Beyond The Threshold: Black Voices in Media
Beyond the Threshold is a bi-weekly podcast hosted by award winning sound editor & producer, Sidney Evans.
This show is dedicated to interviewing black professionals in the media space in variety of roles, highlighting the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.
The goal is to build a platform that connects and supports those established in media, while also inspiring those looking to break into the industry.
Beyond The Threshold: Black Voices in Media
Ep.6 : From Game Boy to Game Audio w/ Chase Bethea
Text Beyond the Threshold w/ your thoughts or questions!
In this episode of Beyond the Threshold, host Sidney Evans and guest Chase Bethea dive into his story of becoming a multi-award-winning video game composer.
With over a decade of experience and contributions to 25 games, Chase's career is result of dedication and the intersection of the creative synergy of music and technology.
Beginning with his upbringing in Chicago, in this episode we discuss:
- His experiences with music and a Game Boy Camera in his youth.
- The significance of chance encounters including his first paid gig.
- Using capture cards for streaming and creating game demos.
- Challenges he faced as an African American in the audio industry.
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!
Love the Show? Please consider a donation to help us keep the podcast going.
How to support & connect with Sidney
Check out more of Beyond the Threshold
Book a free discovery call
Podcast Audit/Consultation
Instagram & Threads
Linkedin
Everyone has a price and if you understand negotiation, then everybody can come and meet in the fairground of somewhere in the middle, along the line, somewhere. It's not always about the money. Yes, I do want what my value is, but there's other ways to get to that.
Speaker 2:Tune in as we give flowers to Black men and women making waves in the audio industry. I'm your host, sidney Evans Evans, and this is Beyond the Threshold. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Beyond the Threshold. I'm your host, sidney Evans, an award-winning audio editor, mixer and producer.
Speaker 2:For those of you who don't know, on this show I interview Black men and women working in the audio industry to highlight the lessons and experiences it takes to achieve success in the field.
Speaker 2:I want to walk you all to another episode.
Speaker 2:Like I said, we've got another great one in store for today and I will introduce the guests shortly, but before I do, I just want to note something, and my side of the audio industry is more focused around podcasting, so a lot of the guests that I first recorded for this season were within that realm, people that I already built relationships with and were connected with, and one of the promises that I wanted to fulfill in the show is that I have people across the board in the audio industry, and in order to keep true to that promise, I had to reach out to people that I don't know, which is a bit uncomfortable, but this is one of the first gentlemen, who I reached out to and agreed to be on the show.
Speaker 2:He's actually from the maybe us millennials, something that we're very familiar with the video side of I'm sorry the video game side of audio production. So he has over a decade of experience as a multi-award winning video game composer, actually, with over 25 games shipped thus far. He's also given over 45 talks, in which he most recently was the keynote speaker at the 2022 Global Game Jam. He's also been exhibited in the National Association of Music Merchants Museum and given live performances at MAG West and IndieCade. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce our guest for today, chase Bathia. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I would love to learn a little bit more about you outside of what I already know, and for the guests that don't know you to learn about you, period. So could you just share a little bit about your background, man, and what kind of your interests were you know growing up and what kind of led you to going down this path and ending up as a video game composer? Sure?
Speaker 1:So I was born and raised in Chicago, so I was there until I was about like 13 and then I moved out to LA and so while I was in Chicago my upbringing was mostly I was a nerd, so I really I enjoyed Toonami and anime and stuff really early. I was watching Dragon Ball Z when it was on Fox just before baseball came on. A lot of people didn't catch it until it came on to Cartoon Network or Toonami and then they were all excited about it but I knew it was on way before then. I had a Game Boy growing up. My grandmother bought me that. I had an Alto saxophone that my father bought me. My mom was always into music. My father was into music but he was a Chicago police officer but he was kind of like a music aficionado really.
Speaker 1:So I'd grown up around this and I was in choir and I was first tier in alto saxophone, fifth and sixth, seventh grade and just really have been playing games, mostly before I picked up the instrument, because I got that my first Game Boy when I was around seven and was playing that, and then 64 and PlayStation in my dad's house and then my dad, when I moved with him he had a Sega Genesis he bought me from Hollywood Video and so I'd been playing Mega Turrican and Pitfall and Earthworm, Jim and Beyond, Oasis and Game Boy game titles like Turok, Battle of the Binosaurus and Bugs Bunny, Crazy Castle 2 and Godzilla and Stargate. So, and then PlayStation games like Tomb Raider in 1996 and kicking my dad's ass in Tekken 2 and Resident Evil and Final Fantasy 7, playing games like that. So I already, I guess, had the signature sound. I also was playing Game Boy Camera when it first came out in 98. And so I was writing music on the Game Boy Camera and I was listening to sound tests on Final Fantasy Legend 2 on the Game Boy and the other games that I mentioned as well. So Game Boy Camera was mostly, I would say, my first introduction to game music that I had been writing, and so it wasn't until I moved down to California and then my mom and my aunt bought me a computer. I was working off of this three gigabyte hard drive to just try to make beats, really and things like that.
