| | The Makers 2:Get Down With Funk Mavens Bob and Barn
There's no doubting the unique vibe in Kung Fu Chaos. It's hard not to create something wacky when you mix a whole lot of funk with '70s Kung Fu-movie stylings. Throw in the '70's pop anthem "Kung Fu Fighting" as the game's theme song, and you've got the complete package.
To help create the funk-laden soundtrack, the folks at Just Add Monsters turned to the sardonic duo of Paul "Bob" Arnold and Andrew "Barn" Barnabus. Xbox.com caught up with these wacky chaps, and here's what they had to say for themselves.
Xbox.com: How did "Bob and Barn" come into being?
Bob and Barn: We started Bob and Barn in June of 2001, after working together for six years as the in-house sound department at SCE Europe. We identified a migration in the industry towards outsourcing and decided that this would be a better way for us to progress. It's just so much more fun!
Xbox.com: Did you do any preparatory research for the project, after learning you would be doing the music for Kung Fu Chaos?
Bob and Barn: In order to write authentic '70s music, we spent a great deal of time wearing flares and dodgy sunglasses and frequenting '70s discos. Every time we got in the car, we perfected the "dive across the bonnet" maneuver. But, seriously, we're both avid funk fans and would have relished the opportunity to go clubbing in the '70s. We immersed ourselves in as many '70s cop shows, Kung Fu movies, and funk and disco soundtracks as we could.
We already had experience writing this style of music for a number of other projects. The musical analysis was surprisingly in-depth, highlighting what constituted a funk track by averaging out tempos and instrumentation on landmark tracks and documenting the results for Just Add Monsters and Microsoft. We tend to find that the majority of our inspiration comes from the visuals. The style, pace, and feel of each level helped mold the tracks to suit.
Xbox.com: You took on a difficult challenge when you decided to do the entire recording with live instruments. How fun was that?!
Bob and Barn: There were 12 musicians: one guitarist, one drummer, one bass player, three brass players, three string players, and three Chinese instrumentalists. It was a bloody nightmare to organize. We had a small budget, so we had to economize. There were five separate recording sessions, which all had to be synchronized. Once all the logistics were in place, the fun started! They were a great bunch of musicians, and we look forward to working with all of them again in the future.
Xbox.com: Your Web site says, "Since the game is also heavily influenced by Kung Fu movies, we had to throw in some clichéd oriental sounds (although we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into by doing that)." Tell us about that.
Bob and Barn: Whilst brainstorming the whole live music notion for Kung Fu Chaos, we hit upon the crazy idea of trying to get authentic Chinese musicians to perform some of the parts. So, one night we punched "Chinese music UK" into Google and found www.chinesemusic.co.uk! We e-mailed and asked if they'd like to be involved and got an e-mail back from an immensely helpful chap called Li Jiang. He knew a several Chinese musicians based all over the UK and in his native China and played us examples of about 10 Chinese instruments, of which we picked our favorite four. We then embarked upon sourcing the instruments (with Li's help), writing the parts to work with the respective key ranges of each instrument, and figuring out how best to record them. If that weren't complicated enough, most of the musicians were traditional and couldn't read western notation nor improvise. Li kindly offered to convert the music into traditional Chinese notation and helped them improvise as needed. He was, in our opinions, the unsung hero of the Kung Fu Chaos soundtrack, and we look forward to working with him again.
Xbox.com: How long did it take you to record the entire soundtrack to Kung Fu Chaos?
Bob and Barn: The whole soundtrack took about two months to write, two weeks to record—and about six months to organize! We split the process into three areas, much the same as film: pre-production, production, and post-production.
Pre-production consisted of honing down the musical style with Just Add Monsters. To give everyone a succinct idea of what we aimed to achieve and subsequently deliver, we prepared a number of temp tracks—some we composed ourselves and some we gleaned from our extensive collection of '70s music.
Production consisted of writing the music as synthesized mock-ups. We spent little time in producing an "authentic" sounding version of the music, but enough to demonstrate our intentions and to show the synchronization of our music with events on the level. Some of these tracks went through a number of iterations before everyone was happy. Once we had approval, we had to source all of the musicians and equipment necessary. With a shoestring budget, we had to beg, borrow, and steal wherever we could to keep the cost down. We produced around 70 pages of score for the musicians, sent CDs of the synthesized recordings to all of the musicians, and arranged the recordings—basically an administrative nightmare!
Post-production consisted of mixing (which we did ourselves) and mastering (by Lansdowne Mastering in London) to help give the tracks a consistent sound and '70s feel.
Xbox.com: Why a fried egg?
Bob and Barn: Bob and Barn—B & B—Bed and Breakfast—Full English Breakfast—Fried Egg; it's a clear progression, one we can't believe you didn't spot! A bit contrived, but suitably off-key to fit in with our company image.
Xbox.com:Coffee or tea?
Bob: Coffee, white with one. Barn: Hot drinks are for girls.
Xbox.com: And, finally, the question on the minds of all gamers: Since you're located in the same city (Cambridge, UK), do you get to party with the guys from Just Add Monsters, Inc., who made Kung Fu Chaos?
Bob and Barn: Of course! But, it would be more than our lives' worth to reveal any stories. Suffice to say, B'n'B and Just Add Monsters can give Hugh Hefner a run for his money where partying is concerned. We've painted Cambridge red on the odd occasion, but we've served our time for that and are under a restraining order not to discuss it. Any further questions should be directed to our lawyer.
Thanks for the chat, guys! By Violet Leigh and Alex McLain |
