chucksalamone

[chucksalamone]

hi chuck ! i think my ask got eaten a longgg time ago, but theres this album called kagayaki by masakatsu takagi that i think you should check out. it’s like japanese folk music + a lot of field recordings, but it’s genuinely so beautiful. takagi has scored a few movies, such as mirai and wolf children, and the whole album has that cinematic charm to it. i believe it was inspired by a rural japanese village that takagi had lived in for a part of his life.. i could be wrong tho lol. it’s certainly not for everyone but it is something i love dearly :) (apologies if my ask wasn’t deleted)

I should check this out! Sorry for the tardiness. I’ll try to consume this art and report back!

[chucksalamone]

Hei Chuck! I have no questions rn, just wanna to say thank you for being one of my biggest inspirations of all time 🦈💖

I appreciate you so much. Sorry I’m late to answer.

[chucksalamone]

Hi Chuck! I got a question for you about Absent Moon that didn't get answered on the stream.

What was it like writing the personalities of each of the characters for these songs? Both games are extremely light on dialogue, so I can imagine it being a unique challenge having to expand upon Mason's characters through the medium of music.

It was a unique and incredibly emotional challenge, considering what I was going through at the time. Mason was kind enough to let me explore these characters, but I’d say visuals were a guiding force.

[chucksalamone]

hey chuck, completely random question: has your work been influenced by Swans at all? the opening bassline in their track Screen Shot immediately called to mind Fancy Meat Computer in particular, very tense but elastic. cheers 🫶

I know of swans, but I don’t have any of their music committed to memory, so I can’t imagine being influenced by them directly, but perhaps I’m tapped into an adjacent stream of influence?

[chucksalamone]

Yo, nice!

a while ago I’ve dreamed about going to the dollar store and this brain dead wayne hylics plushie was there so I’ve decided to make it

[chucksalamone]

who's the hottest hylics character....

Blerol.

[chucksalamone]

who's your favorite hylics character

I like all of them, but I have enjoyed writing the music for Dedus and Soms.

[chucksalamone]

old hylics art repost

[chucksalamone]

How is your username spelled or punctuated? Also, could you delete that last ask off your blog, so that people don't see my username?

I sent it through. I also deleted that initial post.

[chucksalamone]

Hi, I wanted to privately reach out about your album, Absent Moon. I first listened to it earlier this year and I loved the music and singing and story. It made me deeply empathize with the characters and feel a connection to their world, and I was very curious to know more. I especially loved the characterization of Wayne and Dedusmuln, and the music of Seasons. They creatively inspired me. Later I joined the Hylics Discord server, and shared some of my crazy "what-if" theories for fun. But to my surprise, you saw my message, and told me I was overthinking it, which would have been fine, except you also said my ideas made you feel nervous? And it broke my heart that my creative exercise had such a reaction. I was only trying to show how much I appreciated your work. And although I try not to think about it, I still feel guilty that I was being creative in a 'wrong' way that you seemed to find hurtful. That's why I want to clear things up. I hope this is okay.

Okay, I found it, sorry. I remember this exact interaction. My reaction wasn’t to make you feel disparaged. Not a lot of people know about the origins of absent moon, and where I was at mentally and emotionally, but for those that do you’d understand why I was taking great pride and still take great pride in that project. I’m all for fan theories, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the purpose of absent moon was to tell a definitive story, and being that Mason and I have been dragging our feet on, revealing what the story is about, I didn’t want any fan theories to Develop into something that would consider canon. I’ve seen this happen a lot and I’d be lying. If I said, I didn’t want to maintain complete and total control of the narrative of absent moon. Again, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate fan theories. They are most certainly welcome, however, in this instance, the story of absent moon is a complete bridge from the events of Hylics 2 to the events of Hylics 3. I’m not one for tone indicators, as I’m a bit older, but I have nothing but warmth and love for this fanbase. If you were made to feel like your ideas weren’t good, I apologize. As long as the idea is relatively nonviolent/non-sexual/etc. I’m fine with most things. I won’t speak for Mason fully on that, but he also loves looking at fanart! The best I can do is ask for you to trust that we have crafted an incredible narrative, and that I took a lot into consideration, while writing absent moon, even Moonage lobotomy. I’ve grown very close to these characters, especially because of the fanbase. In time, I hope that you can understand this explanation. I’m not asking you to forgive me I’m simply providing you with more details, as this particular instance/project has extreme personal nuance, that can only be applied to my experience (unfortunately). Perhaps one day when it’s all behind me, I’ll be able to talk about it more openly. Even after over a year, I’m still looking to absent moon to gain more insight into how I was processing things. Please feel free to reach out again.

[chucksalamone]

Yeah I think my ask was eaten too!! Anyway I wanted to ask if I could post my Hatsune Miku cover of Champion of Ennui I made a bit ago

Hahaha, uh, that’s probably fine.

[chucksalamone]

hi just wondering did you get a message from me or did tumblr eat it?

Where was it posted? May have gotten eaten.

[chucksalamone]

flood by They might be giants ?

I haven’t heard that one, BUT…I love Tmbg. They really are a national treasure!!

[chucksalamone]

Apoptosis by Inner Wave! :O

I’m gonna listen to this right now! Give me some time to get back to you!!

[chucksalamone]

Discovery by Daft Punk

Oh, man! I listened to that record a TON in college. Also loved interstella 5555. I think Voyager might be one of my favorite tunes on there. It’s a quick one, but it’s got a lot of soul to it!

[chucksalamone]

Doing reviews of other video game soundtracks would be pretty neat coning from you. Content like that is pretty cool to see, and i think you’d be a great person for that sort of thing!

Word up! I have tons of influence from video games and films. My big inspirations are Nobuo Uematsu and Joe Hisaishi, but only on a level of like…how do I make people feel the way this music makes ME feel?

[chucksalamone]

how abt terraformer by thank you scientist? my friend got me so so hooked on the album

Oh, man! They are from the next town over in NJ! I worked at the music school/studio (I was an educator) that they recorded Stranger Heads Prevail at, Architekt Music. They are all good people. Tom Monda is super nice, he was really cool to talk with. Sal, too! I spoke with Ben for a bit and I had a chance to laugh a bunch with Odin (when he was in the band). As for Terraformer, I love the way that record starts out, with that big entrance into fxmldr. I wish the horns were louder on the record. They get buried in that mix (which is kind of a bummer). Also love Swarm, that’s a GREAT tune!