Speaker 1:But folks had always said you know, the very first thing that I showed someone, it was this girl at the bus stop named Tasha and she said sounds like it should be in a video game. Hand me back my CD player. When I burned it I was thinking, oh okay, that's not what I'm trying to achieve, but all right. And so, several years of hearing that from many different people, you know, the God in the universe really just told me that you should probably think about the video game thing.
Speaker 1:And so it wasn't until a friend of mine had told me hey, did you see who did the voice for God of War? And I said, no, this is God of War 3 on PS3. And I looked at it and I was shocked because it actually turned out to be someone that I knew. It was a family friend who I referred to as my uncle, as Uncle TC Carson and my mom and him were no longer speaking, and I didn't know until I went and said hey, uncle TC's the voice of Kratos, and I'm thinking she knew I had already decided I wanted to go into video game music and go to GDC.
Speaker 1:And I started taking piano lessons. My aunt started to share with me uh, to provide for me, rather and I was like that's nice. And so I was thinking, okay, that's not gonna be my in. So I learned how to video capture from a very old turtle card. I was already a, I had already went to los angeles recording school, sorry, and graduated from there, and then I decided, during the recession, I was going to go back to school.
Speaker 1:Once I've discovered that this was a thing, because I unlocked a video that talked about music not being pigeonholed. You can do whatever style you want. And that's since I've been told that I already had that sound. I was thinking I want music to, not, I want my music to be that way and free, and so I can amalgamate all that styles. And so so then I I'm playing PS3. I locked that video of other composers and they had showed that video of, like how music could just for games, could just be that. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I've been told that this is my sound. I've been trying to do this other thing. It's not working. And I finally put it together.
Speaker 1:And my first I did get an internship at a mobile game studio while I was still in community college, just before I crunched for uni. So I was trying to figure this thing out but I sorry, I went back to capture that card. I did a capture card, I did a demo, put it up on YouTube it's still on my YouTube to this day. For Gran Turismo I tried to figure out how to go to GC. It was so expensive. I didn't do that.
Speaker 1:I got a job at LensCrafters. That job at LensCrafters led me to two different paths that could have happened. One was a composer signing with one of the composers the main composer of God of War that I ended up meeting and friends with to this day but didn't become his assistant. But then got an internship through someone at LensCrafters. Their uncle was in games. That internship was really cool but the studio shut down. I bought a book called the Complete Guide to Game Audio, read half of the book, went online to game dev forums, posted my work and mostly landed a gig which ended up being a paid and my first ship game called Electron Flux on mobile, because now there's Electron Flux that came out some years later and it's on pc. So I have to specify what that is.
Speaker 2:It's a long story, but I wanted to give you the full context of where it all kind of comes from okay, honestly, like a lot of the terminology and stuff as far as the video game in I'm not as familiar with, so I'm sure people listening aren't as well. So, uh, the terms that you just mentioned, could you kind of like explain them?
Speaker 2:Just kind of you were doing something video related to video games, but then you were also making okay, and then you were also creating music, but you weren't necessarily intentionally creating music for video games at the time. So explain into a little further detail what exactly you were doing with the capture card which you just mentioned, sure, sure.
Speaker 1:So the capture card is a card that captures video of the input of something that you are taking from one device and transferring it to another, and this is how people are typically able to stream retro games on Twitch nowadays. But back then that technology was hard. I had to rig different cables and just have this little medium and then have a software go from the PlayStation into the actual PC that I built. And, yeah, it wasn't so straightforward until late as Twitch became Twitch, because Twitch used to be just in that TV where we used to watch sports, so NBA games, things like that Legitimately I would say. But they had that platform and so that's where that came from.
Speaker 1:And so, like I was saying before, I was trying to do hip hop and R&B. On any beats and styles that I was doing, they always would say like a sound should be in a video game. So I just transferred the energy in terms of just not doing that anymore, even though producers kind of was getting to that sound. I was thinking how is it still not accepted? Our culture plays this type. But now it's funny, now it's a whole medium, it's called Nerdcore. But I was doing that 24 years ago, way ahead before it got popular and I still have those tracks to this day. So it's just funny. I was mostly I was told I'm a futurist and I still have those tracks to this day. So it's just funny how I was. Mostly I was told I'm a futurist and I'm ahead of my time. Okay, hopefully that kind of explains what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that makes things a little more clear. So I'm just curious like what was your yeah, like what was your setup as far as making music at that time?
