Festive RIffs
December is once again upon us and it’s time to get into the festive spirit!
Now, before you call us out, there really IS a more in-depth dev blog on the way . So rest assured you’ll get that juicy new info very soon! (Hopefully next week - Dave)
Until then we wanted to deliver a little festive treat to you all…A brand new Christmas collaboration from some of the musicians who worked on the Star Trucker soundtrack.
Bah Humbug Ridin’ Shotgun is a fictional collaboration between Twin Star Collective and Duke Miles and has been added as a “Bonus Track” to the Star Trucker Soundtrack on Steam.
Being able to get “the gang back together” for a new track was a lot of fun and we really hope you like it!
If you're interested in how this track was brought together I’ve pasted some notes from our long time collaborator Gavin Harrison and lyrical mastermind Randall Breneman below…
Kickin’ Off
Gavin - After an initial kick off discussion, we set about finding some suitable reference tracks to make sure we were all on the same page for the direction. The key focus really was something instantly recognisable as a Christmas track, which could only mean one thing - getting the sleigh bells out!
Dave - For those interested, the lead reference track we settled on was How the Truckers Saved Christmas by Bill Weaver. Although we were kinda surprised as to just how many truckin’ Christmas songs are out there in the wild!
Gavin - From here I contacted the rest of the band, including our guest vocalist Randall, who we knew would be best placed to nail the right style and bring his authentic American voice to the track. Given everyone’s locations and the time involved, we knew we’d all be working remotely which isn’t always ideal, but everyone put a lot of time and effort into producing the best track possible!
Yule Rhymes
Randall - I thought the lead reference song was a great concept and what I would consider classic country. Using that as a base we began working on our own idea about accidentally rear-ending Santa. This just seemed funny to me and provided lots of opportunities for holiday fun and mischievous lyrics.
Saying that, it’s hard to make anything in space relate to snow and elves BUT, after some back and forth with the Monsters I managed to adjust the lyrics to include some classic 'Star Trucker' tropes while still including plenty of Christmas staples.
Building Structure
Gavin - Lorenzo is the multi-instrumentalist of the band and quickly brought together a very rough demo using drums, bass and guitar. From there we refined the structure and chord progressions until we had a demo track that was fully formed in terms of sections, if not sounds.
I then took this track and put it together for Randall to work with. He worked on a scratch (demo) vocal, and suggested some more edits to the track, both harmonically and structurally to allow his vocal melodies fit a bit better.
At this point I had to take Randall’s vocals and combine them into the main project, a bit tricky and a slight pitfall of different people working with different sequencers!
Festive Finesse
Gavin - So now everything was recorded in at least a form and structure we knew we were sticking to, Lorenzo was able to replace all his demo recordings with the real thing. This included embellishing various parts as well as adding some extra guitar layers.
Next it was my turn to record, adding in some piano, organ and various bells and chimes - even a timpani and short choir part, it is Christmas after all! Once these were in Lorenzo finished his work with an immense guitar solo and the finishing touches of a tambourine and sleigh bells.
For our final stage of recording, the finalised backing was sent to Randall who recorded the proper lead and backing vocals.
Gavin - After each of the previous steps I sent the song across to our fantastic mixer Tom. There were a couple of revisions, mostly to make sure the vocals were sitting clearly in the mix, but once that had been done - we (almost) had our final track.
I say almost as the final stage was for the track to be mastered. Thankfully Joe Caithness, who did a superb job with the original soundtrack, was available and extremely accommodating, mastering the final track at very short notice.
And there you have it. A fully finished festive track turned around in a little less than a month.
…and that’s a wrap for now! We’ll be back soon with that dev blog, but until then, we hope you enjoy plenty of winter treats and a smooth cruise toward Christmas!
- Dan & Dave ( aka Monster and Monster )