There are 2 main themes in the game, both of which are featured on the title screen: the repeating 3-note bell riff, and the melody that repeats a few times throughout. Both of these represent different aspects of a certain key character. I wanted the two themes to sound both good and dissonant when played together... I also think it's really cool when games play their title screen music during the endgame! One/both of these themes can also be heard during the penultimate boss, final boss, outro, credits, and at the checkpoints throughout the game.

The bell riff is basically ripping off one of my all-time favorite title screen themes: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Oops, already broke my rule. I've always been fascinated by these FFCC bells... like I can hear new overtones in them every time I listen... My bells are less sonically-complex, I think, but I liked how it worked as a layer that was easy to insert into several different contexts. The notes they play (E A G) are vague enough to work in lots of different keys, but also specific enough that they can feel extra spicy when needed.

As for the melody theme... I had this distorted guitar/synth sound I was playing around with, and I liked how some notes sounded really crunchy when played together. I made a picked chord progression out of it, which is what plays right before fighting the final boss. At some point, I realized I could pluck a melody out of these chords by just removing some of the lower notes and extending some of the higher ones. I really liked how the resulting melody sounded, so I decided to use it in many many places!

The spark for the Data Stream song was actually a royalty-free song I put out a while back ("Future Sleek") that I've always been fond of. I wanted a riff that was similar because of its kinda spacey sci-fi vibe. From there, it was just a matter of putting the riff on loop and scrolling through soundfont patches. The song really came to life when I stumbled across the bagpipe patch. I thought it sounded extremely cool with the riff.

I was listening to Kelly Lee Owen's album Dreamstate just in general during parts of X-YZE dev. In my notes, I wrote it down as an inspiration for the Prison level music. I don't remember which song from the album was a particular inspiration, or what parts of my song it inspired... I just picked a song to share here, but most of the rest of the album is pretty cool. I guess I can hear some rough vibe similarities. At the very least, I know for sure I was thinking about the siren sound effects in Sonic Adventure 2 while making this one. This is maybe the only song on the soundtrack where I had a very specific vibe in mind and had it come out pretty much exactly how I wanted.

I also wrote down "100gecs boiler room" in my notes for Prison. I'm pretty sure that refers to the boss song, and I'm pretty sure the part of the set inspired it is the one at the timestamp above. Maybe it influenced the acid bassline. I don't quite remember, but this set was at least floating around in my head at the time.

So the Datamines level song was the first song I made for the OST. I had just played some Mega Man 8 for the first time, and the sounds of Wily Stage 1 really stuck with me. One of the main soundfonts I used throughout the OST was a MM8 one! I knew this level would be the first bit of real challenge players face in the game, so I wanted the song to be fairly chill and maybe even relaxing. I don't remember if there was a specific reason I chose 5/4 time, but I do like how things are paced out in that time signature here. With this song and the Datamines boss song, I decided that my general approach would be to make the level songs "intriguing" and the boss songs something you can bop your head to.

The Datamines boss song is the only one I scrapped even after I had a nearly full draft. My original idea was "what if 90's Hikaru Utada as a boss song?". I couldn't figure out how to pull it off... maybe next time. I stuck with the same general tempo range though, so I think there are vague whiffs of the original inspiration still in there. After failing to do the Utada thing, I realized Streets of Rage has music with some similar elements. In particular, I somewhat copied the way it shifts back and forth between different riffs as a way to keep things fresh, plus use weird sounds! That pattern actually continued into several other songs throughout the OST. I was also thinking about how the Sonic 3 boss music uses really crunchy drums as a major part of what makes the song memorable.

The boss song for HDD came before the level song, and the level song pretty much is just a more light-hearted evolution of the boss song. They both pull from an inspiration I knew I wanted to pull from since very early in development: Machine Girl. I've loved their music for a long time, and I've always wanted to make something for a game that pulls from it.

I also wanted to pull more directly from juke/footwork music in general because of how disorienting yet danceable the beats are and how high the BPM is. Perfect for a boss that's all about disorienting and overstimulating you.

Another inspiration for this is Daedelus. I don't know how to describe the music they make, but maybe "avant-garde electronic" is somewhere in the right direction. They also do some of the most fascinating DJ sets I've heard, many of which incorporate juke/footwork.

I wanted these songs to have a lot of back-and-forth between "happy" sections and "angry" sections, and for the "happy" sections to always sound just a little bit off in some way. Fits the theme of the boss/level. I also wanted to incorporate some sort of vocal sample that plays at various pitches to sound feminine sometimes and masculine other times. Fits the theme yet again. I really like how these songs turned out, and I don't think I've heard any other game music quite like it.

Another inspiration I knew I wanted to pull from at some point was the disgusting and over-the-top stupid kick drums of J-core and Hardstyle. Just about any artist on Hardcore Tano*C fits the bill, but t+pazolite is my favorite. I discovered Jane Remover partway through development, and some of the songs on her Revengeseekerz album were also perfect inspirations. I love that album, and the 2 songs above in particular really Get Me Going. The EKI boss was a great match for this style. The kick drum I ended up making isn't really all that nutso compared to my inspirations, but I still like it. I kinda wish I had given it another bar to play out, but maybe it's for the best I don't bombard your ears so much during a boss fight as stressful as that one.

Some other elements of the boss song... I wanted some beepy boopy sounds that sounded like a computer going to town, since well... the boss is a computer of sorts. As I was experimenting with effects on the source beepy boopy sound, I accidentally made it sound like this really chaotic screechy riff that I loved. That's what you hear during the big drops. I'm pretty sure it's the same source sound as the beepies at the start of the song. I also wanted to get some engine revving sounds in there. I didn't really do a ton of that, but I think some of the basses sound a bit like engines.

For the EKI level song, I honestly kinda started it as something meant to be low-effort... just a techno-y thing I could copy/paste most of... While it was one of the easiest songs to write, I actually wound up liking it slightly more than the boss song. I wanted it to have a more serious and "lock the fuck in" vibe compared to the level songs that come before it, but it absolutely could not go as far as the boss song. I was struggling to make it not sound really boring. As I was perusing random techno songs, I finally found the inspiration I was seeking... and it came from a pretty boring song (see video above). Its use of light percussion amidst a really sparse beat for some reason unlocked the EKI level song for me. You can clearly hear the little percussion thing I added to my own. After that, things just started falling into place. Funny that such a difference was made by such a small thing from a kinda bad song.

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