Speaker 1:It was super simple. I didn't even get an MPC 500 until, I think, the sixth or seventh year into producing, so I was using. I started on FL Studio 3, Fruity Loops 3. Before that I was on Hammerhead. Then I found Fruity Loops 3. Then I stuck with that. I could never get this sound. Timbaland had a track, demo track that was in there. It was amazing. I'm thinking how do we get to this production sound? Which is what led me to go into Los Angeles Recording School and trying to better my production skills, even though I was there for audio engineering mostly. But I figured the two would work together because you need to use EQs and compressors and so on. So the setup was pretty simple. I had even hustled together some money to get an M-Audio Axiom 61. I was very proud about that for my MIDI controller, and that's it really. It really wasn't much. I had some Yamaha HS-ADMs that I did purchase too. I still have those and that's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, was there a particular individual who I don't know, who I guess served as like a mentor? Who was that person? That kind of? Or did you kind of just have to like, do everything on your own as far as like a mentor? Who was that person? That kind of um, or did you kind of just have to like, do everything, you think, on your own as far as like getting access to people who were blocking, who would give you a chance, like who really gave you your first opportunity to compose for a video game, whether, no matter, uh, the level of the skill that it was on?
Speaker 1:well to compose for my first video game. I did it on my own. I had boss. Why I bought that book? Because that internship only got me so far, but I never got to ship. I did technically ship the game, but I just don't even know if I was credited. And that game was Zombie Wonderland 2. And it was supposed to write for a different game called Airborne Geyser, but the studio was shut down due to some drama and even though there was opportunity to write, continue further and do that, I turned it down because it didn't feel I thought it might've been shady. So by buying the book, the Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks, second edition, I had figured that out on my own. So I gave myself the first opportunity.
Speaker 1:In terms of mentors, they didn't come until later, until, like I said, the composer from God of War, gerard Marino. I didn't become his assistant due to some scheduling, but I ended up becoming a good friend and it was fortunate to earn the trust of him, which led to me helping him move a couple times and then that introduced me to his friends. So Cole Hicks, who used to be at Riot, and Ken Jakobson, who became my first mentor and he took me in and showed me different production things that I wouldn't have been able to kind of achieve otherwise. And Kyle Johnson, who worked at Neversoft and he wasn't there while there but later on, and he was always helping me and he ended up mastering a couple of my soundtracks, as well as Ken from my games as well.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 2:So when you came across those people because usually there's like a the kind of the path is how you kind of like you did, like you do everything you're on, you're kind of like you know, in your basement, or at least the modern way of doing it back then you probably had to like, you know, 20, 30, I don't know 30 years ago, like the only way for really for you to get in was to work at a studio or you would actually have to leave home to actually do the thing.
Speaker 2:But now you, or maybe in your stages around that time, the transition was to where you could do things from your bedroom. But then there's that also presents an issue as to where, like, you're comfortable within that environment and even though, if you create something and have people listen to it, it's from that comfort zone of you know, your own space. But what was it like for you? Like going outside of that and maybe having to actually, you know, maybe produce with other people around or somebody like over your shoulder critiquing you, or maybe just getting, like the high level of feedback that you may not necessarily have gotten from doing it in your own space. So, uh, was that a thing that actually existed for you?
Speaker 1:Not really. I've to be honest, I really I'm not someone who really asked for a lot of help because I'm so used to doing a lot on my own because I couldn't rely on people, because they weren't. They didn't have the same work ethic that I did. I'm someone who's very reliable. I came into this industry very professional thanks to my mom teaching me professionalism and etiquette and decorum, and it was unmatched. It was so rare to find. So I think one of the reasons that Kyle and Ken had gave me some kind of tutelage is because they realized that I'm a hard worker.
Speaker 1:If I was looking for feedback, I struggled before I asked for it, because I understand when you're an apprentice or you're an assistant, it's not about you, it's about them and you're servicing them. And because I worked in so many retail jobs over for 10 years in conjunction with going to school and uni and pursuing this career path, I took extremely hard path. Most people would do one and then transition to another and then maybe do two, but I did all three and so I understood that I'm servicing. I'm not trying to say, hey, look at me, this is what I want, can you help me? Can you help me?
