime. If you can make your job fun, it doesn't feel like a job anymore.

But as far as extra motivation goes, validation in the comments and elsewhere is always really nice, and I don't wanna let all the kids waiting for a new cover down <3

Play your covers at my funeral?

kk lemme know when yuo die

Hey, big fan here. I just wanted to say that your covers are some of my absolute favourite video game covers (especially Battle Against a True Hero, Core, Another Medium, Waterfall, and Spear of Justice). I have a few questions for you:

1. Would you consider making covers for Kingdom Hearts music?
2. Do you have any plans to return to making Undertale covers, again?
3. Was the Death By Glamour video as fun to make as it looks?
4. If you were a vegetable, what kind of vegetable would you be?

Thanks! Keep up the great work!

1.) its very possible! I haven't touched on that franchise yet and I know there are a lot of folks looking for covers!

2.) very unlikely. I think 17-18 covers is enough for one game.

3.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l92JMRHbT_o

4.) i'd be a celery

Hey Dude! What has been the most rewarding thing about starting Youtube? Like, What is the thing that makes you the happiest about doing all this?

well WOULD YOU lOOK AT THAat ITS MR. jEROD FRICKIN GOSH DARN DRUMBOI™

everything man. my life is so much better now compared to a year ago. I literally can't think of an aspect at this point that I'm unhappy with other than YouTube itself being unpredictable.

How is it actually like being a cover artist in Youtube? Like, how do you feel about some specific videos getting a sudden rise in views and then your next ones not having so much for example? Or does having a patreon makes up for the need of views overall?

Big fan of your arrangements btw, looking forward to your next anime cover.

it can be pretty stressful and disheartening to see a cover you put a lot of work into kinda underperform compared to a silly meme cover you put together that blew the fuck up, but that's just how youtube is. Gotta give the kids what they want!!

I usually just set my expectations for how a video will perform pretty low so I'm not too disappointed if I'm proved right lol

Whats your favourite Indie and non-indie game?

Indie: I won't allow myself to say Undertale because that just isn't fair, so probably Braid.

Non-Indie: Any of the soulsborne games (sans DaS2)

What makes you decide to do a metal cover of a specific video game song or theme? Do you take fan requests? Or is it just music from your favorite video games?

Usually I'll browse /r/gamemusic or youtube for cool VG tracks I had forgotten about but yeah I'll take fan requests into consideration once in a while - especially if there are a lot of people requesting the same thing.

When did you start writing your own music? What kind if approach did you have to the tunes? -Danny Herrera, aka your soulmate

I started TRYING to write my own shitty metalcore stuff back in like 2006 and trying to wrap my head around why music is so hard. I basically just took the framework of songs from bands I liked and tried to rework them as originals with slightly different riffs.

Writing and arranging music is not easy!!

I imagine you probably don't want any requests or suggestions for future covers at all, and if that's the case you can just ignore this post, but do you think you will make any more Mother 3 covers?

Your Hard Rain cover is amazing, and the total number of metal or rock covers of Mothet 3 OST is sad.

I DEFINITELY really like that OST, so I have a feeling I'll be back at Mother 3 before long.

What's your Favorite Pokémon gen in terms of music or in general?

Gen III alwaysssssssss and forever.

Hoenn's music is fucking sublime.

What are your plans for the future, in terms of covers and your career?

I'd like to continue this goofy, silly career for as long as I can because honestly I love it, but I'd also like to expand more into the territory of game composition and stuff like that soon as well.

Also originals. I gotta do more originals someday.

When are you and Jules going to have an epic guitar shredding battle to the death?

that's basically our nightly ritual except instead of shredding to the death i warm up some milk for him in the microwave and tuck him in just in time for his beddie-by story

can we get a full Chrono trigger album? your the only youtuber i trust with this request.

it's bound to happen sooner or later

What inspired you to start doing covers for a living, and what are your expectations of doing them? Do you plan to fully dedicate your time to doing video game covers, or do you want to start doing original stuff?

Love your covers, dude <3 keep it up.

I plan on doing more original stuff pretty soon actually, but I plan on mostly doing covers for at least a little while.

I answered the inspiration thing in another comment but I guess my expectations for my covers is just that I'd like them to sound like something I'd listen to myself. I want to fool people into thinking that my covers are something they might just hear on a metal radio station or something. I like the idea of exposing fans of video games to different genres of music they might not have been familiar with previously.

