Spring - New Songs! New Video! New Project!

It's been a little while coming, but I've finally finished off some new songs, I hope you enjoy!

Stooge - Game On
A brand new chiptune track with vocals, Gameboy, and electric guitar. I wanted to focus on the idea that no matter whether it's real life or a video game, no matter success or failure, the only life you have is your own. You shouldn't give anything up - you've got to keep on going and just live life the best that you can.

There's also a music video for it! Written and created by my brother, Robert Gustafson, for a college project - I'm really quite thankful for the collaboration on this, check it out! Due to time constraints only the first half is finished, but it's a really cool interpretation. It was mainly created in Flash with elements of Photoshop. Thanks, Rob!


'Game On' was recorded with my trusty Studio Projects B1 for vocals, and the guitar is a Xavier 620 thinline Telecaster. All performances were of myself. A Line6 TonePort UX2 was used for amp modeling and mild use of its vocal preamp models. The vocal chorus effect for the main melody was me double-tracking against myself, and harmonies were included on separate tracks as well. Recorded and mixed down in ProTools M-Powered.

Stooge - Theoretical Dirigibility
Another newer chiptune track (recorded around winter 2009), featuring my friend Erik Scattareggia on drums. Altogether, this song has Gameboy, acoustic and electric guitars, and drumset. I chose the title because I always had this image of a really awkward flying machine bumbling around and trying to take flight - and it reflects in the song. You get moments of takeoff, mechanical issues, rising up into the sky, sudden emergencies, and soaring amongst the clouds. Kudos to Erik for helping me out on this!

Drums were captured with the basic Shure DMK57-52 drumset mic kit as well as AKG Perception 220's for the overhead mic's. The acoustic guitar was recorded with the Studio Projects B1 and the electric (again the Xavier) was recorded on my Peavey Bandit 112 amp with a Nady SP1. If I had to do it again, I'd adjust the timbre of the electric guitar, it sounds a little rough for my taste. The mix did end up pumping a little because of so many different elements going on, but I think it still plays out well.

New Project - Megaman Powered-Down

I've taken on some work with a fan game project for the Megaman series - Megaman Powered-Down (website to come). It's going to be an 8-bit demake of the PSP remake (say that again) of the original Megaman...what does this mean? It's an 8-bit remake of Megaman with all the bonus play modes, extra levels, playable characters, and music of the PSP version. My job is going to be arranging the new music in FamiTracker (The Nintendo NES tracker) and taking the rearranged tunes (as Capcom changed them up quite a bit - Cutman's in major now, who knew?) and turning them into oldschool, 8-bit goodness! This one's a ways off, but look for updates on it! I've completed the intro, most of the beginning stage, and started on Cutman's theme.


Keep on keeping on,
-Steven.