The[Crafty]Gamer: Aquma (Jay-Zelda: Beats Awakening)

This week The[Crafty]Gamer features "Aquma" from the west coast. Check out his Team Teamwork-inspired track, Jay-Zelda: Beat's Awakening.

Name: "Aquma"

Age: 24

Hometown: California

Occupation: Intern

Creation: Roc Feathers (From the upcoming EP Jay-Zelda: Beat's Awakening)

Tell us about your work. What’s the inspiration behind it?

I got into music production back in college. Video game music and hip-hop are my primary influences, but I tend to draw inspiration from good music in general. When Team Teamwork's Ocarina of Rhyme came out, I thought it was really dope, but there were some things I wanted to do different. Then I heard this Jay-Z-Phoenix Wright mash-up that blew me away so I decided finally take a crack at it. I think 8-bit music is awesome, but too much of it exclusively can drive someone to pull their hair out. Mixing it with drum sounds, vocals, etc. in my opinion helps to give the 8-bit sound a little more mass appeal (Google: Anamanaguchi). On the hip-hop side, I'm a huge J. Dilla fan and I've also found myself listening to a lot of older Dr. Dre stuff.

How much time did it take to put together?

Music is always a process for me and I don't know if I'd ever say I have a project that's complete. Sometimes you just gotta stop when you're at a good point and put it out. It's like, if I don't put this out now, it's gonna end up with all the other almost-finished projects! As far as time goes, I tend to write/produce/mash up in my head as I'm driving, in the shower, or wherever, so it's really hard to say how long it takes to make this stuff.  

Is the track available for download anywhere?

I like to use RapidShare and Megaupload. My music will also be released on YouTube as it comes out (unless Nintendo or whoever asks me to take it down). Ideally, I want to put all my songs out for free so they're accessible to as many people as possible.

Any other information you’d like to share about yourself?

I played the saxaphone (alto and bari) in my school band from elementary school though high school, but I don't think I'm very natural at music. Simply sticking with music in some way or another throughout the years definitely helped me to get to a place where I'm comfortable.

As for future projects, I'm trying to finish up the Jay-Zelda: Beat's Awakening EP soon. The goal for this project is to create something that's more of an experience than just a bunch of tracks. I also have a bunch of other ideas/half-complete tracks for different video game hip-hop joints since the samples out there are so rich, plentiful, and relatively untapped. I think after J-Z: BA though I might take a break from game music and do something a little different.

Any Web links to other work?

I'm on Twitter (@aquma) and have a YouTube channel  so sign up or subscribe if you want to hear the new stuff. You have my no-spam guarantee.

The[Crafty]Gamer has officially moved from the Editor Blogs section to the Features section. We are regularly looking for new entries, so if you'd like your work featured, please send me an e-mail to express your interest and I will follow up with details: [email protected].