Out of all your covers, which one would you say is your least favorite?

I'm generally pretty happy with all my covers but if I HAD to pick one it'd prolly be my Battle! Vs. Wally cover just cuz I super rushed it and got it done in a few hours. Still not a bad cover tho!

On a scale of Toby Keith to Bob Segar, why you hate us?

dang o koby teeth

What's your personal favorite video you've done?
Love you dad

tough one, but probably core. I took a while on the framing for that one. edit: also hi ferd are yuo my moim

Will you cover more obscure/not-so-popular games in the future?

I'd like to, but I also need to keep in mind what folks are requesting. It also depends on how much I like a track I hear - if I hear a dope song that I have awesome ideas for thats from a game 4 people have played, I might consider it.

Will you be doing more Dark Souls 3 covers?(sorry if this was answered somewhere and I missed it) Looking forward to hearing more sick covers from you. Keep up the great work!

Definitely, probably pretty soon actually. Keep an eye on december!!

Heya Rich! Enjoy all of your vids! Have you ever considered touring in Europe and have you ever played at any gaming-or-video-game-related conventions?

hah well, I'm certainly not opposed but I hadn't considered it until now! It could happen!!

Huge fan here, just wanna say i love your work. How long does making a metal cover usually take? Is there a lot of work behind the final product? And are there any videos you've made that you arent a big fan of?

There's quite a bit of work in every video but I'm getting pretty good at making a solid product in shorter amounts of time. For example, my Megalovania cover that now has like 5 million views or something was almost entirely done in a span of like 7 hours RIGHT BEFORE I HOPPED IN MY CAR AND MOVED TO SAN DIEGO.

I'm generally happy with most of my covers though.

What are your thoughts on jazz guitar, if any (liek/dislike, fave players, etc.), and have you dabbled in it at all? Maybe do something jazzy for April Fools one year, swap with Insane in the Rain?

Also love your taste in guitars, I drool on PRS when people pawn them here, but alas I am a left handed player and I don't have 6 grand to burn. ;-;

I DONT FUCKING UNDERSTAND JAZZ AND I HATE IT BECAUSE I CAN LISTEN TO LITERALLY ANY OTHER GENRE AND PROCESS WHAT THEYRE DOING BUT JAZZ JUST HURTS MY HEAD AND MAKES ME FEEL LIKE A TODDLER SWATTING AT CAR KEYS but no I've never really tried to learn it.

yeah man, PRS guitars are dope.

how good are the milkshakes from San Fransisco?

bruh

Don't do this to me.

bruh

we are gonna make it back there. the great dad roadtrip of 2017 will happen.

im super down, just gotta rouse gorg from his slumber

How did you start to learn how to arrange songs well?

I was in a technical deathcore band and my rhythm guitarist showed me EZDrummer and Reaper and just went from there.

I think having a wide pool on influences definitely helps with clever arranging. Listen to lots of music!

Have you considered putting any of your work on iTunes? I would absolutely buy some SNES metal albums. Especially mega man x; my favorite video game music of all time.

all my new stuff oughta be on iTunes! Keep an eye out here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/richaadeb/id898452408

How did you meet Jonathan Young and FamilyJules to the point that you guys would room in one house?

hah I met jules at magfest and we had a very brief awkward interaction where I thought he hated me but I think he was just drunk

Jon I met through a mutual friend and I actually referred him to jules when he was looking for a vocalist for his necrodancer album. after the album was released, we had a little skype party and jon was like "yo does anyone here know of anyone moving to california" and I had been considered it so I said I was.

Then we started looking at houses and eventually convinced jules to move as well. It still kinda feels like this tongue in cheek joke that we all took too far but I'm glad it happened regardless lol

Heya man, hows it bud? :D was wondering what genres do you consider when making a cover apart from progressive metal? Do you just naturally gravitate towards the progressive or do you like to pull bits and bobs from other genres every once in a while? Keep up the great stuff my lad :) x

the magical thing about progressive metal is that you can force in just about any other genre and all the prog kids will think its wacky and neat - but I also like to dabble in power metal and post rock/metal

I know you're a huge BTBAM fan, so I have to ask... what's your favourite song of theirs and why is it White Walls?