Speaker 1:In fact I wasn't even looking for that internship with Ken. He asked me a couple questions when I was at a it was called a Game Audio Network Guild barbecue the last one, I think, in Los Angeles at the time, over a decade ago and he asked me two questions and I think I answered those questions and he said, okay, give me a call next week. He didn't ask me if I've been an assistant before, and I was. I'd been an assistant composer before. So yeah, again, it just kind of happened. I wasn't looking for it and so.
Speaker 2:But I'm very thankful because it shows that that person saw something in me and believed in me and I in the industry, for even like getting an agent nowadays, that's it's that doesn't even exist, especially for minority americans of african descent okay, uh, I'm glad you actually brought up that part because, uh, the reason why I wanted to start this podcast is because I just didn't see a lot of black men and women in the auto industry and, to be honest, the ones that I did see were they were like more producers and stuff. Even for the ones that were black, I noticed that it was more women than men, which it was. It's kind of been more of a of a task to try to find men to have on the podcast as well. So did you think that? Um, cause, obviously, like you speak the language, like you, you live and breathe like what you were doing, as far as music and video games, like that is a part of you.
Speaker 2:I could just tell from you know, from the short conversation we've had so far, but, you know, for somebody outside of our community, to you know, maybe hear your work or something like that, and then to actually realize that it was you, you know young Black kid or man, you know, no matter what stage you were, that had done those things, had done the work. Do you feel like it was harder because you were?
Speaker 1:black. When I started in the industry I tried my best to go in with it with my work speaking for itself. But the past five years I think I've come to a pragmatism that it definitely has been harder and I think even with all the awards and the things that I've achieved and being in the museum, you know I'm saying, oh well, no, it's like, but I've been in this. I say this bigger number because I guess the, the other number doesn't seem to have this gravitas. So I say 4 745 days versus 13 years, but that's what the equivalency of those are. So 4745 days sounds bigger than it was.
Speaker 1:Like oh, it's just 13 years. Like well, when is it a number of of meaning to someone? It's like, oh, you've been this 40 years, like that seems like a bigger number. Like oh, 13, like yeah, so it's. I mean, even at that barbecue I was the only minority american of african descent there, uh, but I was comfortable because my mama taught me how to be comfortable in these spaces. But in terms of trying to get to the next level of the opportunities that I want to achieve and also value that people have offers, whereas I know they wouldn't offer that to this person, why are they trying to slight me? So that's what I've been experiencing the past five years and it's been it's been actually very frustrating.
Speaker 2:Okay, so yeah, so so you got. I guess the stage is just like first is actually people like okay, I'm going to hire you, like wanting to work with you, and then you get over that hump and then you're like okay, they want to work with me, but they don't want to pay me the way I should be paid. They don't to pay yeah, that's exactly it yeah, that's, that's, that's um.
Speaker 2:That's unfortunate and I tried to um. Obviously, like the money, part of it is no matter what field you, what field you're in, it's an aspect of it. You know, as much as we may fall in love with the creative, with the technical stuff, if you want to do it as a career, you're going to have to like you know, no matter how much you try to avoid it as a career, you're going to have to like. You know how about you try to avoid it that those conversations, that reality is has to exist.
Speaker 2:So, and I guess, just in a, in a general sense, I guess this is this is an opportunity to point this out as well do you think that, especially now, do you feel that people that work in the audience, do you feel like the audio or the audio medium in general, is something that is like undervalued? Like I feel like, out of all the, based on my experience from the production process, whether it's pre-production, post-production or the actual, the main part of production, that people will throw money at a lot of things. The video sets, the, you know, whatever, I don't know, depends on, obviously, the medium, but, like, when it comes to audio, it's kind of like people just kind of want to give you what's left over. You know the scraps um, and maybe for you, know people, for black people in our lives. That's how we feel. So if you're black and working in audio, it's like twofold. So do you think? Yeah, just uh, I to. I believe. I do believe audio is something that is undervalued, but would you agree?
Speaker 1:Definitely concur. And it's worse in video games because there are sites that make it cheaper in terms of, you know, royalty free tracks. Or then it's worse when students don't understand the business side and they come out of college and they just, they're just eager to work and try to say yes to everything and they offer their time for free. And so my goal is to re-educate the newer ages. To cap it, before it gets to audio, not talk to the audio people, but the game designers are coming up and if there's still games around by that time, with AI tools now they're able to kind of just circumvent that and they are just thinking it's the afterthought. I'm thinking, hold, hold on. Like these microphones are three to four thousand dollars, or, you know, three hundred dollars, two thousand dollars, four thousand dollars, ten grand, etc. The you know the mic pres itself are very expensive for good quality stuff. The instruments aren't cheap. The time at school I'm sure you had to get a loan of some sort. Not everybody's getting grants or you're coming out of your pocket.
