In contrast to a few existing video game music groups out there, Hideo doesn’t generally work with pre-existing orchestras. Instead, we opt to go through the significant task of hand-picking each of our musicians to find the most talented and passionate performers to put together our show.
While sometimes I think it would be wonderful to have an orchestra at our disposal, I am so far completely thrilled about the various groups we have assembled; oh, and we need to have space for actors and a set on stage! This presents a more unusual challenge to me as an arranger as sometimes our groups are slightly unconventional, and I often have to tweak arrangements from show to show. One result of this structure is that any huge orchestral number isn’t really going to work for us.
It’s for those reasons that Blair and I have decided to replace one of our beloved musical selections, “Destiny” AKA “Shukumei” from Fullmetal Alchemist. It has served us well, but the time has come to move on to something simpler and more effective for Hideo than this beautiful, tragic orchestral piece.
After listening to 250 YouTube videos yesterday and picking out four options to run by Blair, we have settled on a replacement piece and, while I am not at liberty to disclose our selection to you, I can say that it will be absolutely amazing. 😉
As a consolation, here are the other three we considered but ultimately decided not to use:
“In Memory of You” from Noir. This one wasn’t quite dirge-like enough for our needs, and finding an accordion player might be a bit tricky anyway…
“Creeping Shadow” from Shadow of the Colossus. A little too creepy. Go figure.
“The Fullmetal Alchemist” from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Probably workable to fit our group, but this still leaves us with a rather orchestral piece when we’re trying to go simpler.
So, stay tuned for an announcement of our next show where you will definitely be able to hear our new mystery piece. In fact, you can now sign up for our mailing list in the right hand column to be notified of special announcements (like when our next show is)!