It's actually Sun of Nothing, but close!! Sun of Nothing was the first song from Colors I heard and it completely changed my outlook on how music can be composed and arranged. It's an amazing part of an amazing album.

hi therr Rich, I wus wondring if mybe u could covr my favorite song. Its from a very unknown gme called Undertales and the songs calld megalovonium. Do ya think u can do it???

i have to ask my dad topy fork about it but ill check !

How do you mix your Eq? if that makes any sense. Stay awesome Dude!

Ps Would love a cover of band land from Rayman 1 but it seems im alone on that one =P

idk I just move stuff around on the EQ until I find what I dont like and I scoop it out.

Which of the Mother Games is your favorite?

definitely mother 3. so gooooooooood

What are the biggest events or projects in your Youtube career that helped you get where you are?

Also what advice would you give to the people starting out, and the people who are still working on their music/Youtube career but aren't quite at the full-time level?

definitely the undertale covers, those things boosted me to 100k subs in like a few months.

my advice to people just starting out is to try new things - that goes for music AND for games and other media. I gave Undertale a show on a whim and it ended up being the biggest cult game in a long while.

and for folks still working at that full-time level, I'd say analyze what you're doing and try to find things to improve, and keep an eye on trends. Ask others to listen to what you're doing and solicit honest opinions. It really helps!!

Can you make a cover of Bird that Carries You Over a Disproportionately Small Gap on April Fools Day?

I love your remixes. You and Jonny Atma are the only music channels I regularly check.

hah I've kinda sworn off undertale covers at this point but idk maybeeee

Have you considered a Thomas the tank engine theme song cover?

no but now that you mention it

What's the process like for getting licenses to publish cover songs?

distrokid. You upload the track and album art, put in the composers name and check the "I don't own this" box and wait two days. It's very easy.

What is your favourite cover you've made so far and how long does it take to make a cover?

Favorite cover would probably either be Schala's Theme, Corridors of Time (I need to remaster this one desperately), Lavender Town, Core, or Another Medium.

Some covers take a few hours, some take a lot of hours. Schala's Theme took like 5 months or something stupid. Just depends how much I care about it personally.

Apologies if this has been answered before, but did Toby Fox ever reach out to you about any of your kickass covers of the Undertale soundtrack?

(To this day, your cover of Heartache remains my favorite piece of Undertale-related music ever. You do great work!)

i mean the album's official merch

yeah it was his idea to make the album that way actually lol. Toby's a nice boy.

i love you

can we be friends?

p a p a ? ? ?

Hey Rich! Big fan of your work! Anyway, how do you decide what music to make covers of? Also, is the Shovel Knight Medley still the most intensive work you've made?

I just listen to game music and try to pick out covers that I have neat ideas for. It could be a rad track but if I'm not feeling it then I won't do it. A good example is stuff by Danny Baranowski (super meat boy / necrodancer composer) - his music is AWESOME but for some reason I just suck at coming up with cool arrangements for his stuff. don't know why.

the shovel knight medley was a massive headache but tbh the most work overall put into a single project would probably either be Schala's Theme or Another Medium. Or Core.

Which cover do you feel you put the most effort into?

Schala's Theme, no question. I have other arrangements and covers that I'm hecka proud of, some with better mixes or arrangements, but I sunk like 3-5 months into Schala trying to make the arrangement PERFECT. I'm still very happy with it.

What is your advice for someone who wants to improve their guitar playing to the point where they can do the kind of thing you do? I'm 15, I've been doing guitar for almost 8 years now, and I'd like to get better. You are quite an inspiration to me, I'd love to be able to play like you and other similar guitarists on YouTube

Listen to lots of artists and seek out musicians that really resonate with you, that you'd want to emulate and are excited about. Then just set aside 8 hours over a few days and force yourself to learn some of their material. It's preferable if you're having fun while doing it.

When did you first start learning how to play guitar?

2004, got a guitar for my birthday because I wanted to be a cool kid at school but then I was dumb cuz I actually enjoyed playing it and still wasn't cool

Whats ups Richaad?! I love the obscure covers you pull from, Like the Mother 3: Hard Rain and Snowboard Kids 2. Did you just remember these from playing them in the past or did you just look up good video game music say "I want to play that". Also, would you ever cover some music from Odin Sphere?

hah well I love Mother 3 and SNBK2 and just really wanted to do something from those games. They didn't feel super obscure to me at the time. Jules and I were actually playing SNBK2 and jingle town came up and we were both like "bruh this music" and agreed to do a collab thing lol

Never heard of Odin Sphere, will have to peep dat.