Speaker 1:Where did you think that free was good to give away? At what point did bills stop? And there's a certain affluence, obviously because they're getting kickbacks from different patronage type of parents. Obviously for those things those resources are not typical across the board, obviously through cultures. So it's just a broken system overall that it's hard to break. There's small areas where people understand yes, you need good work, yes, you do see the value, and I think that just comes with then that circle of small work ethic when people see like, oh, he's winning awards, oh, he's always here, he's always there. You've got to show the value in other ways. But it's still about, it's still so much more that 10 more steps than the average, you know, versus a majority American could do than a minority American and many years and many more steps. And so it's just not only is undervalued, it's very unfair, it's very unbalanced.
Speaker 2:I would agree and I think that in a lot of things related to audio, like you know, music producers do this a lot now too, like you have to, maybe people even artists, because of, like you know, digital streaming, and like the amount of money that's pumped into the music industry, like obviously prior to this generation, like it was very sustainable to just produce or be an artist, go on tours, sell records, sell, merch, you know, basically through your label or whatever, and like you can, it's very lucrative and it's like now you're doing that, you're creating content, you got to do all types of things and that's but that's not only to you know, back then it was like very lucrative.
Speaker 2:Now that's just to stay above water. So if you implement any, any of that type of stuff by creating content or like, maybe, putting out stuff to say this is how I, you know, created this game, or, you know, maybe you give tips or tips or tricks on, you know, your process and those type of things. There's a lot of different ways you can create content, but have you been having to use those type of things to compensate for maybe not it being as sustainable from a lifestyle standpoint?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, I've been streaming on Twitch my composing process. I'm one of the few that do it, and especially one of the few in the minority American African descent that do it. For 10 years I've been doing a gamer composer on Twitch and I would show how it's done, because I started it because I went to show game developers that were looking to hire composers that I'm not just pressing a key on the keyboard and it's done. I've really got to think about chord regressions. I got to think about how this is going to work with the game, the sound palette, the restrictions, why it's going to work, why it's not going to work.
Speaker 1:I specialize in interactive and adaptive and dynamic music. So I take it a step above just normal loops. I'm not just making tracks and throwing into the game. I'm really tying it to game mechanics. I'm tying it to level designs. I'm creating musical scores that are going to adapt to the player's inputs, that are based if it's being a story or if the player pulls out a tool or if they've got to encounter combat. I've taken it to a higher level. So I've done that on Twitch for 10 years. And then I also started a recent series on my YouTube channel called how I Composed, and that's a higher production thing. It takes a lot of time and effort, but I've realized it's starting to take off as of this year. So I'm going to be creating more, whereas then I break down just in the format.
Speaker 1:If I'm not doing it in the guest speaking form of the presentation I'm doing at game conferences, it's more so of this is how I designed this piece of game music. For this, I had this document, I had this vertical slice, which is a prototype of the game, and this is how I approached it. This is my musical idea. This is where my thought process were, and it's very unique and so it's my perspective of that. And then recently I started a patreon, just as last week, whereas and I'm giving my insight in terms of my thoughts on my professional player opinion is what it's called, and it's not only going to be talking about audio, but it discusses, when I'm playing a game, what I'm thinking about, what I enjoyed about it, why I thought something did work, why I thought something was great. But also the recent one is the Nobunaga Matsu, we're saying where game music is stagnant, and the briefing to that is like I concur that it is and I discuss why, and so those are the three pieces of content is you know streaming on twitch for the past 10 years?
Speaker 1:The youtube series, how I composed, and then professional pro player pro player opinion really is what is discussed on my patreon, and I think that gives that. It gives a lot of value. What I understand, though, is people still. There's been so much modicoling that's been happening in the industry because a lot of people get stuff for free that their old saying is like people have to pay attention before they can pay. You People have been paying attention to me, but they still don't want to pay. They don't realize that I'm just going to be disrupting the model overall, because if you want quality, especially on the thought leadership that I bring, you will have to pay something for it, just like as you did in school.
