I recently popped round to my folks for a visit and found my dad clearing out the attic. After constant pressure from my mum he’d decided to finally throw out his entire vinyl collection which had been gathering dust for years. My gut told me this was a huge mistake and pleading with him to reconsider. After all, there were sure to be some real gems in there. My dad’s not the sentimental type though so my pleas fell upon deaf ears.
Obviously I couldn’t let him go through with such madness so I bundled the entire lot into the back of my car and took them home with me. The next day I went out and purchased a Sony turntable that I saw in a clearance sale and got everything hooked up to my speakers. Now when I’m working on Dare the Monkey at nights I chill out to some classic vinyls rather than turning to iTunes.
It’s a strange contradiction: working on a game that’s purely digital while listening to music recorded in a predominantly analogue age. However odd it may seem though, it feels right. I really can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed listening to my dad’s record collection and it’s immense fun discovering albums by artists that have mostly been forgotten. Sure, there are many absolute classics in his collection too. How about the Beatles’ White Album and Abbey Road for starters. Or countless Rolling Stones records. There are also some seriously good funk and disco numbers (he claims they belong to his sister – yeah right) in there too! I’ve even started buying the odd modern release and adding my own touch to the collection. You never know, maybe one day my own son will take the baton from me.
As Dare the Monkey currently doesn’t have any sound effects or music in place I thought it would be fun to have some classic vinyls playing in the background of my gameplay videos. The first video, which I posted the other day, features music from American funk, soul, and jazz legend Roy Ayers. I’ll pick out some more records for future gameplay videos so listen out for some warming analogue tracks. And I might also tweet what albums I’m currently listening to so follow me at @darethemonkey if that’s something that would interest you.
Oh, and if you have any vinyl recommendations then let me know.