Hey Rich! Been following you since a bit before the start of the your Undertale covers, love your stuff. Since I follow a large number of YouTube musicians and always shake my head at people doing it, how do you feel about comparisons amongst fellow musicians by your fans? Is it as much of a pain as I'd imagine to hear things like "x did it better" (referring to your NecroDancer cover, for instance)?

Anyways, keep doing what you're doing, man. Love your stuff, I'll be looking forward to whatever comes next (Gerudo Valley was top notch)!

It's easy to get upset about those types of comments but honestly I don't think those folks mean comments like that in a mean way, they're just sharing an opinion that they deem innocuous enough to tell me. I usually just shrug it off, or at least try to. You can tell when someone is going out of their way to be actually mean - but I'm usually happy that people are showing interest regardless.

Hey there Rich! I got the opportunity to meet you and Ace at the MAGfest panel (and then Ace was kind enough to talk to me for almost an hour about affordable synths that don't suck). Later that weekend I ran into you near the main lobby and we briefly talked about owning some of the same BTBAM t-shirts.

Anyway, I have two questions for you:

1. Do you have any exercises or practices you could recommend for improving my guitar techniques? I need to get better at using my pinky, and would like to be able to do sweeps and other advanced techniques eventually.

2. Are there any videos or resources you would recommend for becoming familiar with how and what to do when using a DAW? I bought a USB interface shortly after MAGfest earlier this year, but never got around to learning how to properly record and mix. I've played around with Reaper a bit because of how affordable it is, but it can be pretty overwhelming when you have zero experience.

hey dude!! you just gotta sit down and force yourself to learn techniques like that because it's gotta be converted to muscle memory. Just find a song you like that incorporates it and try to learn it. Some techniques can take quite a while to perfect, but it's definitely possible! It isn't magic, just lots of practice.

It's dated, but familyjules' mixing guide on his channel is still kinda the foundation of all my production stuff - dont be afraid to question what tutors are saying though, something theyre suggesting might not be in your mixes best interest. Use your intuition on that one! As far as Reaper goes, check out a channel called AHMusic - this dude practically works for reaper at this point lol

Any instruments or audio equipment you have bought that you have regretted and would NOT recommend?

i dont wanna step on any toes but tbh I've found some value in just about everything I've purchased so far.

Hi Rich Ryan and I say hi Why do I listen to your covers while folding clothes?? Pls respond

don't forget the fabric softener !!!!! ! ! !!!! !!

yo Rich, what's your favorite meme?

something that makes me xd super duper hard

I'm intending on reading as much of this thread as possible as this relates to me massively so I'm sorry if this has been already asked.

The reason it relates so much is because yours and my channel are VERY similar (You are actually subscribed to me!!) and I was wondering what sort of "management", for lack of a better term, has allowed your Youtube channel to grow the most and become more successful?

What I mean by that is, how often you upload, how and where you promote yourself, etc. No need to go into detail, just the general basics of how you run your channel would be great.

The reason I ask is because for the past few months I have totally neglected my channel due to just getting pretty disheartened by the whole thing. I tried everything to grow as a channel but nothing really stuck, as I'm sure you know, writing, recording and mixing music is far from easy and VERY time consuming. After putting in so much effort and to then see little to no return it just put me on a downer. I am starting to feel the urge to give it another crack though but maybe try things a little differently this time so any suggestions you have would be great as I feel anything that works for you should in theory work for me too because our channels are very similar.

well, I started off just doing this stuff as a hobby with no intent of ever making a decent living out of it, and I usually kept my expectations pretty low. Its a good way of preventing that jadedness.

Just be consistent and try new things. Broaden your horizons to appeal to wider audiences. Oh, and DEFINITELY try to analyze your own work to figure out what you can improve. Don't be afraid to ask for help either!

Just make it fun, man. Not saying the rest will follow because, again you shouldn't expect that - but you don't know unless ya try, ya know? Would be better off having fun in the process.