Speaker 2:And that's just where I stand. Yeah, like you said, like you mentioned earlier, with all the accolades and stuff, like having to, you know when people approach you, you have to bring awareness to all that you do so people can see the values to, to where they want to pay. And you, you going into depth, uh, about what you just mentioned. It kind of reminds me because, um, I have no musical talent whatsoever but I definitely appreciate it, so I consume a lot of behind the scenes stuff, not just music, tv film too. But since we're on the topic of music, and there's this, um, there's this podcast that I listen to called the soundtrack show, which is goes into like the musical breakdowns of like a lot of the, a lot of the popular scores from films that we all love, um, whether you know it's past or present. And what you mentioned about your process of showing how you do just reminded me of that, and on that I did hear like they kind of pull clips. You know how some of these dvds and stuff they have like feature red, so they have the composer and stuff on there or the director talk about stuff, and my favorite composer is john williams and I think it was specifically home alone, the one that I was watching, and he mentioned that you know a lot of people won't come to him. Obviously, if you're John Williams, like this is not as relevant as far as the money part of it, because I can only imagine how much money he's made from doing scores. He's been doing it. He's probably been doing this 50 years and some of the biggest you know blockbuster movies ever blockbuster movies ever. But he said, like some people may have been hesitant to come to him to ask him to do a, to do a score, because it may not have been a blockbuster budget movie. But he talked about how he decides. What he's going to do and not do is based off his visceral reaction to, to the story, to the movie or whatever, and that will, and if it's if inspires him to want to create, he'll do it kind of really no matter the scale of the production, until when people come to you for opportunities or whether you seek them out.
Speaker 2:We've already mentioned that a lot of, a lot of them don't want to pay what you're worth. But how do you go about deciding like what you're worth, but how do you go about deciding like what you will and won't work on outside of the money part, like do you kind of get a feel for like okay, this is, it might be a nostalgia thing, like, oh, this reminds me of this video game and I kind of want to do my own take on it, so I'll accept it. Or maybe if somebody is willing to pay you what you're worth, but you're like you know, I feel like if I take it, I'm just doing it because of the money and it might show in my work Like I might not be able to deliver deliver as much on this than if I were doing something that I was more excited about doing. So what is your kind of process for deciding those things when I am approached from different projects.
Speaker 1:I typically it's very rare I'll turn down some game work, the work that I did, one TV show that I did some music for called Cold and Windy, which was some years ago. I was the main composer at first and then I'll just be transpicuous and say I was fired but the team was not the best and so that got taken over the best and so they that got taken over. And I would only do tv or film stuff if it's like game, documentary related or if the team is really cool and creative. I've worked with them before something. I've got some film friends that would say hey, we want you to do it now. I might try it again for that in that regard.
Speaker 1:But some in terms of games, when I I've not approached as much mostly because I think I didn't know that john william this problem, but it makes sense I've been the fairground of somewhere in the middle, along the line, somewhere.
Speaker 1:It's not always about the money. Yes, I do want what my value is, but there's other ways to get to that in terms of negotiations. There could be back-end, there could be live performance, there could be right retaining, there could be revenue share plus back end, or there's just so many. I've come up with so many different combinations. There's there's payment plans, there's it's just so many things, but some people just aren't cognizant enough, or even just wanting or willing to even have that next step in the conversation. And so I just say this, and they offer that, and they're like no and okay, which shows me that in one sense, they're doing business in the way of they want the cheapest thing that they can get, but it's get what you pay for, and I've seen this before happen even wearing the quality, you're not going to get good, fast and cheap when you got to pick two right.
Speaker 1:You're only going to get good, fast and cheap. You're only going to get two. Yeah, you're only going to get two. So you better pick two. Very well, I know what two I usually would pick. It's not going to be cheap. So when they come to me with that, it's just. I can always sense that they just want the cheap and they hope to get good and it's going to be good enough and I don't offer that.
Speaker 1:My work has integrity, my work has quality. I put over 10,000 hours into this well, above and more as I continue on, and I only want to work with mindsets of people that understand the value, understand their value, because the craziest thing to me in my mind is thinking, if you invest in me, you're going to get this, but you're investing in yourself, which is, you want the player to invest in you so you can recruit. That. You're not just, you're not just being a patron to me so you can have it, and you can just listen whatever and say you got chase bethea, multi-world winning video game compositions on your phone to play on your bluetooth in your car. You're putting something into an entire art form that you want players to receive an experience from, that you want them to pay for, whether it's $5 or $30 or $70 or $100, whatever you're pricing it for. So it blows my mind that they just do not come back to yeah, this is going to be worth it.
Speaker 1:This is set work. He's not a rookie here. He's not a newbie. We're going to get we're going to get a great experience. We're going to get stuff on the milestone. We're going to get high quality composition. We're going to we're going to get a lot for what we're going to be putting out. But I have no interest in trying to control people and try to buy something anymore. So so I stand where I'm at and that's what. So, if it is come to me, I just looking for mindsets of the same.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, I, I, I try to think of audio like toilet paper, like that's the one thing you can't. You can't get, you can't go cheap on man Like you will instantly regret it.
