Selphie Tilmitt, Lyricist and Composer
Original Composition: Take Us Away
Inspiration: Final Fantasy VIII
Lyrics: Selphie Tilmitt
Vocals: J. Lawrence Kenny
Bass: Florian Heil
Hail, Lusicrooners. It is time for The Legendary Zoltan’s monthly music post. Today I bring you a song that is much more Lusipurr-friendly than the previous work. It is an original song inspired by a scene in Final Fantasy VIII where the party is aboard one of the transcontinental trains. In that scene Selphie is staring out the window and singing a song about trains. Do you remember it? That is the song I wrote! This was an excellent task given to me by our fearless leader, Lusipurr. This song needed to be written. In Final Fantasy VIII, Selphie Tilmitt sings,
Train, train, take us away.
Take us away, far away.
To the future we will go.
Where it leads no one knows.
If you think those are the most boring lyrics in the world, you are correct. That is how most pop music is though. Most pop music is also very repetitive: something that I am adamantly against. However, since I wanted the song to sound like it could be an actual pop song that exists in the world of Final Fantasy VIII, I held back all of my crazy prog-metal inclinations and made something that is totally believable. Now, I do not want you all to think that I made a bad song. I have not. I just made a pop song.
My approach actually started out the same as when I compose a metal song. I just picked up my seven-string guitar and started messing around. Not really knowing anything about jazz, I surprised myself when I was able to create a nice jazzy chord progression. To be honest, this chord progression sounds familiar to me and I may have heard something similar to it somewhere before. I can not imagine where though, because I do not listen to jazz. Until I can remember, I will just junction this Guardian Force over here. After laying down a smooth chord progression, I layered on some drums with brushes instead of drum sticks. Your welcome, Lusipurr. I wrote the melody for the vocals on my guitar. I did everything I could to keep it as chill as possible. It never gets busy, so each word comes out nice and relaxed. I sent that melody to a vocalist from the Overclocked ReMix community. I also completely outsourced the bass line. Once I had the bass and vocals integrated, the song was basically complete. I touched it up with a piano solo at the end and some additional percussion.
Overall, this song was a bit of a challenge because it was not my usual genre. It was definitely a good experience exploring jazzy piano and guitar phrases. I am really pleased with how the piece turned out and I really do believe that this song is a convincing train-inspired pop song that could actually exist. Readers, what do you think? Is this how you imagined Selphie’s train song would sound? Do you think this song fits the Final Fantasy VIII setting? Do you even know what a train is? Post your sparkling comments below.
