@Hookington - @Aalasteir (Q) - Index

Q: What is the Internet about? How did you get interested in the Internet?

A: Like most kids, I originally used the internet for various games. Chess and Neopets, for instance. But the Internet is about everything; forming friendships, understanding the wider world, quick access to knowledge, a place to test ideas, relax, play, network, and share your work and art with the world.

Q: In your experience is Newgrounds a good place for music? What made you decide to join the community? Do you feel differently about the site now compared to when you first joined?

A: Newgrounds is pretty good since it is a platform that has a lot of gamers and smaller (and some bigger) game developers. I joined NewGrounds originally so that my music could have a chance to get whitelisted and featured in user-made Geometry Dash levels (a goal I achieved fairly quickly)! I feel the site has grown and improved over the years.

Q: How did you get interested in creating music? What do you specifically enjoy about Dubstep and Glitch Hop?

A: I have always been into music since I was a child. I took both piano lessons and guitar lessons for many years in childhood, and always knew I wanted to be a musician. I love Dubstep and Glitch Hop because I feel these genres really allow my skills with melody and catchy chord patterns to shine. Also because they really lend themselves to advanced and unique sound designing and the creation of new and interesting bass sounds. In terms of what got me originally interested in creating Dubstep and Glitch Hop specifically, artists like Virtual Riot, Panda Eyes, Teminite, F-777 and Kotori were all big inspirations for me.

Q: What's a story you'd like to share?

A: One of my biggest successes as a musician was almost blown by thinking the opportunity was fake because it was too good to be true. Here on NewGrounds I was messaged by someone claiming to be from the Rolling Sky team. The account was recently created, had no profile pic, and the offer to be paid to have my music be in this huge mobile game that's been downloaded over 500 milliion times seemed too good to be true. I responded, but was inwardly skeptical. At one point I was 80/20 that it was a scam but thanks to help from my friend @x3llen I was able to verify that the person was in fact who they said they were, and the rest is history. Now, two of my songs, Tasukete and Final Showdown are the official soundtracks of two 5 star main levels in the game. I gained a huge amount of fans from this and it opened up further opportunities, so I'm very glad and relieved that I didn't dismiss it out of hand. (I have a friend producer who received a message from the same person but they believed it was indeed a scam/too good to be true and they blew the opportunity, so its definitely something that can happen)

Q: Your advice for creating music

A: Always try to make music that you personally love and enjoy. Your own enjoyment of the music you make will guide you and make everything flow easier. This will naturally and spontaneously give you your own unique sound, since the music taste of any one person is usually from 100s of different artists, so it will always be unique. I also suggest getting FL Studio (The DAW that I use) or Ableton since they have the most tutorials and online resources to learn from, in addition to very user-friendly interfaces and powerful music making tools. Studying finished project files from other artists is a great way to quickly learn a lot of things at once, and watching You Tube tutorials is also very helpful at the start. 

Q: What is the Geometry Dash community?

A: The Geometry Dash community is the worldwide community of people who play Geometry Dash, make levels for it, make you tube content around it, and chat in the Geometry Dash discord servers, subreddits, twitter conversations etc. 

It is a very passionate community of creators and enthusiasts. I think the Geometry Dash community has done a lot for the modern dubstep and glitch hop scene: so many artists like F-777, MDK, and more recently, Tanger, have really gotten massive boosts in popularity and recognition from having their music in the game.

Q: How did you get good at chess, and what was it like playing in tournaments as a child and winning a few trophies?

A: My dad taught me and I practiced against him a lot. Then, I played online and bought a few chess strategy and openings books that I studied. Playing in chess tournaments as a child was super exciting and fun!

Q: How did you become interested in Pokémon trading cards?

A: I was always into Pokemon as a kid, and the trading cards are just really fun to collect. The game based around them is super fun and challenging, too!

Q: What have you learned from your interest in history, and why do you enjoy studying Roman and Greek history?

A: Many things including that no matter how good a republic's founding constitution is, it usually degenerates into an empire or tyranny over time. Also, confirmation of a quote from philosopher Friederich Nietzche: “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” Roman and Greek History is interesting because it had such epic and larger-than-life figures like Pericles, Julius Caesar, and Cicero and also massive amounts of political intrigue, battles between good and evil, adventure, plus significant events and contributions to human civilization that reverberate in modern society to this day.

Q: Why is your favorite anime character Villetta Nu from Code Geass?

A: She was a very unique character whose arc from evil to good was really cool and whose visual design was really striking.

Q: What foods and drinks do you enjoy, and why do you like Halls grapefruit-flavored cough candy?

A: For food: I love pancakes, french fries, rice, veggie burgers. For drinks: cream soda, raspberry tea, and grapefruit flavored sparkling water. 

Grapefruit is one of my favorite fruits. Usually the candy or drink version of it is always awesome too.