Speaker 2:That's instantly regret it. That's a real. That's a great analogy. Obviously, like if you because I'm thinking about, like for people who you know, this is more so like if you're like an independent, you know producer of something, whether it's film or podcast or do whatever. I mean, obviously a large, probably majority of podcasts don't have a visual element, so that shows you that you don't even actually need that part of it. But people want to pay. All put the whole budget towards you know, cameras and video and things like that and to be honest, like if you have a good audio experience, people will be more forgiving for the other stuff.
Speaker 2:I'm not telling you to you know, pay us and go cheap on somebody else, but I'm just saying you could at least even the distribution of it a little bit and I think it would take you a longer way. Like the whole experience of if you ever watched a scary movie, you know what do people do when they try to alleviate them being scared. They cover their ears, they don't cover their eyes. If you're watching a horror movie and it's just dialogue, it's not scary, it's the music and the anticipation and the jump scares. The jump scares are scary because there's this huge lift in the music kind of.
Speaker 2:You know, harped on this for a long way, for a while, but I'm very passionate about it. So I try to always give my opinion and try to express how valuable I think. You know, obviously I do it on a smaller scale with podcasting, but especially those who are immensely talented like you and you take it to a whole, nother different level. I just want to, you know, kind of make sure you are valued as much as possible. Thank you, yes, sir.
Speaker 1:So, and likewise, podcasting is not not easy.
Speaker 2:I've done, I've been, I've been a panelist on podcast for three years Game Audio Hour and also Chronicle of the Gamers with one of my close friends, so I know how hard work it is, yeah, um, for me the most, I think the most talented people when it comes to media are people who do music, whether it's composed, like you, or just do it, as you know, in a traditional artist sense, and people who write writers, like I.
Speaker 2:Feel like those are the two most important things in media in general, because, obviously, if you don't have writing, you don't have a script, you don't have a song, you don't have anything, and the music just elevates it, it puts you in the thing, no matter what it is music or video games. Speaking of video games and a few other things, we're getting to the end of the interview here and a few other things. We're getting to the end of the interview here, but for all my guests, I do like to ask them a few questions about their favorites. It only makes sense for this particular instance to ask what is your favorite video game of all time?
Speaker 1:It's tough for me because I have this thing about the all time phrase. Time is still going with humans, so it's like of our time. It makes the sense, so I can't really answer that I'll ask this what game have you played the most? That you can give me an answer on that I think I've at least played shadow of the colossus two times. Definitely beat it twice beat it twice.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm uh, I've never. Actually, I play a lot of sports games, especially baseball, but for other games I normally don't play them through twice. I usually play like the story modes and then I'll just switch to like the online play once I do that. But a game that was just such a crazy experience and I enjoy so much more than any other game was Red Dead Redemption 2. So now I'm gonna go back and play it on hard Like I've never played a game that detailed in my life. I was blown away to find out that it's a game that's like four or five years old and I probably played it two years ago, a year or two ago. So that game has motivated me to do so. Okay. Next, favorite album of all time.
Speaker 1:Sorry, before I go on all of the games that I've played twice with Beyond Oasis, so it's a tie between those two and that's on Sega Genesis the favorite album that I've has the most spins. I consumed a lot of music so I may not I'm being able to answer this. This Just fear memory blank. In terms of soundtracks, it probably most it might be between Ridge Racer R4 or Turok Battle of the Dinosaurs on Game Boy.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So soundtracks to games? The music producer who you admire the most? I'm trying to rephrase these questions because you kind of threw a dent in the way I usually ask it. So I gotta kind of read, I gotta rephrase it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got. You got something fresh. The all times is the only thing that you weren't expecting. So but this one I remember anticipating I was. I can answer this one the way that I think you instructed before, so I can answer like two parts, so I could do the video game composer or I can do the music producer. It's a really big toss-up. I was hoping to talk this one out to see if my brain would come with an answer, but it's really between Timbaland and Pharrell and ironically they're cousins, so it wouldn't go wrong either way. I'm trying to think who I'm mostly influenced by, just by just the edge. I'm probably gonna say pharrell, just because I know that with timbaland I'm mostly influenced through the rhythms. But between it's it's hard. I should really say the neptunes, because it's chad and chad hugo and pharrell williams.