One thing I've heard is that I'm great with networking, but really what this means is that I'm usually down to do collabs that might not directly benefit me very much. Get out there and meet some cool folks dude, this community is awesome!!

Any plans for another video game themed album? Original material? Love your stuff man, look forward to it all the time!

Oh definitely, I've been thinking about a chrono trigger album for quite a while. I'll most likely be remastering all my old covers for that one when I do.

First off, love your work. Is there any chance of Determination coming out on vinyl?

Also any plans of a Zelda album?

Determination is slated to come out on vinyl, it's just a matter of when we can get a solid production follow through.

Zelda album prolly not for a while but is definitely a distinct possibility

Rich! Huge fan of your work.

When you look at doing covers, is it challenging to find a good way to do a really well known song justice? Do you feel the same pressure on more obscure stuff?

mm, not really - if I can't come up with a good arrangement I usually just shelve the project - but sometimes I can get stuck in indecisiveness of what would work better for certain segments.

I just arrange tracks how I'd want to listen to them, and generally people seem to enjoy my arrangements as well.

How do you go about clearing the publishing rights for these songs?

Distrokid. It's a magical place.

How do you maintain a consistent income when the success of individual videos fluctuates?

all my covers are always for sale, and the more videos I put up, the more patrons I get, the more downloads I get, the more ad revenue I get, etc. As long as I'm getting A LITTLE bit of growth, I'm alright.

Why did you switch out the bareknuckle juggernauts for blackhawks in your new mayo? The juggernauts are fuckin beastly dude! (Seen on your instagram)

The juggernauts are rad pickups... for lower tunings. They don't really sit well in my mixes if I'm in anything above Drop A# because they dont really output a whole lot of low mids, meaning there's no blending with the bass. At lower tunings, your bass is providing all that so its fine on 7 and 8 strings.

The blackhawks are just overall more desirable for someone that plays a 6 typically in drop C and drop B.

Relocating like that is always tough! What's something you miss from your hometown?

jet's pizza 😩😩😩

that and seasons. constant summer is always nice but I really like the cold and the leaves and stuff.

What are your favorite games of all time? What is your process for recording your covers?

barring Undertale (not a fair comparison given the circumstances), favorite games are the soulsborne games. Dark Souls is just too good.

Got any advice for someone trying to start producing music and making covers?

Absolutely love and adore your style of music, keep it up man!

(Also are you gonna be doing any more original compositions? Super big fan of your song Exodus, really wanna hear more of your original ideas)

just start doing it dude! drop a little $$ on a cheapie interface and start doing your thing! there are tons of resources on youtube to get you started and it's such an addicting process once you get into it, just come to terms with the fact that you're not gonna sound like joey sturgis or jamie king starting off, it'll take a while. Just have fun with it!!

(and ye more originals on the way)

Now that you're making the Zelda covers, I've been wondering, which is your favorite Zelda game? 0:

(And as an extended question, are there any plans for a Tal Tal Heights cover or is my little heart just dreaming? ; o; )

Majora's Mask, Hands down. It's such an odd, frightening, delightful little addition to that franchise and it sticks out in how completely different it is from every other zelda game. I love it.

tal tal could still happen eventually, but I'm taking a break from zelda for now.

How expensive was San Diego for a starting musician? Was it worth it moving so close to the entertainment world at first?

SD aint that bad if you look in the right places, it's certainly a lot cheaper than LA and other alternatives. I managed just fine but this was also during the undertale explosion that I'm still recovering from so it's hard to say. Having roomies helps.

What do you look for in a guitar? Meaning, do you prefer fat or slim necks etc.

slim necks for fast shredded cheese

What would you say are the most important techniques to learn to play your style of guitar?

I play prog stuff so literally everything, but if I had any advice to give to any guitarist it would be NOT TO IGNORE YOUR FUCKING PINKEY - use it!!!

I love your new PRS and I'm about to pick up a SE Custom 24 myself. What made you choose the 59/Custom, Alnico II pickups? I'm looking at grabbing a custom and a 59 for mine but was just wondering your thought process for your choice because I love your sound.

I looked up what the guitarist from Intervals had in his PRS cuz I loved his tone and just bought those on a whim - they're great pickups!

Have you ever had to speed a part up after recording to achieve the desired sound?

nope, never. I'll slow stuff down to learn it easier, but I always record at live speed.