Speaker 1:So I really should say the neptunes versus timbaland, and it's really hard because the production of Timbaland had inspired me very early, just before I found out about Pharrell or the Neptunes in what was that? 2001, when they they would been always. They produced, were produced in the nineties, but they're really big heads with clips and doing. Justin Timberlake and other other artists really were were influencing me and the Jay-Z pieces that they were doing and collaborating, yeah, so I I'm sorry it's not gonna be straight, it's just just give me some grace between the Netflix and Timberlake okay, that's, that's fair.
Speaker 2:That's fair. You, when you go into that too much detail you got. I have no choice but to give you grace. Next, the last two. Next is favorite film score.
Speaker 1:I have a favorite film cue which is one piece from the entire soundtrack which says perfume story of a murderer Perfume story of a murderer.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to follow up with you in the email so you can put pen to paper, so I can actually go and do the research on these, because I'm very curious and I like learning and I like being exposed to new things. So these are a lot of things that I haven't heard of, so I'm definitely looking forward to checking them out.
Speaker 1:And last favorite TV theme song the 90s X-Men animated series for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good one. That is a good one, man. I'm gonna have to listen to that once we hop off here, because I haven't heard it in a while oh yeah, it's gonna give you goosebumps for sure yeah, that one in the power rangers one to me. They're neck and neck all the power rangers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I only forgot about that. Yeah, and I just thought about the goosebumps. One is pretty good too yeah the that tv.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one was pretty cool oh okay, I think that's pretty much it, man, you went to extreme detail about your journey. I learned a lot about video games on the composing side. My only familiarity with them beforehand was just being a consumer, so it was a great learning experience. You're one of the guests that you know.
Speaker 2:A lot of people have kind of interesting journeys, and my journey was interesting into getting into audio. But every now and again you kind of meet people who are kind of just born to do the thing, and you I think you're my the first one that I've had on here. He was just like I was locked in from my early age, so I was definitely glad to know that about you, man. Um, is there anything that you you wanna share? Obviously, you mentioned a lot of the content you create. If people wanna actually play the games or go listen to some of the stuff you've done before, can you just point them in the right direction so they can support you? Yeah, we wanna make sure we go out of our way to support the guests we have on here.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, yeah, I'd love to share. So some of the games that you can support by playing on Steam are Deity Quest on the Power of Parrots, which is the award I won for best original soundtrack, for the next award and a global music award, a Ground as well. A Ground is not only on Steam, but it's my first console game, so it was a big milestone for me and hopefully the first of many. And, if you like, minecraft mixed with Roblox and Terraria, that game is that, but it's better because it has progression and story. So it's not just the same type of thing. A lot of people enjoy it and you also can. I mean, if you go to my website, chasewiththeacom C-H-A-S-E. B, as in boy E, as in Eric T, as in Tom H, as in Harry E, Eric T as in Tom H, as in Harry E, as in Eric A, as in Apple, you'll see all the other things that projects that I've been part of limited run games, gix trilogy trailer that I did, the set 10 Rumble remix by Team Fight Tactics you can check that out. But please give me a follow on Spotify. Spotify is playing games with artists. If you don't have like a thousand plays, add my music to the playlist. If you don't have a thousand plays, they're going to give that work to some other person and I just think that's stuff and that's bogus. But if you really, really want to support my work, please go to chasepathiabandcampcom purchase a soundtrack.
Speaker 1:I'm going to also be doing way more live performances. I have a performance at MagWest in September. It should be MagWest on the 24th or so over the weekend and that's in san jose, and then, if you're in the los angeles area, I have a live performance of work that's being performed. Star dander, school for witches is a lot of. It's going to be a small ensemble where they're going to be doing encore performance of a work, and actually I'm the brainchild of this kind of small concert, because I went to them and said, hey, do you do video music? And they took my idea and it became what it is, and so it's really cool to see it being performed again, as it was a year ago.
Speaker 1:And that's in Los Angeles. That's September 7th, three o'clock in West LA and tickets, and that's, I guess, coming up on a month away. So there's that as well, and I believe. Yeah, like I said, just follow on all the platforms. Follow my YouTube channel If you want to see how creating different content, see different other interviews that have done the how Compose series, and I think that's it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I appreciate you sharing man and once again, I appreciate you for joining. I enjoyed having you on and for everybody listening. I will catch you on the next episode. Thank you for joining us on today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave us a review. If you'd like to work with me or connect, please go to soundbossedcom and schedule a call there. You can also check out the full list of productions I've worked on. Schedule a call there. You can also check out the full list of productions I've worked on. If you'd like to connect on social media, my handle is soundbysaidcom on Twitter and Instagram and I'm Sidney Evans on LinkedIn. Don't forget to follow Beyond the Threshold on Instagram as well. I'll catch you on the next episode.